Gasping for breath
Truth to tell, that's how I felt when that guy Lozada came to Cebu to sing his now tiresome song. I felt suffocated by the thin air of reason and common sense that surrounded the controversy he provoked in Cebu. We have plunged to a new low!
What does he really want—to waken the dead also? I join those who complain that he is overdoing his act. Can we not move on, can we not let the courts investigate and render judgment over the issues he's raising?
Can he not figure out that he is being used, that his testimonies just are not enough to cause a national outrage? Someone has to tell him that he has to learn to look at a bigger picture, and to be more prudent and careful with his words.
What a pity to see him, with his Cheshire cat grin and moving tears, increasingly cutting a funny and pathetic figure in the public mind. He should know when he is reducing his problems, and when he is multiplying them unnecessarily.
That sick joke he dropped in Cebu, branding it as an "archdiocese of Malacanang," aggravated by Leah Navarro's no-brainer of calling our Cardinal a "congressman in cassock," was fatal. Though the Cardinal has forgiven them, I pray that both can recover from this disaster.
This simply is not the way to fight for a cause. If he wants to gain public sympathy, he has to learn to behave and talk properly, going beyond the bantering and rib-tickling done among drinking buddies and the shallow bravado of militants.
His insistence that a Mass be celebrated in a public place for his activity was just unfortunate. Also, his accusation that the Cardinal was banning priests to say Mass for him—that was wild! What's happening with him?
We are all for the truth, we are all against corruption. But we have many other immediate and pressing things to do. And we are supposed to have some division of labor in our society, and problems, like the one he is whistleblowing about, have their proper forum.
No matter how much I try to understand his moves, I cannot help, from where I sit, to liken the whole thing as a small-town scandal that has held the whole simple population hostage, paralyzed, defocussed and derailed.
True, anomalies exist. We were not born yesterday. We are aware of the SOPs (standard operating procedures), the official euphemism for corruption already inherent in our system.
But we should not be quixotic in our war against it, using simplistic tactics soaked with holier-than-thou elements. Our bishops already said that the problems cannot be solved merely by changing officials or mounting People Power.
It would be good that we have whistleblowers even if the amount involved is not as big as that alleged in the NBN-ZTE deal. Problem is that many do not want to go through the bother. Are we surprised why we have a culture of corruption?
Then we have to realize that we just don't stop at whistleblowing. We have to continue being watchful, and really go through the life-long process of cultivating virtues and developing integrity in everyone.
The struggle has to start in each one's heart. And as Cardinal Rosales said in his Palm Sunday pastoral letter, everyone has to pass through the "desert experience", individually and collectively, to attain authentic conversion. Of course, it is easier said than done. But that happens to be the only way.
We have to understand this communal search for truth not as a right of one group to impose their views on the others, no matter how superior they feel their views are over those of the others. How repulsive to see some people act and speak as if they have all the solutions to our problems!
There has to be dialogue. If one party is not ready, let's not force. We just intensify our prayers and sacrifices and be patient and keep looking for ways to continue with the dialogue. This, of course, is hard. No one said, all this will be a walk in the park.
As for Tita Cory and her cohorts of nuns, please, your claim at righteous indignation is wearing out. Please rethink your position before you fall into the world of absurdity. Righteousness is no excuse to ignore prudence and common sense. Dialogue, don't impose yourselves.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@hotmail.com)