An Invitation to a Gay Indignation Rally, Courtesy of a Philippine Cardinal

The Filipino women in resplendent gowns look gorgeously beautiful, demure and bashful, but … omigosh! After the Santacruzan parade, they turn out to be boisterous gays!

Where have all the genuine girls gone? As festivities spread cheers and colors across the Philippines with the month-long celebration of the Roman Catholic ritual of May crowning (Santacruzan as Filipinos call it), more and more women wannabes are apparently replacing the genuine ones in the Santacruzan processions.

This has been noticed by no less than Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales who on Monday poured scorn at the apparent fad of parading cross-dressing gays during Santacruzan processions.

Short of excommunicating and condemning the gay paraders as heretics, Rosales said they are making a mockery of the Virgin Mary herself and the Marian devotion of millions of Filipino Catholics.

The 75-year-old cardinal quickly clarified that he is not mad at homosexuals per se but at their actions which he said tend to ridicule a long-established religious tradition in the Philippines.

Rosales said he has already issued a circular directing priests not to celebrate Masses in communities that allow gays to join in religious processions. “Sorry but you have to fall in line. The sacred must remain sacred. The procession is religious. (But) what the (parishes) do is organize a parade. That is an insult to the Blessed Mother,” he said.

I could understand the good cardinal’s sense of outrage – about the mockery, even the blasphemy committed against the mother of Jesus Christ. In countries with more austere religious beliefs, even a cartoon could spell death.

But Rosales may be stretching the issue a bit too far by forbidding priests to celebrate masses in communities that hold gay Santacruzan parades. This is like condemning a whole community for the aberrations of a few of its members. Just imagine how the women, men and children of that community would feel when their priest tells them he can’t give them the holy sacraments because there are gays in their midst. Has the Philippine Catholic Church decreed crime by association?

And of course, the cardinal could not expect the large and still growing gay communities across the country to just sit silently and fiddle their thumbs while their reputation is being burned at the stakes.

The gays would argue that they have as much right as anybody in our democratic country to participate in any community festivities, including Santacruzan processions.

They would argue that the Santacruzan has actually evolved from being a religious ritual to a social event in the community where the most beautiful – be they women or women wannabes – are crowned and given recognition.

They would argue that spirituality and devotion to Mother Mary and to Jesus Christ the Savior Himself lies in the hearts of men and women – regardless of their sexual affinity or preference – and not in parades and processions.

They would argue that if the good cardinal really wants to eliminate gays in religious rituals, he should look at his own Church and start weeding out the gay priests in many parishes.

Cardinal Rosales has good intentions, no doubt. But behaving like a homophobic may not be the best way to bring out his good intentions.