On the main, the haciendero culture is uncouth, P-Noys. However, did the diatribes at the bishops (CBCP) sink in with the visitor, Pope Francis? In Tacloban City, the visitor had the day. As such, I post Antonio Montalvan II Kriss-Crossing Mindanao: Uncouth host and Amando Doronila Analysis: Palace-bishops row mars papal visit Uncouth host by Antonio Montalvan II The venue was Malacañang. The backdrop was draped in white and blue. The sign of the dove was symbolic—for the spiritual it stood for the Holy Spirit, for the secular it projected the message of peace. What was to transpire, except for the exalted guest’s speech, was anything but peaceful. The elected lord of the manor, there to welcome Pope Francis in behalf of the Filipino people, ranted at his guests. First at the Pope: “The necessary security preparations, I should admit, have been somewhat of a security nightmare for us.” In Filipino culture, that was not funny. The Filipino welcome is even overdone to the point of the host making ends meet just to make the guest most comfortable. In Filipino culture, “welcome” is understood as expecting nothing in return. The cost is not counted. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The millions who turned out in the streets of Manila surely did not count the cost. Those who camped outside the gates of the Apostolic Nunciature in Taft Avenue beginning in the wee hours of the morning did not count the cost. Otherwise, they would not have been there. Those in Tacloban who shivered under the rain and in the blowing winds of Typhoon “Amang” certainly did not count the cost. But the man who is supposed to represent these people euphoric in their welcome of the Pope was anything but compassionate with his own. Vatican staff accompanying Pope Francis reportedly gave him a hint of what was to come after the Colombo visit that saw garlanded elephants: “Wait till you get to the Philippines.” The Filipino rapture over a visiting pontiff, three in history, has always been one of a kind. Leaving Manila in 1995, St. John Paul II is said to have uttered these words: “The Philippines is a phenomenon.” The rest of President Benigno Aquino III’s speech revealed a president unable to rise above his own petty concerns, reflecting his poor cognitive sense. The second worst part was ranting at previous criticisms from Philippine bishops (who were seated right across the podium) when it was he who openly went against established faith and morals of the Catholic Church. But first, a very lame attempt at intellectual dishonesty when he said: “We were further taught that if we do not intercede to make each person capable of exercising true freedom of choice, then we are not our brother’s keepers.” Of course, he meant the Reproductive Health Law. But who did he say taught him that? The previous sentence referred to the “Church.” Which church would that be? In the afternoon, the response came from Pope Francis at the Encounter with Families at the Mall of Asia Arena: Uphold the ban on contraception. Aray! The Pope accompanied that statement with an illustrious praise of Blessed Paul VI for “his courage to teach future generations with an encyclical,” a clear reference to “Humanae Vitae.” By ranting at his guests, someone said, Mr. Aquino called a spade a spade. No, he called a spade by another name and in doing so came out a softie, exposing a disturbed man who has no sane sense of even the choice of content for his speeches, and his low value system and sense of civility. The nation was in euphoria. The President was simply out of touch. And he laid bare not only his lack of prudence but what is now clearly a dangerous inability at constructing concepts (e.g., his Lilliputian concept of what “church” is), his sense of reaction to events, and finally his way of organizing his personal value system. I am convinced—this is a president who has very low cognitive and affective skills. That should be enough to make us look forward to the end of his term a little more than a year from now. Filipinos can be a discerning people. He has continuously underestimated that. Mr. Aquino just missed a glorious moment of history. Previous presidents did well. The Protestant Fidel V. Ramos was an impeccable host to Pope John Paul II in 1995. The president is president of all people, regardless of race and creed. Mr. Aquino let go of an opportunity at statesmanship. He chose instead to address his obsession with gaining political allies. How does he contrast now with Gloria Arroyo whom he portrays as his exact opposite? At the tail end of his term, he is still in the blame game. No wonder this is now the state of our nation—a nation entangled in a selective anticorruption drive under a culture of impunity, where Liberal Party allies are exempted from trial by publicity and from the hounding of the Ombudsman; a politicized disaster relief body that manipulates even the casualty numbers, not to mention the open violations of the Constitution. These are signs of a warped sense of judgment. At a time of mercy and compassion, our President chose to be bastos. I join the many who have chastised him. I also join one educator who wrote: “As a teacher of students, I myself am in a quandary how best I can help my students. I can only sigh and warn my countrymen to brace for more blunders, unless someone in his government would take time to help him work on what is missing in his cognitive and affective domains. Pope Francis, you asked that we pray for you. But I also beg of you, please pray for our country and our people, especially our poor. The message of mercy and compassion are words that this President needs help and time to process.” President Aquino’s time is fast running out and still he doesn’t get it. Palace-bishops row mars papal visit by Amando Doronila Pope Francis repeated his denunciation of political corruption in the Philippines on the second day of his pastoral visit in Tacloban City on Saturday. In the text of his homily during the Mass for survivors of the most devastating typhoon that hit the country in 2013, the Pope, in an impassioned message, denounced “so many tragic signs of evil” in the relief and recovery operations mounted in the wake of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” Although Francis acknowledged that the victims of the typhoon were beneficiaries of the “generosity of so many people and so many small miracles of goodness” from the international community, he pilloried the slow and chaotic response of the national government and local authorities in coming to the aid of the victims. “You have also seen, in the profiteering, the looting and the failed responses to this great human drama, so many tragic signs of the evil from which Christ came to save us,” he said. Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) left more than 6,300 people dead and 1,000 missing. About 1.5 million families were affected while over 910,000 families were dislocated. The Pope was prompted to make an appeal to authorities after a tour of the devastated area under driving rain. Greater trust “Let us pray that, this, too, will lead us to greater trust in the power of God’s grace to overcome sin and selfishness,” he said. “Let us pray that it will lead to a rejection of all forms of injustice and corruption, which by stealing from the poor, poison the very roots of society.” After his tour, the Pontiff appeared to have been shaken by what he saw and was told by the victims, prompting him to call for fair treatment of the victims, especially the poor. In his prepared address for the clergy and religious at Palo Cathedral, he said, “I ask that the poor of this country be treated fairly—that their dignity be respected, that political and economic policies be just and inclusive, that opportunities for employment and education be developed, and the obstacles to delivery of social services be removed.” “Our treatment of the poor is the criterion on which each of us will be judged,” he said. From the heart The Pope discarded his prepared homily to speak from the heart, which enabled him to identify more closely with the plight of the victims. The Vatican press office later lifted the embargo, telling reporters the speech could be published. The Tacloban outburst by the Pope was a sequel to the first encounter between Francis and President Aquino during his call in Malacañang on Friday. It was triggered by the Pope’s references to corruption without particularly referring to the Aquino administration, which has extolled his administration as the paragon of rectitude in good governance. The Pope has made the visit to the disaster area as one of his priorities. Moral imperative At the start of his first full day of his visit, the Pope met with President Aquino and other political leaders, urging them to reject corruption and promote “honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good.” He said: “Today, the Philippines, together with many other countries in Asia, faces the challenge of building on solid foundations of a modern society—a society respectful of authentic human values, protective of our God-given human dignity and rights, ready to confront new and complex political and ethical questions. “As many voices in your nation have pointed out, it is now, more than ever, necessary that that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good. In this way they will help preserve the rich human and natural resources with which God has blessed this country. Thus will they be able to marshal the moral resources needed to face the demands of the present, and to pass on to coming generations a society of authentic justice, solidarity and peace. “Essential to the attainment of these goals is the moral imperative of ensuring social justice and respect for human dignity. “The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the duty to hear the voice of the poor. It bids us to break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and, indeed scandalous, social inequalities. Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of mind and heart. The bishops of the Philippines had asked that this year be set aside as the ‘Year of the Poor.’ I hope that this prophetic summons will challenge everyone, at all levels of society, to reject every form of corruption…” Inappropriate In response to the challenge, President Aquino, after meeting with the Pope, retorted that Church officials had been overly critical of him and silent about the abuses of past political leaders. Mr. Aquino’s reaction drew criticism that it was inappropriate for the President to drag this discourse during the papal visit. Some of the public reactions said the President had displayed vindictiveness. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle described it as “a commentary on the previous administration.” In his speech, the President criticized the bishops who remained silent about the abuses and corruption of the past, but who were now very outspoken against him, to the extent that one prelate had derided him to do something about his thinning hair, “as if it were a mortal sin.” Archbishop Tagle said, “In many of his speeches since becoming the President, [Mr. Aquino] has referred to the previous and how he has inherited some of the problems that the former administration was not able to, or refused, to address. I heard a bit of that in his speech today. While today, while the silence of some bishops was mentioned, I think it was still a commentary on the previous administration.” He said his impression was that (the words) were deeply rooted in the President’s personal experiences, including his own sufferings during the martial law years and his appreciation of the role of the Church at the time. Read more: opinion.inquirer.net/81842/palace-bishops-row-mars-papal-visit#ixzz3PJKu2Tei Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:08:58 +0000
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