Tag Archives: Catholic Church

PHILIPPINES: MOVE OVER PORK BARREL, HERE COMES MISTRESSGATE

imageManila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – There’s a new scandal brewing in the Philippines. It’s called Mistressgate (you know, like Watergate). The pork barrel scandal was so yesterday!

The scandal revolves around a dating service site on the Internet involving married people. It’s called Ashley Madison, described on its website as “the world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters.”

Justice Secretary  Leila De Lima, with full backing from the Catholic Church in the Philippines, is considering blocking the site from the Internet in the Philippines, arguing that extra-marital affairs could lead to divorce.

Both extra-marital affairs and divorce are illegal in the country, and is against the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Enter Vice President Jenomar Binay, with the backing of an overwhelming number of male politicians, from senators and congressmen to governors and mayors. “We have to protect freedom of speech and the integrity of the Internet,” Binay said, as he and his fellow politicians vowed to block any move by the Justice Department to ban the married dating site.

Observers say that this is looming as the greatest political and religious comfrontation the Philippines has ever seen because it cuts right through the country’s pervasive yet hush-hush machismo culture.

Most of the politicians backing Binay are known to have mistresses, publicly or privately. Including Binay.

CORRUPTION CHARGES: PHILIPPINE VP CONFESSES SINS TO BISHOPS

File Photo: Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican
File Photo: Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican

Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – He is under investigation by the Senate for alleged corruption while he was mayor of the city of Makati and for ill-gotten wealth in connection with a massive mansion and real estate property in Batangas, but Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay has yet to come face to face with Senate investigators.

Today however, Binay – a devout Catholic – met with officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to confess his sins. To Roman Catholics, confession (now known as Reconciliation) is among the revered sacraments that are a pathway to salvation and eternal life.

So  is Binay guilty of the charges?

No one will ever know because anything said in the confessional box is – just like what transpires between a therapist and a patient — confidential.

We just have to wait for the Senate investigation to be completed.

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES MANDATES METAL DETECTORS, SECURITY CHECKS AT WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS

IMG_3547Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Everyone who lives in, or has visited Manila and other parts of the Philippines knows that metal detectors and security checkpoints are all too common in hotels, government buildings and shopping malls.  It has become a way of life post 9-11.  But wait, metal detectors and security checks in Catholic churches too?

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle on Saturday warned wedding couples and their guests to be wary of strangers posing as a relatives or friends from one side or the other of the newly united family. They are actually thieves.

Tagle said these shady characters usually strike during photo sessions following the church ceremony. “When family members of the bride or groom are invited to pose for photographs with the newly-wedded couple, they tend to leave their purses and belongings in the church pews,” Tagle said.  “When they return to their seats, everything’s gone.”

Nuptials are not the only target of these wedding crashers, they also victimize people attending church funerals, according to Tagle.

In a move designed to protect its church-going constituents, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has required all churches and parishes in the country to install metal detectors and implement security checks to weed out wedding and funeral crashers.  CBCP also advised especially women to keep their cash and credit cards in their bras, as is the old custom among elderly women in the Philippines. “They’re safer there than inside their bags and purses,” the bishops said.