Cardinal Tagle wants people power for Church

 Read this from GMA NEWS written by Jason Gutierrez, Agence France-Presse (February 21, 2013 11:29am).

 Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle wants to bring the Catholic Church closer to people, a vision his fans say comes from a genuine passion for helping the poor and one that could make him Asia's first pope.

The 55-year-old cardinal from a working-class family close to Manila is being touted at home and abroad as a genuine chance to succeed Pope Benedict XVI during a historic Vatican vote next month.

Tagle has a reputation across the devoutly Catholic Philippines as a humble man with a lifelong commitment to helping the poor, while senior Church figures regard him as a moderate progressive who balances conservative doctrines.

Tagle, the archbishop of Manila who was appointed a cardinal in November, has refused to discuss his chances for the papacy since Benedict announced he would resign on February 28 due to poor health.

But speaking at a public seminar in Manila last weekend, Tagle elaborated on his well-known views that Church leaders needed to do a better job at reaching out to the people within their communities, particularly the youth.

"The young want to be connected," Tagle said at the forum.

"That is the basic of the faith -- (to be) connected to God, connected to others, to the Church. We need to go back to that fundamental."

Eloquent and with a soothing voice, Tagle has also made high-profile speeches in recent years calling for a humbler Church that is more open to the public's concerns.

Born in 1957 in the then-rural township of Imus, Cavite, about two hours' drive south of Manila, Tagle's devout Catholic upbringing exposed him to religious work at an early age.

One of his mentors, Father Romeo Ner, 72, recalled that they first met when Tagle was a young boy and even then he showed remarkable empathy, as well as discipline and intellect.

"He was always number one in school. He was very interested in helping the poor even at a young age, and he was very close to the Church," Ner told AFP.

"I was amazed because he knew how to recite the rosary and all of its mysteries when he was just three."

Ner said that as a young priest, Tagle was involved in raising money for parishes that served poor areas, where the future cardinal developed a taste for braised chicken feet -- a staple in the slums.

"Giving the poor their true dignity is his passion. He loves them," said Ner, who as then vicar general of Tagle's hometown was instrumental in making him one of the country's youngest bishops at the age of 44 in 2001.

"When he was appointed as cardinal last year, I asked him whether he realized he was now the highest churchman in the country," Ner said.

"He just said 'yes,' but appeared not to be very engrossed with the idea. He is very humble that way, and he never craved for any attention."

Respected Vatican analyst Sandro Magister wrote recently that Tagle could become the first developing world pope, in the absence of notable Church leaders in Africa and Latin America, where the majority of the world's Catholics live.

Magister wrote in Italy's L'Espresso magazine that a key point in Tagle's favor was the Church's increasing focus on Asia as the future bulwark of the faith.

Tagle is well-positioned because the Philippines is Asia's only majority-Catholic nation, a legacy of more than three centuries of Spanish rule.

And while Tagle is identified with the progressive wing of the Vatican, Magister noted that even the conservative Benedict had appreciated the Filipino's "balance of vision and doctrinal correctness."

At a time when many Church leaders are seen as aloof, Magister also emphasised Tagle's reputation for connecting with the Philippines' millions of poor people.

"Especially striking is the style with which the bishop acts, living simply and mingling among the humblest people, with a great passion for mission and for charity," Magister wrote.

Bookmakers rank Tagle as among the favourites going into the cardinals' secret conclave in Rome. One popular Irish site has him at 16-1 odds.

Nevertheless, other analysts also point out the momentous nature of electing the first pope from Asia, Africa or Latin America, arguing that another European pope is a safer bet.

In the Philippines, there has been nearly uniform support for Tagle since Benedict's shock resignation announcement.

"If he becomes a pope, it will be a loss to us, but a gain to the Vatican and the Catholic world," said Ner, Tagle's former mentor, reflecting sentiments expressed by politicians, Church leaders and media commentators.

Pope from the boondocks

Read this piece written by Conrado de Quiros, a columnist of the Inquirer, on Cardinal Tagle as a Papal Contender. This was originally written on his column “There’s the Rub”(February 18, 2013).

If he ever comes close to it, Filipinos will have a field day choosing an appropriate name for him. "Pope Chito" would be great of course, though the tradition seems to be to adopt an official name of a past pope and affix a Roman numeral to it-Pope Benedict XVI, Pius XII, John Paul II, etc. The last of course spawning jokes about George and Ringo being thrown into the bargain as well.

