Condoling in silence

In silence, he condoled with the people of Leyte, Samar and Bohol. “Forgive me if I have no other words to express myself,” he pleaded with the crowd gathered at the Tacloban airport, amending that to share words of comfort: “Please know that Jesus never lets you down. Know that the tenderness of Mary never lets you down.”

The visit to ground zero of the “catastrophe” that was Supertyphoon “Yolanda” had been billed the “heart” of the Pope’s long journey to Asia and this outpost of Christianity in the region. But even papal intentions had to give way to nature, as the weather gave the Pope a taste, even if only briefly and slightly by way of rain and wind, what it is the Philippines undergoes year in and year out. And even before he was prepared to leave, the exigencies of the weather bade him to cut short his visit.

I don’t know what stories the survivor-families from Leyte, Samar and Bohol shared with him during their short meeting at the Palo Cathedral, but perhaps he has gained an insight into the dread and desperation that gripped survivors of Yolanda. At least now he understands what it means to live with daunting regularity with impending disaster, and even how to bounce back from it. I also hope the Pope all the more appreciates now the deep wellspring of faith from which Filipinos draw strength and resilience.

However curtailed, the Pope’s visit to Tacloban and Palo was nonetheless heartwarming and joyful. It is painted in an iconic image: the Holy Father himself beaming as he greeted the throng gathered on the tarmac of the airport, clad in a “cheap” flimsy plastic raincoat like that worn by most everyone else. He may have been carried away by the euphoria of the people, or was making the best of an inconvenient, at best, uncomfortable, at worst, situation.

Still, as the Pontiff pointed out, “I am here.” It was enough for the faithful gathered in Tacloban to see with their own eyes the presence of Christ’s representative on Earth, even if it had been more than a year since Yolanda made landfall. “You might say to me, ‘I was let down because I have lost so many things, my house, my livelihood…’” he said. “So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you.” And not knowing what to say, he stood, walked and rode with them in silence, reminding people only that “all we can do is grab hold of [Mary’s] hand firmly and say ‘Mama’—like a child does when it is afraid. It is perhaps the only words we can say in difficult times—‘Mama.’”

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Note to Pope Francis and the visit organizers: The Pope should address the public as much as possible in his home language of Spanish. It is clear, as he demonstrated in the “Meeting with Families” at the MOA Arena and then in Tacloban, that he best expresses himself in this language, and that when he speaks in Spanish (with help from a capable interpreter) he truly feels his words and shows, by way of tone, gesture and posture, his real sentiments.

In his earlier addresses, I must admit I felt a bit underwhelmed. It was difficult to make out much of what he was saying, and I’m sure he was having a hard time himself making out the nuances of his words. But when he launched into talking to us in his home language, he made his meaning clear.

I wish, though, that he hadn’t made himself as clear as he did when he addressed the problem of the “family.” A young friend of mine decries the desire of many among us to paint Pope Francis “as more liberal than he really is.” So I do admit I was a bit taken aback when the Pope expressed sympathy with the late Blessed Pope Paul VI for his decision, despite the expectations to the contrary of many, to issue the encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” which states the Church’s opposition to artificial contraception.

Reproductive health and rights hadn’t been mentioned as among the more prominent themes on this pastoral visit of “mercy and compassion.” But we now know where the Pope stands on this issue, even if he pleaded with pastors to counsel “on a case-to-case basis” the faithful who come to them for advice on living a life of Christian parental responsibility.

He has shown himself, by word and deed, to be a man of empathy and openness. Might he want to articulate just what these “exceptional” cases are?

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The question that remains, on this the penultimate day of the Pope’s visit to our country, is how the few days’ presence of the Vicar of Christ on our shores will change or transform our country.

Will it make our priests, sisters and bishops more willing to tread the same path as the poor and abandoned, to leave behind the trappings of power and wealth and live lives of greater simplicity?

P-Noy has been widely criticized, especially on social media, for his “injudicious” remarks commenting on the alleged complicity of some bishops with the GMA administration, with President Gloria Arroyo herself under hospital detention on plunder charges. Some bishops, I might point out, not only kept their silence on the reported cases of corruption among our leaders, but even benefited from it by way of “gifts” in the form of cash or vehicles.

Critics have slammed the President for his “impoliteness,” but I don’t think the Pope heard anything new, or that the feelings of churchmen should be so easily ruffled. It isn’t only the President, after all, who feels that the bishops frequently overstep their bounds, or their manners.

Although, if I were P-Noy, I would have avoided mentioning my thinning hair altogether.