“TUGADE CITED by priests; Clark’s success also seen in
Holy Masses”
So was a press release from the Clark Development Corp.
slugged, okay, titled, which I found in my email late afternoon Monday. Failing
to meet the deadline for the day, the PR just had to make do with this
Wednesday issue. Pursuant to my editorial duty, in line with my journalistic
obligation.
This commentary on that PR, an opinion all my own
though.
Right off the bat I see something remiss.
No, there’s absolutely nothing wrong, morally or
otherwise, with CDC President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade being cited by priests. For
all I care, the reverend fathers can serve as postulators for the future San
Arturo de Tatalon. And I shall, my left hand on the Book, totally inhibit
myself from being the devil’s advocate in his process of canonization.
Yes, there is something I find sacrilegious in seeing
Clark’s success in Holy Masses.
I pray for Clark’s success – honestly, most sincerely –
when I go to Mass. I do not, I cannot consider the Mass, no matter how many
times celebrated in a day, as some measuring tool for the freeport’s success.
I see in the Mass the divine sacrifice, the offering of
the very body and blood of Christ, and the partaking of it for my salvation and
that of the whole world. Amen.
Hence, in the celebration of the Mass the uplift of the
human spirit, the searing of the soul, the nearness, aye, oneness with the
mystical Body of Christ.
Thus I take exception to “the chaplain in this Freeport
(saying that) officiating more groundbreaking ceremonies for locator-firms and
fully-booked First Friday masses in various companies here is an indication of
sound business climate in this Freeport.”
To me, “fully-booked Friday masses” take the divine
essence out of the Holy Sacrifice, reducing it to a commercial enterprise, as
in fully-booked restaurant, fully-booked theater, fully-booked cruise,
fully-booked concert hall.
Booking? You don’t do reservation, or buy tickets in
advance to go to Mass. Or this chaplain does this to his congregation? At what
price?
There is something uncanny in the perspective – as the
CDC praise release presented – of this chaplain identified as one “Fr. Adrian
Paule, parish priest of Clark Freeport Zone.” (Is this the same Fr. Paule that some Sapang Bato parishioners led
by a retired ranking police officer denounce for allegedly spiking far beyond
their reach the cost of burial at the village cemetery?)
Of the recently held 59th anniversary of the
Canonical Coronation of the Virgen de los Remedios at the Clark Freeport, Fr.
Paule deemed “the said religious event was a success.”
His basis: “The Senior Officials’ Meeting 1 of the Asia
Pacific Economic Conference (sic) in
the 1st quarter of this year played a big role in the preparation
for this event (coronation) in terms of logistics and security.”
Spoken like a devoted CDC employee. Of which he is
first, and a religious only second? I kind of expected something less secular
and more spiritual from an ordained minister. But then I realized, it is a CDC
praise release that I am reading after all. And thus that template, followed
faithfully by others cited in the PR.
Msgr. Antonio M. Bustos STHL, parish priest of Our Lady
of Sorrows, Dolores (CSF): “Clark Parade Grounds is spacious and I prefer it as
a venue for the annual coronation of the Blessed Mother.”
Now in some sort of a marital status and with children
but still-waiting-for-his-dispensation from the priesthood, Cris Cadiang, musical
director and choir master of the VDLR rites: “I have seen all the venues in
Pampanga (for the coronation) but I think this (Clark Parade Grounds) is the
best, this is perfect and this is the most ideal.”
Motives other than ones inspired by the Paraclete,
immediately sensed there.
Msgr. Bustos whose family owns the Our Lady of Mount
Carmel Medical Center in the City of San Fernando which has a Clark branch is,
in fact and in effect, a locator at the freeport.
Cadiang has a sentimental affinity to Clark having
served as parish priest of Sapang Bato immediately preceding the hanging of his
habito. I leave it there, further sayeth
not.
Rather than censure Bustos and Cadiang for their
insensitivity, let us just indulge in their blissful ignorance in seeing the
Clark Parade Grounds as perfect, as the most ideal venue for coronation.
Being at the area of the altar, they all heard the
readings, the prayers and incantations, the homily, the songs. Which those far
back and in the peripheries were totally deprived of.
A number of devotees thanked this paper for Ashley
Manabat’s story on the coronation which virtually, and faithfully, recorded the
full homily of Archbishop Florentino Lavarias. What they did not hear at the
rites, they were able to read in Punto and
made them richer spiritually, they said.
Too absorbed in his concert performance, Cadiang could
not have cared at all if the congregation joined in the singing.
Obviously, they – and Paule too – did not suffer the
horrendous after-coronation traffic gridlocks at all the gates of Clark.
No, they were not even aware of the elderly women who
had to put their dignity on the line, hiding behind whatever tree and vehicle at
hand, covering themselves with umbrellas or cardboards to answer nature’s call
in the midst of the traffic standstill. Or the padres could have simply considered this as part of the sacrifice
to La Virgen.
No, they did not feel the pangs of hunger of the
faithful waiting forever for traffic to move. Again, the reverendos could have consigned this to some fasting penitencia, in exchange for some indulgencia.
And then the PR saying: “The 59th Canonical
Coronation of Virgen Delos Remedios is in partnership between Clark Development
Corporation Tourism and Promotions Department and the Archdiocese of the City
of San Fernando represented by the vicariate of Sacred Heart headed by Fr. Rey
Cruz.”
A sacred religious tradition demeaned to a tourism spectacle
to be promoted to increase arrivals at the Clark Freeport. Reducto absurdum, as my Latin professor was wont to exclaim when
the holy transmutes to the odd.
Yes, the CDC is either absolutely clueless or totally
indifferent to the ramifications of all this. Its express purpose solely to
score pogi points out of the Virgen
de los Remedios rites. With unwitting but very much willing priests for
accomplices.
Sheer sacrilege here.
No comments:
Post a Comment