The Annual Convention of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) is probably the most impressive of educators’ conferences in the Philippines, and arguably among the most impressive in the world. This year’s 3,357 delegates representing some 1,400 Catholic schools from all over the Philippines converged in Metro Manila’s SMX Convention Center. Running up to next year’s celebration of its 75th anniversary, it chose for its theme this year: Set for in faith with new eyes on the many faces of the poor.

The theme resonated with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Year of the Poor. In the letter issued by its Chairman, Abp. Socrates Villegas, opening this year, different types of poor were in face-to-face dialogue with the Crucified Lord. But, perhaps more urgently, the convention sought to align itself with the tireless appeals and indefatigable personal witness of Pope Francis, calling for attention to the excluded and discarded, not faceless statistics, but persons. “The poor are everywhere,” Jesuit priest and anthropologist, Paring Bert Alejo, declared. “But they have become invisible” to our eyes. We need to see them. With new eyes.