Nowadays, it seems like the Roman Catholic Church is getting a long-overdue media boost, what with the recent canonisation of new Filipino saint Pedro Calungsod and the elevation to Cardinal of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle by Pope Benedict XVI. Filipinos in their renownedly short attention spans have lapped it all up. Nothing like good old fashioned PR saves the day for an old feudal institution that has suffered the wrathful tweets of the Philippine intelligentsia over the last twelve to eighteen months at least.
Fact is, the most avid folk amongst the Catholic flock are largely poor and under-educated Filipinos — the most susceptible to succumbing to the opiates of pomp and pageantry. In one heady media blitz that lasted no more than a few days, the Church has regained its footing in the lofty pedestal Filipinos reserve for their cherished can’t-ever-do-no-bad heroes. Indeed, Filipinos are feelin’ the love…
Henrietta de Villa, a former ambassador to the Vatican, said: “I’m ecstatic. God must really love the Filipinos. Only last Sunday, the gift of a new saint, St. Pedro Calungsod, an example of faithfulness and selfless love. Now, a new cardinal for the Philippines, one who follows the Lord, is humble of heart, and teaches with authority because he lives what he preaches.â€
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Perhaps in the midst of a media-induced emotional high sweeping the A.D.D. generation, one will always come across as a wet towel when reminding people of what is real. The reality is that these ancient ritual affirmations of power — anointings, endorsements, blessings, and appointments — in whatever manner of ceremony made with all the expected pomp, pageantry, and the melodramatic “reflection” that accompanies these have been shrewdly designed, crafted and honed to capture the minds and hearts of subject people for centuries and distract them from the more earthly business of thinking.
The wielding of power, boiled down to its fundamental essence, is an exercise in constantly reminding people who’s boss. The Vatican has turned this into a science with its use of glitzy costumes and colourful rituals to drive home the only point that really matters to the powerful. Its spectacular displays of anointings, endorsements, blessings, and appointments are subliminal reminders to everyone that it alone can confer what are essentially arbitrary honours of sainthood and cardinalhood to supposedly “exceptional” human beings. The Church held this lucrative role in the past two millenia — serving as de facto monopoly endorser of a raft of monarchs whose only claim to power were their birthrights sealed by nods from God brokered by popes and bishops.
Does one need to be a “cardinal” to serve? Does one need to be a “saint” to be adored? Filipinos seem to think so.
And we wonder why the Filipino people continue to be a “free” people who use said “freedom” to elect bozos and douchebags to office. It is because they fix their gazes on miters and halos rather than apply their minds to appreciating substance and understanding issues.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
RX-78 Gundam for Presideeeeent
I bet he’s gonna make a better president than AbNoy
The pilot just needs to get Bright-slapped a few times.
And I thought the Gibbs slap was good enough…
BS Aquino should commission an oil painting. Really he should. Perhaps one similar to that of his mama. I can just imagine the painting with his childlike, wide-eyed innocent angelic look, an aura of light and a halo above his head.
The world knows that everything starts and ends in Rome. The Vatican, the biggest business enterprise in the world runs the affairs of nations and its leaders and if these acts were symbolically an indication of a great future for the Philippines, then I’m all for it. The Vatican knows the past and the future.
What is the big deal about that obscure Pedro Calungsud. The Chamorros must have seen the swords drawn concealed behind the cross. He could be just a “boy toy” of that missionary.
Boils down to “PRAWD 2B PNOY” again.
“Hey world, look at us! We have a second saint that “healed” a person centuries after he died!”
The Chamorros instead should be hailed for defending their people, territory and culture against foreign invaders masquerading as missionaries out to plunder the wealth of their land.
Agreed. Just like how Lapu Lapu is hailed as a hero for killing Magellan, so does the Chamorros for defending their land from foreign invaders.
Ah. Two sides of the story. Two rights to stand up to. Pedro did his job and so did the Chamorros. With the Universal Salvivic Will in act, I think the Chamorros should be saints as well.
Taking an ecumenical way of appreciating my Roman Catholicism, just like Pope John Paul II. 🙂
To answer your questions:
Does one need to be elected just to serve his country? Does one need to be proclaimed a hero just to inspire his people?
Filipino faith has nothing to do with their voting the bozos and douchebags. In fact, a great majority of these “free people” do not apply the teachings of the Church into their daily lives, much less into their discernment process on who to elect. Nowhere in Catholic faith will you find that it seeks to reduce the minds of the people into ignorance.
I do not think it is fair to blame the Church for the dire situation the Country is in.
Of course they can be partly blamed for the stupidity of the country and its society. They are the ones who had founded our failed family values, which have contributed to our backward, anti intellectual, anti progress and authority fearing society, although the authority we followed is very wrong. They are also the main conspirators of the coup d etat of 1986, alongside the communists, nationalists and the political oligarchs. They can be blamed alongside the oligarchs.
Filipino faith something to do with electing bozos because the Filipinos, most of them are literally following the Scripture, which contains some anti intellectual passages.
All of us is guilty in this society, we let this happen without even knowing it. We are now paying the price of a mob rule based democracy today.
The position of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines is unusual.
I think I know why.
Every Spanish colony was run in the same way – by the Church on behalf of the Kingdom of Spain.The Philippines was run as a subsidiary of Mexico, which is why so many Filipino words and customs are in fact Mexican, not Spanish (from Undas to a box of matches..)
Every other Spanish colony accompanied its revolt against the Spanish with a sharp outbreak of anticlericalism.
The Philippines started down the same path, but the anticlericalism of Rizal and the Katipunan was cut short by the American intervention.
So the Philippines has the last colonial Catholic Church in the world – no wonder the CBCP think they run the place!
The writer of the article is right on. Despite their so called esteem for Rizal; Filipinos continue to let the church control their lives and their government. Divorce is still illegal. The RH bill has been fought at every turn. Why is the church really against contraception? They are part of an alliance of wealthy interests that want to keep as many people as possible… poor, barefoot, and pregnant. What is the point of keeping people poor? It creates downward pressure on wages and benefits for workers. If you have 10,000 people fighting for every job; it is easy to make people work 16 hours a day for 150p a day.
Then after 6 months, lay off the worker. That way you do not have to provide benefits.