God and Faith

THE other day’S big stories were obviously the killings. Policemen killed a man, who was probably mentally disturbed, inside the compound of the Archbishop’s Palace. Shot dead in Kalunasan, also in Cebu City, was a first-term councilman of the said barangay and who incidentally was a dismissed policeman. Let us leave it to the investigators to look deeper into the incidents,

What should not escape us, though, is the irony. The shooting to death of a man inside the Archbishop’s Palace seems to have brought closer to home what the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) noted recently. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma was not around when the incident happened, but the reason for his absence is an interesting side story.

Palma was in Manila and he attended the 117th Plenary Assembly of the CBCP held from July 7 to 9. Last Monday, the CBCP released a Pastoral Exhortation that dealt with the current issues facing the flock and called for peace, joy and forgiveness in the midst of the prevailing hatred and violence in the country.

“In these times of darkness, when there (are) so much hatred and violence, when murder has become an almost daily occurrence, when people have gotten so used to exchanging insults and hurting words in the social media, we admonish the faithful to remain steadfast in our common vocation and mission to actively work for peace,” the statement said.

I actually wasn’t expecting the CBCP to come up with a more combative statement despite the obvious deterioration in the values of some of the country’s leaders and their followers. Which only shows that the late Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin was a unique shepherd of his flock. Nobody in the Catholic Church hierarchy would want or dare to follow his style now.

But even without a combative statement, the CBCP can still be more aggressive. Bishops throughout the country can lead a massive raising of people’s awareness to the problems confronting us and storming the heavens with prayers. Issuing occasional statements won’t work. The criticisms must be turned into a campaign to restore our values and human dignity. Only leaders of the Catholic Church and other churches in the country can do that.

As they say, the integrity of our country is too serious a concern to be left to our politicians who are concerned only with the mundane and in their selfish interests. Leaders of the Catholic Church and other churches should therefore take a more proactive approach especially where values and human dignity issues are at stake.

They can focus on value formation and reinvigorating their flock’s beliefs.

In the end, I think the attacks on the Catholic Church and even on God is meant to further the deterioration of Filipino values and the loss of respect for human life. Religion, after all, are the champions of value formation and the protection of human life. The loss of moral compass would best serve the interest of the hawks whose preferred solution to societal woes is an iron rule.

In times like this, we may have to turn once more to God and our faith.