How I met Jaime Cardinal Sin

How I met Jaime Cardinal Sin

By Joel Recla

Rev. Jaime Cardinal Sin came to visit Toronto in the late eighties. We were one of the families invited to have a simple private lunch with the Cleric. And I do clearly remember thinking what an honour to be able to meet the eminent leader of clergy from the Philippines. And a famous one.

I read that the Cardinal was a very close friend of Pope John Paul I. They had the same titular values and logic in many ways. It must have been a weekend event, that I felt I had an explosion of high octane. We drove to the residence where we would celebrate this occasion with the Cardinal with a well-planned meal. My wife made a special cheese cake for dessert.

On the way to the place I was thinking, what should be the topic of the conversation? And what should I ask the Cardinal? Finally I said to myself, oh! let it be! My problem was, I am not a religious or spiritual person, as other people are. I do believe in God and I do pray privately in my own way and nothing more. Anyway, I know this would be a memorable experience that sure I’d never forget. The Cardinal was so accommodating, charming and a down-to-earth person. My tool was to use my knowledge of speaking Ilongo fluently, the same dialect the Cardinal spoke. Right after we were introduced formally. I felt that we were almost or in the same wavelength. We were maybe equal in terms of personality and limitations. We clicked instantly. We talked mostly about politics and the economic downturn of the country.

Joel Recla (right) with Cardinal Sin and a guest in Toronto

We started our conversation while enjoying our meal, I asked the Cardinal about the political situation in the Philippines and the historical EDSA event, which was still fresh in the minds of the Filipino people at that particular time. The conversation automatically turned to the subject of the Imelda Marcos saga.

I told the Cardinal about the interview by ABC correspondent Diane Sawyer of 60 Minutes television show, where she asked the former First Lady, «What do you miss in the Philippines?” Imelda replied “the smile of the people” and she paused and added “Excuse me” and she wiped tears in her eyes. Suggesting, that since they left for exile in Hawaii, after the EDSA uprising, the Filipino people stopped smiling? Naturally we all hilariously laughed uncontrollably. In the interview, Imelda continued saying, “everybody is entitled to have beautiful houses, beautiful cars and beautiful everything, but if you are white, it’s right, but if you are brown skinned like me, its not wright.” (She mispronounced the word “right”.) And Imelda continued to diminish her embarrassment of accusing the other side by tampering all their documents. So obviously these people have no moral compass at all.

The Cardinal added that Imelda constantly came in the wee hours of the night, on her knees at the end of the stairs, at the House of Sin, his own pun, at Villa San Miguel, the Archbishop’s official residence in Mandaluyong. It was a joke to say “Welcome to the house of Sin”. So ironic. Imelda asked the Cardinal for forgiveness, and he told Imelda (with his Visayan accent), “ Imelda, don’t ask me for forgiveness, ask God directly instead.” As every knows Imelda Marcos was always a prolific actress and always a poor victim. (I always wondered why she never received a FAMAS award, an equivalent of Oscars, in the Philippines or a Grammy, since Imelda had a habit of bursting into singing at any time she wished.

After lunch we went to the living room, took snap shots with our camera and he gave away rosaries and his personal prayer card with his signature. And we all formally said our goodbyes to each other. Within a few months after that, friends from Toronto went back home for holidays in Manila, and had an audience with His Eminence. And I was told, the Cardinal sent his personal greetings wishing me well. I was moved and said to myself, maybe that’s the closest way of being with His Almighty here on earth. Don’t you think so too?

Jaime Lachica Sin was born on August 31, 1928, of Chinese Filipino descent, into a wealthy family in New Washington, Aklan, to Juan Sin and Maxima Lachica. He is the seventh of sixteen children. He went to St. Vincent Seminary. He was appointed Bishop in 1967 and eventually in 1974 he was installed as Archbishop of Manila. In 1976 Pope Paul VI made him the youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

Events in the Philippines under the conjugal dictatorial power of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos forced Cardinal Sin, the spiritual leader of all Filipino Catholics, to become involved in the politics of the region. He became witness to corruption, fraud, and even murder at the hands of President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife.  The late Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. once said, “ It’s just like tweedledee and tweedledum,” in conjunction with the Marcos constitutional amendments, patterned all in his favour.

Cardinal Sin appealed to the Filipinos to follow the teaching of Jesus in the gospels. Cardinal Sin was a very important leader instrumental in the overthrowing and dismantling of the unpopular regime, in peaceful means, in what later came known as people power. Eventually, Cardinal Sin decided to speak out in support of Cory Aquino, the widow of the assassinated opposition leader Senator Benigno Aquino. Cory brought back the democratic processes of a free nation. The opposition claimed President Cory Aquino was only a historical accident. Accident or not, democracy dictates, the freedom of speech and the free enterprise will prevail. Mrs. Aquino once said, her favourite anecdote, Wonders of Wonders. And you would wonder too? Yeah! there’s a truth to it and a very significant in the words used.

Afflicted for years with a kidney ailment brought on by diabetes, he retired as the Archbishop of Manila in 2003 and died of renal failure in June 2005 at the age of 76. The Philippines government accorded him the honour of a state funeral and a period of national mourning was declared through Presidential Proclamation. He is buried in a crypt of the Manila Cathedral along with his predecessors. Thousands of Filipinos attended his funeral. His Eminence Cardinal Jaime Sin once said “I have given my very best to God and to my country.”

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Joel Recla is Producer/Radio Host of Pearl of the Orient show, Sundays at 6:30 p.m.to 7:00 p.m. at 1540 AM Frequency