Sr. Tess Espina, FSP, managing editor of Bag-ong Lamdag with Sr.

Patricia Anne
Fox during AMRSP Convention, SEARSOLIN, Cagayan de Oro City, July 7-13,
2018.

Sr. Patricia Anne Fox, Superior of the Notre Dame de Sion congregation in the Philippines
was arrested for allegedly joining political activities in the Philippines. She has been released
for further investigation after authorities found she holds a valid missionary visa. In August issue
of Bag-ong Lamdag Sr. Fox shares about her congregation’s charism and mission, vocations,
their communities’ presence in the country, the challenges of working with the poor and
rebuilding Marawi. Discover the feisty woman behind the controversy, and be inspired by the
missionary inflamed by the love of God and his people.

1. B. Lamdag: How do you see your Congregation’s Charism being applied in the
current turbulent situation in the Philippines?

Sr. Fox: Our Congregation, Notre Dame de Sion, was founded in France in1847 by a Jew
who had become a Christian and priest. He came from a Jewish family that was
economically secure but most of the Jewish people at that time were poor and in ghettos.
He always had a concern to uplift his people from poverty and respected their religion,
the religion of most of his family. He always encouraged the sisters to read the whole
bible. From his inspiration we express our charism as a biblical spirituality where we
remind the church that her roots are in Judaism and to work for the kingdom of justice,
peace and love first promised to the Jewish people for all. We decided to start a
foundation in the Philippines as the response to the call of a general chapter to see the
world through the eyes of the poor. We were not in Asia where the majority of the
people live and where the majority are poor. After a process of discernment, we decided
to come to the Philippines to be among the poor and where the church can have a real
role in bringing about the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed out of his Jewish faith
Given the situation of increasing poverty, increasing killings, increasing militarization in
the countryside, a culture of impunity, the unjust system of contractualization for
workers, lack of genuine agrarian reform for the farmers, displacement of lumads from
their ancestral lands and the proposed policies and laws which are making the situation
even worse, more than ever we need to speak out for justice, peace and love. And from
our perspective as a congregation we know that God was first known to the Hebrews
when they were oppressed in Egypt. God heard their cry and called Moses to liberate
them. All through the bible God is with the people, hearing the cries of the poor and
raising up prophets to remind the leaders of the covenant they made with God and call
them to listen to the poor and act justly. This is where we see our role now, to witness
that God is always with the people in their struggles to bring about a society where there
is justice, peace and love and to work with the people towards this biblical promise.

2. B. Lamdag: How many vocations do you have at present? (perpetual, Juniors,

novices, postulants/aspirants). Do you think your recent experience will have a
positive impact in your numbers?

Sr. Fox: As a Congregation we are small internationally. Here in the Philippines we

are only 8, 4 perpetually professed, including one Filipina who was the first Filipina
to make perpetual vows in the congregation. We have 3 Filipina juniors and one
Indonesian. At present we have no one in formation. I am not sure if my experience
will have a positive impact on our numbers. What I would hope is that it becomes a
challenge for young people to really commit themselves to bringing about a society
where there are no more who have no food to eat, who die because they can’t afford
the medicines, who can’t study because they have to supplement the family income,
who are mourning their love ones who have been extrajudicially killed, who are not
able to practice their culture religion, practices in their own lands, where the earth is
respected and where there is genuine peace based on justice.

3. B. Lamdag: Here in the Philippines, where are you communities? Will you be
taking on other concerns in the light of the plight of more poor people?

Sr. Fox: Bishop Labayen who promoted a church of the poor, invited us to the Prelature
of Infanta when we first came to the Philippines. We have continued our involvement
there and as we had young women join, opened a house in Quezon City. Most of our
young sisters were studying and only recently 2 have finished. One is still studying
 nursing. We will have an international meeting in September to decide priorities for the
congregation, but one is the situation of Indigenous peoples. We will then discern a new
foundation which is inserted among the poor.

4.B. Lamdag: Does being engaged in helping impoverished farmers and

indigenous peoples pose challenges? Which ones do you see will continue and escalate
in the future?

Sr, Fox: The basic problem of the farmers is that they do not own the land they till, they
are not given adequate services to help production and they do not have the means to take
their produce to the market so they are trapped in the prices offered by traders. A
Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill has been proposed in Congress for several years now
which seeks to answer these problems but to date has not been passed. Instead they, like
the indigenous peoples, continue to be displaced to make way for ecologically destructive
projects such as large-scale mining, dams and the expansion of plantations. Mining,
dams and plantations contribute to the devastating effects of typhoons and also the
strength of these through climate change. The government is promoting all of these
projects and has targeted another million hectares for plantation expansion. Such policies
can only increase the number of displaced farmers and indigenous communities, the
number of poor, and threatens the food security of the nation. Militarization increases as
people assert their rights yet we are challenged both to oppose these anti-people activities
and encourage organic and sustainable methods of farming so that the people have
adequate and healthy food, they are released from dependence on imported and
environmentally destructive pesticides and fertilizers and are contributing to the lessening
of climate change effects internationally.

5. B. Lamdag:You have visited Marawi today. What are your insights and reflection?
Sr. Fox: Unfortunately, our visit as part of the AMRSWP Convention was limited. But
what I saw were young people, Christian and Muslim reflecting together on what
happened and committed to bring peace to Marawi and work for its reconstruction
together. We visited a tent city where 3 families are living in each tent with limited
opportunities to earn a living and not allowed to return to their homes on ground zero
although they see businessmen allowed in the area. We listened to the impassioned plea
of Maranao women that they are not being consulted on the reconstruction of ground zero
yet they are the ones who have the historical right to the land, that they are the ones who
built the city according to their religion, culture and needs. They asked that they be the
ones that take control of the rebuilding and that they be respected as a people. This is the
support they are asking from us. Without their involvement peace will never come to
Marawi.
6. B. Lamdag: What can you advice the laity and consecrated people who yearn to reach out
to the poor but are afraid to stick out their necks?
Sr. Fox: I think the challenge of Pope Francis in his Encyclical Evangelii Gaudium is
timely for our worsening situation today: “even if many are now involved in lay
ministries, this involvement is not reflected in a greater penetration of Christian values in
social, political and economic sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the church,
without real commitment to applying the gospel to the transformation of society. The
pastoral challenge I see now to the church and all people of good will today – not to be
silent in the face of massive human rights violations. We must defend the dignity of the
human person and the common good. In the face of the many injustices today, we are
called to be men and women of courage and hope; men and women who know that the
light always overcomes the darkness, that justice, peace and truth will win but this does
not come easily. Our missionary task is a struggle with those who are victims, to
eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote integral development. Guided
by the Gospel of mercy and by love for humankind, we must hear the cry for justice and
respond to it with all our might “(188).

Sr. Fox and Women Religious of Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro