Interesting things in this report by John Allen on the papal visit, including the Malacanang speeches of President Aquino and the Pope. He also reports on how the Vatican has clarified his comments on the Paris killings to be sure it is not interpreted as a justification for violence. But definitely the most interesting observation of Allen is the speech of the President which he describes as Filipino president takes the Church to the woodshed. I didnt catch that part but I wonder who is the bishop that criticized Aquinos hair. The Aquinos are sort of the Kennedy family of the Philippines, meaning the country’s most celebrated political clan. Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was the staunchest critic of Marcos before being assassinated at the Manila airport upon return from exile in 1983. His widow, Corazon Aquino, would later become president herself, and the country’s current leader is their son. Also like the Kennedys, the Aquinos are deeply Catholic, but have sometimes had their issues with the hierarchy. On Friday, we heard echoes of those tensions in the remarkably frank speech Aquino delivered to the pope. He began by recalling that the Church supported the Spanish colonization of the country, saying that when people complained of injustices, the Church would reply, “the Kingdom of God is not of this earth.” Aquino said much of that intransigence changed during the era of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and praised the role many clergy played during the anti-Marcos uprising. “Especially during the Martial Law years, the Church of the poor and oppressed shone vividly,” he said. As noted, Aquino complained that prophetic edge seemed to go into eclipse under Arroyo, and said that now all Church leaders seem to be able to do is complain … “even to the extent,” he said, “that one prelate admonished me to do something about my hair, as if it were a mortal sin.” Aquino praised Francis’ recent speech to the Roman Curia, calling him a “kindred spirit,” and then closed the circle by quoting a George Bernard Shaw line that was a Kennedy favorite too, in this case RFK: “Some people see things as they are, and say why; I dream of things that never were, and say why not?” Though it’s hardly uncommon for progressive Catholic politicians to occasionally run afoul of various sectors of Catholic officialdom, it’s rare for one to use a papal visit to air those conflicts. No doubt, the speech will be a hot topic in Filipino Catholic circles for a while. (As a footnote, Aquino also referred to Tagle as a “kindred spirit.”) Vatican ‘clarifies’ Francis on Paris attacks
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 09:08:54 +0000