My First ‘Persona non Grata’ (at least from a Cardinal)

The Nat Geo writer Bryan Christy

"Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu would like to have me declared ‘persona non grata’ for my story Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship.  The Cardinal suggests I lied about my interest in religious devotion.  He is mistaken. I studied this topic and interviewed many people to help me understand the context for venerating holy images regardless of whether they were ivory. This was an honest interest in Filipino culture and is reflected in the story and here. No word yet how Cardinal Vidal would treat Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, the alleged pedophile and ivory afficionado featured in Blood Ivory whom Vidal promoted to Monsignor and made a leader in an archdiocese of 4 million Catholics, knowing Garcia’s past.  If that isn’t a lie of omission I don’t know what is."

Critique:

I studied this topic and interviewed many people to help me understand the context for venerating holy images regardless of whether they were ivory.  - Bryan Christy

Me: He went here in Philippines to conduct a study for two years on the devotion of Sto.Niño that was his reason why he attended the Sinulog celebration and TOOK a COMMUNION from Msgr. Cris during the celebration. (I think this celebration he was referring is the reenactment of the First Baptsim of Rajah Humabon and Queen Juana)

But in his statement in his article he tries to show that Cebuano Catholics are WORSHIPING religious images which is contrary to the teachings of the Church.

He forgot also that many of the ivory images of the saints are antiques and they were made before the ivory ban on 1980's. We can find them in the Centuries-old Church museums.

In his statement above he interviewed many people to help him to understand the context of venerating such religious images. Christy misquoted those people whom he asked and interviewed why? because there were a possibility that the people he asked about his study were NOMINAL CATHOLICS (Catholics by name). 

regardless of whether they were ivory - Then if he does not care about if they were ivory or not why he conducted an interview with Msgr. Cris? If his intention was for the devotion of Sto.Niño?

Lastly, I have a doubt if this man Bryan Christy is really a Catholic...because if he is really a Catholic why he would CONDUCT A STUDY ON DEVOTION TO STO.NIÑO? He should know already his BASIC CATECHISM in his younger days..Why he kept on asking people why they were doing those rituals?

Then, one of our conclusions would be that he deceived the Cebuano people by making interviews as his mask, but his real intention was the use of ivory as an religious image...

Source: My First ‘Persona non Grata’ (at least from a Cardinal)