A view of the Ateneo de Manila Senior High School in Manila. A student at the premier Jesuit high school in the Philippines triggered outrage among Catholics by posting a ‘review’ of the Holy Eucharist on social media on March 23. (Photo: Facebook)
A Jesuit high school student in the Philippines triggered outrage among Catholics by posting a ‘review’ of the Holy Eucharist on social media, forcing the management to temporarily suspend Mass in the premier school.
A senior high school student of Ateneo de Manila Senior High School in the capital Manila posted on Twitter a picture of the sacred host, which he obtained during Mass on March 17 and tweeted a “food review” of it on March 23.
“Ostiya [host] Review: March 17 Mass… Design: 6/10, I like the vibe but if it was centered I think it’d be a lot better. Crispness: 8/10, not soggy and had a satisfying crunch; Taste: 7.5, tastes like corn flakes, Wow factor: 7/10, decent,” his tweet said.
“The sacrilegious act committed by the high school student is symptomatic of the culture of Gens X, Y, Z or whatever this decadent bunch of self-entitled humanity calls itself,” Father Ranhilio Aquino, dean of San Beda Graduate School of Law, told UCA News.
Father Aquino blamed adults for the younger generations’ “crooked” idea of what is “cool.”
“It is because we adults have tolerated a culture of coolness. It is an eclipse in the sense of the sacred,” Father Aquino chided while condemning that total disregard for everything that human civilization thus far has held to be important, worthwhile and valuable.
"They scoff at piety, ridicule the intelligent as nerds and weird,” the clergyman said.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has condemned the act. But urged Catholics to treat the student with compassion.
“This is a wake-up call to the importance of catechesis and religious education. Perhaps we have not done enough to teach our children a religious education,” Father Ernie de Leon, executive secretary of the Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education of the CBCP, told UCA News.
Sharon Generoso, a Manila parishioner and mother of two, said she could not imagine the act was done by a student from a premier Catholic school in the country.
“At first I thought it was fake news. But I still believe this is an isolated case,” Generoso, 42, told UCA News.
Joey Israel, a parishioner in Quezon City, northeast of Manila, said he has written a letter to the school asking for details of the probe.
“I wrote to Ateneo [school] as a concerned Catholic. We must know what happened to the kid. What action is the school planning? The school should be transparent about the outcome of the investigation,” Israel added.
On March 23, the Jesuits suspended the Mass in the school for the atonement of the sacrilegious act.
“We are suspending Masses in Ateneo de Manila Senior High School and will resume after we do the Rite of Reparation for the profanation of the Holy Eucharist,” Father Braulio Dahunan, Ateneo’s chaplain, said in a letter.
UCA News tried to contact the student and his family but they did not respond in time.
