PamagCUSA Blog

Father Diola's position paper is an encouraging indication that the
idea of faith in politics--specifically Catholic faith in Philippine
politics--
is shared by more and more Filipinos and it's a flame that must be
fanned into a conflagration.

I was telling you that I recently discovered George Weigel through the
Catholic Television Network EWTN--Everlasting Word Television Network,
Channel 370 on DirecTV here in LA and Orange County. George Weigel is
the Catholic lay theologian who wrote the biography of John Paul II and
other books dealing on how Catholic social doctrine as articulated by
John Paul II provides the only viable solutions to problems of poverty,
corruption, injustice and war and peace in the modern world. His books
grapple with most of the issues that Father Diola and other Filipino
Catholics, like Among ED, confront in the Philippines. The answers for
most of our questions about how to solve the problems of corruption and
poverty and injustice in the Philippines are already there--in Catholic
Social doctrines, especially in Papal Encyclicals. I read somewhere in
the Bible and I was startled by the phrase "The people perish in their
ignorance." Which to me means that we need understanding, we need to
know, we need to think issues out, if we are to emerge into the light of
God's grace. And our people are not being fed with understanding
because the Church is mainly concerned with maintenance
ministry--baptism, the sacraments, Mass,schools, hospitals, etc. which
are necessary elements of divine work, but we neglect the mission of
evangelization which the clergy and the hierarchy cannot do alone and
therefore the Catholic laiety must step in. Anyway, may I recommend to
every Filipino Catholic and even non-Catholics, some of George Weigel's
books so we do not try to reinvent the wheel although of course the
application to Philippine conditions would be refined according to
Philippine exigencies. It's cheaper I think to order the books through
Amazon.com because you have the option of buying cheaper second hand
books: "AGAINST THE GRAIN"/"THE FINAL REVOLUTION"/"CATHOLICISM AND THE
RENEWAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY"/"SOUL OF THE WORLD:NOTES ON THE FUTURE OF
PUBLIC CATHOLICISM"/"THE CUBE AND THE CATHEDRAL".
A comment about one of WEigel's books goes:"In the FINAL REVOLUTION,
George Weigel provides an in-depth exploration of how the Catholic
Church shaped the moral revolution inside the political revolution of
1989 ...he opens a unique window into the soul of the revolution...he
also examines the central role played by Pope John Paul II...and he
suggests what the future role of the Church might be in consolidating
democracy in the countries of the old Warsaw Pact...his analysis of the
1989 revolution in Central and Eastern Europe offers evidence that it
was the power of non-violent force and citizens' conscience, not the
guns and bombs of warfare, that ended Sovietism."
In reality, EDSA in 1986 preceded and prefigured the European revolution
and Filipinos made visible the force that changed Philippine politics
and world
politics: religion, Catholicism and the Blesssed Virgin. The nuns and
priests, the rosaries and Cross and statues of the Blessed Virgin and
the spirit of non-violence were the marks of EDSA 1986. EDSA 1986 showed
the source of People Power which was Divine Power--THAT'S WHY I BELIEVE
IT'S TRUE THAT THE PHILIPPINES HAS BEEN CHOSEN --IN ITS SINFULNESS AND
POVERTY AND ITS RELIGIOSITY AND FAITH IN THE BLESSED VIRGIN--TO PLAY A
SPECIAL ROLE; TO COMPLETE THE PROMISE OF MORAL REVOLUTION WHICH IS THE
ONLY TRUE PATH TO PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE WORLD.
The task therefore that precedes the task of reforming the electoral
exercise in 2010 IS THE TASK OF EVANGELIZATION AND MORAL REVOLUTION
PRINCIPALLY OF THE ELECTORATE--THE FILIPINO PEOPLE.
The people get the leaders they deserve. You cannot have honest leaders
if you have a corrupt and ignorant electorate. What's the use of clean
and honmest balloting and clean and honest counting and clean and honest
proclamations--all legally and technically correct and proper--if the
people in a clean and honest election vote popular but immoral
politicians into office?
Consider the difference in public morality between Protestant America
and Catholic(?) Philippines:
former presidential aspirant John Edwards' political career has been
completely obliterated by his affair with with one of his staffers,
while here in the Philippines a self-confessed multiple womanizer like
Joseph Estrada has the temerity to suggest he would once again run for
President and some surveys show him to be leading the pack of
Presidential aspirants for the 2010 elections. To me there is a grave
problem in Catholicsim in the Philippines when the head of a supposedly
Catholic charismatic community like El Shaddai publicly endorsed a
public sinner like Estrada for the Presidency in 1998, never
disassociated himself from Estrada despite Estrada's conviction for
plunder, welcomed Estrada back when estrada was pardoned and never
apologized to his flock and the Hierarchy and the Filipino people--and
neither the Archbishop of Manila nor the CBCP took him to task, publicly
or in private, for endorsing an immoral man and thereby condoning his
immoral acts before the Filipino people. While a priest like Father
Robert Reyes is reprimanded or transferred for certain small acts of
seeming disobedience, the hierarchy has done nothing to Mike Velarde.
Well, I think it was Father John Corapi or somebody else in EWTN who
said "Not to worry, the laiety will save the Church." It was also a
revelation to me when the Coordinator of World Youth Day in Australia
when asked what were some of the obstacles he encountered, he said that
most of the government agencies in Australia were very cooperative but
surprisingly tehere were some elemnts in the Catholic Church itself
which were not cooprative with Woprld Youth Day arrangements and the
Coordinator , a priest said, that many times elements within the Church
itself--in the clergy and the hierarchy--offer resistance to the works
of the Holy Spirit and must therefore undergo conversion, too. So the
work is not only among the unbelievers and the laiety, but also among
the clergy and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
Many dry and unproductive branches among the Philippine clergy and
hierarchy must be cut and burned, if the work of the Holy Spirit is to
flourish and bear fruit in the Philippines.
LET US STUDY AND UNDERSTAND CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINES AND MAKE THEM THE
FOUNDATION OF OUR ACTIONS TOWARDS THE RESTORATION OF MORALITY AND SOCIAL
JUSTICE IN OUR COUNTRY. "Being" precedes "Doing".We cannot produce good
results unless we ourselves are good first.
2010 IS A GOOD TARGET FOR THE WORK'S FRUITION AND FLOURISHING--BUT THE
REAL WORK STARTS NOW.
May i suggest to Father Diola to convene a conference of Catholic
thinkers and activists for the purpose of working together to develop a
Catholic blueprint/masterplan/ideology for activities/movements leading
to 2010.

Ad Iesum Per Mariam.

Enrique Angeles