Journal Articles by Lawrence S Pedregosa
"Traces of Secularization in Philippine Catholic Church History: A Postcolonial Genealogy of Nationalist, Political, and Sexual Ethical Struggles," Analecta Bruxellensia 26, no. 2 (2024).
Analecta Bruxellensia, 2024
Hapág A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2024
This interdisciplinary theological article provides a meta-ethical critique of the practical para... more This interdisciplinary theological article provides a meta-ethical critique of the practical paradoxes manifested in the bayani tradition as embodied by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). OFWs have been recognized by the Philippine government as mga bagong bayani (new/modern-day patriots/heroes) for their contribution to nation-building through remittances and their immeasurable sacrifices brought by physical separation from their families. Despite the economic gains of OFWs, labor migration also has its social costs, which are symptoms of deeper socialstructural causes. Politically, despite their acculturation in modern and higher-developed countries, it is observable that OFWs as overseas voters still adhere to traditional Filipino political culture based on ethnolinguistic regionalism and indifference to liberal democratic values. Against this background, the article argues that while OFWs' contribution to nationbuilding is part of the Filipino multitude's engagement in modernity, their adherence to the bayani tradition as seen in traditional Filipino politics however causes their critical disentanglements to realize this modern project. Employing Antonio Negri's multitude and Michel Foucault's heterotopia as key concepts for doing a meta-ethical critique, the paper analyzes this political ontological 'grounding' that causes the practical paradoxes of the bayani tradition.
Asian Horizons, 2023
This theological ethical article reflects on the state's belligerent reason for existence as a re... more This theological ethical article reflects on the state's belligerent reason for existence as a recurring challenge to Pacem in Terris's vision. Rooted in natural law, Pope John XXIII's social encyclical was groundbreaking for its universal appeal for world peace among states. Political theorists, however, see that the state is organized through wars and the monopolization of legitimate violence to enforce laws, secure order, and achieve peace. In this regard, Pacem in Terris responds to the state's violent tendencies through the ethical principles of subsidiarity and universal human family. The practical limitations of smaller social bodies or the United Nations Organization as world authority nonetheless necessitate the continuing reliance on the state, despite its coercive practices, to realize the universal common good. Given this paradox, the article argues that Pope Francis's ecclesial images of the Church as 'mother to all', 'field hospital', and 'polyhedron' offer insights to re-imagine the state as a social body based on the commons by unearthing its theopolitical ethical foundations in pursuance of peace.
Maryhill School of Theology Review, 2022
This article provides a theological ethical critique of political dynasties from a sociobiologica... more This article provides a theological ethical critique of political dynasties from a sociobiological and evolutionary perspective. Using Philippine politics as context, these biological theories are utilized to provide parallels by analyzing the strategies of political families to secure power that are akin to the social behavior of animals based on survival instincts. Not reducing the argument to mere biological determinism, these theories elucidate how the oligarchic political behavior of elites rooted in the limited view of kinship altruism is ethically problematic in contemporary societies that aspire for the realization of democracy especially when it is already habituated as political culture. When viewed from the theological ethical perspective, issues arising from the concentration of power, wealth, and influence among political clans resulting in social injustice, corruption, and weakening of democratic institutions are thus considered structurally and socially sinful. In this regard, the essay criticizes the limitation of politics primarily based on the narrow view of kinship ties for consolidating a democratic society founded on the principles of the rule of law, equality, and the common good.
Maryhill School of Theology Review, 2019
The article conceptualizes a popular-theological anthropology of bayani (hero/patriot) in the con... more The article conceptualizes a popular-theological anthropology of bayani (hero/patriot) in the context of Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFWs) sacrifices and difficulties abroad. It shows the parallelism between Filipino popular religiosity (e.g. Hesus Nazareno and Santo Entierro) based on the pasyon narrative and the Filipino labor migrant experiences of their vulnerabilities brought by practical paradoxes to give love to their left-behind families in the Philippines. Their expressions of love and sacrifice is akin to a bayani who also performs sacrifices and honorable deeds to promote the welfare of the community, both in the local and national sense. It also shows how the Messianic tradition which Jesus of Nazareth embodied is culturally expressed in the Filipino bayani tradition. In other words, OFWs, who are recognized as mga bagong bayani (new or modern-day heroes/patriots) through their love as sacrifice, express the Messianic tradition embodied by Jesus of Nazareth.
