Vidal: A man of peace

Juanito Vidal plants a farewell kiss on the body of his older brother Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal did not only live his life to the fullest.

He lived it to be full of kindness, of laughter, a deep abiding faith in God and acceptance of his own mortality.

He seemed to have inkling that his end was near and spoke of his desire “to retire and resign before God,” according to one of the prelate’s confidant and attending physicians, Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer.

“When he was confined here (Perpetual Succour Hospital) last Wednesday (October 11), dili na siya gusto butangan og (he did not want to be inserted with) oxygen because for him, gikapoy na g’yud siya (he was tired),” Bullecer recounted.

Bullecer said he was not surprised that Vidal said that because in the past, the prelate had told him: “Doctor, matanda na ako. Kung may mangyari sa akin pabayaan ninyo ko (Doctor, I’m already old. If something happens to me, let it be).

Last Tuesday, after days of drifting into semi-coma, Vidal moved his foot.

“Pagsulti nako niya nga, ‘Eminence, ayaw kabalaka namo diri (When I said ‘Eminence, don’t worry about us), we love you, we pray for you,’ mibuka iyang mata ug milihok iyang (he opened his eyes and moved his) left foot,” he said.

Bullecer said before Vidal died, he left him with a challenge.

Early on his confinement, before Vidal slipped into a coma, Bullecer, a pro-life advocate and staunch defender of the Catholic Church’s doctrines, said Vidal left him a challenge: “Doctor, padayon lang sa inyong pakigbisog ha (let us continue fighting). Be remain firm and always be faithful to the church.”

Answered prayers

Who would have thought that a young and sickly seminarian from Mogpog, a third class municipality in Marinduque, would eventually become a cardinal and one of the country’s most influential church leaders?

“Noong nasa seminaryo pa ako, sabi ng aming rector baka raw liparin ako ng hangin kasi nga payat at maliit ako. (When I was still in the seminary, our rector told me that I might be blown off by the wind because I was too thin and small),” the prelate would love to tell this tale to reporters.

Vidal, the fifth of six children, was eventually sent home and was on the verge of not getting ordained as priest because he was sickly.

“I was so sad, and while I was on my way home, I passed by a church, and it was there where I intently prayed before the Blessed Sacrament,” he said.

His prayers were answered.

Vidal’s health improved and he was eventually ordained a priest on March 17, 1956, by the late bishop Alfredo Maria Aranda Obviar, who is now a candidate for sainthood.

Vidal was then assigned as assistant priest of a parish in his hometown in Mogpog, and a professor of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Seminary in Sariaya, Quezon.

His dedication was noticed by the church as he was named a bishop and later appointed as coadjutor bishop of Malolos in 1971. Less than two years later, Vidal was appointed archbishop of Lipa by Pope Paul VI. (To be concluded)

Loving Cebu
In 1981, Vidal was sent to Cebu by Pope John Paul II. He was named a coadjutor archbishop with the right to succeed then Cebu Archbishop Julio Cardinal Rosales. When Rosales died in 1983, Vidal took over as archbishop of Cebu.
“I didn’t want to go to Cebu because I did not know how to speak Cebuano. I personally went to Pope John Paul II to express my request. But he told me ‘I am also from Poland, and yet the Lord brought me to Rome.’ So I openly accepted my assignment in Cebu. I learned the language and eventually fell in love with my assignment. The people of Cebu are so good to me,” Vidal said in one of his interviews.
On May 25, 1985, he was named a cardinal of the Catholic Church by then pope and now St. John Paul II. The following year, Vidal was elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), leading the influential Church body until 1987.

From Marcos to Duterte
That year, Vidal and the CBCP condemned the results of the year’s snap elections and called the people for a “non-violent struggle for justice” against the abuses of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. A CBCP report said Vidal led the rest of the Philippine bishops and made a joint declaration against the government and result of the snap election.
While he was not the frontlines of the People Power revolt in 1986, Vidal actually “called the shots for the Edsa revolution,” recalled Msgr. Achilles Dakay, who served as Vidal’s secretary and the Archdiocese’s media liaison officer from 1984 to 2008.
But even as he helped toppled the Marcos regime, Vidal flew to Hawaii to give the ousted president the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, a sacrament given to seriously ill person. “He (Marcos) could no longer talk, so what I did was I instructed him to press my hands if he committed the sins that I mentioned. He followed,” said Vidal in an earlier interview.
In 1989, during the 9-day siege of rebel soldiers who had taken control over key installations on Mactan Island, then President Corazon Aquino requested Vidal to convince then Air Force chief General Jose Comendador, who was sympathetic to the rebel forces fighting her government, to peacefully surrender. Vidal repeatedly appealed to Comendador who eventually gave up. Vidal’s intervention averted a bloody confrontation among Filipinos soldiers.
In 2001, Vidal also played a silent role in the EDSA II revolution. It was the prelate who privately advised then President Joseph Estrada to step down from office. Vidal, later on, supported former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s move to grant a pardon to Estrada, who was convicted of plunder in 2007.
On December 7, 2010, the Senate recognized Vidal’s contribution to the country through a resolution that read: “”It is resolved by the Senate, to honor Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu, for his service to the people of Cebu, providing spiritual leadership and inspiration, helping the community avert or survive several crises and conflicts, often acting as a peacekeeper and giving the voice of moderation amid clashing views and interests in local and national issues.”
Although 75 was the mandatory retirement age, Vidal waited for more than four years for the Vatican to approve his request to retire. In October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Vidal’s resignation. Vidal was replaced by Archbishop Jose Palma on Jan. 13, 2011.
Instead of going back to Marinduque, Vidal chose to spend his retirement in Cebu. He stayed at a retirement house at the Sto. Niño Village in Banilad, Cebu City.
Although he had retired, Vidal’s advices were still sought after by Church and political leaders in the country.
In July 2016, Vidal went to Malacanang and met with President Rodrigo Duterte, hoping to bridge the gap between Catholic Church bishops and the new administration.
President Duterte earlier criticized the Catholic Church for alleged sins committed by the clergy describing the Church, at one point, as the “most hypocritical institution. When he arrived at the Music Room of Malacañang, Duterte bowed his head and kissed the prelate’s hand, and even cracked jokes with Vidal. During their conversation, Vidal said he promised to pray for the President.