Category: Commentary

In a coauthored book “On Heaven and Earth,” the future pope, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, hit the nail on the head by offering an alternative understanding of the oft-abused and misused term “charity.” From a Catholic perspective, he says, “Christian charity is the love of God and neighbor. It…

While surfing the cable channels one Saturday afternoon, I chanced upon Karen Davila’s interview with 60-year-old singer Freddie Aguilar about his romantic relationship with a 16-year-old girl. This piece of news was something I belatedly came to know about over a lunch conversation with colleagues at work but did not…

Don’t expect Pope Francis to soften the Church’s teaching on abortion anytime soon. In a talk last Sept. 20 to gynecologists, he insisted: “Every unborn child, condemned unjustly to being aborted, has the face of the Lord, who before being born, and then when he was just born, experienced the rejection…

When in his State of the Nation Address President Aquino paid tribute to acts of citizenship by ordinary civil servants and citizens by telling them “Sona mo ito (This is your Sona),” I wished he had cited one program of his administration which for me epitomizes the idea of the government…

Just for a change, people need to hear about a priest who isn’t screaming about contraception, divorce, and same-sex marriage. That’s what I told Father Jack. It may have been the only reason he agreed to let me write this piece for his 70th anniversary as a Jesuit. Father Jack…

Lampedusa? Where/what is that? If you are wondering, you are not the only one as the local press has been resoundingly silent about the very first trip of Pope Francis away from the confines of Rome. It was not to his own Buenos Aires or some other great city, not…

The rainy season has begun, certain to be followed by typhoons and floods. Two episodes of heavy rains and resultant floods in fact occurred in Metro Manila last month. Horrendous traffic followed, commuters were stranded, those who could not wait to reach home waded through the waters, oblivious to the…

On the tiny island of Boracay there is a treasure arguably more valuable than its famed white beaches—the way of life of the island’s earliest settlers, the Ati. But that is a well-kept secret. If resort developers have their way, the once dutiful stewards of the island’s forests will be…