EDITORIAL - Ahh, the poor

Most people who reacted to Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal's lament that the money spent for the lavish Southeast Asian Games opening ceremony in Cebu City would have seen better use feeding the poor were of the argument that it was not city government money that was spent.

Actually, that is not the point. Vidal made no effort to determine whether the roughly P4 million pesos supposedly spent for the opening ceremony came from city government coffers or from private sources, which those who reacted seem to insist.

What dismayed Vidal was the cost of the celebration. He felt P4 million was too much to spend for an opening ceremony while there are hundreds of poor Cebuanos, thousands even, who can barely eat once a day.

What Vidal is saying is, of course, true. But we beg to disagree with him on his point. The overwhelming presence of poor and hungry people does not deprive other people of the right to choose how to spend their money.

Charity may be a Christian value, but the spirit by which it is given cannot be dictated. Hence, it is entirely possible that some of those who chipped in for the SEAG ceremony are also some of the biggest donors to Christian charities.

Indeed, the good cardinal, if it was really him speaking and not just his media liaison officer, is better advised to drop the issue because it is one that can backfire on the church and church people with terrible consequences.

For the church, on occasion, engages in some lavish spending of its own. It is therefore not the lavishness of the spending that is in itself bad. It is the necessity or the needlessness of such spending that spells the moral difference.

Cebu City does not get to host an event of the magnitude of the SEAG everyday, in the same way the Cebu Archdiocese does not get a daily visit from the pope. But when fortune smiles and such things happen, both are expected to put their best foot forward.

And pardon the expression, but if they have to beg, steal and borrow, then that is just what they have to do and no one should begrudge them that. As to the poor, they will not be any poorer because of it.