CATHOLIC chaplains were known to minister to Catholic American and German soldiers during World War II. They regularly said Mass, as it was called then, for their respective soldiers but especially before a major battle to pray, I would guess, for victory.
God says “Thou shall not kill” but here were Catholic soldiers praying to Him before killing each other. It grates somehow. Still, it was a godly act by Catholic priests and soldiers who were in a bad situation that was not of their making and which they had no way of avoiding.
We cannot say this about two recent Eucharistic celebrations (Masses) that Cebu City political parties separately sponsored. This is early electioneering because the fact of the matter is that in Catholic Philippines election campaigns are launched and ended with the Eucharist.
That makes these celebrations (of the Eucharist) smack of hypocrisy. Election campaigns in the Philippines are far from godly. Politicians cheat during elections and are corrupt in office. The Eucharist here is clearly used as a campaign material. They probably give the priest a handsome stipend, yet the Eucharist, with the illusion of godliness it projects, is still a cheap way to appeal to the religious sensitivities of Catholic voters.
It is, therefore, questionable for bishops to allow the Eucharist to be used as a campaign material for political parties whose history of public service is marked by gross inefficiency because of corruption and incompetence.
But this is not half as questionable as what Bishop Pabillo, Fr. Reyes and Fr. Gatchalian have done rallying the opposition (so few attended they could only be the opposition) with a Eucharist against the administration and specifically the person of President Duterte.
I suggest that politicians demonstrate their sincerity to serve by launching and ending their campaigns together in one and the same Eucharist where they will swear to God how they will serve God’s people. The Eucharist is already highly commercialized as it is without it being debased into a cheap campaign material.
Accordingly, Bishop Pabillo, Fr. Reyes and Fr. Gatchalian should have gathered both anti and pro Duterte Catholics to pray to God together. They were wrong to presume, and communicate the message, that the party they sided with has the truth and God on its side.
God is in the middle where truth and justice reside. Accommodating contending parties to separate Eucharists is a wrong notion of political neutrality. Besides, more than neutrality the Church should work to reconcile and gather all parties in the middle (Eucharist) where God is. Bishops should stop parties from using the Eucharist as cheap campaign material.