Happy New Year

I JUST come out from a very debilitating flu last Christmas season. However, the celebration was very meaningful to me this time. It was like a renewal of faith for me. Anyway, I thank God for his healing hand; I came out from a flu that I could not explain.

So, here I am again writing useless ideas, by some standards, once again. I am around “thinking aloud” once again. Questions that Matter is back after 2012.

The passing away of a great man of the Catholic Church is a great loss especially for those whom he had touched. Rev. Fr. James Reuter, S.J. passed away last December 30.The 90+ year old Jesuit priest was one of those who have pulled the ropes of Church–media relations. He was not just a missionary priest but he was a mentor to almost all media practitioners.

I had a short encounter with him in the past. I was in the seminary and was chosen to be one of the representatives to attend a media seminar for the revival of DYAF. I was then in my second year of seminary formation. He was a very simple religious man and he really introduced us to the real world of media but told us to have our Catholic identity. I cannot forget what he told me about the identity to be parallel with Marian devotion.

We made small talk about his life as an American Jesuit in a foreign land. He told me that he is not a foreigner but he is a Filipino although he is not kayumanggi; he told me to look at him as a Filipino stricken with a disease that made his skin whiter than the others.

My second encounter with him was already at a talk to members of the KBP at Benjamin Hall. I was already employed at GMA as a newscaster that time. It was already in the mid ’90s. I admired him for he remembered me after all those years. When I opened that I was present in the seminar he gave to the Diocese, he told me to keep quiet and recalled my name. He asked if my name was Caloy and he was right.

In that seminar, he taught us that the truth is always on top of the priorities of every media practitioner. We should not sensationalize issues just to have high ratings. We should get high ratings for delivering the truth. He also warned us of the subliminal realities in media. His talk really opened our eyes on how capitalists seduce consumers.

Now, he is gone and he can now check on all his students, whether we have applied his truth principle. He is now on top of the situation.

Farewell my great mentor and inspiration in religious media practice.
Another good issue for discussion for the New Year is the silent passage of the Reproductive Health Law (RH Law). The President was telling the Filipino people that this is his administration’s gift to the people. All I can say is thank you very much for putting an end to the pro-life stand of the country. We are now counted as one of the countries that favor the death mentality.

I congratulate the Congress and Senate for making the country a very secular country. This is a legacy that will make all of you famous and you all go down in history as legislators that had legalized murder and annihilation in the country. After the RH Law come the laws that will protect the interests of the developed nations and the 1st world countries. This RH Law is the “mother of death”. The “end of the world” for Filipinos is at hand.

Using the phrase of Fr. Emeterio Buñao, OAR, UNO-R President, “the Passage of the RH Law is disgusting and disappointing.” It is true that the Herods of today are much more evil than the original Herod. The three kings cannot do anything for the king will bring death and destruction of the family and the innocent. We are no different from countries that do not believe in God today.

God bless the Philippines and God bless us all. May we have a brighter future ahead of us. My condolences to the family of Mayor Evelio Leonardia for the demise of his brother Andy.

St. Ezekiel Moreno, St. Lorenzo Ruiz, St. Pedro Calungsod, San Sebastian, Blessed John Paul II and Sir Faraon Lopez, pray for us.