"Virtue makes a nation great. Sin disgraces a whole race." (Prov. 14:34)

My dear brothers and sisters, my dear young people:

Christ has always taught us to love God and to love one another because this brings us unity and peace, blessing and salvation as a nation. The Church repeatedly reminds us to be honest and truthful, to love our families, to respect the rights of others because this makes us an honorable people. Our elders constantly tell us to be industrious and thrifty, to be modest and chaste because this makes us a respectable race.

How true is the Holy Bible in saying that virtue makes a nation great!

When we no longer care what is right and wrong but only follows what we want. When our leaders no longer have fear of God, no longer observe morals in their life. When our seniors are the source of bad examples and the promoters of wrong doing. When we tolerate our children to be selfish or cruel, when we tolerate our young people to be money-oriented, to poison their bodies, to destroy their future. Then, ours will certainly be an impoverished society, a destroyed Filipino culture.

How true again is the Holy Bible in saying that sin disgraces a whole race!

The year si new. It brings new hope, new aspiration, new resolve. Wherefore, do have a HAPPY NEW YEAR -- a year of another chance to do better, to practice virtue, to do away with vice. We have to. The Holy Bible already warns us if we fail to do so.

Very sincerely in the GOOD LORD.
 

(SGD) + OSCAR V. CRUZ, DD
Archbishop
New Year 2001