Saturday, October 13, 2007 Carvajal: A funny church By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
IT was most unfortunate that the City Prosecutor adlibbed something about priests being the alter egos of Christ. This is only partially true because the truth of the matter is all Christians are alter egos of Christ. We and not just priests are supposed to mirror Christ’s life in our own lives.
The young girls who found the courage to express through a legal suit their feeling of being violated by Fr. Ben Ejares’s impropriety, to say the least, are also alter egos of Christ. By rejecting Fr. Ejares’ inappropriate behavior they became better alter egos of Christ than the priest most probably was.
The statement is unfortunate because now we can no longer tell whether the City Prosecutor’s judgment on Fr. Ben Ejares’ case was based on evidence or on this gracious but erroneous preconceived notion of what a priest is supposed to be. The City Prosecutor would seem to imply with the statement that Fr. Ejares could not have done what he was accused of doing, could not have done it because he is Christ’s alter ego. This logic simply sucks.
Our suspicion about the subjectivity of the judgment of not guilty grows some more with the other statement about playing with the penitent’s bra strap being routine and not lascivious since it was done in public. This is another non sequitur from someone who went to the seminary and to law school, institutions that teach a lot of logic.
It is, therefore, dismaying for His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to be simply and openly elated that the case is over. It is even more dismaying that he wonders why people want to reopen the case.
Seven of twenty three young girls thought they were wronged by Fr. Ejares’ behavior during confession. Surely the cardinal cannot dismiss this as baseless.
In an extremely religious place like Cebu, it takes a lot of courage and conviction to accuse a priest of inappropriate behavior. The seven must have been convinced they were wronged.
The Catholic Church in the Philippines is a strong defender of celibacy as the ideal way of life for priests. If so, then it should have a policy of “zero tolerance” to any sexual impropriety by priests.
The cardinal should assure the wronged people and all of us that the Church will conduct its own investigation and that there will be no whitewash. The cardinal must not let Fr. Ejares off the hook on a court technicality. After all, doesn’t the Church operate on a much higher level than the legal?
Yes, but the Catholic Church is a funny Church. It is elated by a judgment that exonerates a priest who plays with a young girl’s bra strap during confession but refuses Catholic burial to a priest who marries for love and leaves the Church to avoid scandal. Just who are they trying to save?
