Vidal’s passing

Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal passed away yesterday morning days after he was brought to the hospital and lapsed into a semi-comatose state. He was 86 years old. On his passing, I like how Monsignor Joseph Tan, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu put it: “Our beloved cardinal has returned to our Creator.”

I haven’t got a chance to be close to the cardinal like some of our colleagues were. I remember the late Cerge M. Remonde, my former manager at dyLA, referring to him as his spiritual adviser. That made me want to know him better. But it was not my character to get too close to any personality. So I merely watched the cardinal from afar.

My wife was teary-eyed when she heard the report about the cardinal’s death. “Wa gyud matuman ang iyang damgo nga makaabot pa siya sa canonization ni Bishop (Teofilo) Camomot,” she said. Vidal did work hard for Camomot’s sainthood like he also pushed hard for the elevation of the now saint Pedro Calungsod. It’s now up to Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma to pick up from where Vidal left off.

Vidal’s stint as the top man of the Archdiocese of Cebu spanned almost three decades (29 years). He retired in 2011, meaning that he stayed here in Cebu for six years more. He didn’t go back to Mogpog, Marinduque in his retirement years, a gesture that proved his love for the Cebuano faithful. (Reminds me of Tudela’s long-time parish priest in the ‘70s, Fr. Joseph Wiertz, who also spent his retirement in the town and built a niche in the cemetery there until his kin brought him back to Europe where he died.)

I remember during the visit to the country in the ‘90s of the charismatic Pope John Paul II when, while watching the coverage on television, a colleague expressed his amazement at how the Catholic faithful were drawn to the man. “He exudes holiness,” he said, adding, “I can only find one other person who possess that, Cardinal Vidal.” But it was not only holiness that he exuded but also calmness.

Vidal was Cebu archbishop during the tumultuous ‘80s. Unlike Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, one of the authentic heroes of the 1986 Edsa People Power uprising, the Cebu archbishop chose a different path, one of critical collaboration, for which he was criticized by those who wanted him to do more against the dictatorship. But doing that wouldn’t have been true to his nature.

But I remember a story told to me by one of the major players in the localized peace talks between representatives of the National Democratic Front (NDF) here and the Cebu Provincial Government in 1986. He claimed to have successfully secured a secret talk with the cardinal, and that the latter even helped him connect with a local government official. Which shows Vidal was open to a dialogue with people of different ideologies.

Interestingly, we are also in interesting times that require a response from Catholic Church leaders. The clergy in the Philippines is lucky to have in their midst in the past a Cardinal Sin and a Cardinal Vidal. The two church leaders provided priests with a model on how to deal with dictatorial or volatile political leaders. How Cardinal Sin did it has long been subject of discussions. Now we may have to talk about Vidal’s distinct style of shepherding the faithful through uncertain times.