Don’t blame Church for leprosy stigma

This news item, a part of which came from the Inquirer, I came upon via UCA News. It kept on nagging me in my prayers. Something’s got to be said. The news item I’m referring to is this: https://www.cathnewsphil.com/2012/ 02/15/religion-helps-spread-leprosy-stigma-says-health-chief. The Feb. 14 Inquirer story from which part of it was lifted is titled “DOH: PH tops in prevalence of leprosy in W Pacific.”

For hundreds of years, the Church was the only one preaching for compassion for the lepers. For hundreds of years the Church was the only institution caring for the lepers. And along comes Health Secretary Enrique Ona blaming religion for spreading the leprosy stigma!

I smell a rat here. Was Secretary Ona playing to World Health Organization officials?

Was he using the Church and religion as a scapegoat? Was he using the Church and religion as an excuse for the high incidence of leprosy in the country compared to other countries?

Was he deflecting the attention of WHO officials from his own department’s lack of action? Were there funds from WHO and other international agencies to be used for the eradication of leprosy involved that he had to account for?

And when was the last time Secretary Ona was in church listening to a sermon stigmatizing leprosy?

For no priest in his right mind would preach this, not even on a bad nothing-to-preach-about day. For compassion for lepers is an exhortation in the Gospel and comes from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The Church should not let this pass.

—FR. REY V. CULABA, CSsR, [email protected]