The New Disposition

Oh Gosh! I like Bishop Soc but... may I underline your statement and ask you some questions.

Bishop Soc Villegas' Plenary Opening Address
The Challenge of Pope Francis |

(Speech delivered by Archbishop Socrates B Villegas, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, at the opening of the 109th CBCP Plenary Assembly, July 5, 2014 at the Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila.)

ONE of our college students asked me during a students’ forum “What is the biggest challenge for the Church in the Philippines?” My spontaneous answer in a split second was “Pope Francis”. He is not a problem. He is a challenge. He shakes up our old belief systems about spiritual shepherding. He jolts us from our complacency and status quo attitude. He humbles us with his simplicity. He disturbs us to make us better.

He has slowly moved the Church from being a dogmatic, self engrossed and authoritative sick institution [Since when have you felt this way about the Church?] to being a gentle, outreaching, compassionate and persuasive Church [Gosh, have we not? Really? Are you talking about the Catholics in general? Or are you talking about the pope and the ex-pope? Or are you talking about the Philippine Bishops? Or are you talking about yourself?] through the power of love and mercy. [Gosh, the words have been getting used, overused and abused by all sectors.] He even told our Catholic laity at Regina Caeli on May 11 “Bother your pastors, disturb your pastors, all of us pastors, so that we will give you the milk of grace, of doctrine, and of guidance.”

Every pastor “will sometimes go before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope vibrant; the pastor should go ahead at times. At other times, he will simply be in their midst with his unassuming and merciful presence. At yet other times, he will have to walk after them, helping those who lag behind.” In front or amongst or behind the people, the pastor must be always humble.

When we lose humility, we lose perspective. When we lose perspective, we also become too reactive. When we become too reactive, we become less effective and less credible as pastors. The loss of humility in Church ministry can be very costly.

If we are ready to walk in cadence with Pope Francis–

Perhaps, we can reconsider our approach at solving the cancer of Philippine society which is graft and corruption by talking more about the beauty of integrity and honesty rather constantly denouncing the evil that we experience. [Sure, children study your lessons well for your test. Aaaah, I can't say it. It would be so negative to say "do not cheat".]

Perhaps we can widen circles of integrity rather than creating fiercer watchdogs [Oh, Father, can't they go together?] against corruption. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that for every prophetic denunciation we utter we must stretch our hands to offer an opportunity for conversion and healing. [I agree, Bishop... but please don't try to dialogue with satan and don't try to covert him. That would be utter arrogance to undermine the devil.]

Perhaps we can reconsider our approach to solving the problems of family and life by listening more to the wounded and the grieving broken homes rather than condemning divorce and abortion and contraception at every opportunity. [Gosh, I think you are trying to make someone else happy. Are you really Bishop Soc?] To keep healthy, one needs to stretch everyday. The body needs it, so does the heart and mind. Perhaps we can reach out to more people by stretching our minds and lowering our fences and listening like Jesus without being judgmental or punitive. [Jesus wasn't lame and game. He is tough. He is Truth and He cannot be anything else. He is Love. He is judge.]

Perhaps we can be more convincing if we used the power of goodness and beauty rather than the brilliance of polemics and debates. The cynics and skeptics will ask for baptism not by intelligent proselytism but by the sweetness of Christian exemplary living. After all, did not our grandmothers tell us that we can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey than with a gallon of vinegar? St Francis said “Go and preach the Gospel. Use words if necessary.”

As Vatican II concluded, Venerable Pope Paul VI asserted, “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart. Beauty is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them to be one in admiration.”

Perhaps instead of denouncing poverty and unjust social structures, we can talk more about the power of generosity and the promised abundance that God has promised to those who leave everything behind to follow Him. Perhaps we can fight poverty by embracing simplicity of life. If our stomachs know hunger by experience, the hungry and suffering poor will believe us.

Most frontal attacks on evil just produce another evil in oneself which is an inflated self image. The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better, said Richard Rohr. When evil is exposed to the light, it just dies slowly melting away.

Since we opened the Year of the Laity, we have tried to prick the culture of cowardice against evil by inviting our Catholic faithful to Choose to be Brave. The Holy Heroes formation program is going around the dioceses and corporations to make heroism and holiness more attractive and simpler to embrace.

A New Evangelization Conference was initiated by a small group of young professionals. Last June 7, they gathered 5,000 youth and motivated them to talk about Jesus to their fellow youth. They even came up with a New Evangelization Resource Book to help the youth retell the story of Jesus. They told me they were responding to the bishops’ challenge to reach out to the hurting and disgruntled former Catholics.

