This year my high school class celebrates its 25 year anniversary. On Facebook, many classmates expressed sadness in Michael Jackson's passing.
Michael Jackson is one of two pop culture icons that defined Pinoy teens of the mid 1980s. During our senior prom, almost all the hits from the Thriller album were played on the dance floor.
In a sense, Jackson's fusion of R&B, rock, pop and ballad styles signified a departure from the past. This is why Jackson's music became a hit among us teens at the time.
The other pop culture icon (or better yet icons) that defined Pinoy teens most especially the high school class of 1984 was "Bagets". However it is plain to see that the Bagets gang, played by William Martinez, Herbert Bautista, Aga Mulach, JC Bonnin and Raymond Lauchengo represent an inculturation of Michael Jackson into Pinoy pop. Bagets launched into stardom, Aga Mulach and Herbert Bautista. Bautista was further catapulted into politics where he serves as vice mayor of Quezon City (and is the likely fav to be mayor the next time around).
That Mike Jackson defined my high school senior year is evident when the consummate performer and entertainer (and joker) in my class, Jopet Pedroso staged a concert at UP Abelardo Hall. Entitled "Raging Mad", Jopet's concert features interpretations of MJ's hits including "Thriller".
Now we are pushing Jopet to re stage it as a tribute to the King of Pop in our 25th anniversary bash! But I don't know if the performers are still flexible enough to moonwalk!
I believe that Thriller represents the summit of MJ's creativity. Perhaps I am seeing this with a tinge of innocence, but following the Jackson's career since then, we were dished out with tales of what cosmetic surgery can or cannot do, child abuse, hush money, lawsuits and all sorts of tabloid fodder. We remember when MJ's hair became a blowtorch in a Pepsi commercial that went wrong.
In a real sense, a star should depart the way that MJ did, with a planned comeback concert tour that will never be. He instantly is apotheosized as Legend. Since his public is unlikely to deal with the shock, I believe that he is the 21st century Elvis. He will provide a distraction in America's travails with recession. Expect zillions of Michael Jackson sightings from now on. Michael has definitely left the planet!
However I believe that comparing his exeunt from the stage with that of Princess Di is uncalled for. There isn't any comparison since Princess Di was viewed as child friendly and Michael to the end was viewed with much suspicion in his dealings with children. Only CNN can dish out this silliness! But CNN may have a shred of truth. Both Di and MJ were lonely at the top.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
We want heads to roll off!
This is probably the most idiotic political proposal ever dished out in this whole talk of constitutional amendments. Norberto Gonzalez, a key Arroyo adviser suggests that his employer establish a revolutionary government in the likes of what Mrs Aquino did post EDSA. This government then shall have all powers to revise the constitution.
Well we have news for Mr Gonzalez. If we do have a revolutionary government, we want it to be a genuine one and we are serious about it. We want a razor sharp guillotine with matching basket to catch a few Malacanang talking heads like what he has on his shoulder.
But we being civilised in this 21st century, can be satisfied with Mrs Arroyo sacking him for such idiocy.
Well we have news for Mr Gonzalez. If we do have a revolutionary government, we want it to be a genuine one and we are serious about it. We want a razor sharp guillotine with matching basket to catch a few Malacanang talking heads like what he has on his shoulder.
But we being civilised in this 21st century, can be satisfied with Mrs Arroyo sacking him for such idiocy.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Father Oprah "scandal"
After seeing the news on CNN, my mother is keenly interested in the ongoing "scandal" involving media personality and Roman Catholic priest Father Alberto Cutie in Miami. The priest who has a high media profile among Florida's Latinos, was recently caught by paparazzi smooching and fondling a woman on the beach. His bishop obviously had to do something canonically to contain the scandal. He sacked Cutie from being cura parroco and banned him from saying Mass. I have seen some of Fr Cutie's shows while I was living in the US and the tag "Father Oprah" was not lost on me.
My mother's being truly Pinay first comment was how "gwapo" this Father was. To which I remarked that here in the Pilipins, we have had many gwapo priests who had been caught in even more scandalous circumstances and still you can receive communion from them or even confess your most intimate sins! One or two of them even are bishops and only then did the Vatican do something about it when one woman went on TV cams with her lovechild with a certain bishop. Now this bishop was considered for the Cardinal's seat in Manila.
Since Cutie's congregation are Latins, and just like us Pinoys, I could connect with the relief expressed by the Latinos saying "that at least Fr Cutie was 1) straight and 2) had an affair with a woman who was definitely way way above the age of majority (the paramour was a devastatingly beautiful woman 35 years young).
The US church (not only the Catholic but many of the mainline Protestants) have been reeling from pedophile, rapist and gay clerics. Surely a celibate priest like Cutie who has the consensual hots for a woman isn't that bad? That's exactly what the Latinos thought and his congregation was willing to forgive and wrote their bishop. But Cutie had made up his mind.
Cutie has decided to join the Episcopal Church (TEC). TEC allows married priests, woman priests, birth control etc and almost everything that can cause a guilt trip among Catholics. This is why Robin Williams famously quipped that his denomination is "Catholic-lite, same rituals with half the guilt!"
Now whole Cutie issue has once more fanned the debate among Catholics about priestly celibacy. A majority of US Catholics want their priests to marry. Increasingly Pinoy Catholics believe too that priests should marry if they want to. Among Pinoys, a married priest is more "believable" when counselling about marital existence.
The pros and cons of celibacy can be googled and you will get a heap of links. But we have to get the facts straight. Celibacy is only obligatory for the Latin Church. Among Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox they follow the ancient tradition of having married parish priests. Even in the Latin Church, the Pope can give dispensation to accept a married man as a priest. The Pope has done this for decades when a Protestant or Anglican cleric joins the Catholic Church as a cleric. The rule on celibacy is a church discipline and not dogma. The Pope or an Ecumenical Council with the Pope can change the rule.
While those for a married clergy recognize the benefits of having married priests, they don't discount the benefits of having a celibate clergy. The question is whether all men can be called to priesthood and celibacy or priesthood and celibacy are two callings instead of one. Eastern Catholics tend to understand these are two callings.
The statistics are grim. As the number of Catholics increase, vocations to the priesthood decrease although in some areas, vocations do increase but this is unlikely to be sustained.
Vatican II seems to have noted the problem when it restored the married diaconate to the Church. Married men may be ordained deacons and are cleric. But deacons are not priests but are ordained for service not to celebrate Mass or hear confessions.
Laypeople may not be much overly concerned about celibacy since many think married life is in the cards. In reality for some, married life is not in the cards. But it may be a good idea to think about it. When I was writing my PhD thesis, I lived like a monk with a prayer discipline (to be able to write) in the Catholic college. Temporalily freed from sex as an escape hatch from troubles and frustration, sex was to me unexpectedly elevated to something higher. I then got a glimpse of what sex ought to be and why for the celibates, sex is returned to its source, Life itself and Life in God.
But not are called to that and so sex has to be elevated to Life in community with another person and in time possibly give rise to other persons. That in itself returning sex to its source, Life itself and the Living God.
But all that should be in community, whether celibate or not.
This is probably why the Father Cutie's journey has attracted so much attention. The celibate and non-celibate's question "How do we return sex and intimacy to its source?" remains.
My mother's being truly Pinay first comment was how "gwapo" this Father was. To which I remarked that here in the Pilipins, we have had many gwapo priests who had been caught in even more scandalous circumstances and still you can receive communion from them or even confess your most intimate sins! One or two of them even are bishops and only then did the Vatican do something about it when one woman went on TV cams with her lovechild with a certain bishop. Now this bishop was considered for the Cardinal's seat in Manila.
Since Cutie's congregation are Latins, and just like us Pinoys, I could connect with the relief expressed by the Latinos saying "that at least Fr Cutie was 1) straight and 2) had an affair with a woman who was definitely way way above the age of majority (the paramour was a devastatingly beautiful woman 35 years young).
The US church (not only the Catholic but many of the mainline Protestants) have been reeling from pedophile, rapist and gay clerics. Surely a celibate priest like Cutie who has the consensual hots for a woman isn't that bad? That's exactly what the Latinos thought and his congregation was willing to forgive and wrote their bishop. But Cutie had made up his mind.
Cutie has decided to join the Episcopal Church (TEC). TEC allows married priests, woman priests, birth control etc and almost everything that can cause a guilt trip among Catholics. This is why Robin Williams famously quipped that his denomination is "Catholic-lite, same rituals with half the guilt!"
Now whole Cutie issue has once more fanned the debate among Catholics about priestly celibacy. A majority of US Catholics want their priests to marry. Increasingly Pinoy Catholics believe too that priests should marry if they want to. Among Pinoys, a married priest is more "believable" when counselling about marital existence.
The pros and cons of celibacy can be googled and you will get a heap of links. But we have to get the facts straight. Celibacy is only obligatory for the Latin Church. Among Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox they follow the ancient tradition of having married parish priests. Even in the Latin Church, the Pope can give dispensation to accept a married man as a priest. The Pope has done this for decades when a Protestant or Anglican cleric joins the Catholic Church as a cleric. The rule on celibacy is a church discipline and not dogma. The Pope or an Ecumenical Council with the Pope can change the rule.
While those for a married clergy recognize the benefits of having married priests, they don't discount the benefits of having a celibate clergy. The question is whether all men can be called to priesthood and celibacy or priesthood and celibacy are two callings instead of one. Eastern Catholics tend to understand these are two callings.
The statistics are grim. As the number of Catholics increase, vocations to the priesthood decrease although in some areas, vocations do increase but this is unlikely to be sustained.
Vatican II seems to have noted the problem when it restored the married diaconate to the Church. Married men may be ordained deacons and are cleric. But deacons are not priests but are ordained for service not to celebrate Mass or hear confessions.
Laypeople may not be much overly concerned about celibacy since many think married life is in the cards. In reality for some, married life is not in the cards. But it may be a good idea to think about it. When I was writing my PhD thesis, I lived like a monk with a prayer discipline (to be able to write) in the Catholic college. Temporalily freed from sex as an escape hatch from troubles and frustration, sex was to me unexpectedly elevated to something higher. I then got a glimpse of what sex ought to be and why for the celibates, sex is returned to its source, Life itself and Life in God.
But not are called to that and so sex has to be elevated to Life in community with another person and in time possibly give rise to other persons. That in itself returning sex to its source, Life itself and the Living God.
But all that should be in community, whether celibate or not.
This is probably why the Father Cutie's journey has attracted so much attention. The celibate and non-celibate's question "How do we return sex and intimacy to its source?" remains.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Heritage and a hotel
The Philippine Daily Inquirer in the past week has featured on its front page, articles on the problems besetting the Manila Hotel. Today it has an editorial on it. The hotel which if I am not mistaken was built in 1912. One of the first icons and architectural symbols of American sovereignty, it was meant to provide luxurious accommodation for the new colonizers. During the preceding Spanish regime, the luxurious hotels were in Binondo. Rizal's Crisostomo Ibarra in the Noli Me Tangere, describes one of them. Nonetheless before the Manila Hotel was built, travellers to the Philippines had little good to say about tourist accomodations in the city.
The hotel is famous for the fact that as part of the deal between Commonwealth President Quezon and General MacArthur on training the new Philippine Army, the general had for a perk the airconditioned penthouse of the hotel. The hotel also witnessed the end of American colonialism in the Philippines. Richard Connaughton, John Pimlott and Duncan Anderson write in a chapter of "The Battle of Manila" that just before the Japanese entered the city, the scene at the Champagne Room was like from a Bunuel movie. MacArthur's penthouse however was put to the torch by the retreating Japanese right before MacArthur's eyes.
