On the matter of the audacity of some bishops (clergy) to publicly campaign against a political candidate, let me quote an excerpt from the Catechism on the Church and Politics by the CBCP: “Question: Is there any case when the Bishops can authoritatively order the lay faithful to vote for one particular and concrete option? Answer: Yes, there is and the case would certainly be extraordinary. This happens when a political action is clearly the only one demanded by the Gospel. An example is when a presidential candidate is clearly bent to destroy the Church and its mission of salvation and has all the resources to win, while hiding his malevolent intentions behind political promises. In this case, the Church may authoritatively demand the faithful, even under the pain of sin, to vote against this particular candidate. But such situations are understandably very rare.”
The Church, through the bishops, is duty-bound to proclaim the Gospel “to all creation” and that includes the political order. They are expected to always speak the truth of the faith. They should not be tempted to let others speak of the faith, especially those who don’t regard God as God and those who don’t consider human dignity as sacred and those who don’t revere human life. In other words, the bishops should continue to speak out with a prophetic voice against things that are contrary to the teachings of the Church—those that are anti-life, anti-clergy, anti-Church, and anti-God.
However, the voices of the bishops must be accompanied by concrete actions. Otherwise, it would be nothing but hot air. The bishops are not just called to issue pastoral letters exposing the evils in society but also to instruct the faithful on what to do when confronted with such in the light of the Gospel values and teachings of the Church.
Bishops should not, in any language, endorse candidates nor support politicians during elections. That would be sheer meddling in politics. There is no constitutional provision, though, that prohibits the clergy and the religious from partisan politics. Only the Church’s own teachings and ethos bar them from participating therein. However, they should rather continue to shepherd the flock and enlighten the Catholic voters on the prudent use of their freedom to select the next leaders of this country.
They are often quoted as saying that the faithful should vote according to their conscience. Catholics with their informed conscience, they say, are free to discharge their grave and moral responsibility to vote their own candidates according to the principles and teachings of the Church with the belief that the informed conscience leads to an informed vote.
It’s about time the Church should catalog the performance of the Catholic politicians especially on how they stand on issues of the day especially those who openly oppose the teachings of the Church.
Our challenge: for the Catholic politicians to become proxies of the living Church and be moral exemplars and leaders of our times. We ask them to stand on the commitment of the Church regarding political, social, moral, and economic issues besetting our society. Their political actions and decisions should be reflective of their enlightened faith and the teachings of the Church.
REGINALD B. TAMAYO,
Marikina City,
reginaldtamayo@yahoo.com