The Catholic radio celebrates 50 years on the air. The "test of freedom in truth is when you are persecuted,” said the cardinal. “How easy it is to change truths. Now everyone is entitled to create his or her own truth for political expediency or out of fear”.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle took part in a Mass yesterday at University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila to mark the 50th anniversary of Radio Veritas.
During the service, the Archbishop of Manila underscored the importance of “serving” the truth, not by keeping it for oneself, but by sharing it so “that the darkness of ignorance or illiteracy may be wiped out and the values may be shared by Christians all over Asia”
In his comment about the biblical episode of three young Jews coming out unscathed from the furnace in which King Nebuchadnezzar had thrown them for refusing to worship his image, the prelate noted that the “test of freedom in truth is when you are persecuted. How easy it is to change truths. Now everyone is entitled to create his or her own truth for political expediency or out of fear”.
The cardinal used the biblical episode to focus on the word "Veritas", stating that the truth “defines the whole of human existence”, and that slavery of untruth is a sin, as Jesus taught.
The Mass, which saw the participation of bishops from the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences and Filipino priests as well as UST students and faculty, was led by the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia.
Radio Veritas was inaugurated 50 years ago, on 11 April 1969, in Fairview, Quezon City, by Cardinal Antonio Samorè, the then prefect of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, and by the then archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Rufino Santos.