Postwar history records numerous social events, political party conventions and the constitutional convention that gave us the 1973 charter. The hotel in the 1980s was still the destination as the newer hotels built in the 1970s had not yet attained that snob appeal. I remember attending as a teenager dubuts and soirees in the hotel ballroom. Later on as a young professional it was the UP Alumni homecomings sponsored in part by GSIS. When the hotel was bought by the group controlled by Bulletin publisher Emilio Yap, it hosted the DOST's NAST conventions and other like activities. Attendees got their complimentary Manila Bulletin.
The hotel also made history by being the platform from which journalists reported the Tagumpay ng Bayan rallies of presidential candidate Cory Aquino in February 1986. When Aquino assumed the presidency, a few months later, Marcos loyalists took over the hotel lobby.
The senior members of my family who during their long career in government or the business sector were regular habitues of the hotel say that even in the 1970s, the only redeeming feature of the hotel was its heritage and ambiance. The food they told us kids was "not that spectacular". But then we kids had no idea of what good ritzy hotel food was couldn't comment. Only when we had the chance to stay in a few ritzy hotels overseas as part of our professional responsibilities attending conferences (not on junkets mind you but on sponsored tickets!) did we get to compare what the Manila Hotel dished out.
But on recent visit to the hotel (as usual on a DOST sponsored meeting), I noticed that the food was still the same and that the hotel had seen better days. This was the gist of the Inquirer editorial and articles. In 1997 a Malaysian group won the bidding when the government decided to divest some of its business holdings. However a losing bidder went to the Supreme Court and argued that as a Filipino company it should have priority in acquiring an piece of the national patrimony and heritage. The court awarded the bid to the Filipino company.
The Inquirer opines that the hotel since then has lost its glamour and old world ambiance only to be replaced by what seems to be Chinoy tackiness including a swipe on Feng shui dictated removal and replacement of the lobby chandeliers.
And as for the CR, well it seems that too needs more attention. However the hotel's owners may take comfort in the fact that the CR there is about in the same condition or even better than that in Malacanang's Maharlika Hall.
The problem is that when the government sold the hotel to its new owners. the owners have all the right to do whatever they want to the hotel. Even if heritage preservation advocates complain, the bottom line is that it would be the hotel's guests that will determine if the hotel will be allowed to stay the same or not. If not, then they would simply check out! The hotel is under renovation.
But it seems that have done so and as the Inquirer reports, the hotel has racked up a significant debt even if it is used as a convention venue.
The Manila Hotel issue is just the tip of our issues with heritage conservation and the inadequacy of our laws to deal with it. Much of our existing heritage structures are churches. Even then under Civil Law, these are considered privately owned by the Catholic Church. Under Canon Law the disposition of these properties are under the diocesan bishops through their parish priests. Some bishops are heritage conscious while some are not. Some buildings are owned by the national or local government. For example the City of Manila demolished the Jai Alai fronton on Taft Avenue which heritage advocates believed should be protected. TheVatican on the other hand has a treaty with the Philippines about preserving heritage churches. The CBCP has a committee to look into the matter but has no sanctioning powers. It can only recommend actions.
The heritage advocates believe that demolishing or renovating heritage structures show that we don't have a historical memory. Let's face it. Money talks. New Money talks even louder to the chagrin of the ancien riche! What may be needed is a wider education campaign targeted to the public and most especially to the "new money". I say this since the less affluent's chances of getting into a heritage building is only in church or the National Museum! The rest of the heritage structures are privately owned and may be developed as tony social watering holes. Thus the new money are likely to buy the heritage properties. The people with the new cash if sufficiently made aware and heritage educated would know that there is more pleasure spending your money if the ambiance was like on the dining room of the Titanic!
The hotel is famous for the fact that as part of the deal between Commonwealth President Quezon and General MacArthur on training the new Philippine Army, the general had for a perk the airconditioned penthouse of the hotel. The hotel also witnessed the end of American colonialism in the Philippines. Richard Connaughton, John Pimlott and Duncan Anderson write in a chapter of "The Battle of Manila" that just before the Japanese entered the city, the scene at the Champagne Room was like from a Bunuel movie. MacArthur's penthouse however was put to the torch by the retreating Japanese right before MacArthur's eyes.
Postwar history records numerous social events, political party conventions and the constitutional convention that gave us the 1973 charter. The hotel in the 1980s was still the destination as the newer hotels built in the 1970s had not yet attained that snob appeal. I remember attending as a teenager dubuts and soirees in the hotel ballroom. Later on as a young professional it was the UP Alumni homecomings sponsored in part by GSIS. When the hotel was bought by the group controlled by Bulletin publisher Emilio Yap, it hosted the DOST's NAST conventions and other like activities. Attendees got their complimentary Manila Bulletin.
The hotel also made history by being the platform from which journalists reported the Tagumpay ng Bayan rallies of presidential candidate Cory Aquino in February 1986. When Aquino assumed the presidency, a few months later, Marcos loyalists took over the hotel lobby.
The senior members of my family who during their long career in government or the business sector were regular habitues of the hotel say that even in the 1970s, the only redeeming feature of the hotel was its heritage and ambiance. The food they told us kids was "not that spectacular". But then we kids had no idea of what good ritzy hotel food was couldn't comment. Only when we had the chance to stay in a few ritzy hotels overseas as part of our professional responsibilities attending conferences (not on junkets mind you but on sponsored tickets!) did we get to compare what the Manila Hotel dished out.
But on recent visit to the hotel (as usual on a DOST sponsored meeting), I noticed that the food was still the same and that the hotel had seen better days. This was the gist of the Inquirer editorial and articles. In 1997 a Malaysian group won the bidding when the government decided to divest some of its business holdings. However a losing bidder went to the Supreme Court and argued that as a Filipino company it should have priority in acquiring an piece of the national patrimony and heritage. The court awarded the bid to the Filipino company.
