Chilean rescue: A triumph of prayer!

Last Aug. 23, thanks to satellite and cable TV, the whole world watched how the Philippine National Police (PNP) so badly mishandled the hostage-taking crisis at the Quirino Grandstand, when a lone hostage taker, Capt. Rolando Mendoza, a much decorated police officer, went berserk and killed eight Hong Kong tourists inside the tourist bus as a horrified world watched in sheer disbelief that our SWAT team couldn’t subdue or neutralize a single hostage taker.

This incident created an ugly animosity between the Philippine and the Hong Kong governments, especially that Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, could not even get through to President P-Noy by phone. Well, two months after that very embarrassing incident, the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) came up with its findings that were sent to Malacañang Palace, which unfortunately “revised” its recommendations and ended up finding at least eight government officials culpable for that incident. But two very important personages in the Aquino administration were apparently spared from the hatchet, notably DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo and Undersecretary Rico Puno, known as the closest friend of P-Noy.

That P-Noy went to the extreme to save the neck of his best friend gives us an idea that despite his efforts to exact change in the attitude of the Filipino people, P-Noy himself could not bear to axe his best friend, whom we saw on YouTube was clearly part of the botched hostage-taking incident. Mind you, we never asked the President to come up with a decision to appease the Hong Kong government, but in the end, he had more Filipinos disturbed by his decision… and to think we’re supposed to be his “Boss”!

Well, so much for that international incident that proved to the world that the Aquino government is indeed still on the “on-the-job-training” mode. We can only hope and pray that the world would forget what they saw last Aug. 23. Perhaps it was a blessing that last Wednesday, Oct. 13, the 33 trapped Chilean miners were finally brought back to the surface after being trapped for 69 days inside a collapsed mine 700 meters below the ground. We all watched this drama unfolding via satellite and cable TV with the whole world joyous over the dramatic and happy ending of this near disaster.

While the whole world watched as each miner was brought back to the surface on the rescue capsule, few people realize that this was a triumph of Catholicism. My good friend, Douglas Gacasan of the Task Force for Family and Life (TFFL) in Cebu, texted me, for instance, that the name of the mine is San Jose Mines, after St. Joseph whom we all know is the head of the Holy Family. Indeed, this unfolding human drama happening in Chile is about the preservation of human life and the family.

Mr. Gacasan also noted one of the miners saying that he would renew his marriage vows, while another will be marrying his girlfriend in a Catholic wedding. It was, indeed, a positive report about Catholicism especially coming from the BBC and CNN that have been attacking the Catholic Church recently. Now they reported a triumph of the Catholic faith. 

Another report that few people know comes from the Vatican, when no less than Pope Benedict XVI offered on many occasions prayers for the safety and survival of the miners, who were lost for 17 days until it was discovered that they were all alive. Pope Benedict then sent each of them a rosary that he himself blessed and they were brought to the mine site by Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Santiago, Chile. Incidentally, the miners were told that their rescue could come by December yet.

But with the rosaries sent to each of the miners, they organized their life inside the collapsed mine in a very disciplined way, even erecting a small chapel in the corner of the cave and fervently prayed the rosary on a daily basis. I have no doubt that their prayers were answered because by Oct. 13, the rescue shaft penetrated the collapsed cave. Mind you, it is no coincidence that Oct. 13 is the anniversary of the last appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.

Yet in the Philippines which boasts that we are 86 percent Catholics, even those who still profess to be Catholic openly denounce and attack Catholic doctrines and they include many of our legislators who are proposing legislation like the divorce bill that aims to destroy the sanctity of marriage and eventually destroy the unity of our families.

This is not to mention the RH bill. These so-called legislators who claim to be Catholics want the Philippines to emulate countries like the US that have laws on divorce, which is why the percentage of failed marriages is so high because divorce is always an option. Despite our poverty, God always blessed us Filipinos, hence we should obey the will of God and make ours unique in this world, as we don’t allow divorce and the RH bill. 

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