Oratio imperata

The Cebu Archdiocese usually issues an oratio imperata, or obligatory prayer, when a calamity or disaster occurs, or when these are coming, for the protection of the faithful. Last Sunday, the Cebu Archdiocese had Catholic churches read an oratio imperata on the spate of killings in the city and province. It was a bit of a deviation from the norm, though still in the ambit of what the prayer is about.

That the archdiocese needed to call on the Cebuano faithful to pray to God for a stop to the killings only shows the priests consider these incidents as almost having reached catastrophic levels. The sad part being that both the victims and the supposed perpetrators are most probably Catholics themselves. So the oratio imperata can be considered both as a prayer to God and a reminder to the faithful.

“We beg you,” the prayer implored to God, “awaken the minds of those who don’t even care, disturb the conscience of those who author the killings, touch the hearts of those who support the murders, and comfort those who mourn.”

We still do not know how the prayers will affect the actions of those who are behind the killings but seeking God’s help and the act of praying itself can go a long way in prompting them to pause for a while and see the bigger picture, which in the Catholic faith transcends the worldly and encompasses the real and godly.

Because in the intense war against the illegal drugs trade that the Duterte administration is waging, the eagerness to get positive results and the willingness to follow orders often glosses over the substance of their religious belief. With the prayer, the hope is that those behind the killings would realize there are things more important than money or any other prize for their acts.

In a way, that is the function of the Catholic Church, one that is drowned by the criticisms of its supposed willingness to breach the gap that separates the purely religious from the purely political. And that function is to ensure that the faithful would hold on to the teachings of their faith in the midst of the worldly challenges flooding them.