Seares: Cardinal Tagle smiling in his tears. Miss U on South Africans not smiling.

“The cardinal (Luis Antonio Tagle) was smiling during his homily but I know that his heart is broken.”--Vatican Ambassador to the Philippines Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, on Cardinal Tagle’s new assignment to the Vatican

“We have absolutely no reason to keep smiling... South African women are dying every day and most people are doing nothing about it.”--Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa, who won the title of Miss Universe 2019, on whether South Africans must be “smiling always.”

LAST Sunday, Dec. 8, in his first public mass after Pope Francis appointed Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle as prefect of the Congregation of Peoples, the Filipino cardinal was mostly smiling although in more than one moment, a news report said, Tagle “broke into tears.” Smiling through one’s tears.

What impressed the Vatican envoy to the Philipines, Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, was that Filipinos “are always smiling.” And his timely example was Cardinal Tagle who in his Feast of Immaculate Conception homily, was smiling although Ambassador Caccia said he knew “his heart is broken.”

‘Absolutely not’

Monday, Dec. 9 (Philippine time), South Africa’s Zozibini Tuzin clinched the title Miss Universe 2019 with the help of her answers to the questions in the final round, particularly to this one: “Through all the darkness that South African women face—emotional, physical, sexual, economic abuse—what reason do we have to keep smiling?”

Zozibini could’ve expressed the feel-good-despite-the-suffering sentiment the question was expected to draw. Like, “That’s our good nature, our smiles tell the world we can bear all the suffering from pain inflicted on us day by day.” Instead, she quickly shot it down with the categorical rejection: There’s absolutely no reason to smile when their “women die every day and most people don’t do anything about it.”

To the ‘bigger church’

Cardinal Tagle will have to leave the Archdiocese of Manila as the position of head of the congregation for the Propagation of the Faith or Propaganda Fide, one of nine top offices in the Vatican, requires his presence in Rome.

Tagle is torn between his love for the Manila Archdiocese and the challenge of greater work and bigger challenge in the Vatican. He was made to choose between the Filipino church and what Caccia calls “the bigger church” in the Vatican, which the Holy Father rules.

They say it was an offer the archbishop couldn’t refuse. Not like the Vatican would have the severed head of a carabao on Tagle’s bed the morning after his rejection. But it was the sort of assignment that conjures the image of God’s chief minister on earth relaying it with soundtrack of angels singing and lightning bolt crashing.

Some church watchers associate the Vatican post with potential increase of power for the Filipino cardinal (the job, they say, is equivalent to that of a Cabinet secretary, the “Red Pope” to the pope). They also predict bigger things ahead for Tagle. But Caccia sees it with the devotee’s eyes: It is the will of God. Mary said yes, like saying “If this is the will of God, I am happy to let you go.”

Not the ‘feel-good’ answer

Tagle’s tears through the smiles were moved by pain of leaving Manila and its church and facing new and still uncertain challenges in the Vatican. They were involuntary reaction that tarnish a bit the Filipino image of “always smiling.”

The new Miss Universe’s rejection of the smile to mask the pain from their suffering was something else. Zozibini does not believe, with all the injustices in the oppression of South African women, that losing the reputation of being smiling sufferers is a big deal. On the contrary, Zozibini thinks they need to tell the world that the apathy of most people is nothing to smile about.

The Miss U winner didn’t give the typical feel-good answer of beauty pageant contestants. She said it the way it is: No crap about promoting tourism and world peace. They are systematically killed or abused. What the heck are jurors talking about when they ask if African women can still keep their smiles?

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