The stand of the Catholic Church on sexual abuse issue

I never expected it coming this morning.

I always attend the 10:00 o'clock mass at Sta. Barbara Parish here in Dededo, Guam. The celebrant was Fr. Dan Bien, a Filipino priest, and his homily focuses on the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd takes care of his flock. And with that he explained that Jesus Christ Shepherding responsibility was given to the Apostles and handed it to the Pope and the bishops and the bishops handed it also to the priest in-charge of the parish.

He re-iterated that the Church condemns such act and the Church does not protect priest who does not uphold justice and abuse their position. He implores the laity to continually pray for the clergy that they may be good shepherds. Also he quoted an article by a Jewish religious leader. The article points out that the media is ganging up on the Catholic Church because such case is not limited to the Catholic Church but also to other sects and denominations. The Catholic Church is being singled out by the media for no reason at all. He ask the laity to remain steadfast in the Faith and keep the Faith. This is just one of the trials we as Catholics has to struggle and in the end we will be led to the right path as we hear and heed the true Shepherds voice, Jesus Christ.

I am a former seminarian and I would be hypocrite to say of I didn't heard of anything like this in the past. But I cannot say as well who are these priest who have failed to do what our Lord has task them to do, to take care of His flock. There is only one thing I know though, priest are humans like you and me. They feel the same things that we feel and the more they are bombarded with  temptation. Thus we need to continually pray for the clergy to never give in and never give up the calling they are called for. 

What I ask personally is for priests who has done such act should give themselves up to the proper authorities and accept responsibility for their actions. To our Church leaders I ask that they be transparent and help the victims to surpass the anguish these abuses has inflicted in them and not be silent about it. There is something wrong so we should as early as possible correct what is wrong before it corrupts us all. To my fellow Catholics as well as our brothers and sisters in the faith I asks your continuous prayer, help, and vigilance to stop such acts. 

 

I remember my co-seminarians motto in our yearbook: Hate the sin not the sinner. We are a community and thus we should not condemn and shun people but rather hate the action that they did and help them realize the wrong that they did and make the right decisions and actions about it rather than pointing and accusing and let the issue grow and grow until it will be impossible to resolve it.

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Am I lucky?

I thought it was a joke being played on me. I was drag to a birthday/campaign party of one of the politicians here in Guam. It was my co-worker’s uncle thus we can’t say no when an invitation shows up. I was not supposed to be there but my brother-in-law asks me to be there so that I can have a feel on Guam politics.

So we ate and listen to the music and there was a raffle. My co-employee insisted on buying ticket for the raffle but he has no lose change. I had $20 and so he bought a $10 dollar worth of tickets saying that if ever any of the tickets win it will go to me. As the winning tickets were drawn our hopes were down since most of the numbers were very far from our numbers. And then it came to the grand prize…I wasn’t taking anymore chances that I may win it but God does make us smile in the most wondrous ways….I won the grand prize!

At first I was happy because I won and then it dawn in me…how will I use that winning….I am busy at work and I have a lot to catch up. I’m telling myself this is a headache. Then my mind says that well you can sell it…yeah so that solves the problem.

Upon arriving at my apartment another thought came to me…maybe God wanted you to take a break and enjoy your life thus you got the prize. Probably that’s correct because I have been working and have no time for myself lately. Never really have a social life due to my inability to move around due to my not having a license and that there is not much place I can stay and enjoy the passing of time but only the four corners of the apartment….probably God wants me to go back to my home base….see my dearly family and my crazy friends and probably have again our weekly attendance at the Feast waving and putting our hands up in worshiping Him and having our silly chit chats over lunch and coffee talking about personal opinions and personal hurts and sharing advice on how to cope up with this irrational, complicated, yet wondrous world.

But up to now I am still dumbfounded and undecided regarding my prize…I should make a decision sooner or later or else I will forfeit it. I won a roundtrip ticket to Manila….and boy it sure makes me think what best choice to do with it: sell it or use it.

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At what cost?

