Just
before I wrote this I was browsing through the various viands at my favorite turo-turo near the Pro-Life office in
Legarda. Hard to imagine that a few days ago I was casually dining at a posh
Spanish restaurant, taking my pick among the different tapas, munching on
croquetas and pollo and several other food items whose names I cannot remember.
I was smug that I and my team of web developers, graphic designers, and writers
will be working for a very rich man, and that we will soon be paid handsomely.
He paid for our lunch by the way.
Our
would- be employer told us his plans for the team over lunch on that fateful
Saturday afternoon. I, in particular, was given a very specific job: to travel
to his new manufacturing plant somewhere in Asia, spend a week or two taking
pictures of the new plant, its people, and the scenery, then write a book about
it. (I won't tell you where, but I Googled the place and found these pics:
.jpg)
Never mind if I knew next to nothing about SLR photography, he was going to
provide me with the camera, process my passport, and give me the money to buy
the tickets going there plus some extra cash.
The pay will
be good (which, out of modesty, I won’t post here – suffice to say that it was
VERY sufficient ) but the perks will be awesome. We will have our own office,
apart from all his other employees, but we can work from home if he wasn’t in
the country, just as long as we were able to deliver. On top of that, he was
also planning to rent out a place for us near the office, so we could be nearby
if he’s around. We will be free to work almost whenever and where ever we want,
and will be paid lots of money. Ah. Life is good! So we reported for work first thing Monday morning.
There
was, however, one catch.
Our
employer was into the manufacturing business, and one of his products was the
IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization, machine. The Catholic Church has always
maintained that IVF, a process that produces what many people know as “test
tube babies” , is immoral. After a few days of working for him, the team
decided that enough was enough.
Just
before I wrote this I was browsing through the various viands at my favorite turo-turo near the Pro-Life office in
Legarda. Hard to imagine that a few days ago I was casually dining at a posh
Spanish restaurant, taking my pick among the different tapas, munching on
croquetas and pollo and several other food items whose names I cannot remember.
I was smug that I and my team of web developers, graphic designers, and writers
will be working for a very rich man, and that we will soon be paid handsomely.
He paid for our lunch by the way.
Our
would- be employer told us his plans for the team over lunch on that fateful
Saturday afternoon. I, in particular, was given a very specific job: to travel
to his new manufacturing plant somewhere in Asia, spend a week or two taking
pictures of the new plant, its people, and the scenery, then write a book about
it. (I won't tell you where, but I Googled the place and found these pics:
.jpg)
Never mind if I knew next to nothing about SLR photography, he was going to provide me with the camera, process my passport, and give me the money to buy the tickets going there plus some extra cash.
The pay will
be good (which, out of modesty, I won’t post here – suffice to say that it was
VERY sufficient ) but the perks will be awesome. We will have our own office,
apart from all his other employees, but we can work from home if he wasn’t in
the country, just as long as we were able to deliver. On top of that, he was
also planning to rent out a place for us near the office, so we could be nearby
if he’s around. We will be free to work almost whenever and where ever we want,
and will be paid lots of money. Ah. Life is good! So we reported for work first thing Monday morning.
There
was, however, one catch.
Our
employer was into the manufacturing business, and one of his products was the
IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization, machine. The Catholic Church has always
maintained that IVF, a process that produces what many people know as “test
tube babies” , is immoral. After a few days of working for him, the team
decided that enough was enough.
The team thought we had made our objection to
IVF clear, and also thought that we could make some sort of compromise: we will
do our utmost to work for the boss on everything except things related to his
IVF machines. Yesterday, however, he secretly asked two of my teammates to go
abroad ASAP and help out in promoting his IVF products. What the boss didn’t
know was that the team made a pact: we remain faithful to the teachings of the
Catholic Church no matter what. We will have to refuse to work for a man who
will lead us to sin. We shouldn't have made any compromise to begin with. The
Gospel of Mark (8:36) made it crystal-clear for us: For what shall it profit a
man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?
I am a
Catholic. Son of Mama Mary. Son of Don Bosco. With all my heart I turned my back
on the empty promises of fortune and walk away with my head held high.
Our
choice was clear, but was in no way easy. I for one have been looking for
financial stability all my life, and the work offered gave both artistic
freedom and the answer to my financial woes. The job could have given me
everything that I didn't have so far – lots of money, good clothes, gadgets,
perhaps even a car or two and my own condo unit in a few years’ time, and still
have some money left in the savings account to give my future wife the wedding
she always wanted. All proved to be elusive dreams once more.
The team thought we had made our objection to
IVF clear, and also thought that we could make some sort of compromise: we will
do our utmost to work for the boss on everything except things related to his
IVF machines. Yesterday, however, he secretly asked two of my teammates to go
abroad ASAP and help out in promoting his IVF products. What the boss didn’t
know was that the team made a pact: we remain faithful to the teachings of the
Catholic Church no matter what. We will have to refuse to work for a man who
will lead us to sin. We shouldn't have made any compromise to begin with. The
Gospel of Mark (8:36) made it crystal-clear for us: For what shall it profit a
man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?
I am a
Catholic. Son of Mama Mary. Son of Don Bosco. With all my heart I turned my back
on the empty promises of fortune and walk away with my head held high.
Our
choice was clear, but was in no way easy. I for one have been looking for
financial stability all my life, and the work offered gave both artistic
freedom and the answer to my financial woes. The job could have given me
everything that I didn't have so far – lots of money, good clothes, gadgets,
perhaps even a car or two and my own condo unit in a few years’ time, and still
have some money left in the savings account to give my future wife the wedding
she always wanted. All proved to be elusive dreams once more.
