BY INQUIRER.NET ON August 31, 2011 CATEGORIZED UNDER SPAIN
Sin no more by not going TNT. In other words, please come home.
World Youth Day 2011 participants. Photo credit: missions.focusonline.org
An official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Tuesday appealed to Filipino delegates who attended the recent World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, and who are still in Europe to make sure they return home and not turn into undocumented or illegal immigrants.
TNT (tago ng tago—or always in hiding) is a local term that refers to Filipinos who stay overseas without proper documentation and keep hiding from authorities to avoid deportation.
Fr. Conegondo Garganta, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Youth, warned that the trust the Spanish government had in the Philippine Catholic Church when they issued visas for the Filipinos would be damaged if they did not come home.
The World Youth Day festival held last week was graced by the presence of Pope Benedict XVI. Addressing the 1.5 million young people who attended the closing day, the Pontiff urged them to become missionaries for the faith, to “share with others the joy of your faith.”
1,500 not yet home
Garganta said that, so far, “70 percent” of the 427 delegates who attended the youth festival under the aegis of the commission had returned to Manila and the commission was still trying to account for the rest.
About 1,500 other Filipinos attended the festival with their own groups, he said.
“They should come back and be thankful that they were able to attend the 26th World Youth Day in Spain,” Garganta said at a Church-organized, weekly media forum at Ilustrado Restaurant in Intramuros, Manila.
“They should bring home what they learned. They could share many things with those waiting for them,” he said.
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