With millions of Filipinos living below poverty line and children dying of malnutrition and disease, it’s shocking to read news stories like this:
Lay Catholic group raises P2.7 million to buy vehicles for bishops
MANILA, Philippines – A lay Catholic group led by former Manila mayor Lito Atienza and election lawyer Romulo Macalintal yesterday said they have already raised P2.7 million and have donated utility vehicles to at least three Catholic bishops.
CBCPNews, the official news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said Macalintal revealed that the money was used to purchase four Foton pickup trucks.
Television host Willie Revillame has also donated P100,000 with a van and another pickup truck.
The Diocese of Butuan under Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, who was highly criticized for asking former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for a car for his birthday, received the van from Revillame.
Other personalities who gave money to the fund drive were Senators Vicente Sotto III (P200,000), Francis Escudero (P100,000), and Bong Revilla and his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, (P200,000). [Source: Philstar.com]
This reminds me of the song “Everything’s Alright” from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The scene is based on John 12:3-8 where Mary Magdalene used her expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. Judas was indignant:
Woman your fine ointment, brand new and expensive
Should have been saved for the poor.
Why has it been wasted? We could have raised maybe
Three hundred silver pieces or more.
People who are hungry, people who are starving
Matter more than your feet and hair!
But then Jesus tried to justify Mary’s extravagance:
Surely you’re not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling
Look at the good things you’ve got
Think while you still have me!
Move while you still see me!
You’ll be lost, and you’ll be so sorry when I’m gone.
Could this be how Macalintal and Atienza as well as Willie Revillame, Tito Sotto, Chiz Escudero and Bong Revilla rationalize the fund-raising campaign to match the amount donated by the PCSO for the purchase of the vehicles which were eventually returned? Do the bishops’ comfort and luxury matter more than the people who are hungry and starving? Are they completely oblivious to the fact that various Catholic entities in the Philippines have literally billions in assets that could buy all the SUVs the bishops want and actually save the poor from their lot—or at least feed all the severely hungry Filipinos for almost a year?
There will always be poor people indeed and charity can only do so much to help them, but do the bishops deserve to be treated and pampered like Jesus? Should we be grateful that we still have them? Will we be lost and sorry when they’re gone?
Macalintal and Atienza seem to think so because when the bishops were stripped of their rides they scrambled to raise money for the replacement of such vehicles. They’re almost like Mary Magdalene singing to Jesus:
Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to
Problems that upset you, oh.
Don’t you know
Everything’s alright, yes, everything’s fine.
Yes, everything’s alright. We’ll give you another fleet of brand-new cars so don’t be upset about returning those vehicles to the PCSO.
But I think one bishop will be upset, and that is Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos of Butuan. His Mistubushi Montero was replaced with a van, when he specifically asked for “a brand-new car, possibly a 4×4” from GMA for his birthday.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeeKZ9vnknI’]
Materialism is not the answer… but of what is in the heart!
Give them fish and they will remember you, but teach them how to fish.. and they will never know who taught them!
Bishops should have returned them in their Barangays for future use, libre pa gasolina nila at patuloy ang pagtulong sa mga nanganga-ilangan… Problema sa Church and State ay ang laglagan!
"Give them fish and they will remember you, but teach them how to fish.. and they will never know who taught them! "
Sorry but I can't agree with this. Also, I believe this kind of thinking is unChristian.
Didn't Christ teach us that the way to pray is with full silent prayers rather than loud boisterous but empty words?
The same way, Christians are supposed to spread love, not make themselves memorable or popular.
If the ones you teach should remember you, it should be because you gave them love, not just some material object.
Maybe I just misunderstood how you used that statement (it's already 4am) but it sounds self-serving rather than relating to self-sacrifice.
Which of the two statements below promotes God better?
a) "We we're given fish by Bishop Doe, a man of God"
b) "We we're taught to fish by a man of God"
Personally, I'd choose B, since A puts too much focus on the title and name of the giver increasing the possibility that the receivers would mistakenly worship Bishop Doe instead of his God.
You completely missed his point.
I hope the replacement car of the representative of god for planet earth – Philippines – province of Butuan his “grace” his “holiness” Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos has still a 4×4 vehicle.
You know when hiding a serial rapist of teenage girls who is employed from bishop Pueblos as a priest in his diocese, you might need an off road capable vehicle to escape to some remote terrain some day.
Ooops almost forgot, it’s of course always the first and only priority of the RCC to serve the poor with their brand new luxurious 4×4 vehicles in remote areas, surely there will be lots of poor families in those remote difficult to reach areas who are faithful and all to happy to supply the Catholic priests send from bishop Pueblos, some young teenage girls as personal servants.