Who cares whether Kris got an apology from Joey – sanamagan!

PARIS – Our nation can’t be in crisis. All our people seem to be worrying about, we’ve been hearing as far away as this, the French capital, is about Joey having offered an "apology" to Kris, and Kris accepting it. After STD? After all that television cauterwauling? As Ninoy used to exclaim: Gee whiz and by golly!

Then Loren has bolted her old Lakas-CMD party, hoping to become somebody’s "vice presidential" running mate. If not FPJ, why not EC? Surely, she won’t sink as low as Ping! But politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes.

As for President Macapagal-Arroyo, she’s at it again – sad to say. Didn’t she regretfully let former Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes go? Now she’s appointed him Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-terrorism. This gives Angie Reyes almost unlimited power to go after his enemies, including those who helped give him the boot. Expect an increase in phone-tapping, and all sorts of hi-jinks. "Counter-terrorism" is a buzzword which excuses almost everything in the dirty tricks department.

As for our former New People’s Army Commander and ISAFP "intelligence" chief, hopefully not Himmler-style, Victor Corpus is not only in charge of the Malacañang "War Room" but has been awarded his second star, making him now a full Major General. Why not "Field Marshal", Madam President, ala Erwin Rommel? Victor is more foxy than the Desert Fox, and those are all his guys who’re clumsily shadowing this writer. They should all be given a "refresher course" in espionage and tradecraft.

I heard the President has announced her re-election bid in Pampanga. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) flashed the news around the world. That announcement was not unexpected. Now, she will have to take the flak for having gone back on her promise not to run.

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Last Saturday, we went to Mass with Henri and Marietta de la Haye Jousellin at a wonderful little church, frequented by Filipinos, resident Italians, English people, Irish, and visiting Americans. It’s the St. Joseph’s Church on 50 Avenue Hoche 75008 Paris, within sight of the Etoile or Arc de Triomphe.

The church is run by the Passionist Fathers, either Irishmen or Englishmen, although I used to make pilgrimages to their big shrine in Montreal, Canada, on Mount Royal, dedicated to the miracle-working Blessed Brother André. The pastor here is Father Thomas c.p., and the co-adjutors are Father Anthony c.p. and Father Michael, c.p.

This time, Father Michael said the 6:30 p.m. Mass, and made everybody shake hands, introduce themselves to each other – then delivered a humorous sermon, while taking liberal swigs from a bottle of . . . water. (No, although he’s Irish it wasn’t "Bushmills").

What was distributed to the congregation, though, was an interesting article by another priest, who obviously had previously lived in Paris. The piece by Father Hugo Burns o.p. (a Dominican? Orden de Pecadores?) was published in the "St. Joseph’s Bulletin."

It was simply entitled, "Paris Notre Dame".

Here is what the good father wrote:

"Last July I returned to Paris for vacation. Standing in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, I studied the sculpture on its facade once again. Over the central portal is the famous Last Judgement scene. It depicted the devil, with a baleful, toothy grin carting off a fresh catch of the damned to hell, among them a goodly number of priests, bishops and popes. Bless me, Father, but I thought of adding a few to that relief along with plenty of society’s other pariahs and phonies."

"A recent Gallup poll shows that confidence in organised religion is at an all-time low of forty-five percent. Can you blame people? The Catholic Church has hogged the limelight over the past year, but there have also been scamming Buddhist nuns, murdering rabbi, the embezzling president of a major Baptist convention, hate-mongering imams and rampaging Hindu fanatics."

"But there is also a waning trust in institutions in general. The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has put the problem on the agenda of this year’s meeting. The hypocrisy that infects religion, taints society’s other lofty estates as well: Our American political system up for sale, corporate CEO sleaze balls, Olympic game fixers, the shredding of constitutional rights and liberties under the euphemism of freedom, the best legal system money can buy and the best medicine fewer can afford."

"So I add my name to the Gallup forty five percent who are skeptics. But I am also struggling to stay this side of cynicism. And then I think of that thirteenth century Parisian bishop who erected such a poignant critique over the front door of his cathedral. Can you imagine the spiffy, new cathedral in Los Angeles sporting a prominent tableau of the wages of clerical sin? How about a company’s headquarters memorializing the execs who absconded with the pension funds, or a mural in the United States Capitol’s rotunda dedicated to congressional payoffs?"

"Notre Dame is also a reminder of the larger truth of redemption. It is not an edifice dedicated to original sin but to the grace and glory of God. So too, our embattled institutions stand as monuments to our highest values, principles and ends. When they fall short, the problem lies with the flawed human beings who pull the levers . . . A basic rule of thumb is that most gurus are not what they seem. True greatness resides not on perfection, but in honesty. Too much pomp, too many platitudes, shibboleths, trappings and titles are nothing more than sanctimonious masks for duplicity."

How much more straight to the point, yet more touching can a sermon get? This American priest, revisiting Paris, was inspired by seeing once more the magnificent façade of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which has stood for centuries as a symbol of Paris itself.

It was erected over the ruins of Gallo-Roman temple to Jupiter, a fourth-century church, and a sixth-century basilica – and now soars in serried Gothic splendor. Victor Hugo wrote of it in 1831: "On the face of this queen of our cathedrals, next to a wrinkle you will always find a scar. Tempus edax, homo edacior. Which I would freely translate: Time is blind, man is stupid."

Notre Dame’s famed Rose Window depicts Jesus, surrounded by saints, the 12 Apostles, and angels. Even Judas Iscariot? Without the latter, how could the passion and death of Redemption, and the Resurrection have begun?

Every time I come to Paris, I stand mute before that façade, like the Hunchback of the old story, tolling the bell with hope, but seeing little to justify the thought. Thus is the curse of the journalist and opinion writer. To feel the scars, while, like Victor Hugo’s Time, to be blind, as well humanly stupid.

Yet, beyond the ancient flying buttresses of that church – witnesses to much tragedy and woe – one glances upwards and sees the stars.