But you never know, stranger things have happened. Traditions are there to be broken, continuities are there to be discontinued. Who in God's name (the Christian one) could have imagined the current pope would resign, something that hadn't happened in six centuries?
The idle speculation just got a little less idle after an Italian expert on Vatican politics noted that Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle had a crack at being pope. Maybe a slim one, but a crack anyway. The expert, Sandro Magister, known as the "Pope's Prognosticator," or diviner of who the next pope would be, has added Tagle's name to the pot.

Magister, an archconservative, had been critical of Tagle in the past because of the latter's association with the progressive wing of the Vatican. But he also conceded that Tagle wasn't altogether leftward of things, he had "balance," which explained his acceptance by the doctrinal Benedict XVI, who in fact treated him like a son. No Latin American cardinal loomed in the horizon as a papal probable simply because none of them seemed to have the capability to secure the solid vote of the Latin American contingent. Tagle did, of the Asian vote.

It stands to reason. Latin America now hosts the most Catholics in the world and has no small number of cardinals to represent them. Competition among them is bound to be fierce. Asia, birthplace of most of the world's greatest religions, has the least Catholics in the world, the Philippines hosting most of them. Tagle is a no-brainer for the Asian cardinals. That is quite apart from his other advantages, which are that he is no stranger to the corridors of power in the Vatican and he appeals to progressives and conservatives alike for his centrist views.

Of course I'm rooting for Tagle, but that's not just because he's a Filipino and not just because he's a friend. He's quite simply one of the most decent human beings I know. And one I think who will be good not just for Catholics but for people of other faiths. Indeed not just for faith but for morality in general, religious or secular. He's one person who assures what the Catholic Church, local and universal, has not been able to assure in quite some time, which is the capacity to listen. Which is the fountainhead of communication, which is the fountainhead of dialogue, which is the fountainhead of relevance.

Tagle himself emphasized the importance of it during the reproductive health debate. Of course as a Church official, indeed the highest one of the land, he took the Vatican position, which was to oppose it. But he also said something then-he had just come home after a triumphant sojourn in Rome, which saw him transformed into a cardinal-that struck me and stuck with me. Truly, I thought, if the Church was to experience renewal or rejuvenation in these parts, it would need someone like him.

While expressing his opposition to the RH bill, he also criticized the local Catholic Church for becoming deaf and blind to the existence of the faithful, indeed to the painful reality of the poor. The Church hierarchy, he said, no longer seemed to be able to walk with the poor, break bread with the poor, talk to the poor. It was time they got back to it. That was where the spirit of the gospels came from, that was where the life of the faith drew from.

Tagle knew whereof he spoke. Magister, even in his earlier remonstrations with Tagle for lacking doctrinal purity (not unlike the ideological purity of the communist world!), observed on the other hand: "Especially striking is the style with which the bishop acts, living simply and mingling among the humblest people, with a great passion for mission and for charity." Tagle is a rarity in that respect: He is one bishop, or cardinal, who practices what he preaches, who does as he says.

What he said about the local Church in fact he could very well have said about the Vatican too. The days of the Theology of Liberation, when priests and nuns walked with the poor, talked with the poor, and often enough took up arms for, and with, the poor, spawning in its train some of the Church's greatest bishops, particularly in the Third World, particularly in this country, are gone. In its place have arisen blindness and deafness to the pedophilia scandals rocking the parishes, in its place have arisen arrogance and dogmatism in the face of the faithful's demand for the Church to see the times. It could do with going back to roots.

Those roots are not always easy to see. Not when the Church is knee-deep in pomp and ceremony, not when its officials are garbed in flowing robes and finery, not when the cardinals dazzle with the symbols of pelf and power. Such as when they gather to vote for the new pope, all garbed in crimson and walking through a haze of incense, as you saw in "Angels and Demons."

Easy enough to forget that all that owes to someone born in a barn among the animals for lack of a place for his mother to birth him in. All that is dedicated to the memory of someone who was a carpenter's son who kept the company of fishermen and a known prostitute and who preached and worked miracles on the side. All that is by way of following the example of someone who walked with the poor, talked to the poor, and said weird things like the exalted will be humbled and the humble exalted.

Who knows? Maybe he was right. Maybe the humble will be exalted.

Maybe we'll have a Pope Chito in the last reel.

Tagle seen most viable Third World bet for Pope

An article by Philip C. Tubeza in Manila/Philippine Daily Inquirer | Asia News Network – Sat, Feb 16, 2013

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - One of the most highly respected Vatican analysts in Italy, who had been critical of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, now believes the cardinal is the only viable Third World candidate for the papal throne.

Italian journalist Sandro Magister, who writes for the magazine L'Espresso, said there seems to be no other prominent churchman from the Third World, except for Tagle, who is "capable of attracting votes" in the coming conclave that would elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor.

He added that, with the Pope's historic decision to abdicate due to the complications of old age, Tagle's youth (he is 56) "will no longer be an obstacle to being elected Pope."

"If from Latin America and Africa, where indeed the majority of the world's Catholics live, there do not seem to emerge prominent personalities capable of attracting votes, the same is not true of Asia," Magister said. "On this continent, soon to become the new axis of the world, the Catholic Church also is wagering its future."

"In the Philippines... there shines a young and cultured cardinal, Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Tagle, the focus of growing attention," Magister said in his article, "Who Will Take Up the Keys of Peter," published on his website.

'Doctrinal correctness'

Magister, who espouses right-wing views, said that despite Tagle's ties to the so-called "Bologna School" of progressive academicians, the cardinal's "balance of vision" and "doctrinal correctness" had impressed even Pope Benedict.

"As a theologian and Church historian, Tagle was one of the authors of the monumental history of Vatican Council II published by the progressive 'school of Bologna,'" Magister said.
"But as a pastor, he has demonstrated a balance of vision and a doctrinal correctness that Benedict XVI himself has highly appreciated. Especially striking is the style with which the bishop acts, living simply and mingling among the humblest people, with a great passion for mission and for charity," he added.

Being young no obstacle

Magister downplayed Tagle's youth, often cited as a reason why Tagle's chances of getting elected are slim.

"One of his limitations could be the fact that he is 56, one year younger than the age at which Pope Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) was elected. But here the novelty of Benedict XVI's resignation again comes into play. After this action of his, youth will no longer be an obstacle to being elected Pope," Magister said.

Magister had been critical of Tagle in his previous articles due to the cardinal's ties to the "Bologna school," which produced a controversial history of the Second Vatican Council that conservatives criticized for supposedly providing an overly progressive interpretation of the council.

After it was announced that Tagle was the new Archbishop of Manila, Magister revealed that Tagle's ties to the "Bologna school" were not mentioned in his file that was submitted to the cardinals and bishops, who vetted Tagle's record before his appointment as Archbishop.
This revelation was seen by some Church observers as one of the possible reasons why Tagle was not immediately named a cardinal when the Pope called for a consistory in February 2012.

Raised to the purple

When Benedict finally made Tagle a cardinal in November, Magister noted that Tagle was raised to the purple even after a Vatican prelate had criticized the chapter he wrote in the controversial "History of Vatican Council II."

Magister noted that Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, in a book published by the Vatican, criticized the chapter Tagle wrote as "a rich and even comprehensive study, but unbalanced," written in "journalistic language" and here and there "lacking the objectivity required of the true historian."

"Marchetto's criticisms nonetheless did not prevent Tagle, Bishop of Imus since 2001, from becoming Archbishop of Manila in 2011 and now cardinal," Magister said.

Magister also said that Italian Cardinals Gianfranco Ravasi, Angelo Scola and Angelo Bagnasco, and the patriarch of Venice, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, were possible papal successors. From North America, the candidates include Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet and the Archbishops of New York (Timothy Dolan) and Boston (Sean O'Malley), he said.

Magister's credentials

Magister's views on Tagle's chances for the papacy drew reactions from other Church observers.
In a post titled "A Pope from the Philippines?" on the website of the conservative American magazine National Review, writer Michael Potemra said: "Sandro Magister is one of the most highly respected Vaticanisti (Vatican experts) in Italy, so it's interesting that he thinks the young Filipino cardinal, Luis Antonio Tagle, has a serious chance."

In a 2006 review of Magister's website, the American magazine on geopolitics Foreign Policy dubbed Magister as "The Pope's Prognosticator."

"Among the most reliable and revered Vaticanisti is Sandro Magister, who covers the Vatican for L'Espresso, an influential Italian newsweekly magazine with more than 600,000 readers. Magister is well-regarded for both his acuity and his prolificacy," the magazine said.

Open to dialogue

Across the world, in Brazil, some analysts said the Church needed a younger, more modern and open-minded Pope who could halt the exodus of the faithful in Latin America, home to half of the world's Catholics.

Brazil has the world's largest Roman Catholic population-at 125 million faithful-but the country's leftist tilt has left many feeling alienated from a church seen as overly wealthy and detached from modern life.

