Cardinal deplores ‘obscene’ people who flaunt wealth amid widespread poverty
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David lamented over the weekend the “obscenity” of individuals who parade in luxury while a lot of their fellow human beings are hungry and have nothing to eat.
“It is obscene when the children of politicians post on social media a dinner bill amounting to P760,000 for just four people—an amount that even a worker cannot earn in three years,” David said during his homily on Saturday for the Feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.
“Is it not obscene to indulge like this while most of our people struggle daily to feed their families despite back-breaking work for meager wages?” he added.
The cardinal likewise mentioned in his homily the online revelations of construction contractors Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II and his wife Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya, who ran for Pasig City mayor in the last election.
Sarah lost the last election after reelected Mayor Vico Sotto linked the couple’s wealth to their contracts with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which the Discaya couple admitted in at least two viral video blog posts of journalists Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao.
“In Tagalog, we use the word ‘mahalay’ (obscene) when people expose in public what is meant to be hidden—the private parts of the body or private acts in the bedroom. It is obscene when what should be shameful is shamelessly flaunted, when what ought to be hidden is displayed with pride,” David then said.
The cardinal followed his homily by emphasizing that “it is obscene when sudden wealth from corruption is paraded as a model of success, when ill-gotten gain is celebrated as cleverness.”
David also lamented how a poor father playing a petty gambling game was jailed while no one has been charged yet on the alleged flood-control anomalies in different areas of the country.
“It is obscene when a poor father of six is arrested and jailed for allegedly tossing coins in a street-side game of ‘cara y cruz,’ while no one is arrested, jailed, or charged for squandering billions of pesos of public funds on ghost flood-control projects,” the cardinal said.
“It is even more obscene that online gambling is now legal and accessible on every cellphone 24/7, with the government itself acting as gambling lord. It is obscene when killing itself is glorified, and when lawmakers and law enforcers themselves trample on the very laws they are supposed to uphold,” he pointed out.
David concluded his homily by encouraging the faithful, saying: “We must allow ourselves to be shocked and sickened by such obscenity so that we may be shaken awake, so that we may recover our sense of dignity, decency, and humanity in a society corroded by corruption.”
