The American actress Angelina Jolie, who as a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations travels to sites of disaster around the world once spoke of the importance of faith to human survival.
“I have met people across the world, in the middle of nowhere, who are just trying to survive and all they have is religion,” she said.
“In some way it helps them, and I would not take it away from them.”
If there was something that came in abundance in spite of the losses suffered by survivors of the landslide in Naga City, Cebu, it was spiritual consolation.
We are grateful for the presence and solidarity that leaders of faith communities have lent to the survivors in their time of grief and of rebuilding.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma lost no time visiting the wake of those who died to bless their remains and to pray with the bereaved.
He also wrote to the faithful of the Cebu archdiocese discouraging a blame game over the catastrophe and instead encouraging “deeper introspection” and “foresight” to protect “the next generation” from environmental havoc.
In an inspired move, Fr. Pacifico Nohara Jr., rector of the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu brought the image of the Child Jesus to the survivors.
The visit of the image drove survivors to tears and spontaneous prayer.
It shows that Santo Niño’s custodians and the community of faith are not only for those who celebrate a milestone — relatively unharmed by mining — like Carmen Copper Compound in Toledo City but are also for those who suffer untoward consequences of moving the earth.
“We all know of their sorrows, of their hunger. But while we provide them with food and their other needs, we also need to feed them spiritually,” Nohara told Cebu Daily News.
Meanwhile, priests and religious like Fr. Renel Cabag of the Order of Discalced Augustinians have raised their voices against quarrying and mining, enjoining people to support legal action against companies that endanger the ecology.
Scientists have only recently published research about the connection between faith and disaster resilience.
In a 2009 study, Adisaputri Gianisa found that “religious beliefs and practices bond local people together and contributed to successful coping with disasters.”
In addition, “religious communities can fill response and recovery gaps, such as when external intervention is limited.”
“Religious beliefs and practices, combined with other mechanisms, should be integrated within disaster risk reduction and disaster management activities,” the scholar recommended, “as this would help build more resilient communities.”
Cebu can count a blessing in the age-old awareness of its spiritual leaders of the importance of instructing the ignorant (about environmental stewardship), comforting the afflicted, and praying for the living and the dead.