EDITORIAL — No holy silence from gag order

"Vidal is not stupid to issue a gag order," so said Msgr. Achilles Dakay, the media liaison officer of the Archdiocese of Cebu, in going full throttle at damage control over the flap he recently caused for Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

Without uttering a word, the cardinal found himself on the spot, on account of what Dakay quoted him as having told priests. What Vidal did, Dakay said, was order priests not to comment on current issues still under investigation. "Vidal is not stupid to issue a gag order."

Of course, nobody in his right mind would think of calling Vidal stupid, even if he did issue a gag order, which Dakay insists the cardinal didn't. So let us just take the word of Dakay for it, especially since there is no other word to take for it in the first place.

But let us not get distracted by this stupidity thing. It is a red herring. It is a scare tactic to gag us, or be seen as thinking of Vidal as stupid. Stupidity is not an issue here. It never had been. The issue is about allegations that a priest physically abused and molested boys.

The controversy grew when Vidal, in Dakay's own words, ordered priests not to comment on issues still under investigation. The media branded the order as a gag. The Freeman did not carry the story. But if it did, it would still have called the order similarly.

Of course nobody expects Vidal to actually say "Oy, mga pari, I am gagging you ha." If that is the context in which Dakay wishes to pursue this argument, then yes, it would be stupid of Vidal to say so. But for God's sake, one does not have to actually say gag to mean it.

A gag and an order not to comment are one and the same thing. We can take semantics to the depths of hell and still the meaning would be the same. To say and think otherwise is to be morally dishonest about it.

Again, stupidity is not at issue here, even if that is the path Dakay wishes to take. The issue is about excesses committed by priests and the lack of openness on the part of the Church about it. However Dakay wishes to call lack of openness, the faithful still feels betrayed by it.