Former SF prelate Archbishop Oscar Cruz dies at 85
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz of Lingayen–Dagupan died today at 6:45a.m. at the Cardinal Santos hospital due to a lingering illness.“
So announced Wednesday on Twitter the CBCP News, the news service of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
It did not say the prelate’s illness. He was 85.
Ordained to the priesthood on Feb. 10, 1962, Cruz received his episcopal ordination on May 3, 1976.
A Canon lawyer, he was CBCP president from 1995 to 1999, also serving as Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop from 1991 to 2009, where he retired.
Cruz also served as the third bishop and second archbishop of San Fernando from May 22, 1978 to Oct. 24, 1988 succeeding Archbishop Emilio Cinense. He was in turn succeeded by now Archbishop Emeritus Paciano B. Aniceto.
Fr. Sol Gabriel, archdiocesan vicar for the clergy, remembered Cruz for saving historical and cultural artifacts of the church when he put up the Archdiocesan Museum at the University of the Assumption.
It was Cruz that initiated the establishment of the pre-college, college, and theology departments of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary which was a minor seminary when he came to Pampanga.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Cabetican, Bacolor and the Chapel of the Holy Eucharist in this city were initiatives of the prelate to promote greater devotion among the Capampangans, Gabriel said.
On the national level, Cruz was known as unsparing of his criticism of those in government, all presidents from Estrada to Duterte.
Even the Church and churchmen were not spared from his criticisms.
His most stinging remarks though were those against illegal gambling, especially jueteng.
Of the then-presidential candidate Duterte, Cruz said in a GMA News interview in 2015: “Delikado ang mga ganitong nilalang, higit pa kung ito ang napiling pinuno ng isang bansa, (Such a creature is dangerous, much more if he is chosen as a country’s leader). Mas masahol pa siya sa diktador (He is worse than a dictator).
Then in April 2017, amid Duterte’s rants against the Catholic Church, especially his claim that the Church would be irrelevant in 30 years due to its alleged abuses, Cruz riposted that even though there may be sinful men in the Church, it was founded by Jesus Christ Himself who is sinless.
“That’s why if the Church per se were not really a true Church and was not founded by Christ, it should have been gone a long time ago. That the Church is still up and about up to this time is an argument that is beyond debate,” Cruz said. With news reports
