Hail St. Pope John XXIII and St. Pope John Paul II!

All roads lead to St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in Rome, Italy for the two up and coming St. Johns who lived in our era whose lives affected many of us. Pope John XXIII was the Pope that I grew up with. He gave us Vatican II that literally allowed “fresh new air” into the 2,000 year old Catholic Church, which is the basis of the Laity to form organizations to support the clergy. Vatican II has empowered the Lay in Christ’s call to Sainthood, something that St. Josemaria Escriva espoused all throughout his life.

In fact last Thursday, our group, the Task Force for Life and Family (TFFL) has been set aside and its members have taken on to become the steering committee of the upcoming Catholic Laity Conference of the Philippines (CLCP). I was with his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal last week and I told him about this proposal and he blessed me for this endeavor.

As for Pope John Paul II, he lived in the most tumultuous time when the world was torn between Capitalism and Communism. He didn’t have any tanks or divisions, which the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had…but without firing a shot, the vaunted Iron Curtain fell and the world wondered…how a Catholic Pope could have done such a miraculous deed. How I wish I could have the time to go again to Rome to witness the canonization rites. But as CNN reports show… Rome is packed with pilgrims from all over the world just for this occasion.

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There are doomsayers who say that the age of newspapers are numbered thanks to the Digital Age and the Internet, which have truly made the world smaller with a great multitude already wired through their PCs or their mobile phones to social media networking sites. However if you believe in everything that you see in YouTube or get in your emails for instance, whether this or that food is good or bad for you… you just might go nuts because the pros and the cons make a very good case and in the end, you’d end up more confused than ever. As an example ask yourself whether eggs are good or bad for you…and you’ll be on both sides of this debate.

A few days ago, I read that big breaking news in my Facebook that should have been headlines in all national and local dailies, wherein the US State Department announced the lifting of US visa requirements for all Filipinos. I double-checked that report and if you were not sharp enough, you’d be fooled and taken for a ride! I didn’t write it immediately because I wanted to know if there were any newspapers who would fall for this trap. Thankfully no one bought the bait.

But at least The Philippine Star made this a front-page story last Thursday… that while this story went viral in the social networking sites, it was just a big joke. The only mistake of whoever made that article was that, it didn’t come out on April Fools because that would have been the right time to write this hoax. While the Internet is a great tool… but newspapers are still a most credible media source that people can still rely on because stories made by fools such as this false report about US visas would never see print in a reputable newspaper.

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It’s all over the news that there are twelve Senators that Pork Scam artist Janet Lim Napoles plans to expose. But the question is why does former Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson have a list of these Senators, which sources say are different from the list in the possession of Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Leila de Lima? According to her, because Napoles feared for her life, she has written a sworn statement putting the name of Senators and Congressmen. So what’s the big secret huh? Why aren’t these names being published so that the Filipino people would know who they are?

Again the problem in this country is that, political scandals have become like a Reality TV show, where more often than not, the major parts won’t be revealed until everyone is on their toes asking for more. I dare say, get on with it! People are asking who are involved in this Pork Scam once and for all and let’s have all of them arrested for stealing the people’s money!

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Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada went to Hong Kong last Tuesday to formally apologize (he brought with him and undisclosed amount for compensation for the families of the victims) for the August 2010 hostage-taking incident where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed in a botched rescue attempt. That the Hong Kong gov’t accepted this apology and restored our no visa requirements puts and end to this fiasco. Alas, Erap’s noble goal was totally ruined by his clearing of the name of the President and instead pinning the blame on former Mayor Alfredo Lim. It was all for politics then!

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