Exorcise corruption in government instead

Finally, former Sandiganbayan Justice and Commission on Elections chair Harriet Demetriou made good her threat to sue someone she thought was casting aspersions on Mary Mediatrix of All Grace of which she is among the many devotees. I say “finally” because, through her Facebook posts, she had long shown more than just irritation over what was being said about her Marian patron by some members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, to which Demetriou also belongs. They are not the regular parish priests, they are from the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, among them exorcist Fr. Winston Cabading, a Dominican, who was served a warrant of arrest on May 13 for “offending religious feelings,” a crime in violation of Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code. He has since posted bail.

The Inquirer’s banner headlines that came out in succession: “Church support grows for embattled exorcist” (5/27/2023) followed by “CBCP ‘begs forgiveness’ over exorcist case” (5/28/2023) with Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Bishop Pablo Virgilio David saying that what happened “was indicative of shortcomings [among] Church leaders.” I take it to mean that some may have crossed the line.

The Vatican had long declared (in careful language, I must say) that the reported 1948 Marian apparitions in the contemplative Carmelites’ convent in Lipa City (1) “did not have a supernatural origin and character, and (2) they are not authentic.” Short of saying, it was all fake. As in, “Walang himala!”

“However,” a pastoral letter signed by Cardinal Orlando Quevedo in 2018 called out “some priests including some exorcists [who] have been reported as declaring: (a) that the nuns were led by the devil; (b) that the Lipa statue of the Blessed Mother, Mediatrix of Grace, is demonic; (c) that the statues are to be removed and/or destroyed.

“Such declarations clearly and erroneously go beyond the Vatican decision and in the process are misinterpreting and distorting it … ” The statue is not the problem, the Marian devotion is not the problem. What is?

Not being clearly said is that the reported Marian apparitions (including the shower of roses) are not to be connected with the simple devotion to Mary whose Mediatrix (intercessor/mediator) title is also popular in other parts of the world.

The Vatican statement as echoed by Quevedo in 2018 sounds matter-of-fact if compared to how the Carmelite nuns were investigated inquisition-like in 1948 and after. It was the church patriarchy (all male) breathing down hard on a group of contemplative nuns who were mostly educated and far from stupid but who had to suffer in silence. Had that happened in this decade, articulate and empowered women religious would have raised a howl on how their fellow sisters were treated. These present-day church women, Catholics among them, stand up for their fellow women. These church women work in the trenches, some even endeavor to reclaim the pre-Hispanic spirit of the babaylans, the spiritual women leaders and healers of our “pagan” past who had been suppressed by the colonizers.

Demetriou is a class unto herself, a feisty judge with the spunk of “Zorba the Greek.” Loud and clear: Do not cross the line.

There are two books on the Lipa phenomenon — “Lipa” (1992) by the late people power heroine June Keithley (who also did a well-researched TV documentary) and “Mary Mediatrix of All Grace: A Journey of Suffering and Holiness” (2015) by Rene C. de Jesus of the Focolare Movement. And there is “Reflections” (1995), a personal account on the Lipa apparition by former Lipa Archbishop Mariano Gaviola, written in the form of a lengthy letter meant to move his fellow bishops.

These exorcists who have earned the ire of Demetriou dare not say anything about other religious devotions, some of which border on the orgiastic and the phantasmagoric. These are euphemistically called “popular religiosity” by the theologically inclined, while the quiet, no fuss devotion to Mary Mediatrix of All Grace is demonized.

The Mary Mediatrix statue looks like the Mary of the Bible we know, no adornments, so unlike other Marian statues that are bedecked with jewelry, groaning under the weight of gilded gowns, crowns, and other bling blings.

So, why don’t these exorcists exorcise corruption in government instead? The words and actions of the powerful in government—the plunderers, fornicators, and perjurers who strut about with impunity—betray much about themselves that one cannot rule out demonic possession. That is not hyperbole.

I am writing this piece on May 29, the feast of Mary Mother of the Church (Mater Ecclesiae), she whose sons in the upper echelons of the patriarchal church could be overbearing, even suspicious of women’s religious affairs. Thank God for Pope Francis who is slowly but bravely reversing this medieval mindset.

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