No marginalized PL after 6 years of pork

PARTY-LIST REVIEW: There are reports that the criteria for Party-List (PL) members of the House of Representatives are again being reviewed by the Commission on Elections in preparation for the 2013 polls.

Is this for real or a mere diversion from the more appalling issue of tampered PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) voting machines having altered the true results of the 2010 elections?

Granting Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and his commissioners are serious about blocking bogus sectoral representatives who may try sneaking in next year, let us join their rather belated brainstorm.

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NO LONGER DEPRIVED: If a Party-List congressman has been receiving pork barrel funds and other largesse for two terms, or six continuous years, his PL sector should have ceased to be marginalized by the end of his second term.

That rehabilitated PL sector should then be disqualified from sending any more representatives to the Congress. Dapat busog na sila, or no longer marginalized, by that time.

If the congressman wants to continue dipping into public funds, he should invent another sector to represent. The political life span of PL sectors with House seats should be two terms or six years only.

There is no reason for a PL sector to remain marginalized, disadvantaged or deprived after two terms. (Okay, in the haggling, we might make that three terms.)

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SIGN WAIVER: It is annoying to see supposed champions of public accountability and transparency ignoring the clamor of citizens to waive the secrecy of their bank deposits and records of realty assets.

The same officials had badgered then Chief Justice Renato C. Corona to sign a waiver. Now it has turned out that their demand is aimed only at political enemies or people marked for vengeful persecution.

Top Executive and Legislative officials who refuse to sign a waiver should at least tell the people how much more time they need to scale down, move, or hide elsewhere their unexplainable bank deposits and valuable real property.

The hypocrisy of it all is nauseating.

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LATIN MASS: Many elderly Catholics pine for the Traditional Latin Mass of their youth.

Some Sundays, they want to hark back to those times when the faithful worldwide prayed the same liturgy of the Mass in just one language, Latin, according to a 1,650-year heritage.

I remember those years when we would serve at Mass in liturgical Latin (“Introibo ad altere Dei….”) in UP Diliman, when the women dressed, huh, properly and wore veils, and when priests did not walk around in mufti.

I liked that, including the admonition that the Mass was not complete without Holy Communion.

Then came the Second Vatican Council (concluded in 1965), instituting wide-ranging reforms, that allowed the saying of the liturgy in the vernacular to make the Mass more understandable and relevant to the parishioners.

Now where can those visited by religious nostalgia, or those touched by this minor revival, go for a solemn Latin Mass?

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CHRIST THE KING: The Societas Liturgiae Sacrae Sancrti Gregorii, an apostolate dedicated to the celebration and propagation of the Latin Mass, emailed us the June schedule at Christ the King and the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

Low Mass at the Christ the King Parish, Lower Church, Greenmeadows Ave., Quezon City:

• June 2, Saturday, 8:30 a.m., Pentecost Saturday. Celebrant: Most Rev. Archbishop Pedro Dean, bishop emeritus of Palo, Leyte.

• June 9, Saturday, 8:30 a.m., Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi. Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas, FI, JCL, Superior, Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Novaliches Mission House.

• June 16, Saturday, 8:30 a.m., Saturday within the Octave of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas.

• June 23, Saturday, 8:30 a.m., Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas.

• June 30, Saturday, 8:30 a.m., Commemoration of St. Paul. Celebrant:  Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas.

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ST. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS: Low Mass at the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, La Chapelle des Roses, St. Therese Columbarium, Newport Blvd. (across NAIA-3), Villamor Airbase, Pasay City:

• June 3, Sunday, 9 a.m., Trinity Sunday. Celebrant: Rt. Rev. Msgr. Cesar Salomon, Vice Rector, Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Spiritual Director, SocietasLSSG.

• June 10, Sunday, 9 a.m., Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi. Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas.

• June 17, Sunday, 9 a.m., Sunday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrant:  Rt. Rev. Msgr. Cesar Salomon.

• June 24, Sunday, 9 a.m., Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 4th Sunday after Pentecost. Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Felix Maria Dueñas.

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WHERE ELSE?: SocietasLSSG coordinator Marilou B. Cortes said mass-goers in both churches will be provided missal booklets in Latin and English as well as Propers to enable everyone to follow and respond to the celebrant.

Another email on the Latin Mass was received from reader Bella Ramirez of Quezon City. She said:

“There is a very beautiful church on top of a rise along Betty Belmonte Ave., Our Lady of Victories. Only Latin Mass is celebrated here. Mass is at 7:15 a.m. except Sunday with a Misa Cantata I think at 10 a.m. Women have to wear skirts and veils. The Mass is quiet and solemn and the church is really beautiful and peaceful.”

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