EDITORIAL - Divergent priorities

Last Friday, February 27, two of the country's leading national newspapers headlined the positions of two of the country's leading prelates on two very different issues. Another prelate echoed the call of one of them, but his statement made the news only belatedly.

One newspaper carried a statement issued by Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, the current president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, calling for the dismantling of the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant.

The other newspaper carried the call of Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, for all Catholic and private schools to freeze tuition fee increases until the economic crisis is over. Later in Cebu, a similar call was made by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

Three different bishops, two different stands, both reflecting the great priority divide afflicting the Roman Catholic heirarchy in the country, whose continued claim to being the leading Christian nation in Asia is often not matched by the deeds of its leading lights.

Cardinals Rosales and Vidal prefer to tackle two immediate and basic concerns at once -- the need for education, and the need to make ends meet, in a time of great crisis. The humility of their pleading is so Jesus-like that Christianity is reinforced by the gesture.

Archbishop Lagdameo, on the other hand, prefers the more politicized issue of nuclear power, one that will not strike us today but is a concern that needs time to iron out from too much wrangling. No Jesus there, in confrontation and making demands.

Rosales and Vidal are not alone in recognizing that despite dramatic changes and great challenges, people are not about to abandon an elemental faith in God and continue to hunger and thirst for basic spirituality, a need that only shepherds like them can fill.

But to the disappointment of many, an increasing number among the flock are getting lost or waylaid because an increasing number of the shepherds are losing focus of their primary mission and have come to embrace other gods, such as the god of politics.

We have a surfeit of politicians already. We do not need our priests and bishops to add to that unwieldy number. We need them to tend and nurture the basic goodness with which we were born, so that what is good is made clear to us, and what is bad we clearly abhor.