When Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez joined the political opposition last week in filing an impeachment rap against President Gloria Arroyo, some in his diocese of Caloocan rejoiced. Others recoiled at the partisan breach of Church-State separation. Still more couldn’t comprehend. Outside Iñiguez’s domain, many hoped their own bishops either would join or rebuke him, or couldn’t care less as they went about their religious duties. As for Iñiguez, he said his act was his own and is not committing the 119-strong Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to it.
Reactions to Iñiguez made news. To angry Arroyo officials, CBCP spokesman Msgr. Pedro Quitorio retorted that the move conformed to their January pastoral statement on the political crisis rocking her tenure. Past CBCP head Bishop Oscar Cruz of Dagupan-Lingayen rose in defense too, saying the clergy must dive into politics once moral and gospel values are involved. Current president Bishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro even chastised Iñiguez’s critics: "They should not invoke separation of Church and State as an argument against the involvement and participation of the Church in shaping the politics of our country."
Arroyo’s devout Catholic foes must have relished the flurry of image dents by bishops who collectively top surveys on public trust. They’ve been crying for a year for the truth behind the Garci tape – and truth is a moral and gospel value that Cruz spoke of. But other pious Catholics also have been hooting them down for distorting truth as solely the critics’ version of it, which is that Arroyo must be guilty of election fraud, and so was her vice presidential running mate although never mentioned in the Garci tape.
Arroyo was not without bishops’ support too, albeit indirect. Lipa prelate Ramon Arguelles twitted the motive of impeachment politicos, at a time when senatorial polls that require national publicity are drawing near. One easy way to pluck such publicity, proven in past mid-term elections, is to tangle with the President, and so Arguelles opined "issues are marred by political ambitions." Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu counseled Congress to speed up pro-poor legislation instead of yakking impeachment. The minority in the House of Representatives has no votes anyway to send the case for trial by a Senate that’s sharpening knives too early to slay Arroyo. Vidal from Europe also caused his spokesman to dissociate him from One Voice, ostensible opponents of constitutional reform who happen to be the Arroyo impeachers of 2005.
Yet the statements of Arguelles and Vidal were political as well. They too can be accused of conjoining Church and State. If they weren’t publicly castigated, it may be because Filipinos, unrepentant regionalists, will heed (or defy) only their own bishop. For them in the end, Iñiguez is church shepherd only for Caloocan, Cruz for Pangasinan, Lagdameo for Iloilo, and Arguelles for Batangas. In spite of the cardinal’s hat that imbues higher authority, Vidal is but for Cebu, for Manila has its own Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales who wears the same cap.
But Lagdameo, as CBCP chief, finds it necessary to defend Church role in State affairs. For this, he quotes from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, God Is Love, to wit: "The Church’s social teaching argues on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being. It recognizes that it is not the Church’s responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice.
"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 on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which will always demand sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet promotion of justice through the efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demand of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply."
The lines can be read broadly and thus suit both defenders and stabbers of Church-State separation. So the former cite against the latter another work of Benedict XVI, his recent address to over 200,000 priests.
After calling on the assembled clergy to "believe in the power of your priesthood," the Pope said: "Let us not be consumed with haste, as if time dedicated to Christ in silent prayer were time wasted. There is no need to be discouraged on account of the fact that prayer requires effort, or because of the impression that Jesus remains silent. He is indeed silent, but He is at work... Be assiduous in (silent) prayer of adoration and teach it to the faithful. It is a source of comfort and light particularly to those who are suffering."
The Holy Father then emphasized how "the faithful expect only one thing from priests: that they be specialists in promoting the encounter between man and God. The priest is not asked to be an expert in economics, construction or politics. He is expected to be an expert in the spiritual life.
"In the face of the temptations of relativism or the permissive society, there is absolutely no need for the priest to know all the latest changing currents of thought: what the faithful expect from him is that he be a witness to the eternal wisdom contained in the revealed Word."
The smart aleck will say those words apply only to priests, not to bishops.