No political color in healing mass – CBCP

MANILA, Philippines — This afternoon’s gathering at the EDSA Shrine and People Power Monument on EDSA in Quezon City against summary killings in the country has no political color, the leadership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

Even with the expected attendance of personalities identified with the opposition, no political speeches will be made during the program after the mass and procession.

“The color of Nov. 5 is transparency, clarity of vision and purity of heart,” CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

The people “will not hold rally to shout but to pray and whisper to the heart of Jesus to forgive us, the nation that sinned against Him,” he added.

The Catholic Church has criticized the Duterte administration’s brutal war against drugs that has seen hundreds of drug suspects and even teenagers killed in police operations and vigilante killings. 

Villegas has called on the faithful to join the Lord Heal Our Land Sunday Mass at the EDSA Shrine at 3 p.m. today to help start the “healing process” amid the spate of killings of suspects under the Duterte government’s war against drugs.

“Bakit kailangan natin ang healing? Sapagka’t tayo ay sugatan. Bakit kailangan natin ang healing? Sapagka’t tayo ay nagkasala. Bakit kailangan natin ang healing? Sapagka’t tayong lahat ay dumadaan sa matinding pagsubok bilang isang bansa (Why do we need healing? Because we are wounded. Why do we need healing? Because we have sinned. Why do we need healing? Because we all are going through intense challenges as a nation),” Villegas said in the video.

He lamented that many Filipino Catholics rejoice when they hear news that people are being shot dead when killing must not celebrated.

“This is saddening but we must answer the bullet through candles, answer hopelessness through the pealing of bells of hope,” he added.

He also called on Filipino Catholics to stop “clinging to a knife’s edge.”

“We must cling to God, not ideology, not party, but God,” he added.

The mass will take place 33 days before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8. Villegas said Filipino Catholics should prepare themselves during the 33-day period, which is a significant period in the Bible.

Former Civil Service Commission chair Karina Constantino David, a convenor of multi-sectoral alliance Tindig Pilipinas, said no political speeches will be made in keeping with the solemnity of the mass and procession organized by the CBCP.

“Different issues hounding the country will be tackled (through) cultural presentations,” she said in Filipino.

Former education secretary and De La Salle Philippines president Armin Luistro said the activity is in response to the call of the CBCP to launch a 33-day intensive prayer and action for the healing of the country.

He said the cultural program will be sponsored by Tindig Pilipinas as a way to welcome those from other faiths who will join the activity.

“The mass will end with a procession of the icon of Our Lady of Fatima, the image that was also prominent during the EDSA Revolution,” Luistro said.

Asked about the possibility of administration supporters branding the event as politically motivated, Luistro said such mindset of divisiveness is the primary reason why the country needs to heal.

“In the past year, there is no space where people can express what they feel. Anyone who in fact attempts to do that is colored… We are always divided,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been like this as a nation. We’re tolerant, we’re respectful despite differences…Our response is not necessarily against the government because this is for the country,” he added.

Even though some of their members have known political ties, David said members of Tindig Pilipinas are from civil society who engage in political discourse as citizens.

“The essence of democracy is freedom – freedom to speak, freedom to think, the freedom to say what you think is right or wrong. The essence of government is that it is owned by the people and not individuals who rule at a particular point in time,” she said.

“It is unhealthy if we end up in a system where only one view is correct and the others have no right to say anything against it,” she added in Filipino.

The members of the opposition bloc in the Senate also expressed their support for the initiative of the CBCP to gather and pray for the end of killings linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

In a statement, Sens. Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes IV said that they join the bishops as one united voice and “will join the faithful in prayers for justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings and for enlightenment for our leaders that violence and bloodshed is not the way to address problematic drug use.

Meanwhile, Sen. Leila de Lima lauded 14-year-old student Sibby de Guzman for being recognized by TIME magazine as one of its 30 most influential teens of 2017.

De Lima said De Guzman should serve as an inspiration to all Filipinos for this “extraordinary achievement” considering that she is just an ordinary school girl and was already aware of social issues and wants to be an instrument of change.

De Lima said that De Guzman, with just a pen, paper and her courage as her tools, managed to show the world that Filipinos are not “defined by the bad things that some of our officials do, but, most tellingly, by the brave choices that seemingly ordinary and powerless people make on a daily basis.”

“Shibby has shown us that we don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of followers, or the most expensive and high tech gadgets and worldly possessions to be recognized in the world – distinction follows where we choose to be decent and conscientious human beings,” she said.  – Janvic Mateo, Eva Visperas, Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan