‘Vicisti, Galilaee’

By Abraham V. Llera

Contributor

I don’t know how the incessant attacks by Rodrigo Roa Duterte will play out, but of one thing I’m certain: he will miserably fail if it’s the destruction of the Church he is after. 

From the word go, the Catholic Church has been buffeted by tempests of all kinds from all sorts. Heretics from her own ranks from the infamous Arius to various Roman emperors messed up with her.

Paradoxically, it was the best Roman emperors who were also her worst persecutors: Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, and Decius, not counting the madmen Nero and Domitian.

And it was brilliant theologians who were a constant thorn on the side of the early Church: Arius, Eusebius, Nestorius.

But the Church triumphed. Today, the faithful number 1.2 billion. She is in more countries than ever, united in an uncontested and popular hierarchy, proclaiming the Good News to all corners of the world.

Mr. Duterte will deal the local Church a serious blow. Count on the Devil to know precisely where to squeeze where it will hurt most. In this particular case, it is pitting Mr. Duterte against the Church, and putting the considerable resources of the government behind Mr. Duterte. 

But Mr. Duterte will fail, even if he initially succeeds in his attacks against the Church. And Duterte, his rah-rah boys, and his Duterte government will find out like Julian the Apostate did how the Church always triumphs in the end. 

For readers who have not come across the name before, Julian the Apostate was a Roman emperor shortly after Constantine the Great, his uncle who ended the Roman persecution of the early Christians by allowing their religion alongside others.

Raised a Christian, Julian the Apostate was a pagan at heart, and early on in his short 18-year reign brought back the persecution. But he was wounded in battle against the Sassanid army in June 363, from the hands of one of his soldiers according to the historian Libianus.

His physician Oribasius of Pergamum fought to treat his slashed liver and suture his damaged intestines to no avail. Julian the Apostate died, supposedly gasping “Vicisti, Galilaee,” “Thou hast triumphed, Galilaeen” with his last breath. 

I don’t know how this Duterte episode in the life of the Church will play out. Like everywhere else that contraception, abortion, same-sex unions, fornication, and euthanasia have been made a state religion, we might probably see a Philippines reel under the moral devastation wrought by the general loosening of morals and the pouring out the contents of Pandora’s box: pornography, divorce, same-sex unions, emptying of churches, making illegal the display of crucifixes, abortion, euthanasia, rape, and drugs.

But the Church will emerge triumphant from this somehow.

Of that I’m certain. I can only hope it will not be at the cost of Mr. Duterte’s soul.

An open letter to President Duterte

Dear Mr. President:

I didn’t vote for you because my close friends from high school asked me not to, and I just couldn’t refuse their request.  

But in my heart of hearts, I rooted for you.

Right from the start, I knew you would run despite the “urong-sulong” press statements.  Not only that, I just knew you’d win.  About these two, I never had an iota of doubt, never mind that you essentially came from behind, and you were initially the least likely to win because of lack of machinery.

If I may add, I rooted for you despite your less-than-sterling personal life.  I rooted for you despite my having been roundly reviled by my pro-life, pro-Church buddies.  Yes, I rooted for you despite your cursing of the Pope.  

I saw in you the country’s sole hope for change.  I kept on saying: “Duterte will be the next President of the Philippines, and he will make a good President, converting many starting with himself (and myself, too).

Now, I’m not very sure you will.

Why not?

Because if there’s anything that’ll guarantee failure, it’s one’s going against God.  In your case, not only are you going against God, you have been viciously attacking his Church.

I’d like to see the Filipino people finally freed from the bondage of grasping oligarchs, rapacious corrupt officials, and emboldened criminals.

Please fulfill the destiny that’s yours even before you were born.  Do not do anything to compromise it.

Stop attacking the Church.