Religious Affairs

Divine Word College of Laoag forms part of the saving mission of the Church especially for education in the faith. As a Catholic school, it is a necessary means of evangelization concerned in promoting the whole man— physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual human being, and consequently, a cultured and educated person. As a Catholic school, the DWCL is committed to the task of nurturing men and women who will make the evangelization of love a reality.

The Church’s mission of evangelization and the DWCL’s function of Christian formation of faculty and students can only be truly realized by means of individual and collective commitment of all members of the school community. It is essential that lay educators and students, on collaboration with the SVD missionaries, be involved in the three-fold pastoral missions of the Church in DWCL: Proclaiming the Word, Building the Community of Christians and Service to others.

All who are responsible for education— parents teachers and school authorities are urged to provide service that is truly civic and apostolic. The school, in particular, needs to empower t he academic community in the work of evangelization. Every effort must be made to motivate all members to participate actively in the mission.

That through the active involvement and participation of Divinians in the different programs and activities of the Campus Ministry, they would come:

1. To know Christ, His teachings, values and attitudes.
2. To appreciate Christ’s teachings and His call to be His Companion and Herald or Witness.
3. To grow in one’s personal relationship with Jesus, the Divine Word who leads him to the Father through the Holy Spirit.
4. To create together a Christian Community that is worshipping, witnessing and evangelizing, ministering and serving.
5. To network the services of DWCL with the Parish and Diocesan Commissions especially the Diocesan Social Action Center whenever possible.

The Campus Pastoral Programs

Formation Program

It is a process of spiritual development, a Christian discipleship or a spiritual social transformation. It is a call to a change of heart, metanoia, and a profound transformation of one’s way of life so that it would be in accord with the Gospel.

1. Inculturation

It is the integration of authentic cultural values in Christianity and infusion of Christianity in the various human cultures (Pope John Paul II). It is an interaction of the Church and the culture of a people. It is an infusion of the Gospel into a culture, expressing it through the elements of that culture, e.g. the Church becoming Filipino to the Filipinos; Filipino becoming a Filipino Catholic; catechesis, theology and liturgy to become Filipino.

Expresses the school member’s interest in:

• Local cultures
• Serving the community in terms of values education and catechetical instruction;
• The availability and use of instructional materials adapted for the Filipino learner;
• The adaptation to the different behavioral sciences of Filipino authored books;
• The adaptation of liturgical and campus ministry activities to local cultures;
• The availability of culture research materials and writings of pioneers;
• The faculty’s and students’ competence in carious cultural studies, its updates in research trends in culture.

2. Justice and Peace

It is Christian understanding that all people have the same nature and origin, redeemed by Christ; they enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, hence there should be essentially basic equality, harmony and recognition among people, e.g. respect and protection of basic human rights, peacemaking, conflict resolution , gun-control, strengthening good values or correcting what is excessive in them and supplying for their deficiencies.

It expresses the school’s concern for:

• The poor and the needy students, the physically handicapped;
• The school’s involvement in community development;
• The community awareness of the community school’s involvement;
• The school facilities at the disposal of the poor and needy;
• The special privileges given to the needy and tribal communities;
• The campus ministry activities which are geared toward helping the poor and the less privileged;
• The well maintained facilities and student services;
• The school members researches on how to uplift the economic conditions of the needy;
• The alumni extending help by employing the needy graduates.

3. Interfaith Dialogues

It is also known as dialogues with other religions. It is a part of the church’s evangelizing mission; it is openness in understanding the religious conviction of others based on love; it is witnessing to each other’s religious values that contribute to the building society.

It expresses the school’s;

• Openness in the admitting students from other faith including those from ethnic tribes;
• Activities to awaken among students maturity and openness in dealing with other religions, traditions and convictions;
• Activity of holding of ecumenical dialogs on issues of national interest and security-particularly, in the promotion of justice and peace like campaign against human violations;
• Cooperation in the human development project against ignorance, poverty;
• Clean and green programs;
• Policy of enrichment of academic programs by offering subjects as Confucianism , Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and ideologies as communism, socialism;
• Inter-religious meeting workshops, and project of common causes, e.g. ecological projects.

4. Mission Animation

It is getting the people involve in the mission of the Church, particularly in the local Churches with regards to evangelization. It is getting the people to help in carrying out their own special missions within the mission of the whole Church. It is the encouraging and accompanying the people play their role in their religious, civic, political and social responsibilities.

