1. A dinner with Bishop friends.
During a dinner with some bishop friends I mentioned a news item from a British newspaper.
The news stated that a Filipino cardinal issued a directive to all his parishes to disobey the just proclaimed ‘Summorum Pontificum.’ The directive was flashed in news worldwide and clearly showed the signature of the cardinal. The Vatican sent him a public warning.
The Cardinal was a personal friend who I believed could not do such a thing. This was at the time of Pope Benedict XVI.
My guests looked stunned at the news. It appeared that no one in the Bishop’s conference knew about the Vatican warning. After a short investigation, as I suspected, it seems that one of his own priest made the circular, gave it to the him for his signature without him realising the content and issued the directive to all the parishes. This got the cardinal into trouble.
I supposed he retracted and the case was closed. A Vatican public correction of a cardinal is serious. How come not a single soul here knew about it? Not a single bishop, not a single priest and, of course not a single layman.
The conclusion is that there is complete ignorance of what is happening in the Church of the Philippines among its own bishops. This news was about one of its two cardinals.
2. Catholic news in radio program.
Our Catholic TV and radio programs are lamentable. The TV station suddenly disappeared. The radio program was scaled down and its contents is mostly personal and individual opinions of priests. There were no news on the state of the Catholic Church, neither local nor international.
3. Another dinner.
After the seeming resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, interest on international news about the Catholic Church rose around the world. But not here in the Philippines.
During another dinner, this time with some priest and bishops, international Catholic news were presented to them, they could not believe the news. Reading the printed news was a traumatic experience to them. But these were mere factual news; like vocations are down, seminaries are closing, priests are becoming gay and bishops were allowing divorce. The bishops were just quiet. But the priests treated the news as if they were leprous soars. ‘Take those news away from us. We do not want to read them!’
After that dinner, every time I met those priests they would tell me, ‘Don’t give me any of those news.’ Because they could not believe me, I was giving them photo copies of the news. They rejected the copies. Why was there utter refusal to know the truth? Of course, no one wants to hear bad news. But news, whether bad or good should be known, specially if it has something to do with the salvation of our souls. Catholic news, always, has something to do with the salvation of our souls. The state of the Catholic Church is the state of our soul…….if we are Catholics.
Though the bishops were just quiet and were not belligerent, nevertheless they did not show interest in Catholic news. Like Castor oil, these international Catholic news is good for the soul and must be forced down their throats.
Maybe it was better to add honey to the Castor Oil (though we are not sure if the combination is palatable) but the news were forced down their throat. These international Catholic news was, later, broadcast in a commercial radio station. The most prominent news were about the 2015 Bishop’s Synod in the Vatican.
The reaction was unbelievable.
4. The bishops up to the nuncio ordered all news suppressed, the radio programs offed the air and all printed articles deleted. And these were mere international news available everywhere. The motive was to suppress all news about the Catholic church from the Filipinos except what was given by the CBCP that practically had nothing. There was an atmosphere of panic in doing so as if they were trying to wipe out a plaque.
As a clinical psychologist I could not find an explanation for the reaction except that it was like a reaction akin to touching a hot object, a reflex action. It was a surprised reflex reaction to the realisation that the Catholic Church they knew is no longer what it was. It was an entirely different church and they could not believe it had been transformed so radically.
5. Iodine vs Betadine.
Before, Iodine was a painful medication for wounds. Now it is painless in the form of Betadine. I guess, the international news came like iodine in the wounds of the bishops. So they reacted like having touched by a hot iron. Maybe, if the news came like Betadine, painless, they can more easily receive the medication for their being ignorant of news about the Catholic Church.
Then a year after that dinner incidents happened, from nowhere, a little newspaper began arriving at the addresses of some bishops and priests. It contained, exclusively, international news about the Catholic Church. They were mere photo copies of news with their corresponding pictures from different newspaper containing all news about everything pertaining to the Catholic Church.
Nobody knew where it came from. But the bishops and the priests who received them were quite happy with the publication. Many were even enlightened from reading the news. They even thought it came from me, which was a compliment because the news were very well assembled. It did not come from me. But the general reaction was very good. The recipients were enlightened which all of us were glad to hear.
The publisher states that they were Catholics but attempts on my part to look for them was a failure. The point is that they were doing a very good job, a job that was very badly needed; informing the Catholic bishops and priests what was going on in the Church. Again, I didn’t do it. And I do not want to see again that panic reaction from the entire hierarchy aimed at me. I was glad when the bishops believed that I did not do it.
6. Every country with Catholics should do something like this.
The project was an excellent idea. It opened the eyes of some bishops and priest to the plight of the Catholic Church. Even if it enlightened only a few it would still have had a very evangelising effect. It was distributed free of charge which made the project an act of Charity.
In fact, I have never seen anything that had greatly benefited the bishop’s conference for years until now.
The internet have several news portals that publishes the headlines of news. If someone gets the important news, open up the headline to see the rest of the news, scan the article and rearrange them in Word or Microsoft Publisher to create a typical newspaper……..that’s it. Print them and distribute them to as many bishops and priest you can afford. That would be a real good work of great merit. It does not take much effort. Cut and paste. Arrange the articles and print; spent a few dollars for paper and that’s it.
In getting these news there will certainly be good news and bad news. Well, publish both. After all the Church is made up of cockles and wheat. Do not add your opinions or attempt to interpret the news. Let the readers do that.
7. Bishops are busy.
Our bishops are quite busy. They have no time navigating the internet for news. Besides the internet has too many distraction that can divert the search for worthy news.
So it would be a great help if some one collects the news for them. With the news collated and placed in their tables, there is still the problem that they have no time to read them. So it is important, if possible, to summarise the news and type them in bigger letters for easy reading.
In short, make it easy for them to read the articles. That would be a great act of service to the princes of the Church. Certainly, God will bless you for that because nobody had done it; until two months ago, here in the Philippines.
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