MANILA Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle called for vigilance against the sexual exploitation of children online, urging mass-media workers to counter this growing menace by promoting gospel values in social media.
Tagle gave a special message at the “Dinner with the Cardinal: Sharing a Moment of Grace,” a fund-raising dinner-concert hosted by the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) on Monday (February 4) at Citystate Tower Hotel in Ermita, Manila, as part of its 40th anniversary celebration.
The event was attended by project supporters and sponsors, CMMA judges and members of the board of trustees headed by D. Edgard A. Cabangon, acting chairman, officers and staff.
Leading the featured artists in the concert were top Filipino soprano Rachelle Gerodias and her husband, premier South Korean baritone Byeong-in Park; and two well-known church-based singing groups, namely One Voice Choir of Santo Niño de Paz Greenbelt Chapel in Makati City and the Light Side Movement Choir of San Felipe Neri Parish in Mandaluyong City.
Tagle said he was dismayed to hear a report at an interfaith alliance conference he attended in Abu Dhabi that the Philippines is listed among countries where online exploitation of children is widespread.
“The Philippines is named as one of the top producers of such horrible materials, with Cebu known as the center of online exploitation of children,” the Cardinal lamented, adding, “In two years, we will be celebrating the 500th year of the coming of Christianity to the Philippines through Cebu, but now Cebu is known not as the cradle of Christianity but as the center of online exploitation of children.”
While admitting that modern information and communication technology has brought about benefits for mankind, Tagle said that social media “in the wrong hands would lead to dire consequences.”
For the CMMA, he said, the challenge is “how to infuse social media with gospel values, how to make the family a caring abode for children, how to make social communication a vessel of graces and and instrument of love.”
In his welcome remarks, Cabangon, acting chairman of the CMMA, said the organization is “blessed to be an instrument of giving kindness to others. Proceeds of the dinner –concert will be used to fund the holding of a soup kitchen for low-income families, where gifts will also be given away.
He said Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, who headed the CMMA from 1999 to his passing in 2016 as chairman and president, “must be happy and grateful, for that is what he taught us, to share our blessings with others.”
In a light departure from his serious topic, Cardinal Tagle delighted guests when he rendered two songs in a surprise number for the evening. Fathers Jojo Buenafe, chairman of Production, and Hans Magdurulang, judges coordinator, also sang some duet numbers.
The CMMA was established in 1978 by Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, then-archbishop of Manila, as the means by which the Church “pays tribute to those who serve God through the mass media.”
It is considered the longest-running and most prestigious awards body today, with thousands of the country’s best-known mass-media practitioners having received its Rock award the in the fields of print, radio, television, advertising, cinema, music and the Internet.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza