Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz called on the public to refrain from using ivory tusks for religious images.
Cruz said the use of ivory tusks for religious images should be stopped âbecause it is contrary to the signs of the times.â
âElephants are already endangered and that reason itself dictates that we get rid of ivory. There are better materials like kamagong, iron, wood, molave. Besides, the moment you have ivory in an image, youâre courting danger because they are attractive to thieves and they are saleable,â Cruz said in an interview.
Cruz added, though, that he didnât know of any Church law expressly banning the use of ivory for religious images.
Dangerous to Church
For activist priest Robert Reyes, turning religious icons and altars into kingly material possessions is dangerous to the Church.
âSacred images are important symbols but they need not be of gold or ivory,â Reyes said in a statement sent to the Inquirer, in reaction to reports on the Philippinesâ involvement in the illegal trade of ivory from elephant tusks to transform them into holy images.
He said what made the religious icons sacred was âour faith not the value of the material of which they are made.â
Cruz admitted that he himself had put up two museumsâone in San Fernando, Pampanga and another in Dagupanâwhere religious images made of ivory were stored.
âThere was a time when ivory was freely marketed because there were no worries about the elephants being endangered at that time. The marketing of ivory in those times was not an issue. But this time itâs different,â he added.
âIs this priest [Msgr. Cristobal Garcia] guilty of ivory smuggling, I donât know. What I know is that even former First Lady Imelda Marcos was very fond of collecting ivory images. Itâs true that there used to be lots of ivory and they were used for religious images but that was when there was still no prohibition on trading and the elephants were not endangered yet,â he said.
âI donât want to comment on what sin he [Garcia] committed. I just want to say that itâs improper if youâll trade ivory nowadays, we should no longer be making new images out of ivory tusks. But if you collect existing images because you worry that they may be lost or taken away by thieves, thatâs OK because I did that myself,â he added.
Reyes assailed the priest named in the NatGeo report who tried to rationalize the Churchâs use of illegally traded ivory.
Fr. Vicente Lina Jr., director of the Diocesan Museum of Malolos and curator of his archdioceseâs annual Sto. NiĂąo exhibit, was quoted as saying in the report that icons carved from ivory was a form of âoffering to God.â
Crooked line
âItâs straightening up a crooked line: You buy the ivory, which came from a hazy origin, and you turn it into a spiritual item. See?â Lina told NatGeo.
âHis voice lowers to a whisper. âBecause itâs like buying a stolen item,ââ the report said.
Popularly known as the ârunning priestâ for his passion on initiating marathons to raise public awareness about social and political issues, Reyes said the justifications of the priests in the article were âdisturbing.â
âI wonder whether we can proudly say, âwe donât have elephants in the Philippines but we have elephant tusks turned into sacred objects of worship,ââ he said. With a report from Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon