A Mortal Blow To a Mortal Crime

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano


In my last article, I wrote that the cancer of corruption pointed out by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines or CBCP had been growing for a long time within their eyesight. Upon reading that, a revered friend who is also a Jesuit priest sent me the following comment and Scriptural verse:

There was great "visibility" of the human of bribery for at least 1,200 years before Christ was born. The earliest of the practice and its prohibition was mentioned in EXODUS 23:8, "you shall not take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just."

I think he was trying to tell me something, most probably to look upon bishops with more understanding and kindness. In truth, I look up to most bishops. In truth, too, I am scandalized by some of them. It is a bit judgmental, I know, and I should guard my heart, as brothers in my own renewal community would remind me.

Now a reluctant member of the senior citizens sector, and having had my own stint a long time ago with priesthood preparation, I do not like to say I know better than most, especially the bishops. But I can say that it is very easy for me to discern falsity, or hypocrisy, especially of the self-righteous who preach much more than they practice. All my mentors in life, religious and otherwise, always told me that, when I am in doubt, I should give more weight to how people behave more than how they talk.

Pastoral leaders always talk. Perhaps, by their function, they have to talk. Unfortunately for them, what they talk about is what also what we have been studying as Catholics from our Catholic schools. That makes their talks not as interesting, unless they are especially prepared and gifted as speakers. Actually, they can talk more to the poor because the poor mostly were not able to study the Catholic religion in the public schools or the slums. Unfortunately again, though, I do not see them much with the poor. Either priests are too few for the tens of millions who are poor, or the poor are too busy fighting for their lives, or their dignity, to listen.

When I was in Grade 1 and seven years old, I was introduced to the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. I was told that I had entered the age of reason, that I could already discern between right and wrong, between good and evil. Because of this, I could recognize sin - venial and mortal. Because of this, I could confess my sins. And because of this, I accepted the fact that I had to atone and do penance for my sins, even the small ones.

That was more than fifty years ago. I am happy to note that I was never confused about what was right or wrong, what was good or evil, and the awesome difference between them. What I had great difficulty with, and still have though at a lesser degree, is how to stay in the path of what is good and right, and to stay away from the path of evil and wrongdoing. But no matter what wrong I committed, I never for the life of me not recognize I had committed wrong. Perhaps, when I was in a temporary state of blindness, I could not. But who could be blind beyond a day or two except those who choose to be blind rather than accept being wrong.

Recognizing and admitting wrongdoing are two different things. Pride, or fear, can keep me from opening admitting my wrongdoing. But staying blind is simply refusing to know what one already knows. I had been taught from the very beginning that I can fool myself, but I know I am fooling myself. And even if we do fool ourselves at times, we surely can avoid fooling others, especially the young, the innocent and the helpless.

I do not understand why at this point in their adult lives, or even senior citizenship for many, the bishops in collectivity cannot seem to understand what they teach children who are to encounter their first confession and their first communion. They declare a cancer of corruption which is about the worst environment for their flock and fellow Filipino citizens, then do not know what to do or what to advice us. Can they not just tell the guilty parties to repent, confess and then do penance?

To be told to pray can, on the surface, sound so nice. But I would like to remind our good bishops that we are constantly praying for our leaders, for them to be true servant leaders, that we have these prayers for the faithful in every mass. Let us not stop praying for our public officials before, during and after mass. But when a cancer of corruption festers in the midst of these prayers, perhaps the bishops can propose an additional therapy.

Sins have been committed, not small sins, but horrible ones - plunder and murder, looting of the people's money and summary executions that have snuffed out lives.

Who is sorry? Who recognizes the sins and is truly repentant? Who confesses to God and those they victimized? Who promises not to sin anymore? What is the penance? Who complies with the penance?

It is so simple that a seven-year-old can understand. It is so sad that many adults, including the CBCP, appear at a loss on what to do, on how to define "communal action" or how to pursue the truth in the face of a orchestrated effort by the greedy and powerful to hide and pervert it. Why have minds that have had more time to study and mature become capable of rationalizing their non-compliance to the teachings of Jesus? Is not that rationalizing precisely the foundation for relativism which Pope Benedict XVI had to recently warn all Catholics about?

I should not have expected much from the CBCP. For several years now, I have been made aware of the incessant threat of involuntary hunger that afflicts the poor. During this same period, I had tried to monitor a commensurate effort by the Church to mitigate hunger – especially in Metro Manila which had suffered an acute increase last year. I am aware of a small initiative called Hapagasa but it can hardly be regarded as a counter measure to the scandalous reality of hunger in the center of Catholicism in Asia.

Why did I allow myself to hope that the CBCP would be a powerful light in a dark night of our nation? There is no difference between the crime of Catholics tolerating hunger in their midst when our faith says that what we do to the least among us is what we do to Christ. The consistent silence of the CBCP on this constant horrible existence of hunger should have warned me that there is little I can expect of them in the other constant horrible existence of cancer of corruption. Bishops in collectivity can point to hunger and corruption every so often but have no history of effectively leading the faithful to aggressively combating these.

At the risk of repeating myself in the same way the lessons of catechism were repeated and repeated to me, I ask why a mortal sin like a cancer of corruption cannot be dealt a mortal blow? Why can not the collective leadership of the Church tell their faithful in the Philippines to deal a mortal blow to a mortal crime?

In every mass, the prayer of the faithful asks for enlightenment for our public officials. I must assume that since this prayer is precisely in the mass, the CBCP knows about this prayer and may actually been responsible for its being there. But years of prayer have been matched with years of a growing cancer of corruption, sending a subliminal message that prayer may need its counterpart of action.

Pope Benedict XVI has been very consistent in reminding his flock about the primordial need for social justice. Not being a theologian, not being an expert on morals and dogma, I cannot say that social justice precedes the refinery of religious practices although I often get that sense when reading encyclicals from the Pope. He has also been very consistent in pushing both religious and laity to ensure the fullness of life, the dignity of man, and the obligation to lift the poor out of their misery.

It is corruption in governance that enslaves the poor, the young and the weak that is the worst enemy of life's fullness, the worst thief of man's dignity, the worst cause of poverty. It has taken us so long to react, but we must be grateful that we are now reacting strongly. And we must forgive those who were anointed to guide and protect us from the evil that has enslaved us for they probably know not what they do.***