Growing up with Sin!

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If there is one personage that I am grateful to for guiding me in my youth, it is the late Cardinal Jaime Sin, once Archbishop of Manila and sidekick of the great John Paul II in the Vatican 2 council. Now, why am I grateful, when the nearest proximity I was ever allowed to view him was perhaps some 50 meters away? Well, I heard him loud and clear... He said: "Welcome to the house of Sin" while he stands on the pulpit, about to deliver his homily. And he related stories such as: 1) sitting between the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos in a car, and the dictator asked how was he?, and he replied I feel like I am our Lord, placed between two thieves, and the dictator answered At least I am the good one!; 2) how he treated Mother Theresa of Calcutta, when she came to visit, in his kitchen in the house of Sin, where he stored many of his favorite dried fish, and while he fried some tuyo at daing for his esteemed guest, he was donating to the cause of Mother Theresa a piece of land owned by his brother, Dr. Sin. And it took some time before the doctor learned that his property was no longer his. I did think that his eminence was indeed very naughty! So I laughed at his candidness... When he asked us to protect the rebels at Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame in 1986, I knew it was crazy. But I heeded his command, because I believed he would never put us in danger. Today, a statue in Cardinal Sin's image is unveiled in Manila, and those who walked with him are paying him tribute. He is stirring in his grave, I know, but, dear Cardinal, we are just as naughty as thou art! Rest in peace, but keep smiling!