ABS - CBN affront against the Church

While reading your email message, Bro.Ed,  I received the following text message passed on by a friend and supposedly from a Fr. B.A. Ong:

"D show XXX of Abs Cbn aired an exhibit in CCP Pasay. An image of Jesus Christ... sacrilegiously vulgarized.  A certain MEDIO CRUZ, a devil atheist artist did this.  CCP management with head appointed by PNoy allowed this to be shown.  We are catholics.  Please pray for forgiveness of this most blasphemous act.  Please pass so others may know this kind of devil now exists in our society."


On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 12:16 AM, Ed Tirona <ejttirona@gmail.com> wrote:
ANOTHER ABS-CBN AFFRONT AGAINST THE CHURCH!

In the 6:30 pm ABS-CBN Radyo Patrol news tonight (July 22) they featured a supposed artist (missed the name of the bloke who looks more like a gender aberrant) who took the liberty of scandalizing the image of Christ by disfiguring its face and sacrilegiously vulgarizing it with obscenities ostensibly as an art expression. This is another affront to us Catholics coming in the wake of this station leading in church bashing with their invented "Pajero" tag which they feasted on in ridiculing our Bishops for two weeks. Has ABS-CBN given up its sense of decency in being a leading butcher of this administration against the Catholic Church? (would Maria Ressa allow such a despicable act if she were still with this station)?

I call upon the militant Church organizations to denounce this obvious attempt of ABS-CBN to discredit our Church and what we Catholics believe in. Let us denounce this station for its total lack of sensitivity and professionalism. I wonder if the ABS-CBN management will have the guts to do the same to the Muslims. The lay faithful must not allow ABS-CBN to get away with malicious reporting against the Catholic faith!

- Bro. Ed Tirona, Council of the Laity of the Philippines

Statement of Bishops Before The Blue Ribbon Committee

Honorable Members of the Senate:

We thank this august body for inviting us to shed light on an issue that has deeply saddened not only the seven of us but all the Catholic faithful. We hope that our presence will aid your work of legislation. We shall reply with great respect to your questions as far as the facts enable us.

We are from provinces that have some of the most difficult areas that we as Bishops have to reach. Most of us are from calamity or conflict-stricken areas. We serve communities some of which are the poorest of the poor. Our vocation is to help them in so far as we can with our resources. When we lack resources, we seek the assistance of others, especially from those whose mandate is to provide assistance, particularly in health services and in charity. Some of us received service vehicles from PCSO that are heavy duty 4 x 4 pick-ups in order for our social, health, and charitable services to reach remote areas. Others received vehicles that have multiple purposes of bringing indigent sick people to hospitals or distribute food, medicines, and clothing to calamity stricken families.

We are very grateful for the help extended to us. We still believe that we have not violated any law, or even the Constitution. We express our sadness that our sincere desire to help people and receive necessary assistance for doing so has confused, disturbed and even scandalized many of the Catholic faithful. As our pastoral statement has said, we honestly “failed to consider the pitfalls to which these grants could possibly lead.” We also express our “readiness to do everything that is necessary to heal this wound so that we can all move forward in hope.”

For this reason, regardless of whether the acquisition of the vehicles has been lawful or unlawful, constitutional or unconstitutional, we are returning the vehicles. The vehicles in Mindanao are ready for immediate turnover to a duly authorized PCSO official. The vehicles in Luzon are right now outside the Senate for immediate turnover to PCSO officials.

Again, we thank Your Honors for this opportunity to voice our sentiments on this matter.

Thank you and God bless you.

Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, O.M.I.
Bishop Rodolfo Beltran
Archbishop Ernesto Salgado
Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian, SVD
Archbishop Romulo Valles Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos

July 13, 2011