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THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines released a
statement after its 96th Plenary Assembly, held Tuesday to Friday,
Jan. 22 to 25, had ended. It is dated Jan. 27. The CBCP president,
Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo, D.D., Archbishop of Jaro, under the
stipulation, “For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines,” signed it. This means the statement expresses the
common stand of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops.
The title of the statement is “Reform
Yourselves and Believe in the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15)”
As usual, the news the dailies published about
the pastoral statement and the press conference last Monday at which
the statement was read, once again made it seem as if the bishops
were meddling in politics. All the news reports centered on the
political issues mentioned in the statement. They did not talk about
the substance of the pastoral statement: Renewal.
None of the reporters seemed to have actually
read the CBCP statement—or paid attention to it. Some of them even
wrote that the statement was issued on Monday when it was in fact
available on Sunday.
Although the bishops attempted to specify some
political and social issues confronting the nation, they did not
mean their list to be a definitive one. One or two newspapers, in
editorial comments contained in the news reports, faulted the
bishops for not being specific enough.
Benedict’s Spe Salvi
The statement begins by reminding the Catholic
lay, religious and clerical readers to whom the statement is
addressed that, “Our Holy Father in his most recent letter to us
reminds us of the gift of faith and hope: that when we believe, we
hope; and that when we hope, we live differently (see Benedict XVI,
Spe Salvi, November 30, 2007, no. 2). These convictions on faith and
hope set the tone of our own letter to you in the present pastoral
situation.”
I think the most important message the bishops
wish to drive home are:
(1) That we Filipinos (meaning, I am sure, we
Filipino Catholics)—ordinary folk as well as power holders, rich
and poor — are liable for being bereft of a well-formed social
conscience and that is why we have so many unaddressed or unresolved
political and social problems; and
(2) That we have no social conscience because we
are not doing what true Christians should do: “start (moral
reform) with ourselves, as individuals, families and communities.”
That we always “put the blame on people we have chosen to govern
us” and never on ourselves because we only see “the enemy as
outside of us.”
Personal sin
In other words, the bishops are saying what the
late John Paul II and now Benedict XVI and many saints have said.
That the cause of all the problems of nations and the world is
personal sin. That the failure of individuals, families and small
communities to repent and reform—the failure to think and behave
according to their best hope and faith as Christians, as children of
God—is what causes all the social and political evils of
government corruption, social injustice and mass poverty. The
subheads are instructive: “The Darkness of Our Situation—the
Common Good Subordinated.”
“Journey to the Light—Start with
Ourselves.”
“Lent—the Time to Journey Together toward
Transformation.”
“Renewal of Faith-Communities, Civil Society,
Political Leaders.”
Some quotes:
“If in your minds, corruption—the worst
offender against our common good—is rampant today, sparing no
level of social and political life, and most glaringly and
reportedly so in the various corridors of power, we have to confess
that corruption is in truth our greatest shame as a people. But if
it goes on unhindered, it is because, as we have had occasion to
point out in the past, we all too often condone it as part of the
perquisites of power and public office.”
“We are asking you, our beloved people, to be
with us in the moral-spiritual reform of our nation by beginning
with ourselves. This is what we need—conversion, real conversion,
to put it in terms of our faith, for all of us to deliberately,
consciously develop that social conscience that we say we sorely
lack and to begin subordinating our private interests to the common
good. This conversion is for all of us: laity, religious, priests,
bishops.”
“We beg Mary to intercede for us with her Son
Jesus… Mary, Star of the Sea, guide us on our journey of renewal
that we may more faithfully follow your Son Jesus in his loving care
of all our brothers and sisters.”
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