“What a missed opportunity.”
The nation has been absorbed with news about the arrests of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the self-appointed son of god, and of ousted Bamban Mayor Alice Guo. What was underreported was the important pastoral visit to Southeast Asia of His Holiness Pope Francis.
The Pope’s pastoral trip brought him to his Catholic flock in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. It had nothing to do whatsoever with the word pastorals associated with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. Frail as he is considering that he is already 87 years old, the Pope embarked on a grueling four-country visit to the rapidly growing Catholic faithful to boost their morale, show his support, and encourage them to keep the faith. By all accounts, it was a tremendous success.
While in Indonesia, he was accorded a stupendous welcome as if the country were not the largest Muslim country in the world. President Joko Widodo was seen in numerous TV footage respectfully escorting the wheelchair-bound Pope during his public appearances. It was a sobering scene. In contrast, instead of being respectful and patient with the Pope, then-candidate Rodrigo Duterte lambasted him because he remembered the traffic jam that the visit caused, which made it impossible for him to get to a rest room.
Although Indonesia has only about 10 million Catholics representing just 3 percent of its population, the Catholic faithful there is growing rapidly with about 50 seminarians ready to be ordained as priests this year alone. Soon, Indonesia will be one of the major sources of missionary priests to many countries around the world. It is no secret that there are so many Catholic churches closing down in many parts of the Catholic world due to the lack of priests. Even in this country, the number of Filipinos pursuing religious vocations have also been dwindling like those in Western countries. Instead of Filipino priests going to Indonesia, it will be Indonesian Catholic priests coming here instead. Isn’t that something worth pondering, considering that we have been a Catholic country for over 500 years? This phenomenon has been actually happening in the Catholic world for some time. The center is actually moving away from Europe to Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Pope Francis is in fact the first non-European Pope since Pope Gregory III who reigned from the years 731 to 741 and who was Syrian. Majority of the current so-called Papabili Cardinals are also non Europeans and include our own Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. Who knows, we might be seeing the first Asian or African Pope in a few years. And when this happens, for those of us who still profess and practice the Catholic faith, we have to be prepared for the profound changes that would go with such shifts.
In Singapore, Pope Francis exhorted the youth to keep moving forward, not backwards.
We must ask why the Pope did not include our country in his trip, considering that we are the largest Catholic country in Asia in terms of population. Could his experience during his previous visit have something to do with this decision? We do not know but it might as well be. His stay here would also have been overshadowed by news about the search and arrest of Pastor Quiboloy and the escapades of Alice Guo.
Still, the government should have coordinated with our Catholic leadership to have prodded the Pope to include our country in his schedule. Considering our position in the Catholic Church, we fully deserve another visit from his Holiness. He would probably be unable to undertake another long trip again due to health reasons. For the Filipino Catholic faithful, it is always different if it is the Pope celebrating the mass.
It was truly a missed opportunity for the country.
