Statement of the Clergy of Manila on Action of Mr. Celdran at Manila Cathedral

We, the clergy of the Archdiocese of Manila, express our disapproval and condemnation of the protest action done by a Mr. Carlos Celdran at the Manila Cathedral in the midst of the Ecumenical Prayer Service and the Eucharistic Celebration to mark the second anniversary of the May They Be One Program of the Episcopal Commission on Bible Apostolate of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on September 30, 2010.

Mr. Celdran willfully and with premeditation executed his protest inside the Manila Cathedral the church of the Archbishop and the seat of the Archdiocese of the Manila. The church is the Mother Church in the Archdiocese and is the central place for worship of the entire flock of the Archdiocese. This is the church where the past Archbishops of Manila are buried (in its crypt). This is where the Cathedra (seat) and the seal (coat of arms) of the Archbishop of Manila are displayed to symbolize his office, an appointment that comes directly from the Holy See.

We condemn in particular the blatant disrespect he displayed towards His Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams and the bishops and priests and representatives of other religions present during the worship service. He disrupted the religious proceedings which included reading from the Sacred Scriptures, and preened in front of the altar with his offensive poster. Unstopped (because no one was prepared for such brazen action) he repeatedly pointed his poster towards the religious leaders and at the sacred altar, and at one time even shouted. When he was being peaceably led out of the Cathedral he shouted invectives.

These actions cannot by any means be considered within the purview of freedom of expression. Instead they were malicious acts directed towards a Faith, a Religion that was represented by its leaders and the faithful gathered. It was desecrating a consecrated place, as every Catholic church or chapel is consecrated by sacred rites. His right to protest in this manner ended after he entered the doors of the Manila Cathedral. May we point out too that he likewise disrespected our National Hero, Jose Rizal, by assuming the hero’s looks to perpetuate his shameful deed.

We demand that the Intramuros Administration make him account for his actions since Mr. Celdran is a tour guide who operates within its confines. We pray for him that he may receive enlightenment and have remorse for what he has done.

Source:
http://www.rcam.org/Homilies/2010/statement_of_the_clergy_of_Manila.html

Coming Soon: The Condom Summit?

The Catholic Church, long held as THE DOMINANT (if not domineering)influence in the life of Philippine society which is variously estimated as 90-98% Christian, has tempered somewhat its widely reported threat to excommunicate Pres. Aquino, and by implication, other Catholics who will subscribe to the governments "freedom of choice" program making condoms and other contraceptive options to Filipinos.

No less than CBCP president, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, 'clarified' at week's end that his excommunication remark was "misreported" by the usual whipping boy - the news media.

Responding to the 'clarification, Malacanang is restating its readiness "to dialogue with the Church."

We do not know yet what form the 'dialogue' will take but we think there won't necessarily be 'Condom Summit' but a more politically correct packaging.

One party who is not changing his tune is tourist guide and Twitter activist Carlos Celdran whose Padre Damaso-dressed-as-Jose-Rizal stunt gave face to many Filipinos sentiment over the Church's seeming violation of the constitutionally-enshrined separation of State and Church.

Of course not everyone praised Celran with not a few saying he not just disrupted the religious service at Manila Cathedral.

"Celdran insulted us and disrespected our faith," quite several dear friends told your Midfielder.

They may actually be correct in trashing the disrespectful stunt Carlos used to deliver his message... but I think the message itself warning against what I'd call the dangerous return of the 'friar mentality'cannot be blithely ignored.

So Celran was allowed to post a P6,000 bail for his temporary freedom in relation to the charge filed by a security guard of the Manila Cathedral.

Given the upcoming Condom Summit (pardon the pun), I foresee the case's withdrawal to finally clear the air.

To its credit, the Aquino administration is marking its 100th day in office by preventing a full blown public quarrel with the Catholic Church.

A footnote: CBCP knows obly too well that quite other influential Christian denominations have seen their flock swell in recent years if not decades, not least among them the Iglesia Ni Kristo and the so-called Born Again congregations of El Shaddai and Jesus Is Lord whose "Servant Leaders" continue to nurture presidential dreams.

Free Carlos Celdran

At Midfield joins the call for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to drop the charges filed against Celdran over his protest action.

Carlos Celdran represents the sentiments of many Filipino Catholics who reject the Church's threat of mounting a civil disobedience campaign against the government police of giving free couples the free choice of family planning options, inclu access to use of contraceptives.

I am against abortion and the use of contraceptives by no means encourage the murder of fetuses.

Free Carlos Celdran now.

No to the return of Padre Damaso!!!

Excommunication,Modern-day Padre Damasos, and Contraception

The quite reckless statement from a prelate warning that the President was ricking excommunication by his support for couples to free choose contraceptive options is whipping up quite a storm, it seems.

Online activist and exponent of walking tours in Manila’s historic sites, Carlos Celdran, gave vent to the dismay of many Catholics about how certain prelates are posturing like much reviled Spanish colonial era Friars.

The great Jose Rizal had immortalized the ‘Frayle’ in his revolutionary masterpiece Noli Me Tangere where Padre Damaso typified the oppressive and manipulative prelates that dominated Philippine life for over 300 years.

There is now what appears to be a retraction of the reported excommunication threat against P-Noy but people are angry over how Celran has been jailed for expressing his sentiments as a private citizen.

