|
Monday, April 11, 2005
Seares: Defending life
By NEWS(BOY) SENSE
AMID surfeit of talk from a “pope-mad media” running wild, allow me two brief points.
One: Pope John Paul II is remembered for defending human life in church policies and public forums. He opposed war, abortion, and capital punishment.
No, unlike Mahatma Gandhi, the pope didn’t preach ahimnas, or non-injury to all living things. Crush bedbugs, massacre termites. John Paul sought respect for human life.
Will those who spread “a culture of death” by murdering crime suspects ever learn from the pope?
Serial killers in Cebu City, who are still to be unmasked and charged, don’t even have to buy the entire papal dictum.
Just follow the law on catching, prosecuting, and punishing crime suspects. Leave decision to execute death convicts to the Supreme Court and the President.
Different rules.
Two: Rules for electing a pope are far different from rules for electing public officials.
No campaigning, debating or, horror, horse-trading and vote-buying. Cardinals “exchange views” for a consensus, which won’t help much. Serious contenders take pains not to show interest, for fear of the saying “he who enters the conclave a pope leaves it a cardinal.”
Will Vatican rules work in secular politics? Hardly. Here’s one that optimists can hope for, though: Losers accepting the winner when the Comelec sends out the equivalent of that white smoke.
—CHEKING SEARES
(April 11, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
