By Br. Mark Christopher C. Biscocho, OP 

Fr. Michael Deeb, OP (from the General Vicariate of Southern Africa), the Order of Preachers’ Permanent Delegate to the United Nations as well as the Order’s General Promoter of Justice and Peace, visited the Studentate community last August 24, 2019 to share some insights about religious life and social justice. Fr. Deeb is here in the country for the JPCC’s Workshop on Human Rights and UN Mechanism to be held in Iloilo City.

In his talk, Fr. Deeb accompanied the brothers in reflecting about the current issues about justice and peace and how they are related to the life of the brothers as religious and as Dominicans. Fr. Deeb drew from his experiences and shared his fresh insights about religious life particularly on the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and what do these evangelical counsels mean in the pursuit of justice and peace as Dominicans. For him, the evangelical counsels are not pursued for their own sake. Instead, they are pursued so that we Dominicans, can identify ourselves with the poor and the weak.