Articles 132 and 133 of the Revised Penal Code stipulates that the crime of “Interruption of religious worship.” Will be meted “the the penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon any public officer or employee who shall prevent or disturb the ceremonies or manifestations of any religion. If the crime shall have been committed with violence or threats, the penalty shall be prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods.
Art. 133. Offending the religious feelings. — The penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful.”

While he can post bail, Celdran is refusing to and is asserting tat his protest was an exercise of free speech.

l have to see how this plays out.

But a thoroughly valid, albeit indignanr question to ask is this: while the
Fathers are posturing high and mighty, moralizing and threatening us
with excommunication what about the Fathers who fathered now fatherless
children???

Civil Disobedience VS Free Choice?

Let’s be blunt.

With our population growing ballooning by one million souls each year and 9 in 10 statistically listed as Christians, just exactly how long will the Catholic Church continue to figuratively, and literally, have its cake and eat it too???

The Church’s threat to wage a campaign of civil disobedience over the State policy of giving the citizenry free choice in the matter of planning their family, including getting government-funded condoms, smacks of outright meddling in governance and the delivery of health services.

This is not to argue against the teaching that children are God-given blessings nor is this a brief for practices that are lead to the abortion of fetuses.

But how is it the our religious shepherds can meddle in secular concerns while ignoring the harsh reality that that they are failing in the primary task of educating, nay, guiding and making their flock follow the Catholic edict that parents’ temper their reproductive urges, whether or not induced by love, with their practical capacity to raise their innocent progeny.

Sure the Church runs token shelters and orphanages, but the truth is the countless children neglected or abandoned by their Christian parents become street urchins who beg for a living while also being victimized by criminals, pedophiles included!!!

Oh sure, there are schools run by religious orders but we are only too familiar with how the high matriculation fees further elitism in the educational system if not Philippine society as a whole.

I wish we had ready statistics about how parochial schools impact on the educational system.

But in the main, what leaves this writer disconsolate, if not angry, is the fact that our Catholic shepherds are loudly sounding like promoters of a theocracy while being unable to minister to the herd in meaningful and life changing meanings ways.

Civil disobedience against lawful government laws and programs?

This I’ll have to see.

What Are We Jueteng For?

This is really about talking the talk and walking the walk on the issue, nay, the promise that the Republic’s 100-day-old 15th President ran on and overwhelmingly won - the eradication of corruption.

It was THE political race that ended the 9-year-long reign of be-moled and petite Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and told Filipinos that “you can now dream again for a better life, living behind crooked ways and walking the straight and narrow path.

This is very well the central point in what’s being called Juetengate 2010 with the dramatis personae involving a crusading retired bishop, downtrodden ‘whistle blowers’ with death threats perpetually hounding them, big and small-time politicians tagged as ‘illegal’ gambling lords, and yes, the Presidential practical shooting buddy who doubles up as undersecretary in charge of the national police.

Government insists that LGU- supervised Small Town Lottery and legally-franchised Jai-Alai are the antidote to jueteng but the truth is the two projects have simply become cover activities for jueteng and a companion variant, 'Lot-Teng’, to milk poor bettors of their hard-earned money.

So illegal gambling, rigged and pervasive, steals from the poor and lines the pockets of corrupt policemen and politicians with bribes amounting to billions of pesos enough to fund political campaigns and even new ‘kapilyas’ from Catholic dioceses!

It’s time to end the hypocrisy about jueteng.

It cannot and will not end as an illegal activity for so long as the government rakes in revenue from legal high-roller gambling activities under the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation whose core operations are envisioned to be the magnet for tourism.

Let us legalize Jueteng now and remove the seeming mystic that draws Filipinos to it – the fact that it’s illegal and is done on the fly while being the source of livelihood from bet-taking barangay runners.


The revenue potential from legal jueteng has been conservatively estimated at P 30 to 35B, a full 10 % of the burgeoning national budget deficit.

Let’s do this.

The Barbarians

Wikipedia defines a barbarian as “is an uncivilized person with the noun “often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.

While fraternity men use the term to heap scorn on non-joiners unwilling to be subjected to violent and inhuman initiation rites, your Midfielder strong feels that the real barbarians are the hoodlums behind that grenade throwing incident on the last day of the bar exams at De La Salle University.

The toll from the carnage: 44 injured from grenade and shattered bottle shrapnel that so severely wounded to female law students whose legs have had to be amputated from the knee down.

If the attack was not the work of barbarians, nay, criminals, then something is terribly wrong with Philippine society.

Just over the weekend, four fratmen, suspects in the fatal hazing of a neophyte, had the criminal charges against them dismissed for supposed lack of probable cause.

Fair or not, the public's knee-jerk reaction is the suspects in the Makati hazing were cleared because they are members of APO (Alpha Pi Omega) that ‘coincidentally’ is the brotherhood to which Atty. Jejomar Binay, the Vice President, belongs.

Verily, owing to the violent initiations they endure, fraternity members literally become blood brothers for life.

They support each other professionally and those who become business and political big wigs can always count on their brods’ support.

But what price does society have to pay as these hooligans walk the path toward ‘greatness’???

Exhibit A – the barbarous incident at DLSU.