Jihad in the Philippines

I was kinda stumped as far as my first real post on this blog but this headline caught my eye:

Philippines: terrorists massacre Christians

The Philippines can be a dangerous place but so can Boston. It all depends on the neighborhood you're in. A quick check shows me that the town of Patikul is on Sulu Island which is extreme southwestern Mindanao. I've been to northern, north-central and southeastern Mindanao. Sulu and Zamboanga have heavy concentrations of Muslim Filipinos while the Philippines as a whole is somewhere around 90% Roman Catholic.

Certain Muslim para-milirary groups have laid claim to all of Mindanao as some sort of Muslim homeland. Mindanao is an area of great agricultural and aquacultural resources which seem to get sucked up by argi-corporations.

The Roman Catholics in Sulu and Zamboanga already knew they had it tough but this makes things for all peace loving people including Filipino Muslims who just want to go about their business.

I'm going to pray for the people in this most Roman Catholic nation.

5th Sunday after Epiphany, feast day of Saint Agatha.