BACOLOD CITY — “Mea Culpa” is Latin for “My fault.”

In the ritual of a Catholic Holy Mass, after the opening prayer, the priest and the faithful pray the “Confiteor” or I confess.”

Here you confess all your sins or faults. And in doing so you strike your breast thrice, saying “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” This means, “My fault, my fault, my most grievous fault.”

This is a public confession and in today’s practice, after you have repented for your sins or faults, you can now go to communion to receive the Holy Eucharist.

Confitor is a beautiful prayer to be prayed, I hope Jocelyn Bolante and Eliseo de la Paz, among the many big sinners, also pray this by heart. I don’t know whether they are really afraid of the eternal fires of hell.

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Last Wednesday, CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, in a speech in Cagayan de Oro before prelates and priests attending the Basic Ecclesial Communities National Congress, offered his “Mea Culpa”.

“The Church is also partly to blame for the many ills of Philippine society,” he said.

The good Archbishop must have realized this. Recently, he made a strong stand with three other Bishops, just short of calling for another Edsa. The good Archbishop must have a delusion that he was Cardinal Sin.

Many disagreed with him, even among the clergy but were just polite not to say it. We voiced our opinion openly that the Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia, yet the most corrupt. And the Catholic Church is partly to blame.

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Cardinal Sin drove Ferdinand Marcos out of office for being corrupt. But during Marcos’ time, there were only a few who were corrupt.

Corruption multiplied under Cory Aquino, then under Fidel Ramos, and Joseph Estrada. Sin also drove Estrada out of office again for corruption. The result became worst when the country was called the most corrupt.

If GMA is overthrown, we will be a government of economic plunderers.

Even now our Senate is busy with investigating very big anomalies by Jocelyn Bolante and Eliseo de la Paz who are today’s villains.

We are happy CBCP president Lagdameo saw the light. He is right when, he said, years ago the leaders of the Church admitted they were also partly responsible for the ills of society.

And they instituted reforms. Will CBCP undertake these reforms? It’s good Lagdameo will meet with the lawmakers.

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If the pillars of the Catholic Church are strong today, it is because it underwent strong storms of upheavals, and won them by instituting reforms. You should know the Church history.

Reformation is the history of revolt, of protests in the Catholic Church because of abuses of Church leaders.

Those who protested were called Protestants. The leaders were Martin Luther, a German monk who wrote his protests called the “Ninety Five Theses” and posted it in the door of his church in Wittenberg. Others followed like Ulrich Zwingli of Switzerland, and his fellow Swiss John Calvin, then John Knox of Scotland, and Henry VIII of England.

They protested against the luxury of some of the Popes, one Pope, Alexander V, had a family. He made his son Cesare Borgia a cardinal at 17, later as a diplomat, and a General. His daughters, Lucrezia was married to different nobles to wangle political concessions.

The Reformers protested against the sale of indulgences to reduce one’s punishment in afterlife if you paid money. They also protested against “simony” or sale of Church offices. With money we could be a Bishop. And “nepotism” or appointing family members. Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) made his teenage son Cesare a cardinal.

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There were other issues that could have destroyed the Church. Like their making Church law superior to civil law and taxing by the Church and thinking that only they knew. Galileo was excommunicated for saying the world was round.

Did all these destroy the Church?

No! Martin Luther launched his protest in 1517. By 1545 Pope Paul III convened the Council of Trent and after 15 years came up with reforms that while, they didn’t stop the Protestants, the reforms made the Church survive.

Sale of indulgences and simony were condemned and so with nepotism. Civil laws were respected, the Church could not tax and respected intellectual ideas with the explosion of learning as this was during the Renaissance.

The Church though decreed the Pope is the head of the Church. He enunciates the Church doctrine, better discipline and education for the priests and the sermons must be in the local dialect, if possible.

What we ask is the Philippine Church institute reforms to correct the corrupt society. Otherwise these will stand as a symbol also of their failure.

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