THEY called it the “Pope fever.” It was as if the whole nation, or at least the area visited by him, had its corpus dissected and operated on. We let our defences down and it is now to look back, perhaps recover and assess what was that all about.
As a crowd, we were everything short of magnificent. Epic. From afar, the designated site for the assembly looked like a swarm of penguins or a colony of ants let loose by nature. One million or six million—it does not matter. We have shown ourselves that we can be one massive, monumental community, gathered under one banner, one sign. The number kept going up as if the entire Filipino Christendom was proving itself to be the force that it is. It is a force that has never been tapped in its glorious entirety. It was displaying again the same power, the same force that the institutional Church has never found the wisdom to engage.
We were great.
With cellphones and devices hoisted up to the direction of the visiting pope and the heavens, we could have swung at them at any legion of devils with the means to interrupt our festive proceedings.
On the second day of the visit, I was missing the candles that were lighted when processions took place or when a holy person passed by. Something had replaced, it seemed, the candles; these were the blue and white lights of mobile phones and tablets. They looked like candles from afar. And they seem to light the papal entourage. Magical.
Even as the papal visit was yet to wind up, there were bickerings already in the Internet. There were articles posted explaining why they did not like this pope. There were expressions of disbelief about how in the Palace, members of the Cabinet or their relatives had monopolized the audience with the Pope. Together with the complaints were photos showing Pope Francis at the palace ground. There was no time to check but disgust and frustration were expressed.
Did we know everything that was happening then?
Were our media practitioners up to the task of covering the Pope? Well, if you are in the school of media thought that newscasters are supposed to say what we could see already, then the blitzkrieg of reporting that took place in a week could have satisfied you. But if you are the type that asks for more from these vastly overpaid celebrity-newscasters and hosts and hostesses, then you rate the reporting and documenting as dismal.
Here is a sampler: Why are you staying out here to wait for the Pope? Tell me how do you respond to that demented question? Because we want to see him.
At the airport, a field reporter comments on the many people waiting people and, with their old tricks, got hold of a group. He proceeded to ask the same, tired question: Why are you here at the airport? Of course, to welcome the Pope. There must be other answers, At the back of my mind even if I was already on a repentance mode, I could have said: Because I am going to Sri Lanka and I want a free ride in that plane.
There was no attempt to expand at all the discourse that was taking place, no research undertaken to widen the window for the viewers.
Many people like me had so many questions: How many reporters were there in the plane? How were they chosen? What food was served? God, was wine served?
On stage during the Mass, where were the stole made in Bulacan? Was the Pope using one of them? Who were the personalities on stage with him?
On the second day, I asked a Jesuit if there were Jesuits with the Pope. He wasn’t sure but, he added, Chito Tagle was there with the Pope. I clarified: But Cardinal Tagle is not a Jesuit, right? The good Jesuit responded: Very Jesuit-trained. Well, there was one tact to explore and explain.
What does it mean to be trained in the Jesuit ways? Who are the Jesuits?
Pope Francis belong to the Order that was suppressed in 1700s. The Jesuits were pushed out of churches and convents. In the Philippines, the Jesuit churches were occupied by other orders. Banished from the face of colonial earth were the Jesuits. Some of them died because no country would admit them and no convent was there to shelter them.
The documents on the notorious (depends on whose side you are) suppression of the Jesuits is already out. The Society of Jesus in fact commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Jesuit Restoration. The Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, is quoted as calling the year a year of reflecting on the “good and the bad in our behaviour.” Candid remarks in the Jesuit way.
Didn’t you wonder who was the Pope’s interpreter? Report says he belongs to the Opus Dei. The tandem was a piece of news waiting to be excavated. After all, the Jesuits are said to be ideologically the opposite of Opus Dei.
At the end of the week, the social media and the bloggers proved to be more informative, more critical and more intellectual. Worthy of the Pope that came to visit us in January.
The writer can be reached via titovaliente@yahoo.com
Image credits: Jimbo Albano