The Pilgrimage

Tomorrow is Ascension Day. This is the 40th day after Easter or Resurrection where, in Christian belief, Jesus Christ went up to Heaven and in the Apostle’s Creed, He sits at the right hand of God from where he judges the living and the dead.

The Apostle’s Creed, also called the Nicene Creed, was crafted in 325 A.D. or 1,673 years ago in the Council of Nicaea to combat the Arian heresy, being promoted by Arius of Alexandria.

But Ascension tomorrow will also coincide with the World Communication Day and local media people will celebrate it by gathering at the San Sebastian Cathedral in a Pilgrimage organized by Fr. Felix Pasquin, the Diocese’s official communicator.

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Fr. Pasquin co-hosts a television program 7 p.m. at Channel 14 Thursday, “Rays of Light” where they explain clearly the issues in the Church.

I join Fr. Pasquin in encouraging as many media people to join the Pilgrimage. Fr. Pasquin also said those who join the pilgrimage earn a plenary indulgence, a remission before God of the temporal punishment of one’s sins.

Being a sinner, and I believe without the fear of contradiction many media people are also, I will be there in the Pilgrimage. I want to earn the indulgence.

Selling the idea of earning indulgence to friends, I was asked, was not indulgences abolished many years ago? Yes, in the Council of Trent in 1545 that lasted 18 years as a part of the Catholic Reformation, sale of indulgences and of Church offices was condemned, not just abolished.

During those times, if you wanted to go to Heaven, you just give money to priests. And Church offices were bought with money. This led to protests from, among them, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox and many more.

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Nobody buys indulgences now. Fr. Pasquin told me, he will even give breakfast to the media Pilgrims.

Don’t you know one of the best books one must read is “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan in the 16th century. It is the story of a man named Christian in his life story of struggles against sin.

Though written during puritanical era, it had the verve, the charm, and the humor that made it popular at the expense of the author who was jailed for writing about religious matters prohibited at that time without permission.

We are all Pilgrims in this Valley of Tears.

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And here we go to World Communication Day. The world has changed. Culture has changed. There used to be the Papal Index, a kind of censorship for writers.

Now, the Church is very open. When Pope Benedict XVI was in the U.S. last month, he faced and confronted the issue of sex scandals in the Church. This way, the problem can be more easily solved than shoving the dirt under the rag.

In Bacolod, Bishop Vicente Navarra is very open to issues of the Church. And under Fr. Pasquin, the Diocese understands very well the importance of communication.

The Church has continued to get stronger because it is good in communication. It had the pulpit. Now, pulpit is not enough. It has to resort to using the press. From the pulpit to the press, it has undergone tests to make the changes.

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Meanwhile, 40 irrigation associations in the Bago River Irrigation System, through their respective presidents, have petitioned Gov. Isidro Zayco and the National Irrigation Administration to take over the repairs in the Bago irrigation from the China International Water and Electric Corporation saying the work has been very seriously delayed.

Gov. Zayco immediately went to President Arroyo through DA Secretary Arthur Yap.

The 40 irrigation presidents said in the 10,000 hectares that failed to plant, the loss could run to some P500 million.

But what they objected to most was the arrogance of the officials of CIWEC led by project manager Jiang Xia Hua. Some presidents told me, two times these Chinese officials were, not only arrogant but insulting. They banged their papers on the table and walked out. The farmers plan to file a “persona non-grata” charge.

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I think some solutions can be had here. The project is under engineer Sam Japitana who has the authority to take over.

I was told some Chinese officials of CIWEC were dropping hints they are “very strong upstairs”.

One important development is that NIA now has a new administrator, engineer Carlos Salazar, a native of New Lucena in Iloilo.

I believe Administrator Salazar can solve the problem. Meanwhile the rice farmers are worried with the delay in the repair work. They have not planted yet and this will aggravate the rice shortage.

The President should act decisively.*

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