Public Lecture Explores Spirituality and Leadership

The speaker is professor of systematic theology at the St. Vincent School of Theology and “Ethics and Spirituality in Leadership” in the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies program of the Ateneo de Manila University, where he was Associate Dean at its School of Government.

A graduate of the Katholieke Universitiet Leuven (KUL) in Belgium, Dr. Gonzalez is a founding member and past president of the Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines (DaKaTeo). He is also a member of the Extension and Networking Team of the East Asian Pastoral Institute.

Held on June 30, 2018, the Public Lecture began with a hymn asking the Lord to “give us a new heart” and “to “hold us upright” (Ilikha mo kaming  mga bagong puso…/Itindig ninyo kami…”). 

 With spirituality defined by the flyer for the event as a state and a process of devoting attention to the transcendent and immanent dimensions, Dr. Gonzalez offered an example of a Filipino “who was very serious about his faith” – the late Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez (1915-2003).

Mr. Pelaez was a lawyer, professor, public prosecutor of the People’s Court after the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines, congressman, senator, vice-president, assemblyman, ambassador to the United States and exemplary public servant.      

Disillusioned by the corruption he witnessed as Vice-President of President Diosdado Macapagal (1961-65), he sought the presidential nominee of the Nacionalista Party  in late 1964. But  he lost to Sen. Ferdinand Marcos who bribed the delegates and paid the staff of the Manila Hotel to report on telephone calls and actions of the Pelaez team.  

“This was even after their gentlemen’s agreement, ”  Dr. Gonzalez said. “But he did not violate it by counter-bribing with the sacks of money made available by   businessmen alarmed at the prospect of his rival winning the nomination.”

As an Assemblyman he opposed the coconut levy tax imposed on small farmers, and was almost killed for doing so in 1982. Bleeding on the way to the hospital, he asked the head of the Northern Police District a now-classic question, “What is happening to our country, General?”

After the near-assassination, he retired to his home province of Misamis Occidental. Though depressed, he gradually recuperated. He discerned that the rot was deeper than political rot, and that the nation had to heal, come together and reconcile.

Mr. Pelaez supported the moral recovery program, the Ligaya ng Panginoon (Joy of the Lord) charismatic movement, and the Philippine Bible Society where he served as President and Board Chairman ( 1985,1993-96).  He was also Honorary President for Life.  

Vice-President Pelaez studied High School at the Ateneo de Manila University and was influenced by Fr. John P. Delaney, SJ.

“We see in him the spirituality of the Jesuits who had intensified his sense of mission,” said Dr. Gonzalez. “He kept an artwork  of the Lord washing the feet of the Apostles, and inspired office visitors like painter Anita Magsaysay-Ho to make a similar painting.”

“Public service is sacrifice and service at all times,” Dr. Gonzalez quoted the late Vice-President as saying. He was an official aided by spirituality to exercise effective leadership.  But what can spirituality learn from leadership that mobilizes people to address shared problems, especially poverty and insufficient livelihood, personal security and peace and order?

Here, Dr. Gonzalez paraphrased Fr. Karel San Juan, SJ who had done his Ph.D. at Gonzaga University. Constant striving for the capacity of discernment can lead to companionship and self-integration; instead of self-complacency, we integrate and learn from the shared leadership.    

So that leaders can share working with people, Dr. Gonzalez proposed the use of strategic and systemic thinking. For one, he quoted folk sayings for their  insights on what he called “little things that lighten the burden  of life.”

He began with the proverb “Daig ng paraan ang lakas”  (Resourcefulness is better than strength) and cited the Book of Judah where Barach, notified by the Lord through Deborah to lead the small Israelite army, won by luring the enemy headed against Siserach into the mud.

And for Pumunta sa gera nang walang bala”   (Going to war without bullets), Dr. Gonzalez urged the participants of the Public Lecture, “Think of research and how to use it. “

“May bala pero ayaw bumaril” (Having bullets but declining to shoot) evokes images of Vice-President Pelaez aware that sympathetic magnates Enrique Zobel and Andres Soriano were just just a door away but still declined to use their money as bribes.

“Remember this too – `Where you allocate your treasures, there your heart is’. And so, ask a parish priest or the superior of an institution for a budget plan on training their people or theology students. When it comes to personnel, your book of accounts is your faith in practice.”

From the Gospel, Dr. Gonzalez equated Jesus saying in Matthew 10:12,  “Be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” with being innovative and imaginative during a crisis.

“We should be part of the solution, and not the problem, and accept responsibility that we are part of the mess,” he said. “Human right violations, extrajudicial killings – why are these happening and how did it get so big? We have to examine ourselves and the Church. How can the Gospel of Peace and the Church of the Poor help?”

Instead of complaints, big campaign promises, fast solutions and what he called an elite democracy, Dr. Gonzalez also proposed a systems approach to interrelationships.    

“Let us expand our healing ministry – heal the sick and not just the dying; use biomedical processes but sing inspirational hymns too; have parish-based committees that reach out to the neglected and to the addicted.”

 Though distinct realms, spirituality, and leadership can indeed enrich and challenge each other.

At the open forum, a participant asked if members of the clergy are perceived as part of the elite. Dr. Gonzalez replied, “The more the Church becomes the Church of the Poor, the more that populists attack the Church.”

Who are authentic leaders, Fr. Santosh, a diocesan priest from India, asked. Those who can make unpopular decisions and challenge their followers, as Jesus did (and indeed, some of the apostles stepped out), said Dr. Gonzalez.

The speaker at the Public Lecture in May,   Mr. Ricardo Ravacio,  asked about the failure of some leaders to prioritize the values seen as Jesus fought the Pharisees, and about strategies to follow the Scriptures.

Let us also study and discern the Word of Jesus in the signs of the times, Dr. Gonzalez urged. Let us gain wisdom from other sources, including readings on the strategies for war.

A third participant noted a problem in the culture of present-day Filipinos who prefer entertainment to news programs; similarly, still another participant said that Filipinos may cling to and support someone who offers change “because we have lost our values.”

Dr. Gonzalez readily suggested checking what elements of culture had supported violent populism: “ Lahing mapagmura’t malulupit ang dila  ( a race with sharp tongue and curses) – is  this what our ninuno (ancestors)  would have wanted as the Filipino identity to be passed on?”     

He also offered education as a way to communicate with purpose, precision, and power after sufficient literacy.

“As the leader of rabbis in Great Britain has said, let us pace ourselves so that we do not leave people behind. Let’s look at the bigger picture. For this, we have some of the best universities in our academic system. And how wisely have we used Catholic media outlets to clearly and not hysterically help discuss issues?” #

Perla Aragon-Choudhury