Totus Tuus!

For those old enough to remember the day on February 20, 1981, “Totus Tuus!” is not a strange phrase because it was all over Bácolod, the Philippines and the world. It was the motto of Blessed Pope John Paul II who came to this country and blissfully our province and city. He came to us early in his pontificate.

He was only Pope for two years when he visited us and at a time when Negros was in the throes of economic crisis, that would in 1985 give the image of the “hungry children on Negros” splattered in international media. When he set foot on our soil he gave us a message of hope and now, 31 years later, we see the fruits of his visit.

Totus Tuus, meaning totally or completely yours, was addressed to the Blessed Mother to whom the late Pope was deeply devoted and which became the cornerstone of his papacy.

The visit drew thousands of people even from Mindanao. The estimated number who flocked to the then open space of Bredco, now the site of the Blessed John Paul II Tower, ran from a low of 700,000 to one million. Never has Bácolod been host to such throng.

In commemoration and results of this visit the Diocese of Bácolod has established several institutions and structures that keep us constantly aware of this visit, the first and probably will be the only visit by the Holy Father.

In his memory and bearing his name are the tower in the reclamation area, the Cultural Center at the Sacred Heart Seminary, the conference house in a beach in Punta Taytay, the National Institute on the Study of Marriage and Family and the Domus in a 5-hectare land.

The Domus is the first result of his visit because right after it the late Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich established the home for sick and retired priests, first at the SHS compound.

The proclamation by the Bácolod City Government of a week in his honor, from February 13 to 20, is the latest to make us remember this greatly loved and holy man who probably will be canonized a saint within our lifetime.

For the first time the directors of Diocesan Commission on Family and Life in the Philippines will converge in Bácolod during the week for a conference on the topic “Blessed John Paul II’s Nuptial Theology: Call to Family Ministry, Agenda for Humanity.”

“Nuptial Theology” is something new to laymen who are more familiar with the Sacrament of Matrimony. In fact we use the term “wedding” more often and hardly do we use the word “nuptial” though the phrase “nuptial bond” is well-known.

That the ideas and principles of this union of man and woman in the holy rites of matrimony is elevated to the realm of theology is something that needs our closer attention because as explained by Msgr. Vic Rivas, Bácolod Diocese Vicar General and President of the Pope John Paul National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, the late Blessed John Paul had developed this theology that guides our thinking on the importance of marriage in the Church and society. The Pope spoke of salvation passing through the family.

I read a report yesterday on the controversy in Maryland, USA, where people flocked to the state legislature to protest the plan of that state government to allow same-sex marriage or gay marriage. There is no marriage of this kind at all because marriage implies things that are peculiar to the union of man and woman and never, by the laws of nature, a marriage. It is a partnership or companionship perhaps but never a marriage. Anyway, that will be for another day.

I mentioned this only because it is not just in the United States that marriage has been trivialized and perverted, but here in the Philippines we have leading personalities, mostly in government and the entertainment world who flaunt openly their extra-marital affairs and are proud of it. Nobody condemns such dalliances and media even relish the perversity. The norms of moral conduct have gone down the drain, these otherwise leaders of the country becoming models of the despicable.

Unfortunately governments spend money to prevent the spread of these diseases caused by unnatural sexual unions that are afflicting even the innocents.

When we (with Fr. Felix Pasquin) interviewed Msgr. Vic, he said that “Totus Tuus” from the perspective of Blessed John Paul in his Nuptial Theology, can be applied to married couples also because when they got married they vowed to be “totally for each other – giving one to the other.”

Coming for this conference is the new Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, his first visit here, and from Rome is Msgr. Jose Granados, the vice president of the Pontifical Institute of John Paul II on Studies on Marriage and Family. The Bácolod Institute is its affiliated campus.

Great things are afoot!*

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