This is about our Father in Heaven and our Mother Church being maligned Father Elias Ayuban Jr., CMF, Manila
LaCroixInternational| Philippines August 20, 2018
Rodrigo Duterte speaking in Davao City on Sept. 30, 2016. (Photo by Toto Lozano/PPD)
This is about our Philippine president calling our God stupid.I remember when I was a teenager and my father had an altercation with our neighbor.
With a bolo in his hand, the neighbor challenged my father to a fight.I was afraid, but my father was apparently not disturbed. He did not respond to the provocation.
It was an attitude that I did not understand then. As a son, I felt I had to do something not because my father needed it but because I needed it.
I felt that I had to intervene, and if necessary, “defend” my father in a way that I was not even sure how.
By speaking ill of my father, the neighbor also hurt me. I felt violated.
What greater love can we offer to our parents than to be on their side when they are threatened?
What better expression of support can we show to them than to speak on behalf of our mother and father when they are maligned for no apparent reason?
Yes, even if they do not need it, and even if we are afraid.
To my relatives, friends, fellow priests, and religious in the Philippines, I am afraid to speak to you about this because I am not holier than anyone of you.
I hesitate to tell you what I think because you have been so good to me, and many of you are even better than some of those who criticize our president.
Even if I don’t understand your unequivocal support to the policies of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, I respect you in the same way that you respect me when I do not completely agree with you.
But this is no longer about the president.
This is about our Father in Heaven and our Mother Church being maligned.
God does not need us to protect Him, but we need to say something because in our blood we have the same DNA with His Son as “we are created in His own image and likeness.
“The Church “will prevail even if the gates of hell will bar,” but to be on the side of our Mother when she most needs it is the least that we can and should do.
In these challenging times, we need to draw the line.
When he cursed the Holy Father, we were silent.
Now that he calls our God “stupid,” I could not be silenced.
