MANILA, May 6, 2008--Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal B. Rosales admonished the parishes in Manila to keep the purity of Marian devotions in the wake of a brewing controversy on the barring of gays from participating in the “santacruzan”.
Rosales had taken the leaders of one parish to task for having gay dressed as ladies participate in santacruzan. “I told them that it is not right because that’s (santacruzan) a procession. You are destroying the purity of the devotion.”
Santacruzan reenacts the search for the Holy Cross by Queen Helena and her son, the newly converted Emperor Constantine. They found it in Jerusalem and brought it back to Rome where there was celebration and thanksgiving.
Introduced by the Spaniards, it has become part of the Filipino folk religiosity that has evolved into a pageant-like procession that highlights beautiful Filipino maidens with their escorts under the bamboo arches adorned with native flowers.
In the Philippines, the “Flores de Mayo” (Flowers of May) is considered the most regal summer observance and the “Santacruzan” (Feast of the Holy Cross), has come to be part of it.
Rosales stressed he is not discriminating against homosexuals but only wanted to preserve the solemnity of the processions.
“We should keep sacred what is sacred,” he said as he admonished parishes not to allow male homosexuals to play Saint Helena and other female roles traditionally given to local beauty queens.
The procession is religious. [But] what the parishes do is organize a parade,” said the Cardinal said. “That’s an insult to the Blessed Mother.”
“Instead of pious young women, gay men are paraded, which makes [the procession] ridiculous,” Rosales said.
However, leaders of the gay community in the country said that “Marian devotees” among them deserved a place in the May time tradition.
Jonas Bagas, secretary general of Lagablab (Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network in the country), doubted Rosales’ remarks would stop the participation of gays who count themselves as “Marian devotees.”
“There is nothing new about that position. It is expected and we have known that all along, yet these processions continue because we are also Marian devotees,” Bagas said.
“The Church should be liberal about this,” Bagas said, warning that the cardinal’s remarks might further alienate the gay community from the Catholic Church.
“The tradition persists because our Catholic faith has not been diminished,” Bagas said.
Danton Remoto, a professor at Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, said that most gay participants were low-income types who had spent for expensive gowns they would wear in the procession “out of the goodness and love in their hearts for the Virgin Mary.”
“There is really no intention to malign the Catholic Church,” Remoto stressed.
Rosales also discouraged the holding of “dances” at town plazas to cap Marian processions and prayers.
“We should not set aside the fact that our beloved Blessed Virgin Mother Mary is the center of these activities and celebrations. We should give importance to Mary and reflect on her life. Everything we do in this time is for our devotion to her, the Cardinal said.
“There are new practices in the different villages, but if these do not conform with the lessons we learned from the Virgin Mary, let us not give them importance,” said the cardinal (Santosh Digal)
