On the surface, the story was that Cardinal Jose Advincula, the 33rd archbishop of Manila, called on Filipinos to pray for the country’s political leaders as the country faces “disconcerting” events.
He did not name names, but the context was clear. He was referring to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Vice President Sara Duterte, and their supporters, as tension heats up between the country’s two highest officials.
“I humbly exhort you all to pray for them that they may receive the grace to exercise statesmanship in most trying times so that sobriety may prevail in our land and that political issues and personal interests may not divide the nation,” Advincula said in a statement Wednesday, November 27.
But there’s more to this statement beyond its 201 words.
That the quiet Manila archbishop decided to issue a statement is itself a story.
At least four priests occupying key positions in the Archdiocese of Manila told Rappler they didn’t know that Advincula would issue this statement on Wednesday. They agreed it was rare.
“It’s very rare for the cardinal to issue statements on sociopolitical issues because he’s not into it. He’s not a political person,” a senior Manila clergyman said.
“His approach is very pastoral and he is also very fatherly. He would rather have policies that would really impact the church and not really foray into the affairs of the state,” he added.
Another high-ranking priest in Manila said Advincula might have decided to speak due to the “seriousness of the situation” involving Marcos and Duterte.
Times like this are so rare that, in fact, both the archives of Rappler and the Archdiocese of Manila’s website hardly yielded any result when we searched for Advincula’s statements on sociopolitical issues.
If ever he spoke on social issues such as the sanctity of life, he addressed his message to his flock and not to specific politicians. He reminded pro-life advocates in February this year, for example, to listen more and judge less. In February 2023, he reminded Catholic communities to embrace change or grow obsolete.
Skilled administrator, silent worker
It’s rooted in Advincula’s identity — and style.
Unlike the politically influential Cardinal Jaime Sin or the charismatic Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the current Manila archbishop has chosen to keep a low profile since he moved to the capital three years ago.
Advincula, 72, has been archbishop of Manila since June 24, 2021, succeeding Tagle who was promoted to the Vatican’s evangelization department. Born in Dumalag, Capiz, he was the archbishop of Capiz in central Philippines from 2012 to 2021.
In various conversations through the years, priests and seminiarians have told Rappler that Advincula is a skilled administrator, and also a silent worker who is prudent in speech and elusive to journalists. Instead of discussing politics, he has focused on grassroots initiatives, such as those that he implemented in his former territory, the Archdiocese of Capiz.
He is remembered for establishing “mission stations” to serve far-flung Capiz communities, which he now wants to replicate in Manila’s urban setting.
In many ways, he can be compared to Sin’s immediate successor, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, who focused on social justice projects such as his popular Pondo ng Pinoy. However, since his time in office from 2003 to 2011 covered the tumultuous presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Batangas-born Rosales spoke out as needed.
The late Sin himself was “very quiet” when he first came to Manila, according to his former private secretary, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, in a Rappler interview in 2016.
Born in New Washington, Aklan, Sin was the archbishop of Jaro in Iloilo before he was named to the Philippine capital, succeeding Cardinal Rufino Santos.
What prompted Sin to issue his first pastoral letter against the Marcos dictatorship was a moment of crisis: a military raid on the Jesuit-run Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City, on August 24, 1974.
From the leadership of Santos who was said to have favored Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sin’s reaction to the Sacred Heart Novitiate raid changed the dynamics between church and state.
Sin ended up calling on Filipinos to troop to EDSA from February 22 to 25, 1986, in what would turn out to be the bloodless People Power Revolution that ousted Marcos.
His motto: ‘I will listen’
But Cardinal Advincula will be no Cardinal Sin, as he himself said after he was named Manila archbishop three years ago. Sin, incidentally, was the 36-year-old priest who admitted 12-year-old Advincula to the seminary in 1964 and went on to teach him Latin.
“Cardinal Sin is Cardinal Sin, and I am afraid I could not be as vocal as Cardinal Sin,” Advincula said in an interview with Father Emil Arbatin, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Capiz, in an interview in 2021.
Advincula said back then that his primary role is to tend to his flock, emphasizing that “I am still a shepherd.”
His motto as bishop, in fact, is “audiam” — a Latin term which means “I will listen.”
“I will try to concentrate on the pastoral life of the people in Manila. I plan to visit the parishes and the other places in Manila, although I am sad because this can only be done in a restricted way because of the pandemic,” Advincula said in this 2021 interview.
His role as shepherd is clear in his statement on Wednesday: he did not address it directly to political leaders, but to the “people of God.”
Referring to politicians in the third person “they,” Advincula said: “It is our prayer that they may have the humility to listen to each other with respect and act together for the sake of the country. I also ask all the leaders of goodwill from different sectors of our society to do what they can to prevent the escalation of political and personal conflicts.”
Will Marcos and Duterte listen to Manila’s listening prelate? – Rappler.com