"Ipaglaban mo nang puspusan ang pananampalataya. Panghawakan mong mabuti ang buhay na walang hanggan, dahil diyan ka tinawag ng Diyos nang ipahayag mo sa harap ng maraming saksi ang iyong pananalig kay Cristo." I Tim. 6:12

March 24, 2012

INC's GEM vs. RCC's WYD and Nazareno devotees' attendance



Many foolish filipino catholic bloggers made posts about the GEM of the Iglesia ni Cristo held at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila last February 28, 2012.


Why they are "fool"?

Because the INC event was compared to the Catholic's attendance in 1995 World Youth Day and attendance in 2012 Nazareno Procession. They are the one's who said that INC in the Philippines comprise only about 2.3% of the population while the Philippines is a predominantly catholic country.

The question is: Why compare???

I smell some insecurities here^^


Let us read the post of a Catholic Priest on his blog, "The splendor of the church " entitled "Grand Evangelical Ministry of Iglesia ni Manalo in Luneta failed to gather the promised 3 million crowd"



ABOVE: World Youth Day Manila 1995 with Pope John Paul the Great which gathered a crowd of 4-5 million people. Below, the 2012 Iglesia ni Manalo Grand Evangelical Mission which drew a crowd of 600,000 people. NOTHING IN COMPARISON. And to add, don't forget the NAZARENO PROCESSION 2012 which gathered a crowd of 8 million and lasted for 21 hours.

600,000 attend INC grand evangelical event

Posted at 02/28/2012 8:56 PM | Updated as of 02/29/2012 12:59 PM
MANILA, Philippines - At least 600,000 people attended the Iglesia ni Cristo's (INC) Grand Evangelical Mission at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Tuesday, authorities said...

See his comment on the photo? Funny isnt it? He even had the guts to say "NOTHING IN COMPARISON" after showing INC's GEM and RCC's World youth day attendance! hahaha and then, saying "And to add, don't forget the NAZARENO PROCESSION 2012 which gathered a crowd of 8 million and lasted for 21 hours. "

You judge, did he compared it or not? hahaha


Another insecure catholic defender wrote on his blog, that title is "INC vs. Nazareno devotees", it is stated:

The recent INC Grand Evangelical Mission was able to muster a measly 600,000 in spite of the massive "fetching" of the INC. They have paid buses to shuttle their members to the Luneta Grandstand. And remember, they are forced to attend which INC members love to call "show of unity".

This Grand Evangelical Mission is a rare occasion.

Compare it with this.



A yearly event, this is. The Feast of the Black Nazarene.

And it gets getting bigger. The last one, in January 9, 2012, had eight million devotees coming.

Just comparing.

Well, all I can think of is that the Nazareno procession is free of charge. No need to pay your tithes. While the other one...you get the picture.

I want to comment on that, saying that members are "forced" to attend this activity, this is a big lie, because only those INC members who have (panauhin) invited guests who attend to Pamamahayag and Grand Evangelical Missions, only few members who attend GEM's without invited guests. Another lie is saying INC practice tithing, that is a bad catholic blogger, very bad.


______________________________


Should we compare INC's GEM attendance to RCC's WYD and Nazareno procession attendance?

I call those people who compare achievements of the INC to the RCC as "dumb". Why? Because they are. INC's GEM in Quirino Grandstand was attended by 50% nonmembers (catholics and protestants) and 50% INC members, that is why we cannot call this an INC assembly.


INC's GEM vs. RCC's 1995 World Youth Day

Comparing these two is called foolishness. Again, Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, the U.S department of state said that the 97 million population of the Phil. comprises about 80-85% catholics, well that means there are 80million plus catholics in the Philippines!
But sadly, less than 5% of Catholics in the Philippines participated the event.

Trivia: to those people who doesnt know what World Youth day is, ill tell you:


"World Youth Day (commonly abbreviated to WYD) is a youth-oriented Catholic Church event. While the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith, the invitation to attend extends to all youth, regardless of religious convictions.

