CBCP: Blasphemy more than mockery of icons

MANILA, Philippines — While drag queen Pura Luka Vega may have been accused of committing blasphemy, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said on Monday that even people who regularly go to church yet fail to help those who are suffering have also offended Jesus Christ.

In a Facebook post, David reminded the public that while they were offended by videos of Vega dressed as Jesus Christ, there have been instances in the past when other people mocked Christ’s teachings.

“Christ may indeed be blasphemed by people who mock his icons and his teachings. But I am sure He is blasphemed even more by people who come to Church regularly but cannot recognize his face in women and children who are abused, in victims of human trafficking, in the thousands of alleged ‘drug suspects’ who have been abducted, tortured and summarily executed in the last several years, in the homeless poor who live like rats in dwellings unfit for humans, in the undocumented Filipinos who literally do not count and are treated like unwanted aliens in their own country,” David said.

“There are many ways of committing blasphemy; and while we notice the more obvious forms of it, we may be completely oblivious of its many other forms in our daily lives,” he added.

Viral videos showed Vega dancing to a remix version of “Ama Namin” or the Lord’s Prayer.

Senate President Miguel Zubiri warned that criminal charges may be filed against Vega for allegedly violating Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes “immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions and indecent shows.”