Vatican official tells Filipino educators to be 'credible witnesses' to Church teaching

A top Vatican official challenged Filipino Catholic educators and theologians to practice what they preach and become "credible witnesses" to Church teachings.  "We need witnesses," said Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University on March 10.  Delivering a keynote address of a two-day international theological symposium, he told Catholic educators, theologians, religious superiors, and seminarians that "sanctity is the more convincing way" to attract people to the church.   He noted that the four Missionaries of Charity nuns of Mother Teresa who were killed by terrorists in Yemen on March 4, were "witnesses ... who testified with their faith."   When asked by a student how priests and the religious can put into practice what they learn from the university, Cardinal Versaldi said, "You must be saints."  "It is important to have the capacity to link the practical with the high ideals of charity and the search of God," he said.  The cardinal urged Filipino theologians "to help people see the root of injustices and weaknesses in the heart of human beings to be able to elevate the concept of liberation to the concept of salvation."  (Source: UCAN)