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Saturday, April 09, 2005
Pope John Paul II was my inspiration: Arroyo
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II was her inspiration in leaving the Estrada administration and leading the second Edsa People Power Revolution in January 2001.
Arroyo said in an interview by Cable News Network (CNN) that the pontiff also influenced some of the policies that her administration adopted and several stands that she has taken on issues ranging from the death penalty to population control.
She said the pope, whom she has met twice at the Vatican, "was very much concerned with peace and public morality".
Arroyo first visited the pope in October 2000 when she was still vice president and concurrent social welfare secretary of the Estrada administration, and in September 2003 or two years after she succeeded President Joseph Estrada.
She said it was through those meetings that she was able to make some big decisions like in 2000 when she met with the pope while impeachment proceedings were ongoing against Estrada. It was after her meeting with the pope that she decided to resign as social welfare secretary.
"It was after my conversation with the Pope that I finally found the courage or conviction that I should make a break and join the bloodless revolution," Arroyo said.
"The pope had a very keen sense of understanding of what was happening in the Philippines and he was very encouraging towards me, with regard to my taking steps to make sure that I would do what I could do in order to promote morality in Philippine society," she added.
Press Undersecretary Isabel de Leon, who worked with Arroyo when she was still vice president, said Arroyo proceeded to the Vatican after attending the International Women's Global Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She said the trip to the Vatican was apparently for Arroyo to seek divine guidance on what she must do amid morality questions faced by Estrada. De Leon said Arroyo even searched for a church in South Africa to pray for proper discernment, before finally proceeding to Rome.
"When she emerged from the meeting with the pope, she looked happy," de Leon added.
Arroyo said the pope was aware of what was happening in the Philippines and was able to provide guidance whenever she needed them.
"He's very much against death penalty for instance and he always communicated to me when he perceived there was great pressure for me to execute the death penalty on one convict or another," she said.
Arroyo said the pontiff was also the first pope to officiate a mass for Filipino overseas workers in Rome. She said it is important because at least eight million Filipinos are working in foreign lands and they "turn to the pope for guidance and strength when leaving and working outside the Philippines."
But the President stressed that despite her being a devout Catholic, there remains an element of secularism in her administration.
"I guess the best example for that is our population policy. We promote family planning. As a good Catholic, I advocate natural family planning but I don't impose it. In other words, we are a democratic country and we try to teach the Filipino families and parents to practice responsible parenthood," Arroyo said.
The President has been promoting birth spacing wherein each couple is given the choice to use either natural or artificial contraception in planning their family and eventually address the country's overpopulation problem.
Asked if she favors a "liberal pope" to succeed the 84-year-old pontiff, Arroyo expressed confidence that Church leaders would be able to choose a worthy successor.
"I have my great faith in the wisdom, the collective wisdom of the princes of the Church, that they will choose a pope who will carry on the important work of prompting morality in public life and in the private lives of the people all over the world," she said.
Arroyo flew to Rome Wednesday night to join other world leaders in the funeral of the pope Friday. She will arrive in Manila Saturday morning. (JMR)
(April 9, 2005 issue)
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