Difficult to understand
A late survey showed that the Protestants, other non-Catholics and non-denominational groups are growing perceptively-faster in their flocks. Here in Cebu City, there are houses of God, another term for churches, which are established in unprecedented numbers. We can see them everywhere. Still, they so constitute a small fraction of our population as to hold our locality as principally a Catholic city and if I may say it, a Catholic country.
Having given my personal, even if unscientific perception, on the dominant presence of the Catholic Church, let me, in my off-tangent character, turn my focus on the unrelenting attack made by President Rodrigo Duterte on the Church. The president called our God, stupid, for one. When he uttered that blasphemy, he followed it with a discourse trying to support his view. To me, only the devil smiled at his flawed logic. But because the sacrilege came from the presidential mouth, his supporters blinded by the mantle of his supposed popularity took it as another simple mischief.
I recalled, in another instance, of the president’s having been allegedly abused by a priest in his youth. Of course, while he seemed to remember the supposedly harrowing incident quite vividly, his mind appeared wanting in significant details. The blur of his memory served only to reveal the incredibility of its happenstance. The president libeled a bishop with having dipped his fingers into the Church coffers. The defamation was most glaring in the absence of specifics. Of late, the president urged our people to rob priests and other prelates simply because according to him, these men in robe are moneyed. Jest? Urging our less privileged countrymen to ambush the clergy and rip them of their personal belongings can never be taken as a butt of joke.
It is difficult to understand why the president continues to assault the church and our beliefs. If I may echo the question of many, Is he an agnostic or atheist? Or does President Duterte simply hate our God such that he seems to condone, if not authorize, extra-judicial killing in total disregard of God’s “thou shall not kill” commandment? But, he even confuses himself probably without his knowing it. Why did he, at one time, blurt out for us to adopt or join his yet hitherto unknown religion and in consequence, believe in his god? He surely knows that in the pages of our history, we are the “citadel of Catholicism” in the continent and so his savage attack on our faith is an assault against the religious fervor of the Filipinos in more dominant numbers. Here is a bit of news to our nation’s chief executive. Even the non-Catholics I conversed with have begun to observe the satanic side of the president’s sniping.
It is good for President Duterte to visit Cebu City as we celebrate the feast of Santo Nino. We should welcome him not just for him to witness the grandeur of the Sinulog, the street mar di gras. I am certain that when he observes the waves of devotees and listens to their encounter with the Lord, he will come to realize that his vicious aggression on our faith is totally unfounded as it is sacrilegious to us Christians. There is God. And our God is not stupid. We should all pray that the Holy Child Jesus will guide our president to a more effective governance. Because miracles, I believe, still happen, there can be a miracle when Santo Nino will bless the president and lead him away from the drench of blood that characterizes his campaign against illegal drugs.
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