Repent, bishop tells gambling firms
04/06/2009 | 03:00 PM
MANILA, Philippines - Saying they are now doing to Filipinos what they did to Christ 2,000 years ago, a senior Catholic archbishop urged gambling firms Monday to repent and stop their practice.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz reminded "gambling corporations" their counterparts 2,000 years ago had no conscience when they gambled Christ's clothes as he hung on the cross.
"Syndicated and corporate gambling operators today in this poor Country long since sucking the already little blood left of destitute Filipinos, are exactly doing what was done to Christ that First Good Friday some two thousand years ago. By inducing particularly poor people to gamble, even the clothes at their backs are practically ripped from them by the gambling operators who likewise gleefully grab and covetously divide whatever item they could pocket from their victims – from thousands down to but several pesos, if not but some miserable centavos," he said in his Web log (ovc.blogspot.com).
"Gambling per se has radically nothing to do with anything else but money, money, money," he added.
He added that gambling deadens conscience and thereby destroys moral living. The lords of gambling, he said, are not aware that they are miserable slaves of money.
On the other hand, he noted all famous gambling operators infamously end their lives, and at the same time infallibly drag their own families deep down into the gutters of society.
"For these composite curses of society, what is objectively right or wrong, honest or dishonest, just or unjust, do not really matter. For these big parasites of society, what only matters is money, viz., how much money they can take away from foolish gamblers, and how they can have this done – irrespective of time, place and season," he said.
"Gambling corporations, institutions agencies and the like, all diligently attempt to cover the vice and curse they are peddling. Here is how: They call themselves as but 'gaming' enterprises! How insidious! How shallow! How dopey!" he added. - GMANews.TV
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz reminded "gambling corporations" their counterparts 2,000 years ago had no conscience when they gambled Christ's clothes as he hung on the cross.
"Syndicated and corporate gambling operators today in this poor Country long since sucking the already little blood left of destitute Filipinos, are exactly doing what was done to Christ that First Good Friday some two thousand years ago. By inducing particularly poor people to gamble, even the clothes at their backs are practically ripped from them by the gambling operators who likewise gleefully grab and covetously divide whatever item they could pocket from their victims – from thousands down to but several pesos, if not but some miserable centavos," he said in his Web log (ovc.blogspot.com).
"Gambling per se has radically nothing to do with anything else but money, money, money," he added.
He added that gambling deadens conscience and thereby destroys moral living. The lords of gambling, he said, are not aware that they are miserable slaves of money.
On the other hand, he noted all famous gambling operators infamously end their lives, and at the same time infallibly drag their own families deep down into the gutters of society.
"For these composite curses of society, what is objectively right or wrong, honest or dishonest, just or unjust, do not really matter. For these big parasites of society, what only matters is money, viz., how much money they can take away from foolish gamblers, and how they can have this done – irrespective of time, place and season," he said.
"Gambling corporations, institutions agencies and the like, all diligently attempt to cover the vice and curse they are peddling. Here is how: They call themselves as but 'gaming' enterprises! How insidious! How shallow! How dopey!" he added. - GMANews.TV
