Roperos: Church dilemma

Monday, January 16, 2012

OUR town, judging from the number of priests it has produced, can be considered a very religious one. Balamban, I think, already has some 30 priests, two of them monsignors.

I cannot say for sure, however, whether any of them went over the bounds of their religious vows to the extent of becoming a church problem.

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This has drawn my interest over the weekend when I read about the Catholic Church’s problem with some priests in the archdiocese. I think that priests, being only human, could not totally control the force of life that also infuses their humanity.

I am not trying to apologize on behalf of the erring priests. When at 19 in 1949 I taught in grades five and six at Asturias central, one of my pupils then is now a bishop in Bohol. That’s why I’m rather soft on young priests.

When I began writing for Sun.Star in the early ‘80s, my wife Lolit and I would meet seminarians from our town on occasions. Later on, some of them would just show up with their friends in our rented residence near Camp Lapulapu on weekends. After they were ordained and given parish assignments, they continued to get in touch.

During our 25th wedding anniversary that we celebrated at the St. Therese parish in Lahug, fourteen of them concelebrated the mass.

The reason I recalled this last weekend was because I read the column of my friend, Bobby, last Saturday about the Team Ministry in Minglanilla. I think members of the team were assigned there because it is a strong parish and could help reform the members.

I think there is no doubting the fact that the Catholic Church is in some kind of problem in the past few years over the “misbehavior” of a number of younger priests.

To be sure, older priest may have committed such recalcitrance before, but these were not exposed, just like similar cases in the United States, and in other parts of the globe. And so, the Philippine church now appears to be undertaking all means “to control the flock.”

The Team Ministry is some sort of group reform effort where members mutually help each other straighten and strengthen their lives. It’s like rounding up the strays of the flock. Minglanilla is chosen as a reform venue because the retired parish priest there, Msgr. Esteban Binghay, who hails from my hometown, may have done a fairly good job preparing the parishioners to help young priests recover the validity of their vocation.

I think it is gravely unfortunate if some parishioners there have petitioned against them, for then they would really lose the opportunity of recovering their lost selves.

And then, too, it would be unfair to let one truly bad egg drag down the rest of the other team members. It is really a difficult Church problem. But the way I look at it, the Church is truly trying to keep its flock intact.