Villegas decries persecution of clergy, parishioners’ indifference
THE Church is under persecution and the signs are clear, according to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas in his homily during the Chrism mass on Maundy Thursday at the St. John The Evangelist Cathedral in Dagupan City.
Speaking before priests of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese, with about more than 3,000 parishioners who attended the mass that also celebrated Clergy Day, Villegas said, “It will become worse before it becomes better” even as he also decried the indifference of parishioners to their plight.
He urged them, “Do not let evil intimidate you, dearly beloved priests. Do not let your threats silence the clergy of Lingayen-Dagupan.”
He noted that there are people who live by being social media trolls and who think this is better than drugs and stealing.
“We bishops have become martyrs in social media,” Villegas said.
He said they have been killed a thousand times as the trolls are in the thousands.
“When we speak, they want us muted. When we oppose, they want us maimed. When we stand up for life, they want us dead,” he said.
He asked, “What has happened to us?”
He said people have become “uncaring for one another… becoming day by day an angry society”.
He noted that their “parishioners seek the security of silence, with no one willing to defend Christ’s anointed ones”.
Villegas emphasized, “We are indeed entering a new chapter in history as Catholic nation when it is so fashionable to make Churchmen the punching bag of public officials to the glee of our own parishioners.”
He revealed how he feels about these: Am I hurt? Yes. Am I angry? No. Am I aware of the calumnies hurled against me? Yes, and I read all of them. Shall I give up? No. How do I feel? Fully at peace.
Bishops and priests are wronged and no one dares to set things right,” he said.
“Christ’s teachings are relentlessly challenged; human life is cheaper than a gun. God’s mercy is disdained and scorned,” he intoned.
Villegas told priests of Lingayen-Dagupan to “stand up and take courage, go to jail for the sake of the Gospel, be ready to be killed for the sake of our faith”.
“Pangasinan will not die when priests and bishops are killed. Pangasinan will bloom, glow and grow what we cannot do in life as priests, we will be able to do when they kill us and make us martyrs,” he said.
He rallied the priests, “This is not the time for cowards. This is the right season for martyrs and this is a moment of glory.”
After the Chrism mass, parishioners waved and big tarpaulins expressing messages of love and gratitude for their respective priests in their parishes rolled down from the cathedral’s choir loft. (Tita Roces)
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