COTABATO CITY, Philippines — President Benigno Aquino lauded Cardinal Orlando Quevedo Tuesday night supporting government’s vision of attaining peace in southern Philippines through peaceful means.
Cardinal Orlando Quevedo. AP FILE PHOTO
Speaking during a special thanksgiving Mass presided over by Mindanao’s first cardinal, the President also recalled Quevedo’s bravery in fighting martial law during the dictatorship of the late Ferdinand Marcos.
While large meetings were banned especially during the early years of martial law, Aquino recalled, Quevedo pushed for the establishment of Basic Ecclesial Communities and worked for the promotion of justice and peace and inter-faith dialogues.
Quevedo, the Philippines’ eighth cardinal, has been advocating peaceful means in resolving the Mindanao separatist conflict, which President Aquino specifically cited in his speech during Tuesday’s thanksgiving Mass at the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral which was attended by about 4,000 people, including members of various religious orders.
“He tells Muslims, Christians and indigenous peoples the benefits of lasting peace in Mindanao. I am with him in the strong belief in sincere peace negotiations to end decades of armed conflict that claimed precious lives and contributed to poverty,” Aquino said.
“While he is widely known as someone coming from the so called Solid North, for Quevedo, Filipinos must come first, love for others must come first,” Aquino said.
“The works of Cardinal Quevedo reflect the direction my administration is pursuing, that is to serve the people selflessly,” Aquino said in Filipino, adding, “I am now determined to push for our agenda of reforms in the government because of people like Cardinal Quevedo who pray and stand by what is right.”
Quevedo, who turned 75 on Tuesday, was actually also celebrating a number of other things: his rise to cardinal, his 50th year in the priesthood, his 34th year as bishop and archbishop and the 75th anniversary of his congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), in the Philippines.
Also present at Tuesday’s celebration were Pope Francis’s envoy to the Philippines, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales and about 200 bishops, archbishops, priests and brothers and nuns from all over the country.
Speaking during the homily, a task that was originally assigned to Manila Archbishop Antonio Cardinal Tagle who failed to come due to illness, Quevedo said he was still searching for the reason he was made a cardinal.
“A lot of people asked me how to become a cardinal,” he said. “I told them I don’t know.”
“Maybe,” he then added, “because I am the archbishop of Cotabato where there is challenge of conflict, poverty, economic imbalance, inequality and natural disaster, all are here in Cotabato. Maybe Pope Francis chose me because Cotabato is a chosen place. Pope Francis is full of surprises.”
He asked religious and political leaders in the archdiocese of Cotabato and the country to pray. “One who cannot pray as a leader, will fail as a leader,” he said.
While he wrote Pope Francis his resignation letter as stated in the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church requiring bishops and archbishops to retire upon reaching the age of 75, Quevedo is yet to receive word from the Pope on his resignation.
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