Wall Street Financier a.k.a. a Ponzi scam artist Bernard Madoff who was caught last December and later pleaded guilty on 11 counts of a multi-million dollar fraud have been sentenced to a 150-years in jail, a sentence that for a man of his advance age might as well be a life sentence. Prior to his sentencing, Madoff and his wife were stripped of their money, their wealth, luxury homes in Paris, New York’s Long Island and a beautiful yacht. But all these possessions won’t be enough to repay the thousands of irate investors who lost millions in his Ponzi scheme.
That’s America for you! They do have their share of crooks, but a little over six months of court investigation, they have wrapped up their case and sentenced the guilty Madoff. This is a sharp contrast to what’s happening with the Legacy Group headed by Celso de los Angeles who has been slapped with various cases of fraud, but with the snail’s paced justice system in this country, we won’t see the resolution of this case in the next 10 years.
* * *
I fully concur with Msgr. Esteban Binghay’s reply that God is more powerful than the Swine flu virus when he was asked the question whether the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) should suspend the holding of the Holy Mass in order to stop the spread of the A(H1N1) virus. I don’t know why this question cropped up in the first place. I would even dare question the CBCP why they would even discuss this issue at all!
The Swine Flu virus first appeared in the City of Mexico, coincidentally at the second anniversary of approval of the law allowing abortion in Mexico. Hence, there’s a lot of us who believe that Swine Flu is Pestilence, the meaning of which I looked up my online dictionary as a “A contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating… like Bubonic plague which is destructive or pernicious.”
Pestilence, like the famous Biblical plagues that fell upon Egypt is the Wrath of God, in retribution to man’s destructiveness especially in allowing the legal killing of the unborn fetus. For a Catholic country like Mexico (we were once under the Mexican Archdiocese) one of the things that Mexican authorities did in order to stop the Swine Flu virus was to stop all sporting games, stop people from converging together and ultimately, the Catholic Church in Mexico agreed to stop the holding the Holy Mass. Indeed, evil has triumphed in Mexico City!
But what about us in Catholic Philippines? Are we going to follow the footsteps of Mexico? If Congress approves the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, then we should be ready for a rude awakening when another form of pestilence would befall upon us. In time of darkness, despair and abandon, Catholics always go to the nearest church to seek solace from God. Hence, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Yñiguez was terribly mistaken when he “suggested or hinted” that the CBCP may call off the holding of the Holy Mass in case of a Swine Flu outbreak.
To those priests and bishops who agreed to stop the holding of the Holy Mass in order to stop the spread of the Swine Flu virus, I say to them that they have a serious lack of vocation or lack of faith! Our Catholic faith teaches us the most basic teaching of all, that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly present - body, soul and his divinity in the Holy Eucharist. We have also been taught that our Lord Jesus Christ is a healer and therefore all Holy Masses being officiated is a healing mass.
So to us who have a childlike faith and truly believe in this very Catholic Doctrine brought down by the Catholic Church 2,000 years ago, whenever we are afflicted of something, even when we are at the jaws of death, the Holy Mass can heal us because God is good and nothing that comes from God can afflict us. Even as a last resort, we should never shut down the doors of our churches and keep us away from God.
Lastly, I’m reminded of a photograph that my good friend James Zobel of the MacArthur Memorial gave us that when the Americal Division landed in Talisay in March 26,1945 a Lt. John Belmonte was assigned to convert the Pardo Church into a temporary hospital. That photo gave me a lasting impression that churches can be used to heal people as they are in a Holy Place, but never, ever close our churches to the faithful flock.
I don’t know why the Department of Health (DoH) is concentrating its efforts in trying to stop this pandemic called A(H1N1) virus when we only have one fatality in this country, while the dreaded Dengue Fever has caused numerous deaths all over the country and it does seem that the DoH has lost its focus! They should focus on dengue!