Catholics in Politics by Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo

       In a state of uber-nerdiness, I purchased a copy of 20 Speeches That Moved a Nation by Anvil Press. I even topped it by buying the CD version of it but my nerdiness is not my reason for featuring this book. I am writing about this collection of speeches because of Senator Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo's work called Catholic in Politics which was orated on Sept 7, 1957. It may be old but the speech is still apt because of the upcoming elections. Moreover, I was deeply inspired by his speech because I had never met a person so confidently unapologetic about his religion and beliefs. Soc writes about his being a Catholic with such finesse and charm that you don't feel that he is trying to persuade but rather is just speaking the obvious truth and you must just be a dummy not to believe him.  This is why it is no wonder his nickname "Soc" is short for the the great Greek Philosopher Socrates. Below are some notable excerpts from speech that  tend to linger in my head up today.

       

      We are all Catholics, and we are all citizens. So far, we have not experienced the slightest difficulty in being both. In fact, knowing our Catholic faith as we do, it seems obvious to us that the better Catholics we are, the better citizens we shall be 

     Catholics, they tell us ought to not meddle in politics… Here we are, living in a country 80% of whose population are Catholic….In other words, out of every  ten Filipinos, only two can engage in politics; …. When two of out every ten Filipinos enter politics, that is citizenship; when the other eight Filipinos enter politics, that is meddling.

    On people with no strict moral compass or beliefs…

       He can criticize without being open to criticism. He can take pot shots at everybody without being shot at. He has nothing to defend, and so he can attack everything else…. Naked himself, he can afford to find fault with everybody else's clothes.

     There are more sound bites from Soc but I will see if I can post more in the following days.

Author: Various, Featured: Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo

Book Website: 20 Speeches That Moved A Nation

 
Price: Php 150.00

   Release: Available Now!