Theses and Dissertation by Lawrence S Pedregosa
The study aims to answer the main problem: How can we describe the political participation of Bas... more The study aims to answer the main problem: How can we describe the political participation of Basic Ecclesial Community members in Diocese of Parañaque? In lieu of this question, the study provides the following sub-questions:
1. What is the status of the Church ministries in the Diocese of Parañaque in relation to BEC and political participation?
2. What are the profiles of Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Diocese of Parañaque that strongly affect the political participation of their members?
3. What forms of political participation did BEC members perform?
4. What description can be given to the social transformation achieved by the Basic Ecclesial Communities through political participation?
This qualitative case study used methods of expert interviews, focus group discussions, document analyses and observations to acquire data. The analysis of data was done thematically by providing the themes concerning the Church ministries, the profiles of the BECs and their political participation. These themes were synthesized to show the social transformation process from a diocesan point of view achieved through the political participation of the BEC members. This process was interpreted using the theory of critical pedagogy by Paulo Freire, which stresses the importance of conscientization through a dialogical process to achieve liberation.
The study found out that the Church ministries in the Diocese of Parañaque are still in the process of organizing their functions and preparing for the coming Diocesan Pastoral Assembly (DPA) set on February 20-24, 2006. This process of preparation is done through a series of consultations in the diocesan, vicariate, parish and BEC levels. Through these efforts, the diocese is manifesting the element of dialogue through the relationship created by the clergy and the laity.
Concerning the profile of the BECs, the geographical, organizational, religious and political characteristics of BECs provide a strong influence in their forms of political participation because they provide a uniting element to bring them closer to the parish, which again creates a dialogical process between the Church institution and community.
Regarding the political participation of BECs, it was consistently found out that they are participative in activities, which are mostly linked to the parish. A manifestation of this is the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) expressing their dialogical relationship with it through participating actively in the political development of the state. Lastly, the social transformation process that can be described acquired through political participation of BECs is a sense of empowerment, solidarity and political awareness, which makes them a good vehicle for political participation where it can be improved to be effective
agents of change.
This study concludes that the political participation of BECs is dialogical in nature, which conscienticizes them to achieve development and liberation as agents of social transformation.
This research paper in theological ethics provides a paradoxical re-reading and reappropriation o... more This research paper in theological ethics provides a paradoxical re-reading and reappropriation of structural sin in the context of Filipino migration and diaspora. Through this rereading and re-appropriation of the concept, the study is able to analyze how laws of host countries marginalize migrants because of their foreign identity. Moreover, the study also shows how the dynamics of lack and desire influence individuals to work abroad at the expense of lack of care, intimacy and solidarity brought by the lack of economic opportunity in the Philippines. For this reason, the study attempts to scrutinize how this issue affects the practice of care among Filipino migrant families despite the flow of remittances to uplift their condition from poverty and escape further marginalization. Based on the postcolonial analysis of Filipino migration history and culture, a poststructural re-reading and re-appropriation of structural sin, and liberationist critique of the global capitalist structure, this theological investigation argues that the migration of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) that led to their separation from their families through the Philippine labor-export policy has affected their practice of care. This change can be seen in the commodification and simulacralization of care as part of their employment in the reproductive labor sector abroad and as breadwinners of migrant families. Despite their (un)willingness to participate and perpetuate the capitalist system that marginalizes them, these changes resulted in the creation of alienated associations and negative affects that can be considered (post)structurally sinful – structural because it works as a reified determining reality and poststructural due to the ambivalent desire of individuals to participate in the creation of their social repression.
