Bishop, KBP up against 'offensive prayer' on radio

MANILA, Philippines - A Catholic bishop and the local Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) have joined arms against a "blasphemous, profane and offensive" prayer aired on a Mindanao radio station. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Ozamiz archbishop Jesus Dosado said the "Oremus" module, translated as "Let us pray," trivializes the Catholic faith. "(It is) exploiting the faith, lowering it to triviality with no sense," he said in a statement on the CBCP website Friday. He said the blasphemous prayer is an imitation of Catholic prayer entitled Oremus in Latin but the spiels are in Cebuano. Concerned Catholics said the so-called prayer is "tainted with mockery and bad taste," enough to hurt the senses of the Holy Church and its faithful. The KBP Misamis Occidental chapter issued a resolution number 08-002, dated May 28, seriously taking into consideration the concerns aired by Archbishop Dosado and the Catholic Faith Defender against the offensive language in a module regularly aired at a local FM station. The KBP resolution signed by Delia Rosal, KBP Local Chapter chairman said the local KBP chapter condemns the use of undesirable, offensive, obscene, blasphemous and profane language which may be considered violations of certain provisions of the existing Broadcast Code of the Philippines. It added the KBP moved to call the attention of Mark Regidor through the station manager and owner of Y96 FM, to reprimand the said employee at the soonest possible time. With Dosado's consent, the local chapter of the Catholic Faith Defenders (CFD) under Bros. Reynaldo Rosal and Adolfo Amper filed a petition with the local KBP chapter to suspend the airing of the offensive module. In their petition dated May 21, CFD officers and members condemned the "blasphemous, immoral and irresponsible modules and spiels" by disc jockey Mark Regidor a.k.a. Super C of Y96 FM. The CBCP Said the radio station is reportedly owned by one Alex Sy. On Wednesday, the KBP including DxOC-AM, DxDD AM/FM, Mindanao Broadcasting News Network (MBNN-TV) and DxLM – FM, met for their monthly meeting but dxSY and Y96–FM were not represented. Rosal said she invited Sy to the meeting to resolve the petition sent by CFD. "He, however, declined the invitation," Rosal said. - GMANews.TV