Think about it
Hypocrisy
By Jun Velasco
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened,” God’s Little devotional Book II
OUR very own beloved prelate Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the CBCP president, has his way of deploring the bruising national reality that has been gnawing at our existence in this PDI report:
He, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, “was “scandalized by the fact there were people scouring wastes of fast food chains so they could have food in their table while the rich just throw away what they have.”
A man would keep leftovers from the garbage pit, heat them, put some soy sauce, and then offer these to their children. And then you see on the other side of the city, people living in affluence, in luxury, practically throwing away money. How can you not be hurt by that.”
Those are not ordinary weeping words.
Actually, this seething anger from the Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop has been there in every Filipino’s deep psyche for so long a time now and reaching its explosion point in the “shameful slime uncovered….by the Priority Development Assistance Fund.”
It’s probably most opportune of Archbishop Villegas’ ascent to the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy; his homilies and pronouncements perfectly jibe with those of the “saintly” Pope Francis with their ring of humility and slap on arrogance in power. The papacy’s tirades are even partly addressed against imperious Catholic cardinals who strut like infallible gods who, if we can stretch the Pope’s words, are unchristian.
We are playing up the two Catholic Church leaders’ bold stance in light of the worsening corruption in our midst led by those who are even supposed to be models of governance.
The evangelists are also on the forefront of the campaign, but in this country, what turns the levers of power comes from the most organized, as what it did in the so-called peaceful revolt in 1986.
For, who are our models? Such questions shake our conscience, and, to add insult to injury, many sections of our mass media are doing their worst to neutralize evil, either because publicity can be bought or due to sheer irresponsibility.
We reprint the following from a PDI story to hopefully awaken a slumbering community:
“ The statement of the CBCP came amid multi-billion peso corruption scandals linked to government officials, senators and representatives and executives of nongovernment organizations.
The bishops also said “indigenous peoples are pushed off their lands and their defenders are killed.”
It said government laws that would close the gap “between included and the excluded, the wealthy and the poor, the powerful and the disempowered, the housed and the homeless, are sluggishly implemented or implemented in the breach.”
The Catholic bishops blamed the “greed for money” as the main culprit behind the social problems faced by the country.
While the church recognized the need for physical riches to fulfill an individual’s personal and familial needs, it noted that “private property was encumbered by a ‘social mortgage’ and must contribute to the common good.”
The bishops noted that the one task of the Church was to liberate the people from injustice and oppression.
“There is no Christianity without love. There is no love without justice. There is no integral proclamation of Christianity without effective action for justice. The church’s mission of redemption is tied up with liberation from injustice and oppression,” they said.
Villegas urged bishops to be more contemplative in their actions toward the poor.
“If contemplation does not lead to action for justice and charity, it might have really become the ‘shabu’ of the bishops, an addictive fight from reality,” Villegas said.
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Notes: Our prayers and love go to the Orbos family on the passing of a beloved mother, Consuelo Munoz Orbos of San Carlos City and Bani, Pangasinan; beloved mother of our friends, former Gov. Oscar, Fr. Jerry and Asec Tim. She was 92. She has joined beloved husband Atty. Guillermo in God’s country.
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