Planting the seeds of change

One of the encouraging developments in the coming elections is the keen interest and great concern of the Church on how the faithful should exercise their right to vote. This stance is indeed something different from its previous “hands off” policy when it comes to this political exercise. Obviously, the Church has decided to be more active in injecting morality into politics which is really part of its role as an “evangelizing Church”.

And it is really quite heartening because it may signal the start of a new politics that our country needs most especially during this time when the peoples’ expectations of reforms promised by this administration seemed to have been forgotten. Hopefully our people will now find out what is wrong and what is right in our election.

This is indeed the first time when Bishops, Priests and the laity in several dioceses of the Church have assumed an active role in the campaign and the selection of the candidates. Never before have we seen the clergy and the laity participated in the presentation of issues and in the choice of candidates based on their stand on these issues, particularly on the preservation of the culture of life against the creeping culture of death being introduced by the RH law and on the eventual eradication of political dynasties that our Constitution expressly prohibits.

But to really have an impact, the Church must put its act together. As of now, there seems to be lack of coherence and uniformity in their approach to the problems besetting our election particularly in educating the electorate on the choice of candidates.

The diocese of Bacolod is asking its flock to elect five candidates for Senators designated as “Team Buhay” simply because they voted against the RH bill; and not to elect seven others who voted for the bill listed as “Team Patay”. The Archdiocese of Lipa will also be coming out with a specific list of candidates which their faithful should vote for. Apparently following this lead, several lay organizations spearheaded by Mike Velarde’s El Shaddai have already come out with a list of candidates for senators they will endorse this coming election, calling their support the “white vote”.

On the other hand, the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres is not endorsing specific candidates. It has simply launched a “Voters’ Education Program” that will “bring Jesus to society and society to Jesus” through a free vote or a vote solely influenced by a desire to bring God to the world and not by desires of human patrons; an informed vote that is not swayed by multi million worth of strategies; and an evangelized vote based on Gospel as the moral standard and on God’s love for all His children as moral compass. This is the real “Catholic vote” according to its Archbishop, Monsignor Rolando Tria Tirona.

Lately, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan has made an almost similar appeal but more specific and direct to the point. He said that the Church should not interfere by endorsing candidates. But he asked the faithful to “examine candidates from the viewpoint of faith with the mind of the Church enlightened by the values of the Gospel” setting ten concrete moral guidelines to determine those they should not vote for. Thus he advised voters not to vote for candidates who cannot declare a categorical and clear “NO” to Divorce, Euthanasia, Abortion, Total Birth Control, and Homosexual Marriage (D,E,A,T,H). He also warned against voting for candidates linked to drug trade, illegal gambling, or have criminal record, or those who support environmental degradation, failed to do anything to help the poor, engaged in vote buying, or have been unfaithful to their spouses. He asked the faithful to “vote like Jesus”, and “if you cannot find Jesus among the candidates, just make sure that you do not make Judas or Barabbas win”.

Monsignor Soc Villegas aptly capped his appeal with a reminder that we “can best contribute to the election by encouraging prayer and maintaining a reverential silence in the forum of public discussion”.

From these different approaches and suggestions, it clearly appears therefore that the best way for the Church to create an impact and bring about reforms in our election is not to actively interfere in the election by endorsing any specific candidate/s. Instead the Church should just work silently through the grassroots or the basic ecclesial communities in every Parish throughout the country by educating our voters on the moral principles that should guide them in determining the candidates they should not vote for.

Indeed, with the aggressive and expensive campaign conducted by almost all candidates using the far reaching clout and influence of media, it is really quite difficult to discern the candidates who really deserve our votes because all of them present themselves as the most concerned about our welfare and the promotion of the common good. In this regard, the Church is really in the best position to inform the voters on the moral issues involving candidates. After all, they may appear to be the most intelligent, most competent, most dedicated and most popular as they are pictured by media, but if their moral backgrounds are obviously depraved and corrupt, they are simply not credible enough to deserve our vote and to render public service.

Of course the Church actions and moves in the coming election may not really create enough impact in achieving the desired reforms simply because time is running out. But with lots of prayers and silent work, planting the seeds of change now will eventually bear the fruits of reforms we have been longing for.

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