Be more mindful, Palma advises youth

CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma will not initiate an inquiry on the spread of a sex video involving students of two local universities, one of them a Catholic school.

“I put my trust in the administrators,” the archbishop told reporters yesterday.

Archbishop Palma, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that in a recent meeting, the CBCP took up issues related to management and administrative tasks in a Catholic university.

“We have agreed that it would be the task of the bishop to remind the university of the challenges of academic excellence and research,” he said.

However, each university must strike a balance between promoting research and academic
merit, and preaching morality, Palma also said.

The bishops agreed not to punish or condemn anybody involved in the video as this may give the wrong impression that a witch hunt is being conducted.

“We say that youth is a turbulent age; the youth face temptations left and right. We do not condemn people who thrown into this sad experience,” he said.

“But we exhort you to be mindful of your actions,” he added.

In a separate interview, Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said he also looks to the university administrators to take the appropriate action.

“I leave that to the administrators. Why is that happening?” he told reporters yesterday.

He encouraged the parties involved to speak out.

“We have never been remiss (in preaching), but when it comes to commercialism we cannot do anything about that,” he said, referring to the spread of the video.

Cardinal Vidal also asked for prayers for everyone involved in the issue.