At first I just wanted to keep my peace and not join the frenzy surrounding the pope’s visit.
One, I am no longer Catholic. Two, I had no expectations that the pope, who is bound by church doctrine, would issue pronouncements that would put the local clergy in a difficult situation on “controversial” issues. And, three, I wanted to respect people’s right to practice their religion no matter how I regarded it.
But one could not remain totally indifferent. There was an explosion of news, all sorts of reports, social media postings, images, conversations, etc. on this visit. Naturally, I also got to reading many, if not most of these.
Now that the pope has left, hysteria has died down, and things are going back to normal (as evidenced by the Senate’s resumption of its “investigation” on Vice-President Jejomar Binay), I will try to put in words my observations on Pope Francis’ visit as an outsider and observer.
The visit proved that indeed, the Philippines is Asia’s Catholic bastion but…
Whether it was six million, or three million (as some assert using simple mathematics) people who went to Rizal park to hear mass, there is no quarrel that this was a huge crowd. Nowhere else in Asia has this happened for a religious gathering.
However, compared with the estimated four to five million Filipinos who went to see Pope John Paul II when he came for the 1995 World Youth Day, the recent crowd size, even if we put it at 6 million, may not be that staggering after all.
Consider that the 1995 Philippine population was just 69.6 million. If 80 percent is Catholic, then there were 55.7 million Catholics then. For 2014, population was estimated at 100 million making the Catholics balloon to 80 million (note that I did not even use the 2015 population projection). Five million in 1995 was almost 10% of all Filipino Catholics. Six million in 2015 is around 7.5% of the church members.
Thus, the six million is proportionally smaller than the five million in 1995. Maybe there is truth to the widespread perception that the church is weakening in influence.
Filipinos proved that we can be disciplined if we want to. Yes, but…
The millions converged, waited patiently and peacefully for many hours to see the pope. Everyone was excited but order was maintained. There were no reports of petty crimes. It was all good. And I agree. Our men and women in uniform as well as the citizens showed that we can practice discipline and follow regulations. Except perhaps for the tons and tons of garbage left by those who went to hear the mass in Luneta. Surely, if people could bring food, drinks, etc., they could also bring a bag to put their trash in and bring back home.
Sadly, what happened was, six million people left their trash in RIZAL Park after hearing mass. They honored the pope but DESECRATED our national hero, Jose Rizal. The park is there to honor Rizal. His body lies there, he was killed there by firing squad as ordered by, yes, the Damasos of the Catholic Church. What irony. What disrespect!
And speaking of Damaso, Did PNoy offend religious feelings? Did he do another version of Celdran’s “Damaso” act?
Shortly before the pope arrived, the Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of Carlos Celdran for the celebrated ‘DAMASO’ case. The CA affirmed the “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” verdict on Celdran for violating the antiquated law on “offending religious feelings.”
Celdran, a performance artist dressed in what he thought was an ala-Rizal costume, flashed a white board with the word “DAMASO” written on it during the launch of the “One Bible in Every Home” event at the Manila Cathedral. He was brought to court and convicted for offending the religious feelings of the complainant priest.
President Noynoy Aquino came under fire when during his speech to welcome the pope in Malacanan Palace, he raised and hit some clergy’s abuses and condonation of abuses of previous administrations.
PNoy got a lot of flak for what many people considered as offensive and misplaced remarks in the presence of no less than the pope and the church hierarchy here. I have criticized the president many times. But on this, I believe he was correct in raising the issues. In fact, I would have wanted more abuses mentioned at that time. No one else could discuss those with the pope, who after all said that his visit was pastoral more than anything.
No one who had access to the pope would dare.
“DAMASO” in Celdran’s act referred to the hated character of the abusive priest in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. He flashed the board in front of church leaders inside the Manila Cathedral. PNoy, without using the name, talked about similar issues in his speech in front of the pope and the church hierarchy in Malacanang.
The President has immunity from suit but my question remains, by speaking the truth, did he offend the religious feelings of his very important audience and those who afterwards, criticized him? Well, PNoy is safe.
But what about others? News had it that four Evangelical Christians are charged with violating the “offending religious feelings” law because they heckled some Catholics and posted tarpaulins bearing some biblical passages during the pope’s visit.
One tarp said “Only Jesus can save you from sin and hell”, and some Catholics took offense and complained against the four Evangelicals.
DAMASO is alive.
Yes, there is separation of church and State but…
I learned from my lawyer- mentors that the country is supposed to be secular. They also said that the Constitutional provisions on the separation of church and State concerns only two things, one, no State religion can be established, and two, no public monies can be used for specific churches or religions.
Now, are these restrictions strictly observed? I seriously doubt it when one is often greeted by religious icons when one goes to government offices or when government events begin with mostly Catholic prayers. What do these mean? Is Catholicism the State religion?
And public funds used for religious events? We all know how common this is. I wonder, how much did the people spend for the papal visit? Is government also ready to spend generously for major events of other religions? Is this in keeping with our Constitution?
The pope’s visit triggered so many questions. If there is anything I learned, it is the reaffirmation of my commitment to a secular State.
bethangsioco@gmai l. com and @bethangsioco on Twitter