Need a strong nation? Have a strong Centcom!

Last Wednesday, we attended the 1st Centcom founding anniversary ceremonies in Camp Lapu-Lapu, graced no less than our good friend, newly-appointed chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Gen. Dionisio Santiago. The theme of the affair was, Centcom, AFP… We Bring Peace… for Progress and Development in the Visayas. It’s quite interesting to note that when General Santiago was Visayas Command (Viscom) chief, he reorganized this command into the Centcom and thus he became the last Viscom chief and the first Centcom chief. Today, Centcom is under the command of the very unassuming and humble Maj. Gen. Jacinto Ligot.

Watching the military honors complete with a parade and review, and a 19-gun salute brought me back to my ROTC days where we used to march in the parade grounds of Camp Lapu-Lapu. At that time the camp commander was the little known, Col. Fidel V. Ramos. I recall our ROTC corps commander then was a lanky officer named Roy Kyamko, whom I met last Wednesday and is holding the rank of major general and commander general of the Southern Luzon Command in Camp Guillermo Nakar, Lucena City.

Watching our marching soldiers coming from the various services of the military, I didn’t see a weak nation, but a strong one – especially now that it is under the command of General Santiago, who has also excelled in field other than the military, graduating a degree in Public Administration at the Seattle University and further studies in Harvard. When he was Viscom/Centcom commander, the communist rebels in Bohol were literally on the run. Sure there were incidents in Sogod, Cebu, but we all know that the communist employ deceit as a major tactic.

It is because we need to have a strong nation that we support President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) who also supports the true soldiers of our nation… a title that the New People’s Army (NPA) so desperately wants to grab. But under General Santiago and the likes of Mgen. Ligot or Mgen. Kyamko, the more I believe that the numbers of the NPAs would dwindle, not increase. Kudos to the men and women in uniform from the Centcom!

* * *

Today, is Mama Mary’s birthday or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic dogma that has caused a split in Christianity. To us who belong to the Universal, Apostolic and Catholic Church, we have no problem in accepting this truth. Unfortunately, not all Catholics are able to understand, much less defend this Catholic dogma, primarily because of lack of education. After all, majority of Catholics here are what we call "devotional Catholics." There is nothing wrong with that except that devotionals Catholics ought to read the Bible as often as they should.

Hence, call it coincidental that today, a newly-formed organization that calls itself "Mary’s" Catholic Apologists (MCA) will be formally organized in a one-day seminar-retreat at the Century Plaza Hotel’s conference room. Our good friends, Brothers Dodong Limchua, Peter Yu, Paquito Unchuan, Ric Maderazo, Douglas and Charles Gacasan, Allan Abelgas, Lito and Joe Barba, Abel Visitacion, Deena Pages and Bro. Soc Fernandez compose the nucleus of this group. They all belong to the various charismatic or lay communities in Cebu City. Fr. Lucas Inoc is the spiritual director of this organization, which falls under the Commission on Formation of the Bible Apostolate under the St. Jerome Bible Center.

To put everything in its proper perspective, MCA is not another charismatic community. Rather, its purpose or objective is to act as a service group to all charismatic communities in order to educate many of our poorly-educated Catholics, many of whom were led astray by Bible-reading Christians because of their own ignorance of the Holy Bible. As written in Hosea, 4-6: "My people perish for lack of knowledge."

Clearly, the battlecry of this group is to teach and educate Catholics the truth as written in the Bible. It doesn’t intend to go on a senseless, endless and ultimately useless debates with other Christian sects unless these groups are truly seeking the truth with open hearts and minds. Yes, many of those who claim to know the Bible inside and out interpret it the way they like, not the way that the Catholic Church interprets through the Pope.

If you want to know why the lay groups are going into apologetics, it is perhaps because the Catholic clergy may have been too busy fending off numerous problems, even evil that has been plaguing the Catholic Church, like the sex scandals for instance. This, alone, deflects the attention of the church whose true purpose of existence is to go on missions to evangelize and spread the Good News of the Lord… so that the blind can see and can be saved. After all, to our group, the acronyms of busy is "Being Under Satan’s Yoke."

Call it a coincident or even divine intervention that on the day MCA will be formed, America’s foremost Apologetics, Bro. Stephen K. Ray would be in Cebu for a week-long series of talks. Steve Ray was a former devout Baptist and a teacher of biblical studies. When he heard that a friend of his, an evangelical pastor, was converted to Catholicism, he investigated this phenomena and in the end, he himself joined the Catholic Church on Pentecost Sunday in 1994. His spiritual journey is recorded in his best selling book, Crossing the Tiber. Another favorite author of mine is Dr. Scott Hahn who wrote Rome Sweet Home.

Steve Ray will be in Cebu to speak before the Sons of David on Dec. 9, at 7 a.m. at the Cebu Country Club. He will be before the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) the following night at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Redemptorist Church, and with the Oasis of Love at the Sacred Heart School for Boys on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to hear Steve Ray on any of those dates. We prefer that these be attended by people who are entertaining doubts about their Catholic faith, the role of Mama Mary in our salvation history and the Supremacy of the Pope.

At this point, we can only thank Mama Mary for the gift of having Mr. Steve Ray within our midst on her natal day.

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.