Cardinal Vidal: Leaving the Cebu Archdiocese

CEBU, Philippines - January 13 this year is deemed to be a turning point in the lives of the Cebuano faithful.

On this day, Cebu Archbishop His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Jamin Vidal will officially turn over the Cebu Archdiocese to the new archbishop, Most Reverend José Serofia Palma, currently archbishop of Palo in Leyte province.

Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams announced that last October 15 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Palma to succeed Vidal as Cebu Archbishop.

This meant that the Pope has finally accepted the retirement application of the 79-year-old Vidal that remained pending over the last four years. Vidal first submitted his retirement papers to the Vatican on February 6, 2006 when he turned 75, because under the Code of Canon Law, the mandatory age for retirement is 75.

The Pope then did not accept his resignation and asked him instead to continue serving Cebu as its archbishop because he was still “strong and able.” The Vatican also cited all the good things that Vidal has done to the church and its people.

Vidal has been a strong man of God who surmounted various threats to his health. As early as 1987, when he was still the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, he was diagnosed with coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery disease is a condition when excess fats and cholesterol build-up formed in his coronary arteries and blocked the pathway of oxygen-rich blood to his heart, causing frequent pain in the chest. He underwent different procedures until he became well.

In 2000, Vidal was declared by his physician to be a diabetic. He has been suffering also from osteoarthritis, considered the most painful kind of arthritis, and is now taking dozens of medicines, mostly for his heart, to maintain his health condition.

Vidal always tell the people that his weakness comes with old age but he thanked them for praying for him to get well.

The life of the Cardinal has been of total service to God and His people, a life which he all accounted in the book “Viam Veritatis: The Life and Ministry of Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal.”

Vidal has been serving the church for 54 years. He was ordained a priest on March 17, 1956, at the St. Ferdinand Cathedral, Lucena City.

The impending installation of Palma as the next Cebu’s Archbishop has delighted the Cardinal because Palma is somehow young at the age of 60 which means that he can serve Cebu for a significant period of time before he turns 75 and retire.

In 1982, Vidal became Archbishop of Cebu at the age of 51. He replaced Cardinal Julio Rosales who resigned at the age of 75. Three years later, or in 1985, Vidal was vested the red hat of a cardinal.

Before Vidal became the administrator of the Archdiocese of Cebu, he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Cebu in August 1981, his very first year to be assigned here.

According to the CBCP Online, in 1986-1987 Vidal was president of the CBCP; in 1989 he was the chairman of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Clergy and president-delegate of the Synod on the Laity.

During his CBCP presidency, Vidal played a major role in Philippine history. He issued an exhortation that contributed to the People Power uprising which eventually led to the fall of the late president Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Vidal also received various honors and awards: Doctor of Sacred Theology (honoris causa) granted by the University of Santo Tomas in October 1985; Doctor of Human Letters (honoris causa) from the Manuel S. Enverga Foundation University in Lucena City in April 1990, and a similar honorary conferment from the Ateneo de Manila University in March 1993; and Doctor of Humanities (honoris causa) from San Carlos University in Cebu City in August 1995.

In December 1998 he received the Outstanding Filipino Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila. In September 2002 he was conferred the Bailiff Grand Cross of Honor and Devotion of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

The University of Southern Philippines in July 2002 bestowed Vidal the Rizal Peace Award.

The Cebu City government also made him an adopted son of the city, and conferred on him the Rajah Human Life Achievement Award, the highest award the city government can give to an individual.

Cebuanos have been thankful to God for giving them a good spiritual leader. Vidal’s leadership has even awed the country’s lawmakers as recently the House of Representatives and the Senate adopted separate resolutions lauding him and his contributions to the community, especially in Cebu.

His followers describe him as someone who “could oppose a whole nation as long as he stands by the truth, gentle yet strong, balance and firm.He has helped keep our religious foundations steady amidst years of political instability and social turmoil. All these he did with love, sincerity and compassion.”

Lawmakers also believe that Vidal deserves recognition for the wisdom he has imparted to the community which greatly helped in solving political conflicts and spared the community from bloody wars and chaos.

Vidal’s life, with all the accolades maybe unmatched by any other Filipinos, has been replete with simplicity and modesty.

A week before the canonical possession or installation of Palma, Vidal must leave the Archbishop Palace to prepare it for the new archbishop.

According to the Vatican, “Canonical possession, popularly called installation, is the formal act by which the bishop assumes full governance of the diocese. A bishop who is already consecrated must take possession within two months after receiving the notice of his appointment.”

Earlier, Vidal expressed his desire to retire in Cebu, in his rest house at Sto. Niño Village in barangay Banilad, this city. But the cardinal said he might spend his retirement in Mogpog, Marinduque where he was born on February 6, 1931.

Though saddened that he has to leave the Cebu Archdiocese, the cardinal expressed high confidence in Palma who was previously assigned here as Auxiliary Bishop from 1997 to 1999.

Palma is a known human rights advocate. In 1999, when he was appointed Bishop of Calbayog, he was a vocal opponent of extra-judicial killings in the Samar Island. He pressed the government to pursue criminal prosecution of a retired military officer in Samar who was believed to be responsible for numerous human rights violations.

Palma—who was born on March 19, 1950 in Dingle, Iloilo—was appointed Archbishop of Palo in March 2006.

He studied philosophy at the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary and theology at the St. Joseph Regional Seminary. He then earned his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at UST in Manila and took a doctorate degree at the St. Thomas Aquinas Pontifical University in Rome.

Palma is described by his followers in Palo as “a good bishop, a caring father, an understanding brother, and a loving shepherd.”

Cardinal Vidal hopes that his successor Palma will continue or even do better with what he has started like the preservation of the cultural heritage of structures particularly the churches in the Cebuarchdiocese. /RAE (FREEMAN)