On Fr. James Reuter's "The Only Hope for the Philippines" and Other Forwarded Messages

A former colleague in the Institute of Mathematics in UP forwarded this essay titled The Only Hope for the Philippines by Fr. James Reuter. I'm moved - and utterly convinced - by what Fr. Reuter supposedly wrote here so I decided to post it .

However, before I started pasting the text in my blog, I read in the comments section in one of the blogs that also posted the same essay that Fr. James Reuter DID NOT write the said essay! The person commented further that "It is not his [Fr. Reuter's] writing style though whoever wrote it tried to emulate it. Unfortunately, he/she did not succeed. It keeps resurfacing every so often. Once again--the article was not written by Father Reuter." The owner of the blog acknowledged it and said that it was just a forwarded message.

I then remember something I received from a Church colleague, about the supposed message that was "voted the best e-mail of this year". Yup, I am really convinced that we should not whine and grumble with things that we have while others do NOT have anything at all. However, seeing an obviously FAKED picture with it really doused the good feeling. Now, where's that forwarded Pope John Paul II x Mama Mary's EDITED picture....?

While it is good to forward hear-warming, moving, even though-provoking messages to everyone we know once in a while - we REALLY need some inspiration to relieve us from so much desperation we're experiencing right now - but FAKING something like that is actually inexcusable for me. It will just be lumped with those supposed forwarded inspirational prayers ending with "forward this prayer churva to 7,000 people, OR ELSE..." (God will not like offering and forwarding prayers through COERCION...).

I don't know how will Fr. Reuter feel when he learns about this, but isn't it disturbing that someone has to make up an article like this, claim that it's written by some known personality, and forward it to many people? Doing those kinds of bogus stuff defeats the purpose of meaningful messages and prayers. I don't know the actual motivation in doing these things, but the bottom line is that it's just... bad.

It feel really awkward after reading something supposedly positive and inspiring if I learn that it's either made up or is just forwarded to force you to send it to someone else for good luck. Even if the message threatens me that I'll earn the wrath of God if I don't forward it, I'll just either ignore it or press the delete button. They're just a waste of reading time and e-mail space for me.

So, when you open your e-mails and read a supposed prayer that will give you either good luck or a curse, God will not punish you from putting it in the Trash bin. Also, when you receive an article supposedly written by this and that, try to verify it first before forwarding it. If you're not sure of the autenthicity of the article, well read it if it's a good read it. Otherwise, there's the delete button....

P.S. About the essay, the messages actually reached the Inquirer.net's Mailbag! It was posted there on October 31, 2007. See http://globalnation.inquirer.net/mailbag/mailbag/view_article.php?article_id=97890