“It is with a heavy heart that I relay to you the Joint Statement of Frank Padilla and the CfC International Council declaring the split," Ricky Cuenca, CfC USA Country Coordinator, said in a letter dated August 16 to CfC members in the US.

The GK, which later became the Gawad Kalinga Foundation, was founded by Antonio Meloto in 2000 as a means to evangelize and recruit more members for CFC. Besides building houses, the aim is also to help the poor find work and assist them in education, value-formation, health and religion.

In the space of seven year, GK has built thousands of houses in slum areas in the Philippines and attracted big donations from rich individuals, corporations and other groups. In 2006, it received more than P600 million in donation and this year this is expected to surpass the P1-billion mark.

But this spectacular growth has also given rise to questions about the mission of CFC. Padilla and his group have complained that GK has shifted its focus from the spiritual to the social. This is because the aim of big donors was only to help the poor get out of poverty and not to evangelize them.

Because of this, Padilla said in his open letter, “We clearly are going separate ways. We (the Restoration Movement) will focus on evangelization.” On August 1, 2007, Padilla officially left CFC and formed the Restoration Movement, the step that made the split final.

In his open letter, Padilla alleged that GK has “imposed silence on the connection of Gawad Kalinga to Couples for Christ because of the fear that some potential partners will not want to participate in a work that is ‘religious’. We are so intent on having as many partners as possible that we do not want to risk offending anyone. We are not pushing natural family planning in Gawad Kalinga areas simply because we know some corporate partners are for population control and strongly support the use of contraceptives," Padilla said in the letter. He refused to be interviewed.

Meloto explains that although Gawad Kalinga started with a spiritual mission, it need not be rigid in its goal of simply converting villagers into Couples for Christ members. “I realized while doing Gawad Kalinga work that my mission does not end there. It has to be the whole process -from the self, to the family, to the community, to the nation.

God used [Couples for Christ] as an army to build Gawad Kalinga on the ground but that army cannot do it alone. It has to partner with other religious organizations and unite the factions that divide the country.

It’s not a shift. It’s an expansion of the mission." Padilla disagrees. He raised fears in his letter that the Mormons, for example, would recruit Gawad Kalinga beneficiaries and turn them into their own missionaries. The Mormons help in the water sewerage system of Gawad Kalinga communities.

Meloto counters that “We are opening to other religions but not compromising our own charism and faith. I told the Mormons, I don’t want to go to your church. I don’t want to discuss religion. I want to find out what you are doing to the poor."

Dylan Wilk, who is married to Meloto’s daughter, said that “Compared to what some say about GK not bringing people to Christ, the areas where we see great numbers of people being evangelized to CfC are actually in the GK communities themselves. If you visit any GK site, you will most likely see row after row of houses, most of which have CfC stickers on the doors. So far I have not seen that in any subdivision." Wilk is a British millionaire businessman who donated his millions to GK.

Meanwhile Cuenca, as head of the U.S. delegation, quickly re-aligned the CfC-USA Council, replacing those loyal to Padilla, who was overseeing the entire North America region until his resignation. Joe Duran was named national director. In Chicago, Cuenca named Norman Canete to represent the Midwest in the CfC-USA Council. Canete will now face the task of keeping most of the members from further dissension, as erstwhile head Manny Hermano sided with Padilla in the dispute.

But the CfC-USA Council members they just replaced have now questioned even Cuenca and Duran’s leadership. That council, headed by Acting National Director Nani Almanza, insisted that they remain the legitimate governing body in the US.

“By Joe Duran and Ricky Cuenca’s action, they have effectively brought the Philippine problem to the US," Almanza said. Six members of the Almanza-led council have refused to acknowledge the present CFC International Council, leading to their replacement.

By Hermie L. Climaco

Bishop Gabby Reyes, chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Lay Apostolate, and members Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, Bishops Jimmy Afable, Ramon Villena, and Honesto Pacana affirmed during a dialogue August 28 between the CFC International Council and the breakaway group of Frank Padilla that the CFC retains Vatican recognition as well as recognition by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as a private association of the lay faithful.

The five bishops noted that separation is the most acceptable option at the moment but without closing the door to reunification in the future. They exhorted both groups to continue to dialogue and to relate to one another in love, humility and concern.

Bishop Reyes confirmed during the dialogue that he has granted recognition to Padilla’s group as a diocesan right, while at the same time retaining recognition of CFC in his diocese. He emphasized that bishops in other dioceses have the right to accept either one or both groups.

Tension within the CFC community rose as concerns over a growing over-emphasis by the CFC on its Gawad Kalinga (GK) work— which builds houses for the extremely poor people living in slum areas in the Philippines have allegedly caused the community to veer away from its primary evangelization.