Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a Filipino Catholic leader who spared no president from criticism, died of COVID-19 at the age of 85 on Wednesday, August 26.
Cruz died at 6:45 am on Wednesday “due to multi-organ failure caused by critical COVID-19 infection,” announced Archbishop Socrates Villegas, his successor as Lingayen-Dagupan prelate, around noon on the same day.
The news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reported hours earlier that Cruz succumbed to a “lingering illness.” CBCP News has updated its report to mention COVID-19 as the cause of his death.
Cruz was confined at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City before his death. His body was set to be cremated immediately following health protocols, Villegas said.
Cruz’s wake will be held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Dagupan City.
In the Catholic Church, there is only one cathedral for every Catholic diocese or “territory,” and it is where the cathedra or the archbishop’s seat is found. Saint John the Evangelist had been Cruz’s cathedral before he was succeeded by Villegas, who like him was a protégé of the late Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.
Villegas said Catholics can visit Cruz’s wake from 6 am to 8 pm on Thursday, August 27, and the funeral Mass is scheduled at 9 am on Friday, August 28, in the same cathedral. Cruz is set to be buried at the Santuario de San Juan de Evangelista after the funeral Mass.
“He was a faithful shepherd. He was a courageous prophet. He was a brilliant canon lawyer. He was a patriot and pastor,” Villegas wrote.
Villegas continued: “The world is poorer by his passing away. Heaven has a new jewel. My tears flow. My heart is grateful that in this lifetime I met a great churchman like Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz.”
Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, vice president of the CBCP, described Cruz as “one of the leading voices in the advocacy against illegal gambling in the country.”
Activist leader Renato Reyes said he remembers how Cruz “did not shy away from mass actions especially after 2004, during the critical years of the Arroyo regime.” He recalled too that Cruz joined an impeachment complaint against then-president Benigno Aquino III over alleged fund irregularities.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who like Cruz was an Arroyo critic, said the archbishop “was such a dear friend who loved our country next to God.” Lacson said he used to pass by Cruz’s residence in Dagupan City whenever he traveled to the north, and they “would discuss anything from religion to the problems besetting our country.”
“God is in good company,” Lacson said.
Hitting both Duterte and Aquino
Cruz is known for his stinging critiques of sitting presidents, sparing no one – most recently Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno Aquino III, and Rodrigo Duterte.
A canon lawyer, Cruz is remembered for also criticizing abuses within the Catholic Church itself. He was president of the CBCP, the collegial body of bishops in predominantly Catholic Philippines, from 1995 to 1999.
Cruz once said Duterte is “worse than a dictator.”
“Delikado ang mga ganitong nilalang, higit pa kung ito ang napiling pinuno ng isang bansa (Such a creature is dangerous, much more if he is chosen as a country’s leader),” Cruz said in a GMA News interview in November 2015, a few months before Duterte was elected president.
“Mas masahol pa siya sa diktador (He is worse than a dictator),” Cruz said, adding that Duterte “thinks he is God.”
Earning Duterte’s ire, Cruz was one of the first critics Duterte called out less than a month after his election. Duterte said: “Bobolahin mo pa mga Pilipino! Hoy, Oscar! Oca, wag mong bolahin ang mga Pilipino. Nakakahiya ka!” (You’re even fooling Filipinos! Hey Oscar! Oca, don’t fool Filipinos. You’re a shame!)
Cruz also rebuked Duterte’s predecessor, Aquino, whom he called “anti-Christian” and unwise for supporting a law that promotes contraceptives. He also chastised Aquino for clarifying his stance against a hero’s burial for dictator Ferdinand Marcos only midway through his presidency.
In a 2012 interview, Cruz told Rappler he also regretted supporting the People Power revolt that put Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, in power. He said the aftermath of the 1986 revolt “was a very, very good opportunity for the Philippines to come out” – then he mimicked the sound of a deflating balloon to describe what had happened since then.
‘The position changes you’
Cruz is credited for transforming the CBCP into an influential body, from being a “largely ignored institution” overshadowed by Sin, according to the late Rappler investigative journalist Aries Rufo.
He is considered one of the early protégés of Sin, the outspoken archbishop who helped oust Marcos through the bloodless People Power Revolution of 1986. He told Rufo, however, that he used to be a “nonpolitical” priest – until he headed the CBCP.
“The position changes you, redefines you,” Cruz said in Rufo’s book Altar of Secrets.
It was during Cruz’s term as CBCP head when then-president Fidel V Ramos first attempted to change the 1987 Constitution, Rufo wrote. The Catholic Church’s opposition prompted Ramos to shelve charter change.
Cruz also led a crusade against the illegal numbers game jueteng – one of the issues that led to Joseph Estrada’s ouster from the presidency in 2001.
Cruz later became one of the most vocal critics of Estrada’s successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for alleged corruption during his term. In a Rappler interview in 2012, he described the Arroyo administration as “corruption incarnate.”
Cruz was as biting against financial and sexual abuses in the Catholic Church, even as other priests and bishops choose to stay silent or cover up for the church’s mistakes.
Blasting priests who sire children, Cruz told Rufo in a 2012 interview: “Ano sila, sinusuwerte? Gagawa-gawa ng milagro tapos Simbahan ang aayos?” (Who do you think they are, feeling lucky? They make a mess and let the Church fix it?) – Rappler.com
How does this make you feel?
