Thursday, March 20, 2008 So: 'Binignit' for Lozada and Vidal By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
FOR the first time, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has been called names in public. He has been criticized for his statements/non-statements and actions/in-actions but never like this.
The ubiquitous Jun Lozada has left Cebu, escaping the heat from many Bisdaks who took umbrage at his calling our archdiocese the “Archdiocese of Malacañang” and Vidal a “congressman in a cassock.” The latter description came from the Black and White Movement of Metro Manila.
Name-calling makes good sound bite but it doesn’t always achieve the intent of its author. In the case of Lozada and company, it boomeranged.
This makes us in Sun.Star Cebu the lesser evil for simply calling the cardinal “Vidal” in our headlines and in subsequent reference in the stories.
Our attention has been called by several readers to our calling the cardinal just “Vidal” in the headlines and stories. It is disrespectful to the cardinal, they said, and that we ought to refer to him always as “His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal” or “Cardinal Vidal.”
That’s quite a lot to pack in a headline or the title of the story. A devout Catholic newspaper editor would rather bear the pain of self-flagellation than use the complete title of honor in the headline. Neither religion nor reverence plays a part in writing newspaper headlines. Editors are even thankful that the cardinal has a name that is as short as he is. It makes for easy headlining of the story involving him. The shorter the name of the news source, the bigger the chances of his name being used in the headlines.
(In 1999, the editors had a hard time writing the headline of a running story involving one Shirley Oberreiter. We groaned when an Oberreiter story was assigned to our page and we were always tempted to abridge it to Ober in the headline.)
Anyway, the descriptions Lozada and the Black and White Movement have for the cardinal will be fodder for talks among Vidal critics and supporters during this week of abstinence. But whether some priests will bring this up in their homilies these days will bear watching. While churches may be packed, the large attendance is not assurance that everyone will be attentive during mass. You’ll likely see your aunt or an old beata snoozing.
The local media observes Holy Thursday and Good Friday without work, allowing us to abstain from bashing Lozada for his comment on Vidal. In this sweltering two-day respite, Cebu journalists prefer hieing off to the beaches of Bantayan or Malapascua, to praying for a news story to submit on Saturday.
The journalists take comfort in the possibility that a story idea will come when the binignit is served. There is no English term for binignit and so, with apologies to non-Cebuanos, this hot merienda dish of banana, sweet potato, tuber and Inday knows what else will remain Bisdak and un-translated.
So, why is it that in a Filipino Catholic/Christian household, we serve binignit on Good Friday? Jun Lozada, who seems to have an answer to every question posed to him, might know.
