Bishops downplay doom scenario, but ‘be ready’
By Philip C. TubezaPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Bishops of the Catholic Church have a ready reply to the doomsday scenario that is to take place in less than a month as supposedly suggested by the Mayan calendar and now circulating widely online and on the streets.
The former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and now Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo nodded sadly in response to the prediction that the world is going to end on Dec. 21, 2012, the end-date of a 5,125-year cycle of the calendar of the Maya, whose civilization once flourished in Central America.
“Theologically, the world has been ending,” Lagdameo rued. “The world in which we are living today is far different from the world of yesteryears.”
Batangas Archbishop Ramon Arguelles gave a stauncher response: “Their world is ending but don’t involve mine. For some people, due to misdeeds and un-Godly ways, their world ends with eternal damnation.”
He added, “For us who believe in God, the world is made perfect in eternal bliss. Those who destroy God’s world will end up in disaster. Those who protect God’s world will enter God’s fullness.”
Arguelles noted that Dec. 21 was also the anniversary of his ordination as a priest.
“My ordination day can never be a day of wrath. It will always be a day of blessing. Believe me,” he said.
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes reminded the faithful that “only God” can say with certainty the fate that awaited the world.
“Only God knows when or what time, month, day or hour the world will end,” he said. But, he added, “it will surely end.”
“Just be ready at all times.”
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Tags: Catholic Church , doomsday , Mayan Calendar
