On Barbara C. Gonzales

. . . I realized late in my life that the Catholic Church in the Philippines ordered Jose Rizal executed and never once apologized for it. I think they should apologize for theircruel misdeed. But they never have. Anyway, to me, all religions are man-made, a way for man to discipline himself without taking responsibility, actually, an escape from responsibility. I think I am now, if I have to be anything at all, what other people call a freethinker. I think therefore I am and take full responsibility for myself." Barbara C. Gonzales wrote in her column in the Philippine Star today, Aug. 27, 2011

Well, I must say I am so proud of you Barbara. You are a courageous woman. A thinking Filipina. A rarity among women of the Philippines. As you are a distant relative of Jose Rizal, I must also add, if only more and more women of the Philippines possessed your intellectual courage - we Filipinos need no longer be famous as the Sick Man of Asia.

I said it before, I say it again: In this already 21st century, it is time for us Filipinos to be more and more "Rizalistic" as a people by being less and less of a "Catholic" as a country of Asia since we have been in the 16th century. Indeed, it is time for us Filipinos to catch up with rest of the Asian countries growing and developing. They are substantiating the ideas and ideals of our own Jose Rizal publicly executed by the Catholic Church in the Philippines more than a century ago. Poch Suzara, Freethinker