"I, a Fellow Shepherd" is not your run-of-the-mill stapled collection of speeches. This 176-page book, launched Friday, benefits from insights of the author who holds an office shared by only two other Filipinos today: member of the College of Cardinals.

Manila's Gaudencio Rosales received the "red hat" from Pope Benedict XVI last year.

Jose Cardinal Sanchez is retired. But Pope John Paul II named Ricardo J. Vidal cardinal 22 years ago. From this perspective, Vidal gives in "I, a Fellow Shepherd", insights into an office that goes back, through the centuries, to Agustine of Hippo and Peter of Rome.

This is a tightly-edited collection of 38 homilies on 8 ordinations, 14 installations and 5 deaths of bishops where Vidal presided. Thus, they provide a glimpse of the priest from Marinduque who today pastors some of the Philippines' oldest parishes.

"To be a shepherd is never easy," Vidal writes in the introduction of a book, prepared secretly by his staff. It was given to him, as a surprise, on his 35th ordination as bishop anniversary. (If memory holds, there are 128 Filipino bishops today.)

"With lay people, I am always a pastor. With my priests, I am always their superior. But with my fellow bishops, I am a human being. And it is only then, I can laugh aloud and throw caution to the wind, for. I am among brothers who accept me as I am."

The homilies - from "A Voice To Our Silence" on Jaime Cardinal Sin to "Poor In Spirit" for the self-effacing Archbishop Teofilo Camomot who, some speculate, could be beatified - provide a sketch of the bishop's lofty duties of sanctifying, teaching, governing. Vidal anchors them to the nitty-gritty of 21st century daily life.

"Ever since I was ordained bishop, I've had problems for breakfast, and go to bed with problems. My phone rings way past bedtime," Vidal said at the ordination of Jaro's Emmanuel Trance. "On my daily schedule, I see a parade of names: priests, nuns, lay people, politicians businessmen, workers, parishioners.

"They come not only to consult you on their problems but simply expect you to agree with solutions they have decided on. Welcome to the world of problems, Bishop Trance.

Welcome to the world of bishops where half the population thinks you can solve their problem and the other half thinks you are the problem."

Vidal recalls his former auxiliary, now Catholic Bishops Conference president Angel Lagdameo, began half-seriously an address to seminarians he was ordaining: "My dear future problems." This take is anchored on the fact that bishops are problem solvers.

They see people, not as problems, but as a rich harvest.

We must "recognize priests and layworkers are worthy coworkers. If a bishop wants to do everything, he must not pray that the Lord send more laborers into the vineyard.

And he also has no right to complain about the burden of work."

As CBCP president Vidal signed the 1986 pastoral that told President Ferdinand Marcos the massive fraud, in the snap election, stripped his regime of legitimacy - a theme that haunts the Arroyo administration today. Echoes of that resonate in his address on the 75th birthday anniversary of the man who summoned the people to People Power I: Jaime Cardinal Sin.

"Anyone could have made the call (to Edsa). Indeed many have attempted to do, before and after February 1986, sometimes brandishing the barrel of a gun, sometimes in anger or desperation," Vidal writes. "But only the calm and sober voice of shepherd himself elicited the response of a million feet.

"Being a voice that speaks for the collective conscience of a people is an ability that does not go with any office. There is no radio station so powerful, nor a pulpit so lofty, so as to bestow automatic credibility on any voice. (The shepherd) became the voice of the people, not so much as speaking on their behalf, as by empowering them to find a voice of their own.

The three kinds of pastors are: ""the shepherd of reluctance, the shepherd of compliance, and finally the shepherd of devotion," Vidal said at the ordination of Kabankalan bishop Patricio Buzon.

Unsure of himself, the shepherd of reluctance does not teach. Distant from his flock, he consults and never leads. "He only follows the flow of fickle public opinion." In contrast, the shepherd of compliance, makes his flock toe the line, "spoon feeds the willing and force-feeds the recalcitrants." He does not consult but not directs.

"The shepherd of devotion" consults but also shows the way. "Where there is consensus, he allows them to lead. Where there is dissension, he takes the reins. He does not only teach; he inspires."

Vidal recalled the hesitation of then Lipa archbishop Gaudencio Rosales to accept ordination as Manila archbishop. He, too, hesitated when asked to head the Cebu archdiocese. Rosales had looked forward to rest from all his labors as Malaybalay and Lipa pastor.

"Manila's ground has always been soft and shaky," Vidal noted. "It sits in the epicenter of all political and social upheveals. Yet, before Manila is the country's capital city, is first a sheepfold.The dilemma is how to nuture a flock that goes home to different political fences..He is your archbishop: Listen to him."

A good read, the book offers a welcome change from the daily political drivel. Get one.

(E-mail: juan_mercado@boholchronicle.com)