Where did the monks in Simala go wrong?

If I haven’t written anything yet on the controversy that blew up about what really happened in Simala, it is only because I wanted to make sure that we get the right information so we could come up with the proper analysis of his case. Yesterday morning, we had the privilege to have Fr. Dan Delos Angeles say the Holy Mass in the Sons of David at the Cebu Country Club. After breakfast, he gave us clarifications on this issue, which opened my mind as to what’s really happening in Simala.

The bottom line is, earlier in January, a certain Frater Paul Venancio Cabillon wrote his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal confessing to his violating his vows of chastity and thus, he was dispensed of his duties by Cardinal Vidal; he is no longer considered a brother, although he is still connected with the Blue Brothers. What he probably didn’t like was that this issue came out of the Lungsuranon, the official organ of the Cebu Archdiocese. Out of the blue, he went on public radio to denounce the activities of the brothers, raging from sodomy to selling “miracles.” In short, commercializing the Marian devotion.

From my layman’s point of view, the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably displeased with the Blue Brothers for failing in their real mission, which is to bring the poor souls “to Jesus, through Mary.” I’ve gone several times to Simala myself. Everytime I finish my prayer requests to our Mama Mary, I sneak to a small chapel just beside the big church, though partly hidden because the Blessed Sacrament is always exposed there. Sadly, the huge church is full of Marian devotees, but no one visits the Son who is truly present, body, blood, soul and his divinity in the Holy Eucharist just next door!

The job of the Blue Brothers is to educate our Marian devotees that Mama Mary always leads us to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Just take a look at the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help, Mama Mary’s hands always points to her Son, Jesus and that is what we Marian Devotees should never forget, that we must not only visit the Mother of God in her house, but we should also visit Jesus himself, who is exposed for Holy Adoration.

As for the accusations of Frater Cabillon, he must openly discuss this with the Cardinal otherwise, these are nothing but mere allegations or falsehood perpetrated by an evil motive. God knows that the devil loves to come in the midst of holy people in order to destroy them. But our faith is stronger than the allegations of one monk that has gone astray. But it doesn’t mean that the Cardinal shouldn’t start cleaning up the House of God, for as scripture teaches us, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, angrily cleansed the Temple of his Father.

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It’s 15th Press Freedom Week that the Cebu Media celebrates this week. It is that one week of the year when the Cebu Media goes out together like a huge family and holds a dance show complete with raffles sponsored by PLDT and Smart Communications. Yesterday, the Press Freedom walk started from the Ayala Center all the way to SM’s Trade Hall and as always, it was a happy, albeit a boisterous occasion!

Looking that the packed one side of the Trade Hall, it dawned upon me that the media industry in Cebu has truly grown by leaps and bounds. They were all there - radio, tv and the print media enjoying their company, something you can never happen in the nation’s capital as the media there are full-blown competitors and will never break bread on the same table, unlike what we in the media in Cebu do most of the time. This makes me very proud of being a member of the Cebu media, although I began my journalistic career 23 years ago when I joined the newly-published Philippine Star.

Yesterday morning despite its being a holiday, we went to the Fernan Press Center for the first Press Freedom forum, dubbed, “The Big Change: How to Count and Protect Votes with Poll Automation.” There weren’t many people at the Press Center perhaps because of the holiday. That’s really the problem with us Filipinos; we take seriously all the holidays called by the government like yesterday, even if we’re not Muslims!

But as Mr. Boni Belen, the first speaker for Smartmatic-TIM pointed out very clearly, “The poll automation works, but we must all make it work as this project is the nation’s project.” I fully agree with him, that if their poll education is failing, it is because of the people’s nonchalant attitude to life or that ugly Filipino trait called “Bahala na attitude.” No doubt, Smartmatic-TIM and the Comelec are going to town to educate our people, asking people to volunteer to make things work. What we should be wary of are those “Bata Bata’s” of ugly politicians who send their “volunteers” to learn how to cheat in the coming polls, or worse, disrupt the election proceedings.

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