Why responses to different Church events vary

Last Tuesday, the Roman Catholic Church in Cebu led an early morning procession meant to protest killings in the country. While estimates vary, most accounts placed the number of those who joined at not substantially more than 5,000. By contrast, processions during the last 15 years of the feast of the Santo Niño invariably place the number of procession participants in the hundreds of thousands.

The disparity cannot be more glaring. And the disparity can only mean one thing -that when the Church initiates a religious activity, as it is supposed to do, the Catholic faithful, which comprises the majority in this country, responds enthusiastically, as expected. But when the Church initiates a political activity, which it is not supposed to do, only few Catholics respond, to the surprise of no one.

And unlike the hundreds of thousands who spontaneously turn up for the Santo Niño because they feel it their obligation to show God how much they love Him, the few who manage to turn up for politically-laced church-initiated activities often do so because they have been asked to, mobilized at the different parish levels and through schools run by religious orders.

Now if the killings persist in this country, it is not because President Duterte ordered them, as certain people, Church officials included, obviously believe. The killings in this country persist because more and more people no longer fear God. If people fear God, they are not going to kill other people, no matter who gave the order. They would rather be killed themselves than go against the word of God.

So how did the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia reach this sad and sorry state? Perhaps the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church should look to themselves for the answers. They are, after all, the moral guardians of the flock. If the sheep end up breaking out of the fences, who do we blame -the sheep or the shepherds?

We leave that to the shepherds to find the answers. But one thing is for sure. If the shepherds of the Church cannot drive home the message inside the very confines of the Church, the more they cannot do so out there in the streets. More importantly, the messengers themselves must fully embody the message. Fail in that, and the message becomes hollow and limp, and not all the rallies and marches in the world can restore the original meaning except by the sanctity found only in Church.