Pope Francis challenges us to follow his example of humble and happy ministry. We are not required to make an opinion on everything. We are surely not experts in everything. We must be comfortable with admitting in public what we do not know and honestly say it without sounding evasive. Our duty is not to be in the limelight. Our duty is to be spotlights so that all eyes may see Jesus more clearly and let us help others to see the Lord.

As we prepare for the visit of Pope Francis next year, let us resolve as a fraternity of bishops to serve with humility and happiness; to speak with honesty from the mind and to listen patiently with the heart; to see the goodness in everyone and live the mercy of the Gospel. This is the example of Pope Francis. Living by this example will make us good shepherds like the Good Shepherd.

[It actually sounds cowardice. You would rather have priests who are nice than good. Unoffensive and pleasing everyone. Be happy. Be happy.
I love Bishop Soc and I can only hope that this new disposition will prevent the modern tide from rushing in, most esp. with Pandora's box now ajar.]

International House of Prayer cult member Micha Moore after confessing to the murder of Bethany Deaton as related by Kevin O'brien.

A funeral attendant covers the body of Guillo Cesar Servando, believed to have died in initiation rites of the Alpha Kappa Rho. EDD GUMBAN source: St. Benilde sophomore dies from hazing as reported in Philstar.

Young lives. Educated.
These two events are quite scary because it can happen to any of our loved ones. International House of Prayer and the other a Catholic university. It would seem like safe places for young adults.

The post of Kevin O'brien taking excerpt from Rolling Stone of the young, murdered woman who desires just to be his (the murderer)wife and the video of the condominium showing young frat men dragging a lifeless body of a young man who desires to be their brod are all quite sickening and chilling.

There are many sect, communities, and organizations around to choose from so we can have a sense of belonging, purpose, and perhaps, even a sense of security. What can be our guide to protect us?

The dangerous "who am I to judge?"

We are definitely not to make a definitive judgment and condemnation of other people. We shouldn't cast them off to heaven or hell. Yet, we can make judgment calls or else we will be unthinking robots or plainly indifferent and insensitive to what is happening around us.
• We can judge actions to determine what is good or bad so we can make better choices.
• We must judge in order to choose who to trust.

Don't fiddle with lying.

• If someone is asking you to "lie for him/her or for a group", send off the alarm bells.
• If you have caught someone lying, then, that should be a determining factor to the degree of trust you give to that person.

Draw the line.

Where sex, drugs, or money is involved, be wary. Abuse will often come in this form.
• draw the line of privacy.
• draw the line of familiarity.
• draw the line of accessibility.

Having good family relationships and good friends is the best prevention though not a guarantee.
• if the leader tries to draw you away from your family and long time friends, be wary.

Losing Heart in the Digital Continent

Fr. Ray Blake had noticed the silence in the blogosphere. Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the evangelization of the digital continent and the need to put a heart into it. Bloggers and Facebook pages were really active because it was indeed a big mission field. Homilies and addresses of BXVI were posted to elucidate on so many things. Although he wasn't dramatic, his call was edifying. It was a call to greatness. There was a sense of universality in his pontificate- rich and poor, western and eastern, young and old. I am totally biased.

Is the digital continent losing heart?

The Catholic STAND was clearer then. Pro-life against pro-abortion and so on in different issues and teachings. Suddenly, it became defend Francis vs correct Francis. Many excellent writers opted out because the confrontation leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Then, there was the renunciation of BXVI that brought on so much emotions, but there was also that oneness of "we are Catholics, this is significant". It was a high and reached its CLIMAX during the conclave but soon after that was a low. Although, Francis was popular most especially with the mainstream media, it was a "Francis High" and not a "Catholic High".

Then, there was that inner TURMOIL among Catholics. The pope is pope is pope. Just remain Catholic. I had reservations from the very start and asked a priest if it's okay not to like the pope. He gave me the levels or degrees as to what is permissible and what could translate to dissent or excommunication.

There is also the unacknowledged sense of WAIT and SEE. Holding our breath though something seems ominous. Political leaders are in place to enact the abortion and same-sex agenda across the world. The bishops and cardinals had been acting like brutes who hate catholicism. The Moslems are on active mode to bring about their end times scenario. There is a SILENCE with deep foreboding amongst Catholics but keenly watching every bit of what's happening.

In the micro level, there is also the financial WOES, THREAT of war and calamity, ANGST over corruption, abuse, and the constant bombardment of all the negatives.

