Mind your business: is mining evil?

I also could not dismiss the credentials of the author. The pamphlet described Fr. Mendiola as: "A member of the Franciscan order. He finished his BS degree, major in Physics from the University of Sydney, with distinction. He has two Masters of Science degrees, one from Xavier University of Cornell, USA, major in Physics with specialisation in x-rays and another from University of Michigan, USA, major in Nuclear Sciences with specialisation in research on nuclear reactors. He received the 1992 Outstanding Catholic Author award from the Asian Catholic Publishers."

Further, "After finishing his secondary education at Notre Dame College, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines where he was a consistent scholar. He earned a UNESCO scholarship to the University of Sydney …

"Fr. Mendiola was a former Assistant Professor and Assistant Department Head of the Department of Physics at UP at the same time, medical physical consultant at the Philippine General Hospital and Philippine Cancer Institute. He was also designated by the UNESCO to train high school physics teachers nationwide and was a professional lecturer in physics with the National Science and Development Board (now DOST)."

Now, that's not your typical religious writer-scientist-educator-priest. "He surely knew what he was writing about," I thought.

So, did I sell my principles after reading the pamphlet? Suffice it to say that I got some enlightenment on the mining issue, and no principle needed to be sold nor compromised. An open mind was all that was needed.

A few months after reading the pamphlet, I got a chance to ask another priest, Fr. Herman Flameygh, a Belgian who was once parish priest of a mining community in Luzon.

"Father, is mining evil?" I asked.

He replied: "I think a better question would be: 'Can a miner be a good Christian?' The answer is 'Yes, if he is a good miner'."