An unholy slip

On Aug. 14, eve of the Feast of the Assumption to heaven of the Most Blessed Mother of God, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a pastoral message addressed to teachers, educators, students, seminarists, and the Catholic faithful, to keynote the opening of classes. Signed by Archbishop Socrates Villegas and two bishops, the letter was read at the end of the Sunday masses on Aug. 16 and called on government to essentially rethink its strategy to control the spread of COVID-19.

The pandemic-induced lockdowns that have quarantined even places of worship have afforded this imperfect Catholic a view of various churches in Metro Manila through the man-made miracle of live streaming.

Last Sunday’s mass was streamed from a cozy, lovely Our Lady of Salvation in Sta. Mesa, Manila, officiated by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, upon whom fell the task of reading aloud the CBCP letter. Toward the middle portion, wide awake I could’ve fallen out of my chair when I heard the words “insignificant death rates” in reference to the heavy toll in the Philippines. I hoped I was wrong, or temporarily deaf, until I read the entire letter on CBCP’s Web site. I quote:

“The nation understood that the government had no choice five months ago but to roll out extreme measures of quarantine to protect the lives of its citizens from a littleunderstood threat. Continued endless lockdown is unnecessary, given the declining and comparatively insignificant death rates and faulty tests. A cure for COVID-19 is already available. Dozens of countries around the world have lifted their lockdowns and schools have opened.”

Somewhere in the letter was inserted a subhead, “Resist the culture of death,” pointing to the senseless deaths resulting from extrajudicial killings, violent crime, corruption, the proliferation of drugs, poverty, all the hallmarks of a society moving in the shadows of death and darkness.

But how could a total of 2,600 novel coronavirus deaths (as of Aug. 15) be considered “insignificant”? Even at 159 deaths reported that day, the casualties were anything but insignificant, certainly not to their dear ones, not to the doctors, nurses, and technicians who had looked after them, not to their community and the nation. Not to the poet who wrote, “One man’s death diminishes me.”