Mr. The Task and Ministry of Peacemaking in Mindanao: Understanding a Peacemaker’s Recipe for Peace

Abstract

At a time when the role of religion in reducing global conflicts and the authority of its leaders are being questioned, studies that would link religion and conflict may fill in a gap in knowledge. To address this gap, this study seeks to gain an understanding of Orlando Cardinal Quevedo’s task and ministry of peacemaking in the long-running conflict in the Southern Mindanao region. Given the recent signing of the Bangsa Moro Organic Law as the highly expected solid basis for a peaceful and prosperous Mindanao, it is timely to look back and pay closer attention to the key role that he played as a peace advocate. To achieve this end, it organized and conducted a content analysis of his writings and interviews about peace and its imperatives. Findings show that his words, firmly rooted in the conflict’s historical past and yet open to the realities of the present, encompassed and helped disclose his practical wisdom, consensus-driven approach, and Catholic perspectives of its underlying issues and challenges. The lessons and insights that are uncovered from his writings may serve as a grounded recipe for those who would follow in his footsteps to learn and re-appropriated in a hopefully not an unending task and ministry of peacemaking in today’s world.