Moment of Grace, moment of prayer.

Originally posted on July 13, 2011 via Multiply.com
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Today, 13 July 2011, I witnessed the senate hearing on the PCSO's vehicle donations to the Catholic Church. The senate hearing was meant primarily to hear the side of the bishops on these controversies.

 As explained by Senator Santiago, who was the first given the floor to speak on the constitutional issues since she is a constitution expert, there seemed to be no constitutional prohibitions in these vehicle donations since these were used for public service and not for exclusive religious purpose. And Senator Enrile added that even if there were, the fault is on the government agencies concerned, and not on the recipients of these donations.

 This PCSO incident appeared to have singled out the helpless bishops on purpose even before their sides were heard. Shade of politics perhaps? Not surprising, because of the Church's strong stand against the RH and divorce bills.

 As the truth unfolds, the bishops did not receive pajeros luxury vehicles but used service vehicles intended for medical and social work of their respective dioceses, which are  among the poorest parts of our country. But why put the bishops and the Catholic Church in bad light with these malicious and false news reporting? These unfavorable news reports have been used by groups critical on the Church' stand on various moral and religious issues to unfairly accused the Catholic Church and chastise the bishops. This morning, when the bishops were entering the Senate building, a small group of protesters even sang "happy birthday" to a bishop who wrote to request a vehicle as birthday gift, an obvious disrespect for a man of God. (it turned out that the vehicle received is not at all a pajero but used service vehicle for the diocese social and medical work.) I saw among the protesters those who are supporters of the RH bill wearing their "Damaso" T-shirts. They obviously want to capitalize this incident to mislead people to their side.

 At the end of the hearing, when it was established that no luxury vehicles were received, the bishops are returning the controversial donations. Four of these which are from Luzon are already parked in the senate premises. The remaining vehicles which are in Mindanao will be returned to designated PCSO officials in their localities. The bishops are right to insist on returning these vehicles to PCSO, even if the senate now wanted them to keep for their social action work. They were the source of shame, albeit unfairly, so better to get rid of them completely. The Church is also better off without political attachments from this government.

 For all these unfair incident and untruthful accusations, my heart bleeds for the bishops and my Church, and I literally cried as I witnessed the bishops and my Church ridiculed and assailed by untruths. I saw Jesus tracing his steps back to Calvary. After weeks of biased reporting the damage has been done and the bishops and the Catholic Church had been put to shame and ill-refute. Whatever happened to media's credo of fair and balanced reporting? I believe Satan is very much in the world today to sow disunity and hatred. But I have no doubt that the Catholic Church will withstand the storm because it is founded on solid rock by Jesus himself.

Hopefully the event has subsided. I pray for our bishops and the Church for the grace of forgiveness to those who unjustly cast insults and ridicule the leaders of my Church. Lord, forgive them for they seem not to know what they are doing.

 As we move on from here, we pray for healing of our people and our country, for unity and charity, regardless of political affiliations and religious beliefs. May we all be charitable towards each other, acknowledging and forgiving our own shortcomings.

 Lord, be merciful to us because we are all sinners before You. Mama Mary, pray for us and protect the bishops, priests and the Church from the evil one. Amen.