Just
a day after the nation observed Lent, life - and cyberspace - returned from a
brief hiatus but in a rather unpleasant way.
Many
netizens are crying foul over a girl's apparent disrespect for religious
symbols as she posed for a photo looking like she was nailed to a cross.
The
photo was taken by a certain Maike Domingo in Bgy. Lourdes in Angeles,
Pampanga. His Facebook album would also reveal that others had posed for the
same photo too, including a foriegn woman and two men who appeared to be
Filipinos.
Another
photo showed children climbing up the cross, as if let loose in a playground.
GMA
News Online has tried but failed to get in touch with Domingo on the matter.
'Forgive
them for they know not what they do'
The
photo, which as of posting time had over 5,000 shares on Facebook, has sparked
online rage. The older population of the Pinoy cyberspace tried to put it in
context with youth and its subscription to modernism.
But
some have opted to contain their ire and pray instead for the individuals,
quoting Luke 23:34: "Father forgive them for they know not what they
do."
GMA
News Online has stumbled upon another photo which appeared to have been taken
in the same place in Angeles, Pampanga. The photo, taken by photographer Jay
Javier, is a jumpshot of two girls in front of the cross.
Javier,
on his Facebook page, said the photo was taken on Good Friday and commented,
"Even non-believers will cringe at the sight of this blatant show of
disrespect and impropriety."
'Officials
didn't do anything about it'
Javier
also told GMA News Online that he approached the event officials/organizers to
"do something about it, but they just appeared to have tolerated it."
"They
made a feeble attempt to stop these follies, but the person tasked to that left
immediately after," Javier said. "The 'set' with the crosses were
left unattended, for anyone to play in, and do poses like [these] photos."
Caritas
Manila executive director Fr. Anton Pascual said over Catholic station Radyo
Veritas that today's youth seemed to have lost respect for spiritual things
along with their moral values, and need to be educated about it.
"Kaya’t ipagdasal natin ang ating mga kabataan ngayon
at mabigyan ng tamang pag-aaral ng paggalang sa mga bagay na esperitwal tulad
ng crucifix at malaman din ng mga
kabataan na ito ang identity at moral
values at paggalang sa relihiyon," Pascual said.
Pascual
also reminded that social media, despite its power to connect people, can be
used for wrong.
"Pero
ito (social media) ay binibigyan natin ng
babala ng ating Simbahan na bagamat ito
ay nakatutulong itoy maaari ding maging instrumento upang magdulot ng isang
masamang katuruan at lalason sa mga kaiasiapn ng mga kabataan tulad ng paglabag
sa Gospel values at sa tinatawag natin na good manners and right conduct,"
he added.
— RSJ/KBK, GMA News
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