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By Francisco S. Tatad, Special to the Manila
Times
Editor’s note: In the first part, Francisco
Tatad quoted Canon Law and passages of Church doctrine defining the
limits of political action bishops may take. The author defended the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines from detractors
who want the bishops to repeat what they did in the anti-Marcos and
anti-Estrada campaigns in 1986 and 2000. In fact, the bishops, he
said, “Have merely decided to correct two historic mistakes and
finally reaffirm correct Church doctrine.” Tatad, a former senator
of the Philippines and author of several scholarly books analyzing
Philippine society, worked as a reporter and editor before entering
government service and politics.
Last of two parts
Those who are angered by the instructions of
their bishops not to use the Holy Mass for any political road show
argue, “But what are the bishops afraid of? We only want to
celebrate a ‘Mass for Truth.’ Are they for or against the
truth?”
This is sophistry at its worst. The Mass belongs
to Christ and the Church and may not be appropriated by anyone for
his own purposes. The Mass is the memorial of the death and
resurrection of Christ, who says, “I am the way, the truth, the
life.” The Mass is truth. So not even the Pope will probably think
of celebrating a “Mass for Truth.”
The bishops deserve a vote of thanks for trying
to uphold Church teaching, which they had failed to do before. But
they could have done a much better job in formulating our real moral
concerns. They only needed to ask the right questions.
For instance: Is the law still an ordinance of
reason promulgated by those in authority for the common good? The
bishops who have read St. Thomas should be able to take a clear
moral position on this question.
How many among us still care to know the
difference between truth and falsehood, good and bad, right and
wrong? The bishops need to ask to what extent the state’s effort
to proclaim itself as the source of truth and law has contributed to
this problem.
The bishops are not called upon to decide who
are guilty of corruption, plunder or any crime. But when a major
corruption scandal shakes the nation, they have a duty to find out
whether the accusations are being answered, or due process is simply
being manipulated and undermined to make sure the truth is never
known.
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