Sunday, June 24, 2018

Let no priest carry a gun

“If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.”
--George Gurdjieff

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY
-- More residents in Iloilo City in the Philippines will now be forced to walk if they are traveling only within the City Proper and will no longer commute in the public utility jeepneys (PUJ) as what they used to do.
Before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) national office approved the P2.50 hike on minimum fares of PUJ in the city and province, many Ilonggos would choose to ride rather than walk when they traveled to the Calle Real from the Hall of Justice on Bonifacio Drive vice versa, or from the Plaza Libertad to the Calle Real (Iloilo Ampitheater) vice versa.
The current minimum fare is P6.50. If the fare hike will take effect, a commuter will have to shell out P9 per ride.
Except if they come from the “faraway” districts of La Paz, Jaro, Bo. Oberero, Lapuz, Arevalo, Molo going to Calle Real in the City Proper, many commuters who travel only within the Calle Real belts from the nearby City Proper villages, offices and stores, commercial establishments vice versa, will now find it more practical to walk rather than spend P9--except, of course, if the weather isn’t good.

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Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) director, Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, should be more surprised if there are priests who will apply for a permit to carry firearms outside of residence (PTCFOR), not if nobody has applied, as of this writing.
In the first place, no priest should carry a gun or any deadly weapon for that matter.
Even if they are now being targeted for assassination, the priests, as preachers of non-violent Biblical doctrines, are aware they can’t return a violence however strong the provocation; they can’t use a violence or engage an attacker in a gun battle to prevent evil.
As “servants of God”, the priests should be willing to sacrifice their lives, if necessary, like the Christian martyrs fed to the lions and burned at stake during Nero’s atrocious rule in the Roman Empire.

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They are mandated by their calling to preach the gospel of God, inculcate and spread love and peace to mankind, not to kill criminals with a licensed revolver.
Even if they will be allowed by police authorities, priests should decline any license or authority to carry any hardware that terminates a human life.
If they truly adhere to the solid principles of the Roman Catholic Church on forbearance, non-violence and clemency, they wouldn’t even think of owning a toy gun.
Like journalists, priests are non-combatants; they are purveyors of peace and spiritual enlightenment.
Persecution and death are part of the hazards of being on the side of truth, justice and enlightenment.
Alejandro Jodorowsky once exhorted us to “Let the inner god that is in each one of us speak. The temple is your body, and the priest is your heart: it is from here that every awareness must begin.”


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