A Tribute To Bishop Fortich at Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, Bacolod City, Philippines 6100 PH - Message of Sympathy

Dr. Jochen Range & Helga Range with Bishop Fortich

If you want to post a Message of Sympathy or Support, please send email to Rickpen16@aol.com. Thanks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To: Bishop Vicente M. Navarra Diocese of Bacolod On the occasion of the death of Bishop Emeritus Antonio Fortich Dear Bishop Navarra, in order to introduce us shortly: We are Helga Range, Chairperson of the Board of the German NGO Task Force Carabao, involved in the Cara-an Project, Kabankalan, established after our meeting with Bishop Antonio Fortich since 1992, and Dr. Jochen Range, Coordinator for the Philippines, Amnesty International Germany. We should mention that we met you and got your support, too, several years ago, in Kabankalan, together with Fr. Norberto Contreras. We want to express our deepest mourning about the death of Bishop Fortich. We share our grieve with you, the whole Diocese, the people of Bacalod, the people of Negros and the people of the Philippines. We know that Bishop Fortich was always fighting for the poor, for human rights and for justice until now. The last time he received us cordially in his house was in spring last year. His house was always open to friends and visitors. As always before we felt his extraordinary hospitality and deep friendship for people. We were again deeply impressed by his motto written on the wall of Domus Dei: I am retired now but I am not tired fighting for justice and peace. In fact we loved Bishop Fortich because he did not only speak about justice and peace but he acted as he spoke. We met Bishop Fortich first in 1992. We represented Amnesty International Germany. He recommended us to visit the refugee site Cara-an near Kabankalan, caused by operation Thunderstorm. After we saw the total lack of social and economic rights of the people in addition to the lack of civil and political rights we decided to found the NGO Task Force Carabao, to collect money here in Germany and to establish a project in Cara-an including a school, Carabao dispersal, water drilling and healthcare. This project lasted until now, and several other projects in the Philippines followed. It was not too difficult to collect money because all people here were impressed about Bishop Fortich’s personality who served us as paragon. We shall never forget Bishop Antonio Fortich, because he is the real originator of all these projects for people.

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