Tagle to cops: Be instruments of harmony

MANILA, Philippines — With officials and personnel of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) present during mass, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle yesterday expressed hope that police would become instruments of harmony.

Tagle asked the police officers and other mass-goers present to be just in their actions and practice humility in order to attain harmony.

“To our brother policemen… Your mission, I hope that with the help of just actions, with humility and with the continued moral conversion and spiritual conversion, you would become instruments of harmony in our society that is always threatened by disharmony,” he said. 

NCRPO director Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas and at least 1,500 cops attended yesterday’s 8:30 a.m. mass at the cathedral.

Prior to the mass, the NCRPO paid a courtesy call on Tagle, during which the cardinal addressed preparations for the upcoming Traslacion of the image of the Black Nazarene. The police officers asked that they be allowed to join the mass, and many of them were accommodated and given seats in the Cathedral.

In his homily yesterday, the second Sunday of Advent, Tagle focused on “harmony.” He mentioned three things in order to achieve harmony – justice, humility and repentance. 

He explained that if the faithful do not give what is due to others, there would be no justice and no harmony, adding that “pride destroys harmony.”

Tagle concluded by calling on the faithful to repent and show evidence in life that one has repented, stressing that “justice requires repentance.”

“Humility can be achieved when we admit our faults and take the path of repentance,” he said.