But with social media nowadays, "controversy" may be too tame a word to describe the incident. At least a few netizens, I'm guessing foreigners, found the priest's actuations scandalous.
It shows the priest, riding on a hoverboard DURING the Holy Mass, singing "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" That song is quite familiar to me. I sing it too and have it on karaoke. The karaoke song is a part of one of Jose Mari Chan's Christmas albums.
What is Clear on the Hoverboard Priest Video
- The video was taken in the Christmas season. It is quite clear form the video that lighted Christmas lanterns adorn the interior of the church.
- The "performance" number was made during the Holy Mass. The video shows the church goers still seated in the pews. The altar servers are standing and peering from the sacristy. The mother-butlers are still seated/standing at their stations. No one was going out or exiting to suggest that the mass is over.
- After the priest's song number, the congregation applauded. I suppose there was nothing else to applaud other than the priest who gave a song number. The priest got off the hoverboard, walked towards the altar and then tells the congregation to stand. From the Holy Mass postures and gestures, this suggests that the final blessing is to be given at this point.
Just a few hours after the video was posted in youtube, it became viral. Presumably, the video was posted by a churchgoer who videotaped the priest's song number in that mass. She's quick (voice in the video is a female). I suppose when she started to see the blinking lights of the hoverboard, something entertaining was about to happen. And she was right.
Diocese Statement on the Hoverboard Priest Viral Video
In less than a week, the The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo issued the following statement, presumably after an investigation:
After the initial paragraph of the statement, the sentence "THAT WAS WRONG" says it all. Other pertinent points on the statement are:
- The song number was before the Final Blessing of the Christmas Eve Mass. The Holy Mass has not yet ended.
- Priests should not introduce something (entertainment numbers) to get the attention of people.
- The priest will be out of the parish.
- The priest admitted his mistake and apologized.
Netizen Reactions on Facebook and Social Media
From the hundreds of social media reaction that commended the priest's entertainment number, I could glean that there are a few groups who share the same belief. I'm writing below the sentiments of a these groups and my reaction to them.
- Those who think the priest is cool. There was nothing that was wrong. The priest was simply reaching out to the people.
Making a spectacle of yourself as a priest by giving an entertainment number is wrong. The Holy Mass isn't about entertainment. It isn't about the priest being cool either. If you want to be entertained, go to a movie, a concert, whatever.
