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Friday, October 16, 2009, 11:31 PM

To God be the Glory

Has Roman Catholicism been positive/ detrimental to the Philippines?

First, I would like to share this poem I made as a supposed journal entry. I made this poem before discussions about government and religion were all held. Now, at the end of the class, I would like to ponder upon this poem again and explore it a little further. I wish to either prove or debunk the contents of this poem using what I have grasped from the previous Socio 10 meetings.

To God be the Glory
By MJ Ching

Of more than three hundred years
Under a disparaging dominance,
We, the ignoble indios partook
In such a devout countenance

Christianity is the greatest remnant
Of the sneering Spaniards, indeed
Razing the indios’ ancient tenets
To drill their noblest creed

Now, more than a century transgressed
With this vestige of faith sustained
Catholicism, though apart from state
Has its morality decrees maintained

Discerned as a Christian state,
We persist to abide to the doctrine
With this fair coercion to be moral,
We avoid the occasion to sin.

Perfidious wrongs are committed
At this age of intrepid existence
But religion implanted us the decency
To contrite with upright conscience

Our faith alleviates the dreariness
Of the nation’s destitution
Faith grants us the chance to hope
And yearn for future redemption.

Aside from the emotional assistance,
Moral and physical aid are contrived
As religious bodies are always of relief
To the afflicted, abused and deprived

The church takes part each time
The Filipinos are in downcast confusion
Whether in political or social crises,
Our Christian faith unifies the nation.

Through religion, we become one,
In mass grief and prayer rallies,
In times of despair, clergy prays for us,
As one with their devout allies.

Espousing this sectarian conviction
Even with self-righteous ones at hand,
Catholicism has indeed been amenable
And resplendent to our home land

Now, as one can infer, I implied that religion has in fact been positive to our country. I still somewhat agree to my poem (as I presented it as a journal entry with even more conviction), however, as the classes progress, and more debates and deliberations were conducted, my fairly strong adherence to the inference of my poem somewhat decreased.

Roman Catholicism, as well as any other religions, is legitimately separated from the state as per the constitution. However, because of its great influence and long existence, the Philippines, even with its secularist observance is considered and is referred to as a Roman Catholic/ Christian country. This is probably so because majority of Filipinos are Catholic and we recognize and ensure to sustain a strong involvement of the Roman Catholic clergy in particular of the state affairs. Having also said that Filipinos abide by the moral values taught by the Catholic Church is another testimony of the said reference. But has Roman Catholicism been really an encouraging influence on the Philippines? It has been constructive on the grounds of establishing morality and the aspect of “goodness”, perhaps. But has Roman Catholicism done a great impact or influence that can actually uphold the country’s pursuit towards development? What has Christianity actually done to alleviate sufferings of Filipinos? These are only few of the many inquisitions regarding the matter.

“Christianity is the greatest remnant
Of the sneering Spaniards, indeed
Razing the indios’ ancient tenets
To drill their noblest creed”

True in one aspect, as Christianity, I believe, is only the principled remains of the Spaniards. However, we cannot at all call Christianity as great remnants as we are (I am speaking here in behalf of the indios during the Spanish era) enforced and subjected to change our primordial beliefs. Our babaylans were at once replaced with dominating priests, and we were suddenly imposed on memorizing Latin prayers and abiding on strict “morality” (in order for us to be “saved and go to heaven”). The Spanish priests themselves were dead-on violators of what they’re preaching, and even from that time, the said religion has not been whatsoever beneficial to the country.

Stanzas 3-5 depict Catholicism’s impact to the Filipinos by inflicting on the “morality” that we shall all put up with. This, almost certainly, is one of the few helpful and affirmative effects of Christianity. Because the Bible has established the Ten Commandments, and because of the austere preaching of Jesus as transcribed in the book, Catholics, especially us Filipinos, were persuaded to abide by the teachings. We were talked into following these commandments for us to go to heaven and be good citizens. And the fact that we still abide by these religious decrees up to now means that we still believe to concept of goodness and salvation. We want to perpetuate the concept of morality because we are concerned about the decency and the sanctity of the future lay people.

Also, the concept of conscience was introduced by the decrees of Roman Catholicism. Conscience appears to be idea that sets the parameters of morality. I personally consider the notion of concept as something positive
because there is something that “bothers” and people whenever they did something wide of the mark.

“Our faith alleviates the dreariness
Of the nation’s destitution
Faith grants us the chance to hope
And yearn for future redemption.”

I began seeing this stanza as somewhat a negative thought. It is indeed true that in times of desperation, people immediately turns to religion. Because of the belief inculcated to us that “God will save us”, we right away turn to God and pray in times of hardships. We are stuck on believing and ardently hoping that God will do something, and that in we will be saved from this adversity in the near future. We, in turn, remain idle in our devout state. Instead of doing something to alleviate our hardship, we hold on to anticipating, hoping and praying as we become solely reliant to God.

“Aside from the emotional assistance,
Moral and physical aid are contrived
As religious bodies are always of relief
To the afflicted, abused and deprived”

We recognize the presence of religious bodies not only in their morals and homilies, but also in their utmost care and love for the marginalized, the ill-treated, and the children. Through numerous charities and religious programs, we distinguish the highest effort of the clergy and the parishioners to alleviate the poor situations. In one perspective, this is such a benevolent thing. I see a small hole on this aspect, though. In line with my previous thought, people will always see God/the clergy as something to turn to in times of destitution. Poor people will have fewer reasons to redeem themselves from poverty as they will rely on religious bodies to feed and nourish them.

“The church takes part each time
The Filipinos are in downcast confusion
Whether in political or social crises,
Our Christian faith unifies the nation.

Through religion, we become one,
In mass grief and prayer rallies,
In times of despair, clergy prays for us,
As one with their devout allies. “

The church indeed takes an active role in times of chaos, as seen People Power 1. Religion moderately unifies our nation through prayer rallies and mass grief, as witnessed through the death of Former President Cory Aquino. This unifying idea of religion is definitely a positive thing, and I see no detrimental side to it. However, I just hope that people do not rely on religion on this unifying aspect as much as they rely on Christianity in times of desperation (as mentioned in the previous paragraphs). The act of uniting the nation is primarily a duty of the government.

I dare not to delve on the involvement of Roman Catholicism in the aspects of media and politics. Being raised as a Roman Catholic and being molded by a Christian society, I still want to view Roman Catholicism as not entirely negative and disadvantageous. (Though, I am aware of the appalling flaws and detriments of religion) Stating the interest of the church to the state will greatly increase the holes mentioned in this journal entry. And so, I will end this post with wee bits of positive treats to somewhat redress the increasing detrimental view of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines.

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