The Party’s Over (or plenary indulgence)

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s been ten days since the city fiesta, and what do we have? It’s back to normal, or at least the life we always had each time when the party’s over. What is it about fiestas that it’s always THE day of the year? (Oops, is it the old person in me complaining?) Well, the crowded streets, the droves of people (I wonder where they get to relieve themselves, you know things you do with the loo), the ferias, the rides, the baratillos that mess the streets. Well, I guess there’s no use complaining, this event has got historical, or at least cultural roots, deeply rooted at that. Let me give you some lines from “Prusisyon, Religious Pageantry in the Philippines” (a book by by Jaime C. Laya & Lulu Tesoro Castañeda, in collaboration with the Federation of Philippine Photographers, Inc., Cofradia de la Imaculada Concepcion, Metropolitan Manila, Philippines):

“In addition to Lent and Christmas rituals, the feast of a town’s patron saint was occasion for celebration. Farm folks from their isolated hamlets, relatives and guests from other towns and the big city, and just plain celebrants, all descended upon the town for the novena and High Mass and to feast with the townspeople who were open in their hospitality. Carnival rides and innocent games of chance (beto beto, a simple dice game) were at a feria in the plaza.”

Ah fiesta, I rest my case.

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So Noynoy is running; and so is his cousin. Now I’m curious about Bayani and his pronouncements. Back to Noynoy. After he made public his intention, with Mar’s dramatic withdrawal, calls were made for other presidentiables to rally behind the son of Ninoy and Cory, all in the name of service to the country. Well, one presidentiable was quick to say that it’s a multi-party system, everyone is free to run. And I guess the rest of the flock are saying the same line. So much for love of country.

And in the U.S. of A. It’s been 8 years since the WTC attacks and Bin Laden is still at large. In the news reports that followed the tragic event, a newsphoto showed a bumper sticker on a U.S. military vehicle with these words: it’s up to God’s to deal with Bin Laden, but we will make the appointment.

The attacks changed the landscape, or so some analysts said. I suppose they were referring to how America fought its wars. It used to be that the greatest armed forces on earth would fight wars far away from its own territory. I can still clearly remember my professor saying that America (the government) can afford to be proud and arrogant. But just wait until the war is fought within its territory. And I heard that line in my soc sci class sometime in the late 1980s and I thought then that it was wishful thinking on his part. And yes, he would later tell us that he flunked in one of his subjects because he praised Kruschev instead of Kennedy during a class discussion on the Cuban missile crisis. His professor was a Kennedy fan.

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As reported, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has started the construction of the billion-peso Wright – Calbayog 138 kV Power Transmission Project.

A week ago today, NGCP President Walter Brown planed in to Calbayog to attend the briefing on the said project which is expected to be completed by March 2011.

In attendance in the said event were Congressman Reynaldo Uy, Mayor Mel Sarmiento, Vice Mayor Ronald Aquino and a good number of sectoral representatives.

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In celebration of its Centenary, some churches in the Diocese of Calbayog have been designated as pilgrimage sites. Among these churches is the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral. I learned about it via that billboard near the entrance announcing that the cathedral as just that – a pilgrimage site - AND that one can gain plenary indulgence (by visiting the site, I suppose).

Plenary Indulgence. That’s what I remember about one history subject, the one on reformation and counter-reformation. Oops, it’s the history buff in me again, well almost. Don’t worry I’m not here to enumerate dates, names and places, not today anyway. It’s the acerbic reklamador in me that’s restless today.

Plenary Indulgence. Do you still remember your Noli Mi Tangere? There’s that chapter on the prusisyun in celebration of the pista in the town of San Diego. Here’s where some ladies who belonged to the Venerable Orden Tercera and the Cofradia Del Santo Rosario compared notes as to the number of plenary indulgences they have received (I understand they said it with the corresponding monetary equivalent) because of what they have supposedly done in God’s favor, or something to that effect.

Well, we are no longer in the era of Padre Damaso (I believe so anyway, I dunnow about you). And yes, include John Tetzel too. Yes, we are not in their world anymore. But just curious, or should I say just in the name of fun, how about doing something like what the religious ladies of San Diego did when they compared the amount of their savings, err the plenary indulgences that they have saved:

How much plenary indulgence do we gain if we give only 1 peso in the Sunday collection?

How much plenary indulgence does one gain if one pays one thousand pesos for a funeral mass, even if he can only afford half the price or less?

How much plenary indulgence does a barangay get for 4 grand paid for a fiesta celebration?

How much plenary indulgence does one get for paying one grand for a novena being done in a regularly scheduled mass?

How much plenary indulgence does one gain for the acerbic sermons one had to endure in some masses, sermons which include such exotic words as pasasakit, napo-o, gaba and bugkut? And such sarcastic statements like kay dire man kam natutumanan san iyo karuyag; and the endless reference to the arancel like kay nanu nga mangraklamo kam san arancel nga wara man kami sana gana; ngan ayaw kam tu-od sana nga mga estranghero nga nagpaka padi-padi when referring to some religious (foreign) priests who happen to have a mission in the locality where the parish of this some kinda not-so-likable priest is?

How much plenary indulgence will the indigent gain if they pay for the services like sacraments, masses and the like because the arancel has no provision which says voluntario for the indigents?

Again, just curious, don’t take it seriously. Blame it on the religious ladies in the town of San Diego; or should I say blame it on Jose Rizal for making me think naughtily today? And yes, just wanna make you smile this long weekend.

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Have a nice long weekend everyone. Ciao!