THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS NEVER BEEN SHY with word wars until now; and that is why when it surrendered it got due attention.
To justify their losing, Villegas said -- "Mine is the silence of Jesus before the arrogance of Pilate," and "Mine is the language of peace that refuses the dark magic of revenge. Mine is the silence of respect for those who consider us their enemies but whose good we truly pray for and whose happiness we want to see unfold."
"There is virtue in silence. There is virtue in speech. Wisdom is knowing when it is time for silence and when is the timing for speech," Villegas added.
My reaction to reading this was "yeah right, why don't you say that when you are on a winning streak against the enemies of the church". You are only saying that now because you lost.
If you recall the contentious RH Bill when the CBCP put its might against the PNoy administration. That word war was bloody, and even after the bill was passed, PNoy and CBCP would occasionally take potshots and each other whenever a chance presented itself.
Another target of the church to a lesser degree was PGMA, but the church was not as harsh towards her because some of the bishops received cars.
But CBCP's word war with Duterte is different.
Duterte threatens to display the sins of the church in public. In the Philippines, where priest are revered; the sins of the church has never really been debated openly. With the advent of social media, and with Duterte being the virtual moderator of the debate, the Catholic church will be headed for trouble.
Imagine the discussion of the Church's sins ranging from: 1) The Church's wealth. 2) The secret families of priest and bishops. 3) Pedophilia 4) Corruption of the church 5) The bloody Spanish inquisition and more.
The church has steadily been losing market share and a word war with Duterte might persuade doubting male catholics to convert to Quiboloy's sect when they watch those very pretty choir singers swaying and singing while Quiboloy preaches on TV.
The basis of my comments is the ABS-CBN article shown below.
Villegas: CBCP will not engage in word war vs Duterte
ABS-CBN News Posted at Jun 05 2016 07:07 PM | Updated as of Jun 05 2016 11:01 PM
MANILA -- Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan Socrates Villegas on Sunday broke his silence on the recent attacks on the Church from President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters.
However, he refused to engage in a word war with Duterte, opting to give a message of hope.
"Mine is the silence of Jesus before the arrogance of Pilate," Villegas said Sunday. "Mine is the language of peace that refuses the dark magic of revenge. Mine is the silence of respect for those who consider us their enemies but whose good we truly pray for and whose happiness we want to see unfold."
"There is virtue in silence. There is virtue in speech. Wisdom is knowing when it is time for silence and when is the timing for speech," he added.
Duterte has dubbed the Catholic Church the "most hypocritical institution" as he lambasted its bishops for supposedly attempting to erode public support for him before the May 9 elections.
He also cited the release of a pastoral letter a few days before the elections in a bid to dissuade the electorate from voting for him.
"They campaigned against me, everybody was saying 'Do not vote for Duterte.' Fine. I said, let this election be a referendum between me and the Catholic Church... Sabi ko, this will be a referendum kung sinong tama sa atin. Look, were you able to stop me? Iilan lang kayong mga obispo diyan," he said.
Duterte also singled out Oscar Cruz, the retired archbishop of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, for, according to him, making a fool out of the Filipino people.
Villegas believes Catholics will understand his decision to stay silent.
"You can understand my speech if you speak the language of silence. You can understand my silence if you know how to love like Him who was born one silent night," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment