An insightful writing by Father Robert Reyes. Here's an excerpt.
Padre Damaso of Noli and Fili fame is a black eye to the Philippine Church then as well as today. To be a priest and called Damaso is not so pleasant to say the very least. Carlos Celdran’s creative protest in front the altar of the Manila Cathedral against the Church’s position on the RH Bill has now earned him the verdict of guilty and a jail sentence of more than a year.
I will not go into either the merits of the case or prolong the discussion on the RH Bill, I wish to go through the multi-tiered pain represented by the name Damaso.
Is Carlos Celdran in pain? Yes, but not in the way that others may understand. I know him and he is a friend. He is a bona-fide citizen of the Republic of the Philippines. We have shared much about the excesses of the Catholic Church long before he ever thought of his “Damaso act” in the Manila Cathedral. Carlos’ pain is that of a Catholic who ask questions and seeks answers but instead of being given one is told to shut up and behave himself. While his Damaso act could have been better done outside the Cathedral and not inside while an Inter-faith gathering was going on, it was his choice for which he was ready to face the consequences.
There is another paradoxical twist to Carlos’ pain. His creative protest against the Church’s intrusion into the affairs of the state earned the ire of Manila Cathedral Rector Msgr. Nestor Cerbo who later filed a case against the latter. In the meantime, officers of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines forgave Celdran. But now, the courts which are instruments of the state decided to convict and sentence Celdran. While Cendran’s Damaso Act defended the state’s program on Population Management, it is the courts of the same state that is putting him behind bars.
Are there real Damasos in the Church? Are they in pain as well?
There are Damasos in the Church but they are not in pain. And this is what prodded Rizal to create the dastardly character of his novels called Padre Damaso.
Read the full article
here.
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