BANTAY
GOBYERNO
Ike
Señeres
In his speech at the Malacanang Palace, Pope
Francis mentioned communities twice. The first time, he said that all sectors
must make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion “of every man and woman and
child in the life of the community”. The second time, he said that families and
communities must be assisted in their efforts to transmit to the young the
values of integrity, truthfulness, fidelity and solidarity which he said are
“the moral glue which holds society together”. Earlier in his speech, he also
talked about integrity, saying that political leaders must be “outstanding for
honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good”. Apparently, he sees the
connection that eventually, the young will become the political leaders later
on.
The first time that he
mentioned communities, he was actually talking about inclusive societies,
starting at the level of the communities. By way of inference, we could
actually surmise that families are the foundations of communities, and
furthermore, that the communities are the foundations of societies. The second
time that he mentioned communities; he was actually talking about the moral
foundations of the individuals who make up the families at the first level, and
who also make up the communities at the second level. In saying that values are
the glue which holds societies together, he was in effect implying that without
this glue, societies will break down. Clearly however, he also implied that the
breakdown of societies would actually start with the breakup of families.
Later on in his homily
at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena, Pope Francis warned of the many dangers to
Filipino families, including “natural, economic and destructive lifestyles”
that threaten their integrity and therefore could break up the family as a
basic unit of society. He said that apart from natural disasters, economic
difficulties have also caused families to be separated by migration and the
search for employment, including the financial problems that affect many
households. Looking at it from another angle however, the sequence could be the
other way around, meaning that the financial problems are the ones that are
causing the family members to search for employment abroad, hence the direction
towards migration.
Reading in between the
lines, Pope Francis has actually sent us the message that there is a direct
correlation between corruption and poverty, and between poverty and the goal of
having an inclusive society. Directly or indirectly, he was telling us that
corruption could be the cause of poverty and if it is not that, then corruption
could be one of the reasons for the worsening of poverty. Directly or
indirectly, he was also telling us that poverty is a deterrent towards the goal
of having an inclusive society and if it is not that, then poverty is the one
that hinders it. Putting two and two together, decreasing corruption could
decrease poverty, and decreasing poverty could hasten the goal of having an
inclusive society.
Looking at another
correlation, corruption also hinders the growth of business and the influx of
foreign investments, thus preventing the creation of more jobs. Having high
costs of doing business here (including the high cost of electricity) is bad
enough, but the difficulty of doing business here because of corruption is
apparently the reason why many companies are leaving to relocate to other
countries. Conversely, that is also apparently the reason why not so many
foreign companies are locating here, a back to back double whammy that is
causing a shortage of jobs, the end result of which is for our people to
migrate elsewhere in order to look for jobs. The best scenario of course is for
more jobs to be created locally, so that those who are now working abroad could
come home to work here instead.
By comparison, it may
be more realistic to imagine that more jobs could be created here, than to
imagine that we could create a new breed of political leaders who will become
“outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good”. We
should not lose hope however, because Pope Francis has shown us where to start,
and that is with the family. It may take a longer time than we would want it,
but if we start now, we could build stronger communities if only we could build
stronger families, and as a final step, we could eventually build as stronger nation.
By the way, the wish to build stronger families should not only be for
Catholics, but for every religion that believes in God.
Not that I am singling
out the Catholics, but as we claim to be the only Catholic country in Asia, it
should not be difficult for us to live out what Pope Francis is encouraging us
to do. Hopefully, the excitement about his teachings will not end as the frenzy
over his visit subsides. Hopefully as well, we will not miss out on what he
said, that we should focus on Jesus Christ, and not on him. Truth to tell, most
of what Pope Francis told us were not his own thoughts, but were taken from the
Bible, albeit said in his own words. Aside from the Bible, his thoughts were
presumably based on the Encyclicals. If you miss the words of Pope Francis
after he leaves, just check out the Bible and the Encyclicals.
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