Editorial: Reality bites

AFTER getting embroiled in the scandal of bishops being given luxury cars by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, the Catholic Church is once again in the epicenter of another outrage, this time the involvement in illegal ivory trade.

Msgr. Cristobal Garcia of Cebu City could face up to four years in prison unless he could show evidence that his ivory collection was acquired legally. This in the wake of an investigative report by the National Geographic that thousands of elephants are butchered for their ivory tusks that are carved into religious objects.

The vital question running in the minds of everyone is why the church fails to put its money where its mouth is. It would seem that its unrelenting stance on the dogma of Catholicism is merely paying lip service to an institution as antiquated and obsolete as they would wish the entire country to be.

In Davao City, unfazed by criticisms and culpability, priests still adopt a holier-than-thou attitude every Sunday as they go up the pulpit and extol the virtues of those who reject the Reproductive Health Bill.

It seems at the height of hypocrisy that the priests could even think that they still possess the moral ascendancy over the congregation who attend Holy Mass not to hear them drone on and on but to affirm their personal relationship with God, albeit in a house currently full of turmoil.

Roman Catholics, unlike other religious sect, center their beliefs based on their own life experiences and not on the basis of personalities extolling virtues and vices behind the microphone. No matter how stern the warning a priest makes of eternal damnation on anyone who swallows a contraceptive pill, the audience does not hear and wish him to cut short the tediously long sermon.

If the church is really serious in keeping the rapt attention of its audience, then it should start effecting change from within. After all, getting off the high horse does not necessarily mean taking the low road.