This interdisciplinary research formulates a theopolitical ethics of space as a method to go beyo... more This interdisciplinary research formulates a theopolitical ethics of space as a method to go beyond the inadequacies of the Cartesian subject-object divide that has been hounding the contemporary human sciences. This issue is manifested 1) in migration studies through the United Nations's rigid classification of 'voluntary' migration and 'forced' migration, 2) in sociopolitical philosophy through the 'agency' and 'structure' debate between existential phenomenology and structuralism, and 3) in theological ethics through the debate between the Catholic Church magisterium and liberation theologians concerning the nature of sin whether it is merely personal or also due to social-structural causes. It argues that a meta-ethical exploration of these threefold impasses from the perspective of spatiality allows us to develop new spatial preconditions as grounding for normative reasoning, a metaphysics of morals, through the ideas of the Italian philosopher Antonio Negri. The research begins with the transnational economy of Philippine labor migration as a case study to criticize its rigid categorization as voluntary migration. It fails to consider that poverty is structurally caused by state crises which force people to emigrate. Since labor migration involves the movement of citizen bodies from one political economic space to another, the research then genealogically traces the conceptual development of spatiality vis-à-vis political ethics. Before the 20th century, ancient organic and mechanical spatial traditions were the (meta)physcial foundation for political ethics of prioritizing identity over difference and transcendental representations respectively. By the 20th century, the inadequacy of the modern mechanistic worldview led to the conceptualization of the libidinal economy. Inspired by constructivist spatial tradition, which influenced existential phenomenologists and structuralists, and quantum physics's paradoxical understanding of reality, political philosophers like Negri developed an immanent critique of the state. He argues that all metaphysics, although a formulation of objective realities, is a transcendental expression of the political, thus exposing its subjective side, making it a non-dualistic political ontology. Given that spatiality determines political ethics, the research then applies a hermeneutics of spatiality to show how spatiality determines the expressions of sin in the divine economy. Following Negri's immanentist philosophy, the research then deploys his concepts of Empire, the multitude, common, and assembly to provide a meta-ethical critique of the war economy of labor migration and its underlying spatial preconditions to develop an alternative theopolitical ethics and understanding of social-structural sin. The research concludes that: 1) migration is a continuum that cannot be reduced to either voluntary or forced since migrant subjectivity is liminally caught in-between structural forces and a network of social relationships, 2) labor migrants as a multitude are the immanent side of Empire who desire to resist or escape while paradoxically participating in the latter, which dissolves the agency-structure divide, and 3) the spatial preconditions for social-structural sin are the imperialistic rationality of Empire, the multitude's heterotopic network of corrupted love, and their lack of common virtue to assemble against incommensurable pain.
This theological investigation uses bayani as a heuristic device to understand the messianic role... more This theological investigation uses bayani as a heuristic device to understand the messianic role of Jesus of Nazareth from a postcolonial Filipino Christian context. Employing various postcolonial schools of thought in understanding Filipino Christian identity as a discourse, the study unearths the narratives that formed the conceptual development of bayani in Philippine history and the messianic tradition that Jesus embodied through a postcolonial rereading of the sacred scriptures. The strategic essentials found in bayani and messiah were analyzed through Analogical Imagination. These essentials were later deconstructed through a supplementary analysis of funeral rituals accorded to a bayani and the traslación of the Nuestro Padre Hesus Nazareno.
This research concludes that bayani is analogical and supplementary to the messianic role of Jesus of Nazareth due to cultural hybridity of narratives based on these findings: First, both personalities are charismatic leaders who subverted various manifestations of imperialism. Second, they are classic representative subjects of their collective identity who provided a narrative distinct from designs of the Imperial Other while being symbolically narrated by the people through history and commemorative ritual practices. Third, both personalities developed anti-imperial discursive practices that inspire future generations to embody as traces of identity and become a redivivus of a previous bayani or messiah in times of crises. Fourth, popular expressions of the pasyón are found in a bayani making it analogous to the messianicity of Jesus. Fifth, various expressions of pakikipagkapwa in funeral rituals given to a bayani that are also ritually accorded to Jesus of Nazareth in the image of the Hesus Nazareno during the traslación show the supplementarity of roles between the two subjects. Lastly, the use of titular expressions of Panginoon and Poon to Jesus, which consequently made him a bayani to the eyes of the faithful, shows that Spanish missionaries patterned it from the datu-alipin relationship of the precolonial times as part of their colonial translation to evangelize the natives.
Maryhill School of Theology Review by Lawrence S Pedregosa
Maryhill School of Theology Review, Jun 15, 2024
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Maryhill School of Theology Review, 2023
Conference Lectures by Lawrence S Pedregosa
Popular Publications/Advocacy Newsletters by Lawrence S Pedregosa
AEFJN Echo 101, Jun 30, 2024
On 10 May 2024, the AEFJN International Secretariat met with Mr. Saeed Abd Elhafez Darwish, the P... more On 10 May 2024, the AEFJN International Secretariat met with Mr. Saeed Abd Elhafez Darwish, the President and CEO of the Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue (FDHRD), in Brussels to discuss possible points of cooperation on human rights and other advocacy issues between Africa and Europe. Mr. Darwish has more than three decades of extensive experience fighting for human rights as a lawyer and head of an American international news network based in Egypt. Among FDHRD's organization advocacy programmes, which AEFJN shares interest are 1) human rights issues, such as the freedom of speech and expression, 2) integrity and transparency in government institutions, and 3) the importance of dialogue to resolve conflicts. Founded in 2005, FDHRD was established with funding assistance from USAID, the American Embassy in Egypt, and Freedom House among others to advocate for human rights through dialogue after realizing that there is a pressing social need to facilitate as a non-governmental organization. Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, however, the Egyptian government restricted the flow of international funding to NGOs due to security and political reasons. Despite this situation, FDHRD continues to monitor the human rights situation, publish fact finding reports, and was the first NGO to urge Egypt to sign the Maputo Protocol through its dialogue with the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
AEFJN Echo 101, Jun 30, 2024
On 31 May, Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) held its first annual general antennae... more On 31 May, Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) held its first annual general antennae meeting this year on the theme "Repositioning AEFJN for Effective Advocacy Engagement." Following the Annual General Assembly's Report last October 2023, the event gave the AEFJN International Secretariat the time to listen to the advocacy initiatives of AEFJN antennae from different African (Algeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda,) and European (Spain, Ireland, Germany, and Italy) countries. As an outcome of this meeting, the participants realized that there is the need for its members to reflect on AEFJN's present aims given the political economic changes since its founding in 1988. While the AEFJN started its advocacy on food sovereignty, many advocacy dossiers were added (e.g. health and access to medicines, weapon trafficking, land grabbing, trade) throughout the years in response to the pressing issues in Africa. Amidst these global changes, AEFJN nonetheless affirms its vision that the future of Africa-Europe partnership should result in a win-win situation.