Brazil's Catholics wonder who will be tasked with leading the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, many of whom were appalled by recent pedophile and corruption scandals and shocked by the surprise resignation of Benedict.

"It does not matter whether the next Pope is Brazilian [or] Filipino, although it will be difficult to get a non-European," said Franciscan friar and writer Frei Betto, a friend of Cuba's famed communist revolutionary Fidel Castro.

"I want a man open to dialogue with the modern world, to interreligious dialogue," Betto said. "The Catholic Church maintains medieval practices. It did not enter modernity and is not comfortable with the digital world."

Cardinal Claudio Hummes, emeritus Archbishop of Sao Paulo, stressed the need for a Pope younger than the 85-year-old Benedict XVI. Around 65 "would be a good age," he said. 

Fatal Attraction

        It was reported in BBC News last January that the United States government charged three European men with creating and distributing a computer virus that infected more than a million computers around the world. The Gozi virus is, so far, one of the most financially destructive computer viruses. It infected even the computers operated by the US space agency NASA. It was used to access personal bank account information from computer users and steal millions of dollars from customer accounts globally. In today’s virtual world, a computer virus in one’s system is a disaster. 

          Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation. It corrupts or deletes data on your computer; uses your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erases everything on your hard disk. Thus they cause chaos and threaten to destroy your programs. Once you are infected, it is a real headache! You need anti-virus tools to cure and remove it.

In the natural world, the spread of real viruses have caused fatal consequences including loss of human lives. Viruses are tiny organisms that may lead to mild to severe illnesses in humans and animals. This may include flu or a cold to something more life threatening. 

The contagious smallpox epidemic obliterated 70% of the native American population brought to the Americas by the European colonists. The damage significantly aided European attempts to displace and conquer the native population. In 1918, a pandemic or a worldwide epidemic caused by a severe and deadly influenza virus killed more than 100 million people or 5% of the world’s population according to recent estimates. The most recent pandemic is HIV or human immunodeficiency virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This infectious disease has now killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on June 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

          The deadliest virus of all is sin. Though it resides in the spiritual universe, its destructive consequences are felt in the real world . It harms. It kills. It defiles the soul. It separates man from God. By sin, man deliberately violates God’s law and abuses his freedom. He chooses to do wrong. Such a willful choice to do evil in God’s sight have caused disorder in the different relationships of man.  We experience the effects of sin everyday: a Canadian goes on a shooting rampage at the Palace of Justice killing a doctor and a lawyer; a lady in India is gang-raped after she boarded a bus at night; the slain journalists massacred in Maguindanao still await justice after a year; a taxi driver is robbed another is found dead; sex scandals proliferate in cyberspace. Crimes and corruption is the staple news item daily. 

          Nowadays, there is a tendency to soften our speech which euphemism. Some may consider sin a mere “psychological complex” and guilt is minimized as a “hangover” from religious taboos. People just blame their misfortune from certain “compulsion.” And they say “nobody is really bad,” only determined by their environment or how they were raised. The popular excuse is: “I was born this way!” 

Yet no matter how we deny it, if we observe deeply, sin makes us realize of the presence of evil in the world. Human nature has the propensity to lust for the forbidden. This makes sin is a real trap. Like a termite, it undermines the essence of our nature. It destroys our moral fiber and makes us forget who we are. The attraction is so compelling that it makes us loose our moral compass. It seeps in through our desire and induces us to indulge in a losing investment. When it succeeds to blind our reason and heats our passion, we are diverted from our purpose. Then we realize that we have squandered our inheritance and exchanged a diamond for a dime. It sows distrust by injecting in our mind the thought that God is against us and does not want neither our success nor our happiness. This lie makes us loose our ground. 

          For a Christian, sin is the breaking of a personal relationship. When Jesus has become your friend, it becomes a betrayal; a second crucifixion. When I wounded my brother accidentally when we were kids, I was filled with remorse. When we have hurt someone we love, we are sorry. It is the poor understanding of sin that makes us transgress the law of God. In the words of St. Anselm of Canterbury: “only someone who has seriously meditated on how heavy the cross is can understand how serious sin is.” The only way out from such a fatal attraction is our hope in God’s mercy and conversion of heart. Healing comes from the Divine Physician. Like the prophet Isaiah, we need to rediscover the holiness of God to rekindle our desire for higher things in life. 

(This article also appears in Cebu Daily News published on February 10, 2013)