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The first Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI issued on December 25, 2005 could have guided the pastoral letter of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued second week of this month saying that it does not favor the new impeachment case against President Arroyo. A relevant portion of the Encyclical Letter follows:
“The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain in the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply.”
Simply stated, the Church has a role to play in the pursuit or promotion of social justice, notwithstanding the separation of the Church and the State as in the Philippine setting. This is a reality that can never be disputed because the Church is bound to sustain the welfare of its flock. This concern is common to all religions in the world. The Church must be able to ventilate its views on the prevailing condition in the country as in the rest of the world from time to time.
The Church must react when despotic rulers trample upon the rights and liberties of people or deny them access to better life. It must not be complacent in the face of pervading immorality because it is a principle accepted since time immemorial that spiritual life is intertwined with temporal life.
But it is not upon the Church “to replace the state”, this was very explicit in the Pope’s Encyclical. While the doctrine of the separation of the Church from the State may not be absolute, men of the Church have to observe certain boundaries in pursuing what may be genuine concern for social justice.
From where they are, bishops are looked up to with a distinct level of respect. When they stoop to the category of ordinary street activists who are largely instigated and even subsidized by opposition leaders obsessed with power they do not presently deserve, bishops lose much of the respect. They also diminish the value of their supposed mission pursuant to the Pope’s Encyclical.
To us there was little or no prudence nor propriety at all for Bishop Deogracias Iniguez to still file on his own an impeachment complaint when similar complaints had already been filed. He knew that only one impeachment complaint would be given due course at a time. Obviously, he was dancing to the music of the applauding opposition. It was publicity stunt timed to preempt the CBCP on its impending consensus. But the CBCP has much more circumspect, more sober members. It was even more unfortunate that Bishop Iniguez claimed that he was filing the complaint as a private citizen and yet he used the title “bishop” in his complaint. He was not telling the truth and that was not good for a bishop.
With the CBCP categorically declaring in the recent pastoral letter that it is against a new impeachment case against President Arroyo. Bishop Iniguez becomes in the eyes of the people a recalcitrant renegade, who believed himself to be right and the great majority of the bishops wrong. By his own example, he cannot anymore preach discipline, much more obedience. In fact, by straying too far into the battlefield Bishop Iniguez has become vulnerable to public censure and in the process somewhat dragged the Church. He is humiliating his peers by not respecting their consensus. He has thus even become a liability to the opposition into whose hands he has wittingly or unwittingly played.
The CBCP may publicly tolerate discordant acts of its members by simply not condemning what Bishop Iniguez and two or three others in their rank are doing but defiance is never a cause for joy for those rebuffed.
Some sore fingers in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church are inflicting excruciating pain to the people, perhaps more than the Church itself.
Indeed, total harmony in just impossible to attain. There are 120 bishops in the CBCP. Jesus Christ only had 12 disciples but two of them sort of dissented or faltered. St. Peter thrice denied knowing Jesus although he later repented. Then, for 30 pieces of silver, Judas sold Jesus to his enemies. He led to Jesus his captors with his kiss of betrayal. Realizing his treachery he hanged himself.
Did the opposition and the financiers of elements craving for power use silver or gold? I hope not, but who can tell?
