A bishop's cross

When he was seminary rector at San Pablo Seminary, the regional collegiate seminary of Northern Luzon, Bishop Rodolfo Beltran dreaded dismissing seminarians. He cried even before the seminarian who was asked to leave the seminary did.  All of us who worked with him know that he is one of the gentlest, kindest persons you will meet. His humor is infectious, and his quips can send you roaring.

It saddens me that he is now the victim of vicious attacks. He has even been criminally charged with libel for having exercised his canonical authority to warn and to admonish. Bishop Rudy has been pilloried because, like a good bishop, he has refused to buckle down in the face of snarls and bared fangs.  He has chosen to stand by one of his embattled priests.

It might be true that the priest is not the model of gentleness and virtue, but noble indeed is the bishop who, though not blind to his priest's failings, refuses to cower in the face of adverse opinion and to give up on his priest. That is exactly the reason that Bishop Rudy must now climb calvary.

As bishop, he assigned a priest to the parish of St. Augustine in Naguilian, one of La Union's towns on the way to Baguio City.  Somehow, the priest struck a wrong chord with some of the parishioners.  Two of these parishioners have since agitated for the removal of the parish priest, calling on State authorities even who, true to form as "politikos", have also thrown in their support for good measure.

No bishop worth his miter will appoint a priest or revoke an appointment on the sole basis of agitation and lobbying either for or against him.  And that is why Bishop Rudy has stood firm on his decision not to transfer the priest.  His misgivings are justified: How else does a bishop govern his diocese if the assignments of priests should be subject to whim, fancy and the approval of rabble-rousers?  It is to a bishop that pastoral governance is entrusted, not to the approval of a throng!

I know Bishop Rudy.  All his seminarians and priests love him.  His detractors are wrong, and they are malicious in their attacks against his person.  Media took up the report that he had been criminally charged.  He is wrongly charged, and he has done everything and only that which any good and truly fatherly bishop should!