Cardinal Vidal celebrates 75th birthday

Allow me to extend our heartfelt birthday greetings to our beloved eminence, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu, who is celebrating his 75th birthday today. He was born in Mogpog, Marinduque and after attending public school in his hometown, he pursued higher studies which led him to the priesthood at the Most Holy Rosary Seminary in Sariaya, Quezon and the St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Lipa City and later on at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati. He was ordained a priest on March 17, 1956.

He served in the parish of his hometown, moved to Lucena City and became co-adjutor bishop of Malolos and later a bishop on Nov. 30, 1971. He became the Archbishop of Cebu in August 1982 and was elevated to the College of Cardinals by the late Pope John Paul II on May 25, 1985. He was bestowed the honor of being an adopted son of Cebu City on June 22, 1985 by the late Cebu City Mayor Ronald Duterte. Though he was born in Marinduque, he speaks fluent Cebuano and almost always does his sermons or homilies in the Cebuano language.

On Cardinal Vidal’s 50th sacerdotal anniversary on March 14, he will launch his book entitled "Cardinal Vidal Speaks to His Priests," which is a compilation of the homilies and speeches he made throughout his colorful career as the Shepherd of Cebu’s Catholic flock. One fruit of his efforts in the Cebu Archdiocese is that it boasts the biggest number of seminarians studying in Cebu, which gives you an idea of the growth in vocations among the young. As the old saying goes, "A good tree is known by its good fruit as a good person is known by the goodness of his thoughts, words and deeds." The Catholic Church in Cebu, with the first Christians of Asia, is growing, thanks to the shepherding of our beloved Cardinal.

Because many politicians want his advise or blessing, Cardinal Vidal is often mistaken as a tool of politicians. On the contrary, he looks at our politicians just like any other member of his flock and cares for them regardless of their political affiliation… often even NPA rebels who want to return to normal life. This is why the Cardinal often creates controversies when, for instance, he accepted the role as the guardian of deposed President Joseph "Erap" Estrada if the Sandiganbayan allows him.

Cardinal Vidal always teaches us to be humble. This was his subject during the 10th Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. Memorial Lecture of the Cebu Newspaper Workers Foundation (Cenewof) where he extolled President Sergio Osmeña Sr. for his "humility in authority," which he emphasized should be emulated by our political leaders or those in public service.

I have always said that humility is a non-existent word as far as politicians is concerned. But do you know that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate? On the occasion of his 75th birthday, many well-wishers will be attending his birthday dinner-for-a-cause at the Waterfront Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. Tonight, I also have his beloved Cardinal Vidal on my taped talkshow, Straight from the Sky, and yes, he openly talks about his retirement from public life… something we hope won’t be accepted by the Vatican. Many happy returns of the day, your Eminence, and let me say that Cebu is blessed to have you in our midst.

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Last Thursday evening, I was watching another CNN Special Report done in the Philippines and once again, CNN’s Chris Rodgers came up with a follow-up to the report he did last July with Fr. Shay Cullen about "Juvenile Prisoners" in the Manila City jail. Of course, with CNN’s worldwide coverage, this is a very embarrassing piece of reportage.

I texted Ms. Margot Osmeña to tell her about this and she called me and said that when she saw that, she asked Cebu’s UNICEF man, Atty. Albert Moyot, if they could contact Fr. Shay Cullen for her and she was able to talk to Fr. Cullen and suggested that for CNN to be fair in their reports about the Philippines, they should also feature what Cebu City is doing about juvenile offenders in a place called "Operation Second Chance," a facility which she runs and which we featured a year ago after that CNN report. But instead of helping out, Fr. Cullen bluntly told her: "I can’t do your PR work for you. You should find your own way!"

Excuse me, Fr. Cullen, but in this country a remark like that is considered bastos! Doing PR work is one thing, but giving us a balanced report is another thing! Sure, we’re not denying that this is happening in Manila, but certainly other local government units (LGUs) in this country do not have this problem. Now I’m beginning to believe what people are telling me, that Fr. Cullen’s effort to bring Chris Rodgers to Manila is a ploy to bolster his funding campaign to fuel his NGO.

This is the problem of many NGOs which too often use us in the media to advocate their causes and in the end, they use the snippets or clippings to send to their donors that they’re popular in this country and soon, money flows in. Years ago, an environmental NGO was attacking a shipbreaking plant in Balamban beside the Tsuneishi Shipyard because of the pollution it allegedly created. I discovered later that this NGO was funded by a leftist Japanese environmental group with ties to the labor union of Tsuneishi in Japan. This is why we cannot trust all NGOs working here. Call Fr. Cullen lucky that he was able to con CNN to bolster his own NGO, with a one-sided, albeit embarrassing report.

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Talk about following up with articles we have done. The big news last week about that massive oil spill threatening the white beaches of Boracay is something that we already wrote last Jan. 13 as our main feature. Back then we warned our readers about whether someone was trying to hide this environmental disaster waiting to happen, the exact location of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) barge that spilled 195,000 liters of bunker fuel off Semirara Island was kept from the public.

This story happened last Dec. 18, but it wasn’t given any weight or importance… after all, Semirara Island is so distant from Manila. But when I checked my map with a ruler, I found out that Semirara Island is only a mere 60 kilometers from Boracay Island. Well, apparently as Sen. Edgardo Angara just revealed, this spill happened only a mere 10 kilometers between Semirara and Boracay. If so, if you climbed up the highest hill of Boracay, you can even see that spill. This is now considered the worst oil spill in this country. Thought it is not in the magnitude of the Exxon Valdez eco-disaster, just wait till the oil reaches Boracay’s white beaches.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.