You hear so many people getting tired and LOSING STEAM.

The digital continent is also SETTLING DOWN, facebook has evolved into pages and less of that connection for family and friends. Although many will still hold on to their account, no one would spend so much time on it. Twitter with its simple platform remains to be the arena or public forum.

Well, spurts will still come. Catholics will still need to be in the digital continent. A reprieve, perhaps, but getting ready for the next chapter.

The Battlefield

Anthony Esolen
There's not one sane person in this saga of sadness, recklessness, hedonism, and practical atheism. All quite mad; and therefore the same lunatics male and female who bathe in a sewer must “intervene,” with more intrusive, extensive, and insane measures to “protect” jungle women from jungle men. It occurs to no one that decent people do not need such measures, because they have not turned their parks into jungles, their clinics into morgues, and their schools into brothels.

Man cannot endure much chaos. Plato noted it long ago; democracy degenerates into the misrule of the passions, and the amnesiac cries of the mob. Then comes the tyrant, who has been stirring up the disorder behind the scenes, and he says, “Trust in me.” He may let them pursue their stupid pleasures all the more; chaos is his feed.
Anthony Esolen:
Do we wish to go to war? It does not matter whether we wish it or not. The war is here. We can no longer harbor any pleasant illusions about it. We cannot pat ourselves for some wonderful moral insight, saying that we oppose snuffing out a baby's life, while we shrug as the walls of the natural and God-ordained family are battered in. We cannot hug ourselves for being “tolerant” of confusion on parade, while confessing ourselves conveniently incapable of doing anything about the flood of filth that meets the eyes of our children every day.

The war is here, and there is nothing for it but to pray and to fight. Faith, hope, and charity itself demand no less.
We cannot ignore the darkness and we must not lest we be engulfed by it without even being aware. However, we cannot ignore and neglect the beauty that remains. The family we love. The wonder of a little child. The beauty of flowers. The valid Sacraments still there. And precisely for their sake that we must not ignore the darkness.

A World and a Church Unfolding

Will there be a new church and a new world order? Our small world goes on, seemingly unchanged and unaffected. Still, there are glimpses of a world unfolding.

The rainbow is a symbol of God's promise to Noah that never again would there be a great deluge as a consequence of humanity's sinfulness. The rainbow colors seem to be all over in solidarity with the LGBT's want for equal rights to marriage. Many of whom are the real homophobes afraid to offend a friend, a relative, a neighbor, a voter, a co-worker so let them have what they want. The rainbow of God's promise overridden by the rainbow of man's compromise.

The purple color of repentance of Jesus who gave His body for the life of humanity. It's all over now the purple color of reproductive rights that says "this is my body, I can do what I want". The new purple afraid of sacrifice obfuscating the purple of total Sacrifice.

The red color of martyrdom willing to give up life for Truth to be upheld. Red replaced by black, the cool and modern color where there is no heaven or hell. Nothing to be afraid of where we can all be one. We are all shadows, no color, no gender, no age, no religion.

Pope Benedict XVI

So what's the world devolving into? What will be the new church like? Will it be as described by Archbishop Emer. Oscar V. Cruz ANNOUNCEMENT: A NEW, MODERN, AND UNDERSTANDING CHURCH. In order to give the people total freedom and unlimited hope, self-determination and unbridled option, this “New, Modern and Understanding Church” subscribes to and observes but three fundamental mandates – in place of long since existing churches (religions, sects, movements) with practically a thousand and one norms of do and don’t:

1st Mandate: Do what you want.
There is wherefore but one instead of the standard Ten Commandments.

2nd Mandate: You have no neighbors.
You only have yourself to attend to, to love and care for.

3rd Mandate: There are ten gods.
When there is but one, this becomes too busy to attend to many..

Anything goes in a multi-purpose church

However, it is Divine Justice that the Truth and True love will be available.

Tu es Petrus

Dear Pope Benedict XVI,
Happy sacerdotal anniversary!
I was never angry at you for renouncing the papacy but I can't help but wonder how you feel and think with the things happening now.
Perhaps you knew this was coming and you were just an interlude to prepare the Church and the world for it.
You said you are not abandoning the Church and "I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds." Do you feel the ominous clouds building up? Do you feel the pain?
Yes, I guess you are telling us to remain with our Crucified Lord and never fail in confidence that He steers the barque.
And as you have reiterated, Jesus has the last Word in humanity's history. So be it.
With Christ, in Christ, and through Christ, we stay.
Thanks Benedict XVI.