Cardinal Sin

Jaime Cardinal Sin has been justly praised for his clear and courageous leadership in extremely difficult times. He has raised his voice clearly and unambiguously against every form of injustice. He will go down in history as the spiritual leader whom millions trusted.

There is however another side to Cardinal Sin which has not received sufficient attention. It is his paternal solicitude for priests.

This came home to me through a little personal incident. I was in the hospital, recuperating from a surgical operation, when into my room one morning came Cardinal Sin. He stayed only a few minutes but I was greatly consoled by his visit.

At first I thought that he had visited me because he had recently been to my hometown and (as he himself told me during that visit) he had coffee in my brother’s house. He did indeed mention that, and he (diplomatically) praised not only my brother’s coffe’s ("real coffee" he said) but also my brother's Spanish (which has worse than mine).

But I soon learned that was not the reason for his visiting me. He visited me simply because I was a priest who was ill. On certain days (I was told) he went to the hospital and visited every priest who was ill.

The Cardinal’s solicitude was not confined to ailing priests. I was told that he was always accessible to any priest who wanted to see him. Busy as he was (and in his exalted position he had many engagements) he always found time for priests.

That is as it should be. A bishop’s first priority should be the welfare – spiritual and temporal – of the priests who help him in his pastoral work.

Unfortunately that could not be said of some bishops in the past. (I refrain to speak of the present.)

In the language of American politicians, Jaime Sin had been a "dark horse" as archbishop of Manila. When Cardinal Rufino Santos died, many names were prominently mentioned as his possible successor. Sin’s was not among them. When his appointment was announced, many expressed surprise.

Cardinal Sin himself mentioned that when the Nuncio told him of his appointment as archbishop of Manila, he had begged to be excused. He gave several reasons. Among them, first, he had no academic degrees; he has not attended any university, only the seminary. Second, he spoke no Tagalog. Third, he was perfectly happy as archbishop of Jaro.

The Nuncio ignored all those reasons except one: he sent Jaime Sin a Tagalog grammar so that he could learn the language.

That choice by the Nuncio (and ultimately by the Pope) has proven to be a very wise one.

Like all human beings, Cardinal Sin has faults. One of them is his lack of reticence. He has been known to tell jokes and stories which seem out of place. During the Marcos dictatorship, the Marcos minions who had a strong dislike for Cardinal Sin seized upon that defect and ridiculed him as "that Buffoon".

They laughed too soon. As it turned out Cardinal Sin played a key role in the downfall of the regime. It would not be an exaggeration to say that of the more than a million who flocked to EDSA and stayed there for three days in February 1986, more than half were there because of Cardinal Sin’s appeal.

EDSA 1986 was probably the only case in history when, instead of the army protecting the people, the people protected the army.

Cardinal Sin’s mandatory resignation at age 75 is the end of an illustrious pontificate. He has been a leader and a father to his flock. Thank God for Cardinal Sin.