The Inquirer opines that the hotel since then has lost its glamour and old world ambiance only to be replaced by what seems to be Chinoy tackiness including a swipe on Feng shui dictated removal and replacement of the lobby chandeliers.
And as for the CR, well it seems that too needs more attention. However the hotel's owners may take comfort in the fact that the CR there is about in the same condition or even better than that in Malacanang's Maharlika Hall.
The problem is that when the government sold the hotel to its new owners. the owners have all the right to do whatever they want to the hotel. Even if heritage preservation advocates complain, the bottom line is that it would be the hotel's guests that will determine if the hotel will be allowed to stay the same or not. If not, then they would simply check out! The hotel is under renovation.
But it seems that have done so and as the Inquirer reports, the hotel has racked up a significant debt even if it is used as a convention venue.
The Manila Hotel issue is just the tip of our issues with heritage conservation and the inadequacy of our laws to deal with it. Much of our existing heritage structures are churches. Even then under Civil Law, these are considered privately owned by the Catholic Church. Under Canon Law the disposition of these properties are under the diocesan bishops through their parish priests. Some bishops are heritage conscious while some are not. Some buildings are owned by the national or local government. For example the City of Manila demolished the Jai Alai fronton on Taft Avenue which heritage advocates believed should be protected. TheVatican on the other hand has a treaty with the Philippines about preserving heritage churches. The CBCP has a committee to look into the matter but has no sanctioning powers. It can only recommend actions.
The heritage advocates believe that demolishing or renovating heritage structures show that we don't have a historical memory. Let's face it. Money talks. New Money talks even louder to the chagrin of the ancien riche! What may be needed is a wider education campaign targeted to the public and most especially to the "new money". I say this since the less affluent's chances of getting into a heritage building is only in church or the National Museum! The rest of the heritage structures are privately owned and may be developed as tony social watering holes. Thus the new money are likely to buy the heritage properties. The people with the new cash if sufficiently made aware and heritage educated would know that there is more pleasure spending your money if the ambiance was like on the dining room of the Titanic!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Is secularism a wimp outside a Christian society?
The Pinoy Holy Week is probably one of the best times to observe how secular values interact with the inherent religiosity of the people. While my senior citizen relatives would say that the Filipino has become less "religious", this meaning external manifestations of piety, mainly Tridentine, this isn't really correct. Traditional Catholic rituals seem to fulfill their function and in concert with secularism. So during Pabasa, people eat Jollibee's meat patties between buns.
Last Holy Tuesday, I was with two people with scientific and theological training in a Figaro coffeeshop. One is a Jesuit priest whose PhD I examined and one was a scientist who attended the same university I did. The scientist upon returning to the Philippines and teaching for a year, realized that he had a religious calling and went right into seminary. He graduated with dual degrees in ministry and biblical studies. Both clerics are ordained ministers of the Catholic and Evangelical churches. This was an unprecedented opportunity. I was sharing the table with Protestant and Catholic clergymen.
The topic of discussion turned to securlarism as both men had pastoral experience in England (The Jesuit spent time in Oxford and the Protestant minister spent time in London). In England I was told, the move for secularism has been much in the news lately. The government of the day wants that ancient laws discriminating Catholics be removed (allowing the Monarch to marry a Catholic). England is officially religious but in truth is waffingly secular. The USA on the other hand is officially secular but very religious. But in seems that in both societies, there is a line that divides the secular from the religious and that works for them.
In the Philippines, we agreed that the secular and the religious are hopelessly entangled. Since we all attended UP at some time, we noticed that even the UP icon "Oblation" is actually a Crucifixion allegory. This is something that cannot be lost even on the most atheisticallly secular. The statue has his arms stretched wide! After all the Latin "oblatio" is defined as a solemn offering to God.
So the secular and the religious are hoplessly enmeshed in the national university. No wonder when the more atheistic and secular admistrators in Quezon Hall decided to ban "prayer" on Palma Hall or threatened to revoke the leases on the Flying Saucer and Parabolic churches, the community essentially responded "Just you try"
Nothing ever came out of it. Ho hummm.
The debate in England may interest us according to the clerics. Not a few Catholics and other Protestants don't support disestablishing the Church of England. They are afraid that once that happens, English society will be cast off its Christian moorings and with that secular values that the English uphold. The thesis is that Secularism will be a wimp without its Christian moorings.
And why is that so? Secularism derives much of its values from Christianity. And this is not the dogmatic bit but that secular values can be reached using reason like articles of the Christian faith can be understood using the same faculties. The Roman Catholic Church requires that a Catholic use his/her faculties of reason before assenting to doctrine.
There might be a grain of truth in this. In Europe, Islamic militant fundamentalism is on the rise. Perhaps you cannot reason with a suicide bomber. This is why even the British National Secular Society wants Christians to join them against moves to make Sharia part of English Common law.
The BNSS has a majority membership of atheists.
Pope Benedict XVI failed to make the EU acknowledge Europe's Christian roots. But Benedict knows that a secular Europe is a wimp without Christianity. Benedict I believe understands it so well. He is much interested in what is happening in Turkey.
Turkey is probably the only majority Islamic country that is officially secular. But unlike in the majority Christian secular countries, the military keeps tight watch on political secularism. It has intervened in the past to ward off political Islam.
Israel is a Jewish state but many of its citizens are secular says this der Spiegel article. While many Israelis are discomfitted with religious Jews exercising much influence, they are forced to admit that their Jewish identity and their being Israeli are indissoluble. All Israelis for instance have to be married in religious rites. The secular nature of society is revealed when it is only in Israel that gays can be openly gay in the Middle East. Secular Israel seems to be viable only within religious Israel.
The parallels between a flourishing secularism in a majority Jewish state and in majority Christian states is worth noting. Is it that both faiths are so similar? After all Christianity according to one rabbi, is a form of Judaism.
Another case is Japan and China, which are secular but whose secular state institutions betray a religious nature. In Japan and China, people do worship but deny religious affiliation. In Japan 90% identify themselves as Buddhist and 90% identify themselves as Shintoists. But then again these classifications as constructed by the West. One can't imagine Japan as secular in the Western sense.
The Philippines is officially secular but obviously religious. While its brand of secularism was inherited from America, there is no clear line dividing the two. There must be space for secularism but it should be in Church.
So if we take out the Roman Catholic out of the Philippines, would Filipinos be tolerant of secularism and minority beliefs? How will Islam in the Philippines interact with our brand of Roman Catholic secularism?
Last Holy Tuesday, I was with two people with scientific and theological training in a Figaro coffeeshop. One is a Jesuit priest whose PhD I examined and one was a scientist who attended the same university I did. The scientist upon returning to the Philippines and teaching for a year, realized that he had a religious calling and went right into seminary. He graduated with dual degrees in ministry and biblical studies. Both clerics are ordained ministers of the Catholic and Evangelical churches. This was an unprecedented opportunity. I was sharing the table with Protestant and Catholic clergymen.
The topic of discussion turned to securlarism as both men had pastoral experience in England (The Jesuit spent time in Oxford and the Protestant minister spent time in London). In England I was told, the move for secularism has been much in the news lately. The government of the day wants that ancient laws discriminating Catholics be removed (allowing the Monarch to marry a Catholic). England is officially religious but in truth is waffingly secular. The USA on the other hand is officially secular but very religious. But in seems that in both societies, there is a line that divides the secular from the religious and that works for them.
In the Philippines, we agreed that the secular and the religious are hopelessly entangled. Since we all attended UP at some time, we noticed that even the UP icon "Oblation" is actually a Crucifixion allegory. This is something that cannot be lost even on the most atheisticallly secular. The statue has his arms stretched wide! After all the Latin "oblatio" is defined as a solemn offering to God.
So the secular and the religious are hoplessly enmeshed in the national university. No wonder when the more atheistic and secular admistrators in Quezon Hall decided to ban "prayer" on Palma Hall or threatened to revoke the leases on the Flying Saucer and Parabolic churches, the community essentially responded "Just you try"
Nothing ever came out of it. Ho hummm.
The debate in England may interest us according to the clerics. Not a few Catholics and other Protestants don't support disestablishing the Church of England. They are afraid that once that happens, English society will be cast off its Christian moorings and with that secular values that the English uphold. The thesis is that Secularism will be a wimp without its Christian moorings.
And why is that so? Secularism derives much of its values from Christianity. And this is not the dogmatic bit but that secular values can be reached using reason like articles of the Christian faith can be understood using the same faculties. The Roman Catholic Church requires that a Catholic use his/her faculties of reason before assenting to doctrine.
There might be a grain of truth in this. In Europe, Islamic militant fundamentalism is on the rise. Perhaps you cannot reason with a suicide bomber. This is why even the British National Secular Society wants Christians to join them against moves to make Sharia part of English Common law.
The BNSS has a majority membership of atheists.
Pope Benedict XVI failed to make the EU acknowledge Europe's Christian roots. But Benedict knows that a secular Europe is a wimp without Christianity. Benedict I believe understands it so well. He is much interested in what is happening in Turkey.
Turkey is probably the only majority Islamic country that is officially secular. But unlike in the majority Christian secular countries, the military keeps tight watch on political secularism. It has intervened in the past to ward off political Islam.
Israel is a Jewish state but many of its citizens are secular says this der Spiegel article. While many Israelis are discomfitted with religious Jews exercising much influence, they are forced to admit that their Jewish identity and their being Israeli are indissoluble. All Israelis for instance have to be married in religious rites. The secular nature of society is revealed when it is only in Israel that gays can be openly gay in the Middle East. Secular Israel seems to be viable only within religious Israel.
The parallels between a flourishing secularism in a majority Jewish state and in majority Christian states is worth noting. Is it that both faiths are so similar? After all Christianity according to one rabbi, is a form of Judaism.
Another case is Japan and China, which are secular but whose secular state institutions betray a religious nature. In Japan and China, people do worship but deny religious affiliation. In Japan 90% identify themselves as Buddhist and 90% identify themselves as Shintoists. But then again these classifications as constructed by the West. One can't imagine Japan as secular in the Western sense.
The Philippines is officially secular but obviously religious. While its brand of secularism was inherited from America, there is no clear line dividing the two. There must be space for secularism but it should be in Church.
So if we take out the Roman Catholic out of the Philippines, would Filipinos be tolerant of secularism and minority beliefs? How will Islam in the Philippines interact with our brand of Roman Catholic secularism?
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
My Lenten book list: Garry Wills' books
Garry Wills, an ex-Jesuit seminarian, masterful political historian of Nixon and Roman Catholicism wrote a series of controversial books in recent years. These are "Papal Sin", the apologetic and still noncorformist "Why am I Catholic?", "What Jesus Meant", "What Paul Meant", "The Rosary" and "What the Gospels Meant" Common to all these books is that they skewer Catholic stereotypes. While I believe that Wills is still largely on the orthodox side of the fence (hey he ain't a Jefferts-Schori Episcopalian!), he does make good Lenten reading.
BTW the books (except the latest tome on the Gospels) are on sale at 50 pesos each at National Bookstore. I believe that they are too "heretical" for Pinoy Catholic tastes that NBS had to put them on sale.
For I believe that Lent means skewering traditional Catholic stereotypes. In "Why am I Catholic?" Wills argues that Papal primacy evolved as the Spirit moved the Church. Wills isn't a Protestant. He argues FOR PAPAL PRIMACY but that we have to chuck the usual historical teachings that the Magisterium has thrown at us. After all is the Magisterium infallible when interpreting human history?
Wills departs from traditional formularies on papal infallibility, transubstantiation, a Church without hierarchs, contraception, female ordination etc (these are things that DJB has skewered in his blog but since he is no Hans Kung, he can't get an audience with coffee with the greatest doctoral supervisor on these matters, Papa Ratzi)
But what I like in Wills is the penetential apologia he has in these books even if he has oddly orthodox-unorthodox stands on Catholic matters. He is what Australians would call a Catholic larrikin. After all he skewered the modern papacy and its pretensions in "Papal Sin". "Papal Sin" became a big hit that it is read surreptiously in Catholic seminaries. It now can be read since Vatican II chucked out the Index of Forbidden Books.
Wills' "What Jesus Meant" skewers our stereotype that Jesus was "meek and mild", "obedient" and best of all a "Christian model". Christ never intended himself to be Christian and if there was a contemporary that understood that well, it was none other than his cousin, John the Baptist. That was Paul's intent make Christians believe that Christ can conform to what society thinks He is. Thus he skewers the American WWJD cliche (imported to the Philippines by evangelicals). WWJD? Jesus would do what you will never think you would do? (Especially in social matters).
Wills argues that the Gospels is littered with stories of Christ overturning stereotypes. Just read your Bible.
In "Why I am Catholic?" I admire Wills meditation on the Lord's Prayer. I now have a deeper understanding of Eucharist and the Real Presence that the CCC can never have done. Here Wills is very orthodox in an unorthodox kind of way. The reflection I have here is that I can't live without God.
And in "The Rosary" this is made deeper. If we dump our stereotypes of Jesus, it follows that we have to dump our stereotypes of His Mother.
In Wills' meditation on the Lord's Prayer, the Latin translation of the last line Libera nos malo or "Deliver us from Evil" doesn't reflect the true meaning of the prayer in Koine Greek.
It should read as "Wrest us from the Evil hand". This has stronger meaning than what we say in church.
The Lord's Prayer in Wills reading reflects the eschaton or the Last Times. What has to be pondered in Lent is how much Jesus has to give in order to do that.
I recommend Garry Wills as Lenten reading but be forewarned Garry Wills can give the Opus Dei apoplexy!
BTW the books (except the latest tome on the Gospels) are on sale at 50 pesos each at National Bookstore. I believe that they are too "heretical" for Pinoy Catholic tastes that NBS had to put them on sale.
For I believe that Lent means skewering traditional Catholic stereotypes. In "Why am I Catholic?" Wills argues that Papal primacy evolved as the Spirit moved the Church. Wills isn't a Protestant. He argues FOR PAPAL PRIMACY but that we have to chuck the usual historical teachings that the Magisterium has thrown at us. After all is the Magisterium infallible when interpreting human history?
Wills departs from traditional formularies on papal infallibility, transubstantiation, a Church without hierarchs, contraception, female ordination etc (these are things that DJB has skewered in his blog but since he is no Hans Kung, he can't get an audience with coffee with the greatest doctoral supervisor on these matters, Papa Ratzi)
But what I like in Wills is the penetential apologia he has in these books even if he has oddly orthodox-unorthodox stands on Catholic matters. He is what Australians would call a Catholic larrikin. After all he skewered the modern papacy and its pretensions in "Papal Sin". "Papal Sin" became a big hit that it is read surreptiously in Catholic seminaries. It now can be read since Vatican II chucked out the Index of Forbidden Books.
Wills' "What Jesus Meant" skewers our stereotype that Jesus was "meek and mild", "obedient" and best of all a "Christian model". Christ never intended himself to be Christian and if there was a contemporary that understood that well, it was none other than his cousin, John the Baptist. That was Paul's intent make Christians believe that Christ can conform to what society thinks He is. Thus he skewers the American WWJD cliche (imported to the Philippines by evangelicals). WWJD? Jesus would do what you will never think you would do? (Especially in social matters).
Wills argues that the Gospels is littered with stories of Christ overturning stereotypes. Just read your Bible.
In "Why I am Catholic?" I admire Wills meditation on the Lord's Prayer. I now have a deeper understanding of Eucharist and the Real Presence that the CCC can never have done. Here Wills is very orthodox in an unorthodox kind of way. The reflection I have here is that I can't live without God.
And in "The Rosary" this is made deeper. If we dump our stereotypes of Jesus, it follows that we have to dump our stereotypes of His Mother.
In Wills' meditation on the Lord's Prayer, the Latin translation of the last line Libera nos malo or "Deliver us from Evil" doesn't reflect the true meaning of the prayer in Koine Greek.
It should read as "Wrest us from the Evil hand". This has stronger meaning than what we say in church.
The Lord's Prayer in Wills reading reflects the eschaton or the Last Times. What has to be pondered in Lent is how much Jesus has to give in order to do that.
I recommend Garry Wills as Lenten reading but be forewarned Garry Wills can give the Opus Dei apoplexy!
Noli Me Tangere: A response to DJB
This is my response to Dean Jorge Bocobo's Noli Me Tangere: Jesus Says to Mary Magadalene
Jose Rizal’s title for his novel is an irony. As the writer’s foreword to his work says, there is a social cancer so malignant that mere touch can send the sufferer to spasms. The ancients can’t do anything but to expose the afflicted on the steps of the Temple in hope that someone can extend a blessing.
Thus the afflicted body is not in a glorified state and is corrupted.
In the case of the Resurrected Jesus, the body has been glorified and rescued from corruption (death). Mary of Magdala is cautioned from not touching Christ’s glorified body since she herself hasn’t been glorified yet. This is well within Jewish belief that a defiled body cannot be allowed to touch the holy.
Now before the moral relativists read this to mean that women are defiled, Mary of Magdala represents all of us except in one thing. She has been faithful to her Master to the extent that she kept watch while the male disciples were in fear and doubted the Resurrection. Thus Mary of Magdala was the first to have seen the Resurrected Jesus Christ.
Rizal’s intent in the Noli Me Tangere is clear and the Dominicans in UST read is so clearly and the Jesuits in the Ateneo cannot but agree. The Sacerdotes cannot by any means remove the corruption that infests the Filipino colonial body politic. No blessing from the Church can cure the cancer. Mary of Magdala couldn’t touch the glorified since it is pure, Filipinos cannot touch the corrupt because it is infected!
