Filipino Catholics Help Expand Catholic Communities in the East

In 2008 when the last official figure came out, there are 350,000 Catholics , mostly from the Philippines and India who lives in Kuwait as immigrant workers. And the flow of these immigrants in Saud Arabia and the Gulf is so massive that Rome is studying how to redraw the boundaries of the vicariates in that area, which today is still a huge vicariate of Arabia, comprising Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain.

In Israel, the rise of Jewish Catholics, formerly unthought of, occurred and the community now counts to about 500 Catholics. And this community is growing as children of immigrant workers from the Philippines and the Sudan attend Hebrew schools, learning the Hebrew language of their foreign-born parents' churches. They attend Mass in Hebrew in seven Hebrew Catholic chapels under the Jesuit priest Father David Neuhaus, who works directly under the Latin-rite Patriach of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal. Those who came from the Philippines numbered some 40,000, mostly Catholic women. Their children, born and baptized in Israel, go to school, learn Hebrew, and assimilate into Israeli society.

This phenomenon is a result of the founding of the Apostolate of Saint James the Apostle, approved by the Patriarch Alberto Gori on 11 February 1955, to address pastoral needs of Hebrew-speaking Catholics, Jews and non-Jews alike. In 2003, the Holy See appointed as head of the vicariate of Jerusalem for Hebrew-speaking Catholics a bishop and Benedictine monk of great ability named Jean Baptiste Gourion. He is Algerian by birth and himself a convert from Judaism. When he died, he got succeeded by priets, Neuhaus being one of them.

Archbishop Vidal Retires

Cebu Archbishop Cardinal Ricardo Vidal officially retires on 13 January 2011 as the Vatican announced the acceptance of his application for retirement four years hence. He became the prelate of the Archdiocese of Cebu on 18 September 1982. Late Pope John Paul II appointed him to the College of Cardinals, and attended the conclave which elected current Pope Benedict XVI on 18 April 2005.

Archbishop Vidal played a major role in the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986 as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). He mediated in the coup attempt from Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAFM) in 1989. And he became instrumental in the peaceful departure of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada at the height of EDSA Dos in 2001.

Archbishop Vidal is celebrating his 39th episcopal ordination anniversary on 30 November 2010. Turnover of ceremony will be held in the second week of January 2011 to Bishop Jose Palma, Archbishop of Palo. (Read more.)

God Called Archbishop Villegas Through Bruce Lee

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas disclosed on 6 October 2010, during his 25th year anniversary Mass as a priest, that his teenage idol was kung fu master Bruce Lee, not Jesus Christ. Villegas celebrated the Mass at the newly refurbished St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Dagupan.

In his homily, Archbishop Villegas said, "God called me to follow Him and He called me through Bruce Lee. I was too sickly to engage in martial arts but I was an avid reader of Bruce Lee's philosophy especially these words, 'Be yourself and learn the art of dying.'"

Villegas said Bruce Lee's philosophy touched him deeply. Quoting the late master, the archbishop said, "Be flexible. Be formless. Be fluid. Be shapeless like water. You put water unto a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. Water can flow or it can crash or creep. Be water, my friend. Water has the continuity of movement. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying. The cup realizes itself only by being empty. Be yourself."

These words disturbed his sleep and distracted him from his studies. “It left me desiring passionately to learn the art of dying. I wanted to be empty like the cup. I wanted to be formless like water. I wanted to find myself. This search brought me to the gates of San Carlos Seminary in Makati because our high school principal said that was where I could learn the art of dying, like my idol Bruce Lee,” he recalled.

On 5 October 1985, the late Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin ordained him a priest. But his classmates in the seminary never discovered his passion for Bruce Lee as his spiritual directed him not to disclose it then. The priest felt that his classmates might misunderstand him.

His spiritual director taught him though about a wiser man who lived 2,000 years before Bruce Lee, and who said, "If the seed dies, it bears fruits."

“I fell in love with this man wiser than my teenage idol. I laid aside my Bruce Lee album and magazine collection and answered the call of Jesus. ‘Come follow me,’ he said.” [Based on the report by Yolanda Sotelo of Inquirer Northern Luzon]

Good Morning CBCP in Facebook Removed

At the height of the controversial statement of Tandag bishop and CBCP president Nereo Odchimar, threatening President Benigno Simeon Aquino III with excommunication for supporting the RH Bill, the CBCP removed its Facebook account, name "Good Morning CBCP," after hails of criticism assailed it from both Catholic and non-Catholic Facebook users. 

This move is unfortunate because it can be negatively interpreted as running away from the truth, and failing to stand by it despite the heat of criticisms. At the height of the hostage incident, when critics hit hard on the website of the Office of the President, Aquino never attempted to run away from his critics. I expect at least as strong a stand as that in face of criticisms, as that how people's sentiment can be clearly heard. But here we are, CBCP just folded off. How sad indeed.

This deplorable move forced me to visit the CBCP Online website to catch their attention on such a mistake as removing its Facebook account. I wrote two comments entitled "Reported Excommunication Threat" and "Removal of Good Morning CBCP from Facebook" to bring a reminder on these errors across, on the Disclaimer of Bishop Nereo Odchimar.

UPDATE
As of 3 October 2010, Good Morning CBCP came back to Facebook. Although my Discussion topic on the threat to excommunicate PNoy, where I posted four points why such a move was not a bad idea, can no longer be found. My first post on 11 September 2010 in the page entitled "Church Receiving Shares of PAGCOR Gambling Income" was still there.

Bishop Odchimar Plays Selective Politics on Contraceptives

Bishop Nereo Odchimar, head of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported saying that PNoy "could be excommunicated for declaring his government would provide birth control to those who asked for it." This is an admission that bishops of the Catholic Church in the Philippines have lost moral influence on her own members, and instead play politics with the government leadership as a deperate move to control government policy instead of doing its job in effectively evangelizing the Catholic faithful.

One unpalatable taste to this move is the bishops' silence when previous administrations did nothing to remove birth control program that had been ongoing for decades in the country. Observers cannot failed to doubt the real motive for this action against a government who had been serious in destroying graft and corruption in public service.

Another suspicious part of this announcement is the idea that the government leadership who let the people choose in what method of family planning to adopt must be singled out for harassment when the leadership felt helpless to even implement such excommunication threat to those who may have already used artificial birth control in managing their family size. Who then will be more guilty of the "moral crime," the president who supported an already existing program or the people who actually used artificial birth control methods?