mistake #8

beyond truth


With an inspired sense of timing, the Catholic bishops who together constitute the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila (who knew there was such a thing?) issued a special pastoral letter reflecting on the national shame of corruption in order to mark Palm Sunday—the start of the holiest days in the Christian calendar. What did the 16 bishops (including Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak of the Military Ordinariate) wish to impress upon the faithful? The CBCP called it a “crisis of truth.” The 16 bishops describe the national situation in somewhat less elegant terms: “Today,” their letter begins, “we are experiencing a social and political mess.” But the 16 bishops of the Manila province see the “mess” differently. Corruption is [worse] than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it.” The 16 bishops then repair to the oldest moral code available to the faithful, the Ten Commandments. The pastoral letter picks up the narrative, to point out that the Filipino’s liberation from “Egypt” must be followed by time spent in the “desert.”

un-holy week

Here's an unequivocal sign of the times: Even on the holiest days of the Christian calendar, political thoughts continue to intrude. Only last Sunday, a group of 16 bishops from the Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province of Manila issued another pastoral letter. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has assured the public that, while prices are indeed rising, supply remains adequate. But it is a measure of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's legitimacy crisis that Yap himself faces a credibility test. To be sure, public skepticism is also fueled by turmoil in the global markets; oil prices have reached an all-time high, the dollar is under severe strain, the prospect of corporate failures is unsettlingly high. But on top of all these, the administration's credibility problem at a time of serious allegations of corruption and betrayal of public trust is a grave concern. Questions like these interfere with the faithful Holy Week reflections.