Former Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal celebrates Mass to mark his 61st anniversary as a priest at a chapel in his house at Barangay Banilad in Cebu City.
CDN PHOTO/Fe Marie Dumaboc
Cardinal Vidal marks his 61st year as priest, prays for Duterte, gov’t execs
Former Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is praying for government officials especially President Rodrigo Duterte to work always for the common good.
Vidal said this during a press briefing after he celebrated Mass to mark his 61st anniversary as a priest.
“May they work always for the common good because that is necessary, but, as far as the Lord (is concerned I pray to him to) let them realize, what is this common good. It is very hard (to grasp). Common good is abstract, so let them understand what is common good for the people and (to) work for it,” he said.
Vidal said common good accompanies peace and order because how can one govern if there is no peace and there is no order in the society.
He, however, said that these could all be achieved with the people’s cooperation to the government.
Vidal also refused to comment on the impeachment complaint filed against the President.
During the Mass that he celebrated in a chapel inside his house in Barangay Banilad in Cebu City, Vidal called on priests to be humble and to be real human beings.
He encouraged them during his homily to not assume that perfection is the same as holiness.
“For perfection is always being whole and never being broken while holiness is being broken and then made whole once again. Holiness means always needing God, because without God, we will never be whole again,” he said.
Aside from that he also encouraged priests to be good in serving the people.
He also thanked Cebuanos, who still love and take care of him and to the priests, who had helped him in the service.
He cited Msgr. Achilles Dakay, who served as his media liaison when he was still Cebu Archbishop.
The Cebu Archbishop Emeritus said he also is grateful to God, for prolonging his “short life” and wished Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma a longer life, especially since Palma will be celebrating his 67th birthday on March 19.
He also gave a lenten message where he encouraged the faithful to reflect on the passion and death of Christ so that they could sanctify themselves and also to rejoice in his celebration of Easter.