QUEZON City, May 31, 2012Far from being a merely religious concept, spirituality can be highly political, as Filipino youth who have been immersed in the Taiz community would agree.

Pia Montalban, 29, a disaster training volunteer of Alay Bayan, explained that it is precisely her Catholic spirituality that moves her to be immersed in social and political realities.

Montalban, who spent 3 months experiencing the Taiz spirituality of trust and unity in France from December 2006 to March 2007, said that young people should not merely wait for bishops to issue statements on social issues confronting todays society but on our own, we [should] ask and listen.

She also explained that probably 90% of farmers, workers and other sectors involved in nagging social issues are baptized Catholics. Montalban begged the question, Where is the Church? Aren't we the Church?

Carlos Pascasio, who was in Taiz in 1989 at the height of the conflict between East and West Germany, said that living in the Taiz community helped him see that spirituality is closely linked with concern for one's neighbor. Pascasio, who now works in real estate, said, I developed a macro view; it widened my horizon.

Pascasio himself was a former student activist involved in such groups as Kabataang Makabayan and League of Filipino Students before realizing that the solutions proposed by such groups would never work.

Bro. Andreas Krautsieder, a Taiz brother who visited the Philippines a month ago, agreed that since the love of God cannot be separated from the love of neighbor, it cant be helped that the Gospel be political.

Krautsieder said that to be political does not necessarily mean being partisan. Talking about feeding the hungry and visiting prisoners, he said [these are] very earthly and yet can transform our life if we start to put it into practice.

Taiz is an ecumenical monastic order in Taiz, Sane-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. The Philippines has been sending young people to immerse in the community since the early 1980s. [Nirva'ana Ella Delacruz]

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Catholic spirituality is political – Taizé youth