FR. RANHILLO CALLANGAN AQUINO: THE BISHOPS' FINEST HOUR!
MANILA, JULY 19, 2011 - (MANILA STANDARD) by Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino - It brought out the best in us; it brought out the worst in us.
How it must have torn at their hearts to be treated like miscreants or big-time felons, having to take an oath to tell the truth in an investigation into their conduct. But they manfully took the oath, took their seats, and with neither arrogance nor servility read their statements.
It took just a rather brief morning session for the Senators to arrive at the conclusion that it is not the donee who is to blame when something is amiss about the donation, but the donor. And of course, the question has yet to be answered: what the matter was with donating to the bishops for the purposes to which the bishops applied the grants. Did they have to summon the bishops to realize that?
Anyway, Senator Miriam was at her feisty best, asking questions that demanded answers: Who brought the rallyists in and financed their rather well-orchestrated jeering of the bishops? Who started all the talk about "Pajeros" and why did it seem so difficult to read that the vouchers themselves declared the non-sectarian purpose to which the funds were to be applied —charitable and social work? Many senators too, who are usually offensive and abrasive turned out to be courteous and deferential, and for that they won the respect of all but bigots!
Orlando Quevedo was trademark Quevedo: speaking in measured cadences, each sentence thoroughly thought out and indefeasibly argued. He made clear that they had come to senate not only because they had been summoned, but also because they had a plaint of their own: Since when did asking for assistance when one is in need constitute a violation of the laws of God and men? Quite clear was the implication that they were haled before an investigating body and vilified by that subservient sector of media that has allowed itself to be the propaganda machinery of the establishment, not because of some crime or misdemeanor but because of association with the past administration!
Rodolfo Beltran, Vicar-Apostolic of Bontoc-Lagawe, was as he has always been: humble, tranquil even in the face of persecution and one ever prepared to douse on the fires of bigotry a good dash of humor. He could smile amiably because he knew in his heart that others knew in theirs that he had not profited from generosity and kindness.
The senators were certainly not persecutors—and for that, they have my respect and profound regard—but the bishops were certainly persecuted, even as the persecution goes on: one driven by the obsession to go after all those friendly to, associated with or beneficiaries of the previous administration.
It was the bishops' finest hour because they told the Senate about the hinterlands they visit, the forgotten people whom they always remember and for whom, travel great and difficult distances to visit, their labors for those whom politicians remember only at election time and then forgot when elected to lofty positions. It was the bishops' finest hour because of their gentleness and tranquility in the midst of so much antipathy stood in sharp contrast to the hatred, the anger, the insatiable thirst for vengeance that had brought them to their hour of trial!
And what were champions of the RH bill doing there?
The hearing had nothing to do with the RH bill, but they were there to insult and to jeer, because this was their chance to insult those who had steadfastly refused to yield. I may not have identified myself unqualifiedly with the bishops' position on the RH Bill, but certainly, one does not deride and insult when one is met with disagreement. One offers an invincible argument—if one has one.But the RH bill advocates who were there had no argument; what they had in abundance was hatred, spite and bile!
"Define hypocrisy" read one placard —obviously suggesting that the bishops were hypocrites. Why hypocrites? What did their steadfast rejection of the RH bill have to do with the accusations against them vis-a-vis the PCSO funds, accusations that turned out to be fatuous?
Is it not hypocrisy rather to change one's declarations and position on moral issues when it is politically expedient and profitable to cross lines? "Define stupidity" would have been an apt poster for the bearer of that dumb placard to have carried instead—with the placard turned in her direction!
In many instances, foreign aid for victims of calamities is channelled by foreign donors not through government agencies that have then and now never inspired confidence, but through the church. And when the Catholic Church distributes relief goods, organizes cooperatives, engages in basic education, no priest or bishop I know makes religion a criterion for assistance.
In a string of cases, many of them cited by Senator Miriam before she stormed out of the room in protest over the irrationality of it all, the Supreme Court held that assistance given churches was not necessarily proscribed by the Constitution if some non-sectarian, public benefit was discernible. In fact in one case, the Supreme Court found nothing wrong with using barangay funds for the purchase of the statue of a patron saint, arguing that such a statue could be considered a cultural piece essential to the observance of a cultural practice— a patronal feast. This is what Estrada v. secretor, penned by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, summarized in that powerful clause: "benevolent neutrality".
Excellence does not come from casting your opponents in bad light and concentrating all your energy in exposing them as thieves and crooks. It comes from one's own thoughtfulness, prudence and the wisdom manifest in one's actions—and from a nobility of spirit that can never be equated with popularity.
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