It refers to mission awareness or mission awakening activities, such as;

• Inviting a visiting missionary to give talk about the mission of their order;
• Posting pictures about the mission on the bulletin boards.

5. SVD Friends

• Each one adopts a missionary friend, writes him, send him greetings on special occasions and pray for him fervently so that he may not falter in his mission;
• Colleagues as well as students help one another grow spiritually in the Divine Word and their sustain their faith through prayers;
• It is reaching out to other lay people and religious alike thus enriching their spiritual life through communication and prayers.

6. Bible Apostolate

It a sharing of the word of God through Bible reading and reflections and living it to the fullest.

The whole church missionary and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the people of God. Pope John Paul II states, “ The lay faithful precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission to live and proclaim the Gospel…”

The apostolate and mission of the lay faithful includes:

• General witnessing through a good life;
• Volunteer work in some liturgical or sacramental activities of the Church;
• Serving the Church as catechists, lay ministers, members of the Campus Pastoral Council;
• Serving as organizers of the social action apostolate fulfilling the mission of communicating Christ in the community and to the media;
• Learning the Bible by frequent reading, listening in His Word, increase veneration of the Word of God.

7. Vocation

It is a program intended to orient and motivate people to response to the Divine call. Some activities include prayers and talks on vocation, centering on the religious and family vocation by lay persons but most especially by different religious orders as a means of strengthening the faith and call through deeds of justice and love.

8. Retreat / Recollection

It is a spiritual exercises where we listen to God that He may speak to us, encourage, enlighten and guide us, if necessary, jolt us from our false sense of values and turn our minds and hearts to Him. God speak to us in our experiences as we endeavor towards a fuller understanding of ourselves in the world. It is a period of retirement and seclusion, away from the pressures of ordinary life, in order to contemplate on spiritual things and enter more deeply into God’s own mystery.

The goals are:

• to help the individual retreatant articulate and broaden knowledge and vision of faith that will lead to a more
• comprehensive response to God’s call;
• to increase the loving qualities and responsible understanding of theretreatant’s relationship to God, to the world, to others and himself.

Colloquium on the Ministry of Teaching ( CMT )

This is a program wherein teachers are provided with insights that the teaching profession is a ministry and a vacation for which commitment is enhanced. It focuses on the spiritual dimension of teaching, that is, teachers are not mere job holders but co-sowers in the vineyard of the Lord. The is recognized as ministry, the teachers, a minister and as one without material interest for himself.

• The administrators, faculty, staff, become models of such values as freedom, justice truth. Love;
• Values of justice, love and social consciousness are integrated in all courses.

Worship

It is an interior reverence and homage offered to the Divine Majesty through words and actions in public ritual.

Authentic worship “ in Spirit and truth” is never empty ritualism but includes rendering justice to the poor, to the widow, to the orphan and to everyone. It takes place in the individual Christian’s personal prayer, in-group prayer and especially in the Church’s liturgical prayer ( CFC 1566 ).

• Liturgy – It is the official public worship of the Church. It refers to the Christian community’s official worship centered on the Eucharist and the other Sacraments. Here the Christian communities assembly and most eminently, in the Eucharist, His own Body and Blood.
• Sacraments – These are saving symbolic acts, arising from the public ministry of Christ and continued in, by and for the Church, which, when celebrated in faith draw us into likeness to Christ in his Paschal mystery, through the power of the Holy Spirit ( CFC 1576 ).
• Paraliturgy – It refers to activities which provide for the manifestation of faith: praying the rosary and novenas, joining processions and other forms of non-sacramental services.

Service

It is a devotion to God, as demonstrated by obedience and good works.

1. The service program includes:

• Youth outsider;
• Prison Apostolate;
• Home Visitation;
• Sick and Aged Visitation;
• Other outreach outside the communit,

2. An exercise of an apostolale of service includes:

• teaching of the doctrine;
• giving retreats and training lay leaders;
• serving the pastoral work of the Church in educating, organizing, and training;
• performing corporal works of mercy which include helping the needy, visiting the prisoners, the sick and the aged and discharging other related services;
• caring for mother earth;
• performing acts of justice and love in and outside the classroom.
• The work of evangelization is the basic personal and communitarian responsibility of the laity.

Temporalities

It is a part of the apostolate of the laity to share their temporal possession for the needs of the Church.

The members of the Church are called upon to share their spiritual riches and temporal resources. These include mission collections like SVD Mission Collections intended to support SVD missions; World Mission Collections intended to support Papal missions and Alay Kapwa.