AFTER 500 years of Catholicism, if the Philippines is to drop its doubtful title of poorest and most corrupt within the area, one establishment that has to activate its head is the Catholic Church. It has had the best affect on the attitudes and values of the Filipino individuals and should, consequently, take accountability for what the nation has turn into.
By way of a sociological lens, I don’t see a lot to rejoice of Catholicism’s previous 500 years. Certain, we now have the best variety of baptized Catholics, Catholic Church buildings, Catholic instructional establishments, Catholic monks, nuns and different non secular within the area. However we even have the scandalously biggest variety of destitute individuals, lots of them residing lives unworthy of human beings.
Our non-Christian neighbors in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and many others. are comparatively well-off, but their respective enterprise, civic and non secular decision-makers don’t take pleasure in a lifestyle considerably larger than their common countrymen/girls. They take higher care of their individuals than we Catholic Filipinos do of ours.
Sure, we now have the numbers and if this deserves a celebration, then by all means we rejoice. Nonetheless the Catholic Church should not shirk its accountability of no less than turning a nook within the subsequent 100 years. It merely can not proceed taking place the identical highway that led this nation to the ethical, financial and political darkish place it’s at right now.
To do that, along with the celebration and persevering with lengthy after its glow has light, the Catholic Church should conduct an intensive analysis of its efficiency by means of the centuries. At backside it ought to ask what it did incorrect that an entire group of (non-Christian?) Catholics ought to produce a society that’s so corrupt and unjust as to render nearly all of its individuals destitute.
It’s crucial that Catholics of every kind, wealthy and poor, non secular and lay, religious and lapsed, are requested this bottom-line query. A consultative meeting of the clerical and non secular elite will yield nothing greater than self-serving solutions.
In response to Christ, the world ought to know we’re his disciples by our love for each other (John 13:35). What is occurring now’s we’re recognized to be his disciples extra by going to mass, praying the rosary, praying to patron saints, dancing for the Sto. Niño and pushing individuals away so we are able to contact the picture of the Black Nazarene.
The Catholic Church wields the best affect on the attitudes and values of Filipinos. Therefore, it should settle for the nice accountability of guiding them in direction of constructing a simply or Christian society, one which comes with socio-economic programs that, as Pope Francis requires, give everybody equal entry to the fruits of creation.
