Tears for fears

“SINO BANG Pilipino na merong pagmamahal sa bayan ang hindi mababagabag, at lalo na kung ikaw ay may kaunting pagsunod kay Hesus? Parang nadudurog ang puso mo na, kaya bang gawin ito ng tao sa kapwa tao? Kaya ba talagang sikmurain na magagawa ang ganito kalaking, kumbaga, kasiraan para sa bayan?”

(What kind of Filipino who has love for country will not feel disturbed, especially if you follow, even but a little, Jesus? It’s like your heart is breaking into pieces (in asking), can one really do this to one’s neighbor? Can one really stomach inflicting this kind of damage on the country?)

The cardinal reflected.   

“Siguro maglakad-lakad kayo sa gabi, kapag nasa bangketa ka na, makikita mo ‘yung… ‘yung mga pamilya na nagbubukas ng karton, para doon matulog. Mahawakan lang ninyo ang kamay ng mga mahihirap. Siguro naman maaantig ang inyong puso, sana.”

(Maybe you could walk around at night, and when you reach the sidewalks, you can see the… the families who open cartons, to sleep there. If only you could hold the hands of the poor, maybe it will move your hearts – hopefully.)

The cardinal wept.

“…Sometimes, I think those who thought about doing this were able to do so because the poor were absent in their lives. Maybe they don’t see or refuse to see. But if you still see and still have empathy, maybe you would still be horrified and feel compassion.

“First of all, who would not be shocked about these reports. While it is still being

investigated, (you could see) the magnitude of the money involved. And then every day, you would see the machinations, whether true or not, it seems that it’s a very intricate web that reached this far. Who will not be horrified?”

The cardinal sermoned.

His reflection, tears and sermon – especially his tears, may as well have been as much for the poor, for the predators of the public coffers, as for churchmen themselves.

Msgr. Josefino Ramirez, former rector of the Quiapo Church, has been cited by the pork barrel scam whistleblowers as recipient of subsidies amounting to hundreds of thousands of pesos from Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

It was even alleged that Quiapo’s revered Poon Nazareno was taken to the house(s) of Napoles whenever she wanted to pray before the image. Ah, the rich are different from the rest of us, even in their ways of worship. Aye, I could not help but sense some (non)sense here of the idiomatic mountain coming to Mohammed if he can’t go to the mountain.

Anyways, Ramirez, along with five Chinese priests are reported to be Napoles’ witnesses in the serious illegal detention case filed against her for allegedly kidnapping Benhur Luy, the principal whistle-blower in the pork barrel scam.

Last Saturday, August 17, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle’s own Archdiocese of Manila distanced itself, not from Ramirez, but from church projects that received money from the family of Napoles.

“There has been mention of Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez in stories on Janet Lim-Napoles in newspapers, in particular his ties with a foundation named after her mother that she set up. This involvement is a personal apostolate of Msgr. Ramirez, now a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Manila, and does not officially involve the archdiocese,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Earlier, Ramirez wrote the archdiocese to set in context, if not aright, his relationship with Napoles, saying he met her late mother, Magdalena Luy Lim, “an ardent devotee of the Divine Mercy,” when he was parish priest of Binondo in 1992.

“Lim has always supported our apostolate for the poor, most especially the Pantawid Gutom Feeding for the street people and malnourished children both in Binondo (1992-2004) and Quiapo (2004-2007) parishes,” Ramirez wrote.

Lim’s charity to church programs continued even after Ramirez was transferred to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Mandaluyong City in 2007, this time with the elderly and prisoners in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa as beneficiaries.

“Since her death on Feb. 28, 2008, her family, relatives and friends, especially Chinese-Filipino devotees, continue to contribute in her memory to the now referred Magdalena Luy Lim Charity Foundation in the Service of Divine Mercy Inc.,” Ramirez said.

How to deal now with the Napoles contribution to the Church…okay, church projects?

Will Cardinal Tagle do a Cardinal Sin?

As in: "If Satan appears to me and gives me money, I will accept the money and spend it all for the poor. It is not the practice of the Church to ask donors where their donations come from. Our duty is to make sure all donations go to the poor. The devil remains . . . my enemy but I will use his resources to feed the poor."

That was in 2000 in his defense of the Catholic Church's acceptance of a total of P181 million in donations from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. since 1998.  

Or will Cardinal Tagle do a Cardinal Rosales?

As in: “If the donations go into private pockets, then that would be evil, even if the donor is a saint. But if the donation ultimately ends up with the poor, there is no evil.”

To cull from his statements above: “And then every day, you would see the machinations, whether true or not, it seems that it’s a very intricate web that reached this far. Who will not be horrified?”

Cardinal Tagle will be weeping some more.