From the Philippines, a priest’s effort on behalf of his people:

Father Beltran is pastor of Manila’s Parish of the Risen Christ, a congregation of scavengers who live alongside Smokey Mountain, the Philippine capital’s legendary — and ever smoldering — garbage dump. Father Beltran, who has lived among his parishioners for 27 years, knows their desperate marginalization, so he is aggressively pushing a high-tech solution to their poverty.

"Globalization is only antagonistic to those who aren’t prepared for it," said Father Beltran, who was born on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. "If the poor are unprepared, if they’re still linked to the industrial age when we’re living in the cybernetic age, then globalization won’t benefit them. So it’s the responsibility of the church and civil society to ready the poor. We shouldn’t hold back the march of history. Our faith tells us to move from the garden to the heavenly city."

Smokey Mountain seems far from the heavenly city. Although it has been officially closed and replaced by a nearby dump, the massive mountain of garbage still smolders day and night as it towers over surrounding neighborhoods. People who live near the mountain can often be recognized throughout Manila by the aroma of burning garbage they carry with them.

Father Beltran is building a new church in the shadow of the mountain, and it will showcase his commitment to a model of environmental stewardship that contrasts starkly with the dump.