AEFJN Echo 100, Mar 31, 2024
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Journal Articles by Lawrence S Pedregosa
Theses and Dissertation by Lawrence S Pedregosa
1. What is the status of the Church ministries in the Diocese of Parañaque in relation to BEC and political participation?
2. What are the profiles of Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Diocese of Parañaque that strongly affect the political participation of their members?
3. What forms of political participation did BEC members perform?
4. What description can be given to the social transformation achieved by the Basic Ecclesial Communities through political participation?
This qualitative case study used methods of expert interviews, focus group discussions, document analyses and observations to acquire data. The analysis of data was done thematically by providing the themes concerning the Church ministries, the profiles of the BECs and their political participation. These themes were synthesized to show the social transformation process from a diocesan point of view achieved through the political participation of the BEC members. This process was interpreted using the theory of critical pedagogy by Paulo Freire, which stresses the importance of conscientization through a dialogical process to achieve liberation.
The study found out that the Church ministries in the Diocese of Parañaque are still in the process of organizing their functions and preparing for the coming Diocesan Pastoral Assembly (DPA) set on February 20-24, 2006. This process of preparation is done through a series of consultations in the diocesan, vicariate, parish and BEC levels. Through these efforts, the diocese is manifesting the element of dialogue through the relationship created by the clergy and the laity.
Concerning the profile of the BECs, the geographical, organizational, religious and political characteristics of BECs provide a strong influence in their forms of political participation because they provide a uniting element to bring them closer to the parish, which again creates a dialogical process between the Church institution and community.
Regarding the political participation of BECs, it was consistently found out that they are participative in activities, which are mostly linked to the parish. A manifestation of this is the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) expressing their dialogical relationship with it through participating actively in the political development of the state. Lastly, the social transformation process that can be described acquired through political participation of BECs is a sense of empowerment, solidarity and political awareness, which makes them a good vehicle for political participation where it can be improved to be effective
agents of change.
This study concludes that the political participation of BECs is dialogical in nature, which conscienticizes them to achieve development and liberation as agents of social transformation.
This research concludes that bayani is analogical and supplementary to the messianic role of Jesus of Nazareth due to cultural hybridity of narratives based on these findings: First, both personalities are charismatic leaders who subverted various manifestations of imperialism. Second, they are classic representative subjects of their collective identity who provided a narrative distinct from designs of the Imperial Other while being symbolically narrated by the people through history and commemorative ritual practices. Third, both personalities developed anti-imperial discursive practices that inspire future generations to embody as traces of identity and become a redivivus of a previous bayani or messiah in times of crises. Fourth, popular expressions of the pasyón are found in a bayani making it analogous to the messianicity of Jesus. Fifth, various expressions of pakikipagkapwa in funeral rituals given to a bayani that are also ritually accorded to Jesus of Nazareth in the image of the Hesus Nazareno during the traslación show the supplementarity of roles between the two subjects. Lastly, the use of titular expressions of Panginoon and Poon to Jesus, which consequently made him a bayani to the eyes of the faithful, shows that Spanish missionaries patterned it from the datu-alipin relationship of the precolonial times as part of their colonial translation to evangelize the natives.
Maryhill School of Theology Review by Lawrence S Pedregosa
Conference Lectures by Lawrence S Pedregosa
Popular Publications/Advocacy Newsletters by Lawrence S Pedregosa