Day 9: The C&E People and the Pious Politician

Wish 9: Good for Goodness Sake

The come out of nowhere. They appear only on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Easter morning. They are referred to by a former parish priest as the C&E People.

They are the parishioners who show up only on Christmas and Easter.

All year round, Sunday Holy Mass services have decent attendance. Capacity seems to be about just right. Any group that arrives minutes late for the service will still find seats in the church.

But on Christmas Day, the church pews are overflowing, and the aisles and opened front doors are lined with the standing faithful. The solemnity of the service is distracted by crowding.

Father J. brought up the C&E topic as an appeal to improve church attendance all year round. Many parishes around our town have several hundred registered families as parishioners. But based on Sunday contributions in envelopes, only about a third of those families actually go to regular Sunday services.

By and large, there is no indication that attending services regularly versus twice a year makes the parishioner any more or less morally good. For sure, the C&E people cannot be called pious.

Personally, I want to see more regular parishioners. My kids like to attend every Sunday because their friends do the same. Imagine a weekly reunion of friends if more of them attended.

Also, regular attendance helps determine the capacity of the church. With more regular attendance, the parish would probably add more pews or build an extension. Then, I'll be able to get a seat on Christmas Day.

Now consider piousness and corruption in the Philippines. The only Catholic country in South-East Asia is also the most religious in Asia, according to a Gallup survey. The huge churches are filled to the brim every weekend. Sunday Holy Masses have to be provided also at basketball courts and shopping malls.

At the same time, the 2005 Corruption Perception Index of the Philippines makes it the second most corrupt country in Asia. Why is the most religious country in Asia one of the most corrupt?
One explanation is that church activity is ceremonial: "Look, that politician goes to church, confesses his sins, and takes communion. He is a good man." But the same politician also has a regular take from organized illegal gambling.

Going to church regularly may also be a regular dose of meeting one's religious obligations - and minor misdeeds become excusable. Corruption and the support of corruption is not among the Ten Commandments, one might say. Anyway, "everyone does it" is the common reasoning.

This is by no means an indication of the morality of communities or entire countries. But it is something that puzzles me.

The C&E people I talked about are not necessarily pious, but they still go to Christmas Mass, even if they didn't have to. The pious politician hears Mass every Sunday, but what he does outside the church might be robbing the poor masses.

My wish today is for people to be good, for goodness sake, and not for show.