World Youth Day is commonly celebrated in a way similar to many events. The most emphasized and well known traditional theme is the unity and presence of numerous different cultures. Flags and other national declarations are displayed amongst people to show their attendance at the events and proclaim their own themes of Catholicism. Such is usually done through chants and singing of other national songs involving a Catholic theme.
Over the course of the major events taking place, national objects are traded between pilgrims. Flags, shirts, crosses, and other Catholic icons are carried amongst pilgrims which are later traded as souvenirs to other people from different countries of the world. A unity of acceptance among people is also common, with all different cultures coming together to appreciate one another.
Other widely recognized traditions include the Pope's public appearance, commencing with his arrival around the city with the "Popemobile" and then with his final Mass held at the event. Such is the regard for the large distance of pilgrimage walks performed by the attenders of the event. One of the more recent festivals in Sydney recorded an estimated distance of a 10-kilometre walk as roads and other public transport systems were closed off."
source: wikipedia

World Youth day is a week long celebration, an event for youths catholic and non catholic alike. Its participants are not only the people in the country it was held but different countries send hundreds and thousands of delegates to attend on the said occasion, that is why it is called World Youth day, meaning it is international.

One example is the 23rd WYD 2008 in Sydney Australia,

"More than 300,000 pilgrims camped out overnight in preparation for the Final Mass. The final attendance reported by Reuters was up to 300,000, however World Youth Day's Chief Operating Officer Danny Casey and other media reported over 400,000 attendees." source: wikipedia

Wow, on the 23rd WYD, more than half of the attendees came from different parts of the world! Well, how about the case on the 1995 WYD in the Philippines?


"In the 1995 World Youth Day, 5 million youths gathered at Manila's Luneta Park in the Philippines, an event recognized as the largest crowd ever by the Guinness World Records.But in another account provided by Card. Angelo Amato (Prefect, Congregation for the Causes of Saints), the estimated number was 4 million people." source: wikipedia

The 1995 WYD was hosted by the only predominantly catholic in the far east, where over 70million catholics live, the Philippines. It is said that it has been recognized as the largest crowd ever, sadly, pilgrims or visitors from hundreds of countries were not estimated as it was attended by a high number of people.

So, i wonder, why compare the "WYD largest crowd ever" to the INC's GEM's attendance in Quirino Granstand last Feb. 28, 2012 which is only participated by districts in Manila, Calabarzon and other near provinces?


INC's GEM vs. Nazarene procession 2012

Yearly, millions of Catholic fanatics attended the procession of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines, and so the attendance of the procession this year makes it on the "list of largest peaceful gatherings in history" and we can say that it is the largest gathering of Catholics in the history.

I wonder again, why compare INC's GEM to the "largest gathering of Catholics in the history"?


_____________________________


LIE AND DECEPTION

Catholic priest's post title
"Grand Evangelical Ministry of Iglesia ni Manalo in Luneta failed to gather the promised 3 million crowd" is a deception! Because never did the INC promise something like that! NEVER! It is them that says only 2% were INC members in the Philippines meaning about 2million, so how can the Grandstand be filled with 3 million people when they say INC members nationwide are only 2million?

And i think ive found the article what the Catholic Priest didnt understand well, the news where he claimed that the "INC promise 3 million crowd":

"Police expect up to 2 million people to mass up in Manila’s Rizal Park in the vicinity of the Quirino Grandstand on Tuesday during the “grand evangelical mission” of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), but said there was no need to disrupt the signals of mobile phones as “no security threats have been received by authorities so far.”

Philippine National Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said that while authorities project the crowd to reach around 1 to 2 million,..."

source: inquirer.net

You too can search it in the internet about the news saying about the 2million crowd expected by the POLICE. It was the POLICE who expected some 2million and not 3million! Never did the INC in its history that it gave expected numbers of attendance on an INC gathering.


______________________________


For me, it is not the ATTENDANCE that what should be compared, but these:

INC's GEM vs. Nazareno procession 2012



Trash, not bombs, was "terror" threat faced by street sweepers


For those who cleaned up after the Black Nazarene feast in Manila on Tuesday, the only “terror” they faced came not from bomb-carrying radicals but from tons of garbage left behind by a record eight million devotees.

“They’re hopeless,” said a tired Samuel Dueñas of the Manila Department of Public Services (DPS) who is in charge of the cleanup, referring to the participants who litter the streets of Quiapo year after year.

“They don’t even want to change the procession route. Nothing will ever change,” he said, stressing how devotees have become set in their ways.

Although augmented by manpower from the Metro Manila Development Agency and National Parks Development Committee, the Manila DPS’ 300 street sweepers and six garbage trucks found it difficult to cope with the workload after Monday’s procession from the Quirino Grandstand to the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, which took 22 hours to wind up. Street sweepers assigned to Plaza Miranda, who were expecting the more than six-kilometer procession to end at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, ended up having to wait until after 6 a.m. to do their work.