Rizal was ever the Victorian doctor with the right diagnosis.
This is the message of the Noli Me Tangere. What is Glorified in Philippine society is infected and thus no one dares to touch it in fear of contagion. So if you support clerics to run for office, please keep this in mind.
Jose Rizal’s title for his novel is an irony. As the writer’s foreword to his work says, there is a social cancer so malignant that mere touch can send the sufferer to spasms. The ancients can’t do anything but to expose the afflicted on the steps of the Temple in hope that someone can extend a blessing.
Thus the afflicted body is not in a glorified state and is corrupted.
In the case of the Resurrected Jesus, the body has been glorified and rescued from corruption (death). Mary of Magdala is cautioned from not touching Christ’s glorified body since she herself hasn’t been glorified yet. This is well within Jewish belief that a defiled body cannot be allowed to touch the holy.
Now before the moral relativists read this to mean that women are defiled, Mary of Magdala represents all of us except in one thing. She has been faithful to her Master to the extent that she kept watch while the male disciples were in fear and doubted the Resurrection. Thus Mary of Magdala was the first to have seen the Resurrected Jesus Christ.
Rizal’s intent in the Noli Me Tangere is clear and the Dominicans in UST read is so clearly and the Jesuits in the Ateneo cannot but agree. The Sacerdotes cannot by any means remove the corruption that infests the Filipino colonial body politic. No blessing from the Church can cure the cancer. Mary of Magdala couldn’t touch the glorified since it is pure, Filipinos cannot touch the corrupt because it is infected!
Rizal was ever the Victorian doctor with the right diagnosis.
This is the message of the Noli Me Tangere. What is Glorified in Philippine society is infected and thus no one dares to touch it in fear of contagion. So if you support clerics to run for office, please keep this in mind.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Temporal, spatial in UP Diliman
Caffeine_Sparks ruminated on the meaning of building a future in the Philippines. Now those who are geographers know that these constructs like “prosperous Philippines” have to be situated in space. So I find Caffeine_Sparks’ essay quite interesting. What is the future? Where is the future located? And how can we build it there?
Now the essayist writes that her many friends and family ”cannot imagine a future in this spatiality”. Now we who teach in the University of the Philippines can relate with that in all spatial scales. Like anyone, it is very hard to find a future in this spatiality of 493 hectares and by extension the whole Philippines (considering that this university is a sort of microcosm of Pinoy society). But the question that nags many is why these bright people continue to teach and receive very pathetic salaries? This was a question of a true blue Atenean who decided to take a PhD in UP after attending Oxford University for a Masters (Since Ateneo did not offer an advanced degree in his field, he enrolled in UP). He told me that he knew that UP profs receive paltry pay but only when he sat in the graduate classroom of the national university did the reality hit him. The philosophically reflective Atenean experienced the phenom of experiencing crawlies in the classroom with one of the country’s top environmental engineers giving a lecture!
After all he was sitting in a termite ridden classroom! The termite colony was behind the whiteboard!
Perhaps there are what UP’s top honcho’s say as “psychic rewards” that make people stay. But like any psychic phenomena, you can’t eat it. When Jesus Christ promised bread from heaven, he did make it physical first and the allegorical explanation came later (courtesy of the Church). The psychic came after the physical and not the other way around.
With the new UP Charter, things should begin to brighten up. And yes indeed it has. However the question of increasing professors and staff pay will have to take a few more years for the university has none of the resources currently. And this is why UP President Emer Roman has to request Congress to include UP in the new round of salary standardizations. UP according to the charter is no longer in the SSL system.
If Caffeine_sparks writes “you cannot live on love alone”. We in UP say “we cannot live on psychic rewards alone”
Indeed the UP faculty and staff situation is a microcosm of the Pinoy diaspora. Last year we lost 4 science PhDs to brighter pastures abroad. Those who are in grad school overseas are continually in the desert facing the last temptation of Christ.
“Worship the Dollar Almighty, the Holy Greencard and the Blessed American (Australian, British etc) Dream and I’ll give you all of these.”
That some department chairs have thrown in the towel is reflected in their department’s policy that junior faculty members leaving for their PhDs on their own steam are asked to resign rather than go on study leave. The reason is that they don’t return anyway. Even those on scholarship obligation find ways not to return. One instructor who had no plans of settling abroad found this “very insulting”.
Also I know of a Filipino pastor serving an evangelical church near a Pasig mall who has decided to be a teacher in New Zealand. Even he couldn’t find a future as a religious minister in a Pinoy church.
Now what is the Filipino dream anyway? A heap of books have been written on the Pinoy dream and diaspora and a “cottage industry” like what Ambeth Ocampo says is with Rizal. We are still finding meaning on the whole OFW phenomenon and this is good for still many PhD dissertations. When I was an OFW academic myself, I read many of these books in the library of an American university. From what I gather, we Pinoys have created new boundaries of being nation. Since I am no social scientist, I will probably screw up the interpretation of these findings. The nation can be transplanted anywhere. But even if it is transplanted , it will be an approximation of what was left at home.
Thus we need Disneyland. Overseas Filipinos come home to the Philippine Disneyland since they need it. And Disneyland it really is. We take them to Eastwood, Greenbelt 1-5, Bonifacio High Street, Mall of Asia and for the Cebu bound, Ayala Center Cebu or to overrated resorts on Boracay etc. The overseas Pinoys are never taken to the bad side of town or to a nice beach in Guimaras without the creature comfies!
I myself have experienced it. When I came home for a holiday, friends took me to the newest sosy mall then, Rockwell!
But I was writing about those immigrants with rights of return. The OFW doesn’t and is likely to come home to a place with nary much an improvement. In some cases OFW money has improved conditions in the barangay, (like that Swiss Chalet in the Cordillera rice terraces), but in many cases, it hasn’t.
