Seares: Bishops’unfinished business

Sunday, July 17, 2011

ARCHBISHOP Jose Palma, incoming president the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said last Saturday he chose to speak about the furor over vehicles donated to seven bishops “to put closure” to it.

For the Senate, it was over when it didn’t find anything legally and constitutionally wrong with the donations. The cars weren’t Pajeros, just sports utility vehicles for rugged terrain.

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But is it over for the church?

In its July 11 apology, the CBCP said it will “reexamine the manner of our
collaboration” with the government in helping the poor.

Archbishop Palma talked about a memorandum of understanding (MOA) with PCSO that funds church projects for the poor. Will subsidy go on under the same guidelines?

Shouldn’t rules be re-studied to make sure, as CBCP pledged, that “pastoral sensibilities are respected and the highest ethical standards are observed”?

Overlooked or shunned at the hearing was the charge that PCSO grants were used to buy bishops’ support for the Arroyo government. Would existing MOA preclude such abuse by any president?

Devil’s money

Then there’s the policy of accepting money from the devil. If the late Jaime Cardinal Sin was only kidding, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and CBCP lawyer Jo Imbong were not when they said the church would accept funds from whatever source.

What exactly is the church policy?

Closure means only the end of the inquiry on “Pajero bishops,” not to a review of the bishops’ stand on gambling money and the system of government grants.

And the CBCP promised “constant renewal.” It did.

[paseares@sunstar.com.ph]