‘We are all to blame for poor girl’s suicide’--bishop
By Beverly T. Natividad
Inquirer
Last updated 08:34pm (Mla time) 11/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Not only the government, but somehow, all of us, are to blame for the fate of a 12-year-old girl in Davao City who took her own life because of her family’s poverty.
This was the moral lesson conveyed by some of the country’s religious leaders in the wake of Marianette Amper’s suicide last Friday.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz said it was the “summit of desperation†for a young child to end her own life out of hunger and poverty. He said the incident showed the desperation of many Filipinos.
While suicide does not particularly go well with Roman Catholic Church teaching, Cruz said he would be the last person to blame the child for taking her own life.
He said the community, which directly influenced the young girl, should be looked into. Her death, said Cruz, was brought about by her social surroundings.
He said everyone is also to blame for her death. If one girl goes hungry due to poverty, then the entire society is responsible for it, Cruz said.
“This means we have not done well. We have not done our civic duty to correct the abuses, and to censure graft and corruption. We have kept our eyes closed. We did not act,†he said.
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), which represents the mainline Protestants in the country, echoed the same view, saying the death the girl represents the failure of society as a whole.
“We have called them poor and eyesores, but what do you call a society which made them like this?†said Bishop Eliezer Pascua of the NCCP executive committee.
On the moral aspect, Jesus has always asked the people to identify with the poor, according to Pascua.
The essence of Jesus’ teachings is to fight poverty because Jesus has always talked about the poor as an act of critiquing the present order which has contributed to the poverty, he said.
“Every individual has a responsibility, yes, but we also have a calling for a collective responsibility,†said Pascua.
That calling asks all the faithful not only to take part actively to build a just and fair society, but also to fight an unjust and an oppressive society, according to the NCCP official.
The Philippines for Jesus Movement (PJM), for its part, said the government, too, should take responsibility for the sad event. Poverty and hunger, which was the reason for the young girl’s suicide, could be traced directly to corruption, it said.
The Bible says that governments should be “terrors against evil†and “promoters of goodwill,†said Bishop Dan Balais, PJM national director.
Governments therefore exist to take care of the poor and the weak. But politicians have corrupted the meaning of government, Balais said.
“The death of the girl is the result of our problems of corruption, injustice and oppression. There have been many wake-up calls that have remained unheeded,†he said.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6411.0
