THE head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said vice-presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has asked for prayers when the lawmaker visited him in Pangasinan last Saturday.
In a text message, CBCP president Archbishop Socrates Villegas noted that the senator only asked for prayers.
"Just asked for prayers. I assured him I will pray for him," he said.
Asked if some people might think that the meeting is sort of an endorsement? The Lingayen-Dagupan prelate said, "Ignore their wrong thoughts."
On February 13, Marcos visited Villegas at the Arzobispado de Lingayen-Dagupan, which is part of his campaign sortie in the north.
The lawmaker said that they only talked about his family and no politics during the meeting, which lasted for 30 minutes.
"We talked about everything under the sun but not politics," Marcos said.
The CBCP does not endorse political aspirants but they have release guidelines on how and what voters should look for in a candidate.
Last December, the CBCP issued a guide to Catholic voters in choosing candidates in the forthcoming polls, to reject claims by candidates that they are candidates of the CBCP, or of a diocese, or of a particular bishop.
"It has never been the practice of the Catholic Church to hold out a candidate to the faithful as the 'chosen" candidate of the Church. Church doctrine has remained consistent: Partisanship is an arena into which the Church should not venture," it said.
The bishops' also urged voters not to support a candidate who has thus far spent his time demolishing the reputation and tarnishing the good name of fellow candidates.
Likewise, they asked the public not to vote for those who are against Church moral teachings on such vital issues as abortion, euthanasia, the return of the death penalty, divorce and the dilution of the character of Christian marriage, among others. (FP/Sunnex)