It was a funny experience. After eating dinner at Capricciosa we decided to look at the things sold in ABC store. ABC store is like the 7Eleven of Guam. You can see it almost everywhere. They sell most stuff for visiting tourist like souvenirs, clothes that tells about Guam, and many more.

As we were window showing I came across a shelf were carvings of the early settlers of Guam was show case. They are like the totem or lucky charms that we usually see in some souvenir shops in Baguio. What struck is the name written in the shelf about the carvings representation.

One was for Luck; the other was for Money, one for Strength (I am a bit bewildered why strength is represented by a woman like carving), Happiness, Peace, Longevity, and Love. Thoughts and ideas started to form in my mind. It has been a long time for me since I wrote my blog and a part of me starts kicking to write about this experience.

As I amuse myself about these carvings and while my mind is processing the ideas that came to my mind, I happen to look at the back of the carvings and saw the price for each 2-4 inch carvings: $5.00. Again my mind began to play and scoop out in me something. Then I finally have some concept. How we wish the representations of these carvings can be bought at $5.00.

For the so many longings that we experience I could have bought Love. For my daily dire needs I could have bought Money, for my troubled mind Peace, for the everyday boredom Happiness, and for the enjoying of my fleeting years Longevity. Why is it life is not like that? It could have been so comforting that all the things can be bought in a store (like the ABC store or maybe in a mall like SM). Probably it would be the best commodity to sell and anyone who will be in this business of selling these emotions will be rich in no time. If only Peace could be that affordable I could have bought one for the world.

Sometimes life is so funny that we work hard all our lives and yet end up to nothing. As Brad Pitt said in his movie Meet Joe Black there are only two things certain in this world….Death and Taxes. Tax time is near and I know everyone is all scampering to prepare there tax and doing there best to make their payable tax small. We wanted income and actually we badly needed it to defray our daily needs but on this time of the year we wanted that we never earn that much so that we wouldn’t hand our hard earned money to the Government. We see it as problem seeing that we earn that much.

At what cost are we willing to buy our internal needs? At what means do we do our best to reduce our tax payable? Life goes on and definitely death is certain and tax as well.

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Life in Guam

I arrived in the island last December 3, a couple of weeks before Christmas, and I had mixed emotions the moment I set foot to this foreign land. “I will be working here” that is what I am trying to inculcate in my mind because I know when I begin to not think of it boredom and homesickness will creep into my system.

Yes I am a strong person and I think I can manage to live anywhere but this place is different. I encountered many obstacles so that I can move forward. I am used to with fast pace lifestyle and easy access systems like transportation and establishment open till 10:00 pm. Here I need a car to move around. From the simple things like going to buy drinking water or buying bread for the morning needs a car. Unfortunately I don’t drive back in the Philippines and that it takes a long time to secure a driver’s license. You need to go to schooling in order for you to be able to take the written test and wait for your actual driving test. Here shopping malls close at 5pm on Sundays and holidays. Unlike back in the Philippines, holidays are time to spent time until wee hours of the day. One thing more most establishments are part apart and are very few unlike back at home I can go to SM Mega mall and the three malls that surround it or I can ride the MRT and be at Ayala are or Cubao area, or at SM west area going to the new mall of the Ayala’s right next to the MRT station.

Another is that I have no friends yet here. I missed my friends back in Manila. Specially my KFAM family. I missed our Sunday get together in the Feast and the after the Feast activities that we do. I missed are talks about life and its wonderful and mysterious facets. I missed our exchanges of thoughts and arguments regarding what we stand for and what we believe. I missed our sharing and prayers and anything that we have, our friendship has grown that we have this thing been going on and on and we look forward to have projects. We had an outreach project for the orphans but unluckily I was not able to take part of it because on the night I will be flying to Guam. I know I will have contact with these friends of mine but the distance will be an obstacle. I also know that I can have friends here as well but with the different culture and traditions and social setting I know it won’t be the same as what I already have. I try to communicate with my friends back in the Philippines through email and I hope the ties we have won’t be broken by distance.

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