The papal factor

With the likelihood that Pope Francis will drop by the Philippines come August to visit victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), the possibility of another visit in 2016 for the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu City has become dim.

I got this impression during a conversation with Fr. Jose “Joe” Quilongquilong, SJ who visited Cebu last week. Despite his tight schedule, Fr. Joe made time for a Lenten recollection for local professionals. I was invited to join the gathering courtesy of Joyce Yang, head of the Department of Business Administration of the University of San Carlos and Executive Director of Ambit Foundation.

Before delivering the Lenten talk, Fr. Joe chatted with us on IEC concerns. On the possibility of the papal visit coinciding with the religious congress, Fr. Joe said the IEC does not guarantee the Pope’s attendance such that the papal factor in the IEC should be viewed as a bonus.

From what can be gathered from Catholic news organizations and blog sites by Vatican experts, the inclusion of the Philippines and Sri Lanka in Pope Francis’ first Asian sojourn may be prompted by practical concerns.

Pope Francis is going to South Korea in August 14 for the 6th Asian Youth Day. He will probably fly to Cebu at the end of the week-long AYD on August 18. If pundits are to be believed, he will not stay in the Philippines longer than 24 hours.

In an online article published by the Vatican Insider (Why Bergoglio Travels So Little, March 29, 2014), author Andrea Torneilli describes Pope Francis as a “restrained traveller”.

Before becoming pope, Archbishop Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio rarely ventured out of Buenos Aires because he didn’t want to stay far longer than necessary away from the diocese. He has only travelled once to the Holy Land and has never set foot in the United States.

When he travels to the Vatican for institutional purposes like participating in a conclave and other important meetings, he does not go out of the boundary except to visit relatives living in some Italian villages.

As the world already knows, Francis travels economy class, pays his own bills, picks up his own luggage and takes the public transport. Such simple style is at once apparent when he received United States President Barack Obama in the Vatican last week. In the presence of the leader of the western empire, the pope wore only a priestly cassock minus the trimmings of the papal order.
If Francis will package South Korea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka in one swing, it would certainly be economical in terms of both time and money and consistent with his frugal lifestyle.

As pastor “with an odor of the sheep” he will descend in Leyte and Eastern Samar for an essential purpose – to engage typhoon victims, lend a hand through the various humanitarian arms of the Church and without as much as uttering a word perhaps, put pressure on efforts by the government and private partners involved in rehabilitation and reconstruction work.

The papal visit will certainly underline the involvement of various Catholic congregations and church-based groups in post-Yolanda activities to build back better and sturdier. Among religious constituencies, the burden of the papal visit would be most felt in the Jesuit Philippine Province.

The response of Jesuit communities around the world had been swift and international when they heard the appeal for aid issued by Fr. General Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, according to the Jesuit Asia Pacific Conference website.

The page that specifically posts updates on Typhoon Yolanda reported that aside from donations that streamed from various Jesuit provinces and regions around the world, the Xavier Network which consists of Jesuit mission offices in Western Europe, Australia and English Canada also extended considerable financial support to help rebuild the lives of survivors.