Nandy Pacheco, founding president of Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP), phoned me after reading my letter “Let ‘None of the above’ be a choice in our ballots” (Opinion, 11/22/14). He agreed with me, specifically: “If Nota is to be another ‘choice’ on our ballots and gets the majority vote, this would send a clear signal that our people do not like the candidates fielded by the political parties.”
However, I personally felt the weight of his displeasure on the ungenerous support the party is getting from the laity and the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. He is saddened and frustrated that, so far, no Catholic layman who is morally courageous and God-fearing has taken seriously the AKP’s invitation to join the party and actively participate in its partisan political movement. No doubt, the AKP shares the Church’s evangelizing activity to proclaim the Gospel “to all creation” (Mk. 16:15) and “to restore all things under Christ” (Eph. 1:10).
In this light, the “Catechism on the Church and Politics” expressly provides that the proclamation of the Gospel must “influence every phase of life, every stratum of society.” That includes the political sphere. Indeed it is the duty of every Christian—to transform politics by the Gospel. The laity plays a vital role in the transformation of politics in our country: the mission of the laity is “the same as that of the entire Church… to renew the political order according to Gospel principles and values.” But this role is generally not allowed for priests and religious men and women. This is the reason the Plenary Council of the Philippines II (PCP-II) urges the lay faithful not to be passive regarding political involvement but to take a leading role: “[T]he urgent necessity is for the lay faithful to participate more actively, with singular competence and integrity, in political affairs” (348). Article 8 # 1 of the PCP-II says that the laity must “help form the civic conscience of the voting population and work to explicitly promote the election of leaders of true integrity to public office.”
But again, is the Church mindful of the purpose for which the AKP was put up—to bring God at the center of politics? Admittedly, this will be a long and lonely fight for the AKP. But inspired by obedience to and love for the Church, the AKP will continue to proclaim the saving truth of the Gospel in the public sphere. However, as it guides the ecclesial community, the AKP will need shepherding from the Church. And the Church should egg on the principled laity, not only the Catholics, to participate in politics and join a major party like the AKP whose platform of government is in accord with the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
True, the Church is discouraged from identifying itself with any political party, but at least it should make itself available as an evangelical partner of the laity in proclaiming the Gospel in our troubled politics.
—REGINALD B. TAMAYO, member,
executive board,
Ang Kapatiran Party