Prelate warns church leaders vs ‘kindness’ in fighting jueteng

Kindness may be an esteemed virtue for Christians but it has no place in the Catholic Church’s fight against jueteng, a senior Church official said over the weekend. Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said that in the fight against jueteng (an illegal numbers game), bishops, priests, and the religious must be more aggressive to protect the morals of society. “What I mean is that we cannot afford to be too kind. We cannot be too weak. Our fight against jueteng should have an aggressive kick to it," Cruz said in Filipino in an interview on Church-run Radio Veritas. Excerpts of the interview were posted Saturday on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news site. Cruz lamented what he perceived as a seeming lack of effort among Church leaders to combat the illegal but popular numbers game “which destroys the society" and “corrupts the government." He added it is high time Church leaders fight and put into action their position against the multimillion-peso illegal lottery. The prelate suggested that the aggressive campaign focus on teaching people against the consequences of gambling and other vices. For its part, the CBCP had issued a pastoral statement in 2005 that it is strongly against all forms of gambling. According to the CBCP, it would be the policy among bishops to refrain from soliciting or receiving funds from illegal and legal gambling so as not to promote a culture of gambling. But Cruz earlier lamented there are still some bishops who are not following the CBCP’s policy against accepting donations from gambling activities. — LBG, GMANews.TV