The new holier-than-thou mentality

So, the bishops have decided to apologize, then return the Pajeros, submit themselves to an investigation and to accept whatever consequences our honorable congressmen and senators would like to inflict on them. I suppose some people are happy with this development.

I, for my part, am of the opinion that all this hullabaloo is nothing less than a witch hunt, a parody of an investigation more to harass bishops suspected of being anti-government.

Someone asked me if saying sorry is an admission of guilt. I told him outright that it need not be so. While I, for example, say sorry whenever I commit a mistake, I often also say sorry for things I am not guilty of.

I just say sorry for many reasons—to simplify things, to pacify a person in some state of agitation, or simply to be nice with someone, etc. I consider saying sorry a manifestation of delicadeza, and I don't have to be guilty of anything.

Saying sorry can be an act of noblesse oblige, an expression of a benevolent, honorable attitude usually associated with persons of high birth or rank, or with a keen sense of refinement.

The epitome of this attitude is Christ himself. In fact, he is the source of it. More than saying sorry, he assumed all the sins of men and paid for them with his life. What greater love and magnanimity can one have than this?

Christ himself was sinless and guiltless, but for our sake, for our salvation and perfection of our dignity as children of God, he made himself like sin, dying to it on the cross only to resurrect on the third day, giving us the possibility of a new life in him.

There is one thing that we need to learn as a precious lesson form this whole issue of the “Pajero bishops.” It is the readiness to say sorry for any offense or mistake, either real or imagined, without prejudice, of course, to the other requirements of truth and justice.

How many of us are doing this practice of apologizing? I’m afraid, saying sorry is something many people are afraid of doing. That’s understandable, of course. But we have to realize that we need to do it, not only occasionally, but many times. Neglecting this detail can show traces of pride, cowardice, and a grave ignorance of the nature of our life here on earth.

Saying sorry has to be understood first of all in the religious and moral sense, far beyond the very restrictive and often dangerous and unfair political or social sense that does not capture the whole picture of the phenomenon. The latter sense is often partisan and partial, if not maliciously distorted.

We have to realize that we need to imitate the example of Christ who was ready not only to apologize but also to own the sins of all of us, begging his Father for forgiveness. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

The whole issue also surfaces what I consider to be a new holier-than-thou mentality. It's the attitude of some people who, rejecting the religious faith, want to impose their own vision of right and wrong based only on their political opinions, some man-made legalistic standards, social and cultural customs, etc.

In this “Pajero bishops” issue, we are made to understand that it is automatically wrong for a bishop to ask for a Pajero and to use it, that a bishop receiving a Pajero is already selling out his soul to a politician, that a Pajero is intrinsically evil, that for a bishop to use a Pajero is like robbing the poor, etc.

Many parts of media lapped up this issue to its grossest level. Just listen to the “incisive” analysis of Bombo Radyo, and you would have an idea of what I mean. The commentators simply oozed with self-righteousness who could not accommodate any other view than their own. As if they are altogether immaculate.

There are many other lessons we can learn from this sad episode. Among them is to treat bishops a bit differently from our other leaders. Bishops, even if they commit a faux pas in public life, ought to be treated with a certain deference, since they are religious leaders, and not just political leaders.

This does not mean we should have little regard for politicians. But bishops as religious leaders involve our religious life which is far more important than our political life. They just cannot be dragged into public shame like what politicians usually do with each other.