The call of a god
SO HE said he was prepared to leave the priesthood to run for president.
And – should he lose – he would seek reinstatement to the priesthood.
“That’s the point. That calls for a big sacrifice because I truly love being a priest. In fact should I lose I will still return to the priesthood if I could.” So was his response to the warning aired by the good San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto that he should ask for dispensation from the Church should he remain in politics. Yes, even if he only sought re-election, not only in case he made good his run for the presidency.
Now what does that make of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio? Better yet, what does that make of the priesthood for Panlilio?
Panlilio here becomes the perfect Lothario who leaves his lawfully wedded wife, cohabitates with a mistress, and when he gets fed up with the latter, promptly returns to the former. And all is well?
An even better analogy: Enamored, nay, seduced by a Jezebel, he dumps the wife, but he gets spurned by the seductress, so he returns to her, the wife that is. And they live happily ever after?
A suffering, martyr of a wife in both cases, unworthy of the philanderer of a husband.
Insolence finds personification in Panlilio with his pronouncements of leaving the priesthood for a shot at the presidency and returning to the holy orders should his aim get off target.
Panlilio regards the priesthood as nothing more than an expediency, treating it as a trapo, a dispensable rag, finding use for it on a need basis.
As a matter of habit since he got into politics, Panlilio has made Roman Catholic practices, if not beliefs, purely expedient to his secular calling.
Like removing the image of the Virgin Mary from the Governor’s Office in what he said was “in the spirit of ecumenism.”
Like attempting to remove the First Friday Masses from the Capitol lobby and replacing them with “Born-Again Christian services.”
Like attending a pagsamba with the Iglesia ni Cristo, and religiously attending Jesus Is Lord fellowships.
Leading not a few saradong Catolico to ask: Is Panlilio still Catholic?
So what’s one more element of Catholicism – the priesthood, in this instance – for Panlilio to shed at will, and pick up anew when the need arises?
So the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had said that Panlilio could no longer be reinstated once he was granted dispensation.
A reportedly “undeterred” Panlilio was quoted as saying: “I will contest that because there are past cases where a priest who has left the priesthood, for example, because he wants to take care of his mother, have been allowed to return. In my case, we are not just talking of taking care of our mother but our motherland.”
Yeah right, the political assuming the greater moral weight over the familial to Panlilio. Fallacious analogy there, the Canon Law having neither proscription nor injunction on a priest seeking dispensation to take care of an ailing mother, as it does on a priest joining electoral politics, notwithstanding his noble intention of taking care of the motherland. Go, ask Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a foremost canon lawyer.
A defiant Panlilio defiant reinforces opinions that he be deprived of any dispensation and just be simply, and unceremoniously, defrocked. A school of thought holds that Panlilio is making a mockery of the institution of the Holy Orders itself.
Before God, on the day of his ordination, he vowed obedience to his superiors, only to break that vow at the altar of politics. Five times it was said, Archbishop Aniceto pleaded with Panlilio not to run for governor in 2007. Five times he turned down his superior.
Now, with the threat of non-reinstatement poised over his head should he persisted in pursuing his higher political ambitions, Panlilio is going even more ballistic.
So why should he be bothered with warnings from Apu Ceto, threats from the CBCP, and even sanctions from the Church herself?
“God is calling me to run for the presidency.” So Panlilio himself said.
Pray, that the god calling Panlilio is the same one we all call God. Or the omen is upon us.
And – should he lose – he would seek reinstatement to the priesthood.
“That’s the point. That calls for a big sacrifice because I truly love being a priest. In fact should I lose I will still return to the priesthood if I could.” So was his response to the warning aired by the good San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto that he should ask for dispensation from the Church should he remain in politics. Yes, even if he only sought re-election, not only in case he made good his run for the presidency.
Now what does that make of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio? Better yet, what does that make of the priesthood for Panlilio?
Panlilio here becomes the perfect Lothario who leaves his lawfully wedded wife, cohabitates with a mistress, and when he gets fed up with the latter, promptly returns to the former. And all is well?
An even better analogy: Enamored, nay, seduced by a Jezebel, he dumps the wife, but he gets spurned by the seductress, so he returns to her, the wife that is. And they live happily ever after?
A suffering, martyr of a wife in both cases, unworthy of the philanderer of a husband.
Insolence finds personification in Panlilio with his pronouncements of leaving the priesthood for a shot at the presidency and returning to the holy orders should his aim get off target.
Panlilio regards the priesthood as nothing more than an expediency, treating it as a trapo, a dispensable rag, finding use for it on a need basis.
As a matter of habit since he got into politics, Panlilio has made Roman Catholic practices, if not beliefs, purely expedient to his secular calling.
Like removing the image of the Virgin Mary from the Governor’s Office in what he said was “in the spirit of ecumenism.”
Like attempting to remove the First Friday Masses from the Capitol lobby and replacing them with “Born-Again Christian services.”
Like attending a pagsamba with the Iglesia ni Cristo, and religiously attending Jesus Is Lord fellowships.
Leading not a few saradong Catolico to ask: Is Panlilio still Catholic?
So what’s one more element of Catholicism – the priesthood, in this instance – for Panlilio to shed at will, and pick up anew when the need arises?
So the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had said that Panlilio could no longer be reinstated once he was granted dispensation.
A reportedly “undeterred” Panlilio was quoted as saying: “I will contest that because there are past cases where a priest who has left the priesthood, for example, because he wants to take care of his mother, have been allowed to return. In my case, we are not just talking of taking care of our mother but our motherland.”
Yeah right, the political assuming the greater moral weight over the familial to Panlilio. Fallacious analogy there, the Canon Law having neither proscription nor injunction on a priest seeking dispensation to take care of an ailing mother, as it does on a priest joining electoral politics, notwithstanding his noble intention of taking care of the motherland. Go, ask Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a foremost canon lawyer.
A defiant Panlilio defiant reinforces opinions that he be deprived of any dispensation and just be simply, and unceremoniously, defrocked. A school of thought holds that Panlilio is making a mockery of the institution of the Holy Orders itself.
Before God, on the day of his ordination, he vowed obedience to his superiors, only to break that vow at the altar of politics. Five times it was said, Archbishop Aniceto pleaded with Panlilio not to run for governor in 2007. Five times he turned down his superior.
Now, with the threat of non-reinstatement poised over his head should he persisted in pursuing his higher political ambitions, Panlilio is going even more ballistic.
So why should he be bothered with warnings from Apu Ceto, threats from the CBCP, and even sanctions from the Church herself?
“God is calling me to run for the presidency.” So Panlilio himself said.
Pray, that the god calling Panlilio is the same one we all call God. Or the omen is upon us.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 12:52 PM
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