Contested Terrain

“( October 11)  marked the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s opening”, Inquirer’s Michael  Tan noted. We are a predominantly Catholic country. “I’m surprised how little has been said in media about this … when the Church is going through such ferment”. 
 
A country fragmented into 7,012 islands at high tide  moulds an insular mindset,  some  assert. Vision halt at  the seashore or expand to  a country or two.  From there, Overseas Filipino Workers send  padalas or remittances home.  But are we blinded by narrow clans? 

 ”For all the  trappings of  national government…we conduct our affairs pretty much in the manner of Lapu-Lapu,” the late historian Horacio de la  Costa wrote.  “( The ) congressman, who, who moves around with bodyguards, is not much different from the datu  surrounded by retainers. This attitude “casts away national and pubic values,” the Jesuit scholar added. “( It  ) aggravates  the need for taking private measures to protect private interests.”  

A  Synod of 262 bishops  is now  reviewing  the “cargo of hope”  and letdowns  of Vatican II .( 1962-1965 ). Among  Synod fathers are Luis Tagle of Manila and Jose Palma of Cebu .

Vatican II  recast a faith claimed by a  billion people worldwide. ( Eight out of 10 Filipinos are Catholics )  It  broadened the role of  laymen, stripped  obsolete trappings  and adopted  liturgy into vernacular. The  church turned away from internal concerns of Vatican I. Instead, it reached out to other  faiths, from Jews to Muslims,  But Vatican  II hopes shriveled  as a  Curia of bureaucrats  dragged heels.  

“Institutional innovations,  like diocesan pastoral councils,  were haphazardly implemented and underutilized. The Synod of Bishops was stillborn. National bishops’ conferences were subordinated to curial approval.  “They never led to regular channels of communication between people and  hierarchy”, notes America magazine.

Transparency and accountability, whether for financial or sexual improprieties, are norms of a just society.. “The church must cease to claim exemptions for itself …and must not stand outside scrutiny of its members.

Many Filipinos view all  these through prism of  family. Today’s  Synod of  ”New Evangelization” overlaps with  the  October 21  canonization for  a 17 year old Filipino catechist  and six  others. Like Lorenzo Ruiz of  Binondo before him, Pedro Calungsod of  the Visayas  is  “bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.”   We’ll see a fiesta to eclipse other fiestas. 

“Reform  the church?”, asked Archbishop Angelo Roncalli.  ”Is such a thing possible?” This son of  Italian sharecroppers was elected as a transition pope. Jolting  a sclerotic church to it’s founding fervor would  have to wait .

As  John XXIII, Roncalli, however, stunned many by calling out:  Apertura a  sinistra.  “Open the  windows” and  let fresh air in. Few foresaw the gales of reform that Council would unleash.  When it closed three years later, a transformed institution emerged:  one that re-imaged the church as “People of God, will full participation of all the baptized, yet always in need of  reform. Council advisor Father Joseph Ratzinger defined it as  perennis reformatio . He repeated the theme, as Benedict XVI.

Vatican II  reached out to other  faiths, from Jews to Muslims  and  built bridges  to  a world hurtling  into  a digital age. It asserted it’s “prophetic role”, smudged by cozy accommodation with assorted dictators.

“I have  bishops by their balls,”  Ferdinand Marcios  scoffed  when  Pope John Paul II set a   visit was  for January 1981. Marcos announced cosmetic lifting of martial law.  Imelda decked out the Coconut Place. But for the pontiff politely declined. Instead, he lodged at the sparse  nunciature in Pasay. 

“Even  in  exceptional  conditions…the state can not claim to serve the common good when human rights are not safeguarded”, John Paul II told  a poker-faced Ferdinand Marcos  in his January  17, 1981  speech at Malacanang  Palace.  

On this same visit, John Paul   beatified Lorenzo Ruiz at Luneta.  And in Bacolod, he pressed for an end to exploitation of sacadas. “This is war,” fumed a Negros sugar planter.

After February 1986’s rigged  elections, Marcos declared  he won over  Corazon Aquino.  ”A government that assumes or retains power by fraudulent means has no moral basis”, the Catholic Bishops Conference said in a pastoral letter. It called for active resistance of evil by peaceful means.” People ower sent  the dictator into exile.

Worldwide, there has been an exponential growth in educated Catholics. Priest-theologians are a minority.  In the years ahead, pastoring will, to a great extent, consist in fostering fuller participation of  this  educated laity.

Controversies here mirror the Curia’s resistance.. An eminent canon lawyer, the bishop of Tagbilaran, said over Radio Veritas:   Those who support the Reproductive Health bill (HB4244) court ex-communication. That’d cast President Benigno Aquino into exterior darkness. That goes for UP demographer  Mercedes Concepion — one of 42 scientists Pope Paul  VI  asked to serve in the  Humanae Vitae panel..

The Second Plenary Council here taught that religious freedom to advocate a cause may not be used to deny that same freedom to those who disagree, constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas recalled. The Bishop of  Antipolo turned livid.   

“The legacy of Vatican II remains in dispute”, “ America “  magazine adds. .  “Demands of our own age call for  corrections of deviations…We move in contested terrain.” (Email: juan_mercado77@yahoo.com)

By: Juan Mercado

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