Two popes praying for win in World Cup Finals!

I'm not a Basketball fan, but whenever the NBA finals come, I do watch the games. I'm also not football crazy, but the World Cup is the World Cup and we watched the semi-finals between Brazil and Germany, which was a disaster for Brazil with Germany emerging victorious with a 7-1 score. Early morning yesterday, we watched Argentina tangle with the Netherlands, which ended with a penalty shootout, with Argentina prevailing.

So come Sunday, it will be Germany vs Argentina. Right after the game, my good friend, Security Bank president Abet Villarosa sent me this message, On Sunday, we will see a World Cup Finals battle between 2 Popes, Pope Emeritus Benedict vs Pope Francis! I understand that Pope Francis already told Benedict he can continue to live inside the Vatican as long as Argentina wins the game on Sunday." So this Sunday's game will be a historic one with two popes praying for each other's team. Hmmm, perhaps both Popes should go to Rio de Janeiro and if the game ends with a penalty kick, perhaps they should allow the two popes to kick for their respective teams.

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I honestly didn't want to write about that incident involving Fr. Romeo Obach, CSsR when he berated that 17-year-old girl who was having her baby baptized. But I want to point out that when this incident was placed in Facebook, many people found it offensive for a priest to berate that poor unmarried girl, instead of giving her compassion for what has happened in her life. The fact that she wanted her baby baptized in a Catholic church showed that she still wanted to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church.

But I salute Fr. Obach for quickly issuing his very sincere apology and remorse for berating that girl. The Congregation of Redemptorist as a community though its media liaison, Fr. Alfonso Suico, also issued a statement of apology saying "We do not condone such an unacceptable act as it is contrary to the Charism and Mission for which our Congregation was founded."

At this point, we should put a closure to this issue as far as the Redemptorist Community is concerned. After all, forgiveness is one of the most important teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. If at all, there is only one left to be said. If indeed that unwed mother is 17 years old, she must have conceived that child when she was 16 years old.

So the question I'd like to pose is, whether the father of that child is also of the same age as her because if the father is already an adult, he committed statutory rape, which is rape of a child below 18 years old. This is where the media should focus instead of berating the Redemptorist priest who already apologized which was accepted by the girl.

This is the problem with us Catholics, when a priest makes a mistake, they make a media circus out of it. But no one cared to report (Although the Philippine Star featured this story in the Metro Section last Wednesday) that a lawyer who suspected his wife for having an affair hired a detective and was caught inside a Motel in Pasig City with their Religious Minister naked and in flagrante delicto. But our radio commentators didn't report this because they were too busy attacking the Catholic priest. Give them a break and start attacking that minister for adultery instead!

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I've been back more than a week already and people still ask me what I think of the No-Left Turn policy being implemented by the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM). Well, I finally drove into the Banilad-Talamban road just for the heck of it and what really are needed are designated U-Turn slots. I also found out that under the flyover along Arch. Reyes Ave. beside the TESDA office, it has no U-Turn area. Motorists have to go all the way and wait for the traffic light to turn green before they can make a U-Turn. This is something that CITOM ought to fix pronto!

If you've been observing the traffic patterns and driver behavior, the No-Left Turn policy is supposed to reduce the traffic congestion along the Ban-Tal road. But in the end it just makes more vehicles go in one direction before a motorist can make a U-Turn. A case in point is the Cebu Country Club, which has been designated as a No-Left Turn area. That's fine with me, but the problem is, cars from the Country Club have to go all the way to the Foodland Flyover to make that U-Turn… which is just too far. CITOM should use the Blue Guards to stop vehicles snarled in traffic and allow Country Club members to make a Left-Turn. They allowed the Country Club Village to do so, why not the Cebu Country Club, which has a designated Blue Guard whose job is to clear traffic during rush hours. In the end, the scheme forces motorists to turn right so they could make that U-Turn at the Foodland Flyover, which to my mind is simply stupid!

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