Pacquiao’s bishop advises boxer to quit ‘un-Christian’ sport

MANILA, Philippines—Saying that boxing a person was like “boxing the Holy Spirit,” Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of Marbel said he has advised boxing legend and Saranggani Representative Manny Pacquiao to retire from the ring.

Gutierrez reminded Catholics that the Church considers a person’s body as the “temple of the Holy Spirit” and that it should not be abused or harmed.

Pacquiao is set to slug it out Sunday (Saturday in the United States) with Sugar Shane Mosley in their WBO welterweight fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Usually, I don’t approve of boxing because you are hurting the other. Every person is a temple of the Holy Spirit. If you box someone and punch him, it’s like you’ve also punched the Holy Spirit… the temple,” Gutierrez said in a recent interview.

“What did the lord say? Love your neighbor, so I never approved of boxing,” he added.

Gutierrez’s Diocese of Marbel (also known as Koronadal) covers South Cotabato, parts of Sultan Kudarat and Pacquiao’s Saranggani province.

“That’s why I’ve told the Knights of Columbus not to sponsor boxing because I said it is un-Christian to hurt others,” he added.

Gutierrez’s misgivings about boxing are shared by many Catholic moral theologians. In 2005, Civilta Cattolica—a leading Jesuit journal in Rome that reflects the official view of the Vatican—said that boxing and the business interests around it were immoral.

It said boxing was based on violence and run by business interests interested in making money out of the suffering boxers inflict on each other.

“I have for a long time advised (Pacquiao to retire),” Gutierrez said, adding that the boxer remains his “friend.”

“He just said, ‘Opo..’ He was just saying, ‘Go ahead. You have your (way)… I have my own’,” the bishop added.

Asked about the prestige Pacquiao has brought to the country, Gutierrez said, “The end does not justify the means.”

“You can go into drugs, gun smuggling, prostitution…. The end does not justify the means,” he added.

This was not the first time that the bishop made public comments about Pacquiao and boxing.

In November last year, Gutierrez said that Pacquiao’s stellar boxing career was proving to be a hindrance to service to his constituents in his congressional district.

The bishop said that Pacquiao could not serve his constituents full-time due to his training and fights abroad.

“It really hinders…. How can you serve full-time if you are practicing and your focus is boxing?” Gutierrez said. “The preparation takes months and the training is not easy.”

“It’s up to him, of course, but it’s a conflict of interest because he is there in Las Vegas when he is supposed to be here. And he also trains in Baguio,” Gutierrez said.

“I understand he is looking for funds to put up his hospital in Saranggani because they don’t have one there. It (the pork barrel) is not enough. He would need about P500 million,” Gutierrez said.

When asked if Pacquiao had donated to the Church, the bishop said: “Never mind about that. I never ask him for anything.”