As of noontime on Tuesday, the sweepers, working in shifts, were still hard at work. While the DPS has yet to tally the total trash volume from the almost daylong procession, Dueñas noted that it was worse than last year, and that all six DPS garbage trucks were full.

Environmental group EcoWaste Coalition, which helped in the cleanup, said it was “appalled” by the littering despite repeated appeals for the devotees to clean up. Coalition president Roy Alvarez called it a “massive violation of the antilittering provisions of Republic Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, and relevant city and barangay ordinances.”

“It is totally unacceptable to ‘suspend’ the enforcement of the antilittering law in the name of devotion. In fact, littering does not in any way exalt the Black Nazarene whom many Filipinos implore to grant fervent prayers for good health and other blessings,” said Tin Vergara, Zero Waste campaigner.

EcoWaste, however, found hope in those who helped in the immediate cleanup at Quirino Grandstand, including church workers and student volunteers.

source: inquirer.net


INC rallyists cleadned up Luneta mess

THE Manila City Hall’s department of public services (DPS) yesterday clarified that the members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) who attended the Grand Evangelical Mission (GEM) at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta did a clean-up operation right after the said event, aided by personnel from the DPS.

In an interview, DPS chief ret.Col. Carlos Baltazar said the city’s streetsweepers deployed right after the GEM were in fact surprised to find out that most of the area covered by the mission had already been cleaned up.

Baltazar also said that based on the streetsweepers’ accounts, mounds of garbage were indeed usually left behind during big gatherings but that in the case of the INC’s bible exposition that day, the area was clear of such.

According to Baltazar, the second shift of streetsweepers who gave interviews regarding tons of garbage collected in the area and the streets adjacent to it were not fully aware of the entire clean-up operations, that they missed mentioning that the INC members themselves cleaned up the area right after the huge gathering.

He also lauded the INC members for heeding the call of their minister to make sure that they leave the area as clean as it was when they arrived there.

Baltazar deployed some 100 clean-up personnel to aid the INC teams assigned to clear the said venue of any trash, including the streets adjacent to the Quirino Grandstand.

Former traffic bureau chief Col. Rizaldy Yap, who was also in the said affair on invitation, said that indeed, he saw with his own two eyes how the INC members themselves helped clean up the whole area.

“May mga naka-assign na magligpit ng mga silya, meron ding mga naka-assign na mamulot ng basura,” he said.

source: journal.com


INC's GEM vs. RCC's World Youth Day

INC's GEM was very successful. Preparations on setting the venues and preparations of duty officers are not wasted. The Church financed the venues and the rented buses and jeepneys. The Government didnt financed the church even a cent and so did not benefit on the said event.

While the 23rd World Youth Day 2008 in Australia--> a great business!

"Some are concerned regarding the NSW state governments public funding of $129 million and the Federal government's funding of $55 million. Some described it as a "promotional event" for the Catholic Church.
However the Sydney Chamber of Commerce estimated that World Youth Day would generate $230 million of economic activity and the NSW State Government had claimed that World Youth Day would have a direct economic benefit over $150 million. In addition to direct benefits the State Government had stated that the coverage of World Youth Day overseas was worth at least $1 billion. These gains would offset and exceed the government's expenditure on World Youth Day."
source: wikipedia

INC's GEM= 600,000 in attendance vs. Nazareno Procession= 8,000,000 in attendance
LRT line 1 breaks record
Manila, Philippines – The Green Line of the state-owned and –operated Light Rail Transit (LRT) posted its highest ridership the other day, after the Grand Evangelical Mission of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) at Quirino Grandstand caused tremendous traffic in Manila.
LRT Authority Hernando Cabrera said the LRT Green Line, formerly LRT Line 1, posted its highest ridership at 658,627 last February 28, breaking the previous record during the Feast of the Black Nazarene last January 9, with a ridership of 620,987.
Cabrera said LRTA decided to extend by an hour the operating schedule of the Green Line to accommodate INC members and other passengers who chose to ride the mass transit system than endure long hours of being stranded on the streets. (Kris Bayos)
source: tempo.com

All in all, it should be noted that INC's GEM in Quirino Grandstand is just one of the 19 venues. While the World Youth Day is the only one venue for all catholics around the world.

Now, compare it again, you want comparisons huh...


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