Caffeine_Sparks concludes in her essay
” All polities (i.e. political communities) share two things in common - an uninterrupted timeline to connect past, present and future – all to unfold in a single space. What we may be experiencing is a disintegration of both. Here the archipelago floats, bits and pieces eaten away by the Pacific.”
Perhaps the real Filipino dream in the diaspora is simply to die in “Inang Bayan”. I have known many Pinoy old folks who after spending decades overseas have decided to return to die. The thought of staying in an American nursing home in the recession is worse than death. Not even the cute “apos” can prevent them from going home.
This is the dream of Jose Rizal, Marcelo H Del Pilar and countless number of exiles. We are a nation of exiles. The Philippines is a sacred place which we haven’t really reached.
And as Claro M Recto’s final words in a Rome hospital was
“It is terrible to die in a foreign country”
That was my biggest fear too when I was living overseas. When I was doing fieldwork in the Aussie bush, my Akubra had a Philippine flag pinned on it. This was not really an act of nationalist fervour but a practical one. If I die and find my white bones, the Australians would know where to send the remains.
Where else but to the University of the Philippines!
Now the essayist writes that her many friends and family ”cannot imagine a future in this spatiality”. Now we who teach in the University of the Philippines can relate with that in all spatial scales. Like anyone, it is very hard to find a future in this spatiality of 493 hectares and by extension the whole Philippines (considering that this university is a sort of microcosm of Pinoy society). But the question that nags many is why these bright people continue to teach and receive very pathetic salaries? This was a question of a true blue Atenean who decided to take a PhD in UP after attending Oxford University for a Masters (Since Ateneo did not offer an advanced degree in his field, he enrolled in UP). He told me that he knew that UP profs receive paltry pay but only when he sat in the graduate classroom of the national university did the reality hit him. The philosophically reflective Atenean experienced the phenom of experiencing crawlies in the classroom with one of the country’s top environmental engineers giving a lecture!
After all he was sitting in a termite ridden classroom! The termite colony was behind the whiteboard!
Perhaps there are what UP’s top honcho’s say as “psychic rewards” that make people stay. But like any psychic phenomena, you can’t eat it. When Jesus Christ promised bread from heaven, he did make it physical first and the allegorical explanation came later (courtesy of the Church). The psychic came after the physical and not the other way around.
With the new UP Charter, things should begin to brighten up. And yes indeed it has. However the question of increasing professors and staff pay will have to take a few more years for the university has none of the resources currently. And this is why UP President Emer Roman has to request Congress to include UP in the new round of salary standardizations. UP according to the charter is no longer in the SSL system.
If Caffeine_sparks writes “you cannot live on love alone”. We in UP say “we cannot live on psychic rewards alone”
Indeed the UP faculty and staff situation is a microcosm of the Pinoy diaspora. Last year we lost 4 science PhDs to brighter pastures abroad. Those who are in grad school overseas are continually in the desert facing the last temptation of Christ.
“Worship the Dollar Almighty, the Holy Greencard and the Blessed American (Australian, British etc) Dream and I’ll give you all of these.”
That some department chairs have thrown in the towel is reflected in their department’s policy that junior faculty members leaving for their PhDs on their own steam are asked to resign rather than go on study leave. The reason is that they don’t return anyway. Even those on scholarship obligation find ways not to return. One instructor who had no plans of settling abroad found this “very insulting”.
Also I know of a Filipino pastor serving an evangelical church near a Pasig mall who has decided to be a teacher in New Zealand. Even he couldn’t find a future as a religious minister in a Pinoy church.
Now what is the Filipino dream anyway? A heap of books have been written on the Pinoy dream and diaspora and a “cottage industry” like what Ambeth Ocampo says is with Rizal. We are still finding meaning on the whole OFW phenomenon and this is good for still many PhD dissertations. When I was an OFW academic myself, I read many of these books in the library of an American university. From what I gather, we Pinoys have created new boundaries of being nation. Since I am no social scientist, I will probably screw up the interpretation of these findings. The nation can be transplanted anywhere. But even if it is transplanted , it will be an approximation of what was left at home.
Thus we need Disneyland. Overseas Filipinos come home to the Philippine Disneyland since they need it. And Disneyland it really is. We take them to Eastwood, Greenbelt 1-5, Bonifacio High Street, Mall of Asia and for the Cebu bound, Ayala Center Cebu or to overrated resorts on Boracay etc. The overseas Pinoys are never taken to the bad side of town or to a nice beach in Guimaras without the creature comfies!
I myself have experienced it. When I came home for a holiday, friends took me to the newest sosy mall then, Rockwell!
But I was writing about those immigrants with rights of return. The OFW doesn’t and is likely to come home to a place with nary much an improvement. In some cases OFW money has improved conditions in the barangay, (like that Swiss Chalet in the Cordillera rice terraces), but in many cases, it hasn’t.
Caffeine_Sparks concludes in her essay
” All polities (i.e. political communities) share two things in common - an uninterrupted timeline to connect past, present and future – all to unfold in a single space. What we may be experiencing is a disintegration of both. Here the archipelago floats, bits and pieces eaten away by the Pacific.”
Perhaps the real Filipino dream in the diaspora is simply to die in “Inang Bayan”. I have known many Pinoy old folks who after spending decades overseas have decided to return to die. The thought of staying in an American nursing home in the recession is worse than death. Not even the cute “apos” can prevent them from going home.
This is the dream of Jose Rizal, Marcelo H Del Pilar and countless number of exiles. We are a nation of exiles. The Philippines is a sacred place which we haven’t really reached.
And as Claro M Recto’s final words in a Rome hospital was
“It is terrible to die in a foreign country”
That was my biggest fear too when I was living overseas. When I was doing fieldwork in the Aussie bush, my Akubra had a Philippine flag pinned on it. This was not really an act of nationalist fervour but a practical one. If I die and find my white bones, the Australians would know where to send the remains.
Where else but to the University of the Philippines!
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