Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s drug rehabilitation program gets a pat on the back from Pope Francis.
The pope made his first public comment on the country’s war on drugs when he spoke to Cardinal Tagle at a recent meeting at the Vatican.
The cardinal said he shared his archdiocese’s Sanlakbay drug rehabilitation program for surrenders and recovering drug dependents with the pontiff.
“[W]hen he heard about it, with eyes twinkled, he said, ‘that’s the way to go,” Cardinal Tagle said in his homily to mark the program’s first anniversary on Saturday, October 21.
In a speech at a Vatican conference called ‘Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue’, the pope said that drug addiction is a ‘new form of slavery’ and a ‘wound in our society’, which should be combatted with education and rehabilitation.
The Sanlakbay program provides counseling, spiritual and values formation, and even livelihood opportunities for former drug dependents.
The same program is also being implemented in other dioceses across the country in coordination with local government units, the police, and other concerned government agencies.
“He said, this is the path to take. Continue that,” the cardinal added, quoting the Pope.
At least 132 former drug dependents from at least 12 parishes in the Archdiocese of Manila have completed the six-month program.
Cardinal Tagle earlier appealed to the government to never lose hope on drug addicts, adding that there is no such thing as a hopeless case.
“We try to give life to the dead. I hope that the living will not be killed off,” Tagle added.
Since the Philippine drug war started, about 8,000 suspected drug users or drug dealers have lost their lives during police operations, including 17-year-old Kian Lloyd de los Santos, who reportedly fired first before being gunned down by authorities acting in self-defense.
Source: CBCP News, Official Vatican Network
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