Fr. Gore noted though that in recent years, especially when Bp. Vicente Navarra took over the Diocese of Bacolod, the diocese has been active on some social concerns, especially mining, environmental issues, morality issues, and the proliferation of gambling. “These are good issues; but still the main problems of the people especially land, have not been given much attention, and that church mandated organizations are much more involved in the internal institutional concerns of the church, and are less in contact with the poor in rural and urban poor communities,” Fr. Gore said.

Fr. Gore observed that there could be some shifts in the training of new generation of seminarians and clerics that lead them to become less inclined to pursue the social dimension of the Church’s mission.

True learning

“I must confess that my true learning process of what my being a priest and missionary really is began only when I stepped on Negros in 1972; I was struck by the conditions of the poor people of Negros so much that I knew later that I was already on their side, that being a missionary priest is to live the life of the poor,” he said.

“Maybe this is what is lacking in the formation of today’s seminarians and clerics – maybe – I am not sure. But I must say that when church people are in constant touch with the poor they will certainly experience a new life, a new perspective,” he added.

Under the conditions of extreme poverty and highly skewed economic structure, Fr. Gore stressed, the Church remain the only powerful institution that can do something to alleviate the conditions of the people, and work out social reforms.

“Negros today is the same, and in this condition, the church is the only place where the people could speak out, discuss issues and problems, and seek solutions to them; and the clerics should become real catalysts, educators and voices of the voiceless,” he also said.

Despite his observations, Fr. Gore challenged the local churches and clerics to truly live up to their being church of the poor, take part in the day to day problems of the people, and in the process help them find solutions to their basic problems.

Church power for good

“The Church and the clerics have so much power, and they can use it for good toward real social transformation, or for evil which is not the reason for their being,” Fr. Gore said.

Fr. Gore, together with the late Columban missionary priest Fr. Neil O Brian, were among the now famous “Negros Nine” who were incarcerated by Marcos state security forces for alleged conspiracy in the ambush of landowner and former Kabankalan Mayor Pablo Sola in the early 1980s.

He landed in the headlines of local and international media in the 1970s and 1980s for his staunch defense of the poor especially the sugar workers.

Fr. Gore was in Negros recently for some talks, and a visit to his former parish where he had set up farmer-managed community-based agricultural projects. (Bulatlat.com)

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