Tell it to Sun.Star: On CBCP’s silence

SUN.STAR Cebu columnist Orlando Carvajal suspects that the CBCP (as a collective body) has not issued any statement on the Kidapawan massacre for “fear of the communist bogey.” He adds that “they could be prudently asking if the farmers are communist-inspired.”

This statement is not without basis. Reacting to my opinion a few days ago, a friend of mine who is a Redemptorist based in Davao said he too was wondering the same. He added “my hunch is that [there] is hesitation to come out with a public statement because the massacre that occurred is not a simple black-and-white happening. There are so many levels of contradictions and one needs to be really astute and accurate with the facts to come out with an enlightened stance.”

This explanation which relates to Carvajal’s suspicion is a much better explanation why the CBCP has not released a collective statement. Unfortunately, there are a few apologists of the Conference who would argue that the bishops meet only twice a year and that therefore we should not expect a statement on an incident that happened in March.

I tried to engage these apologists. One of them gave me confusing answers; the other did not bother to reply. I asked how they would explain that in the past the Conference, through its presidents, issued statements on matters that transpired neither in January nor July. Some examples would make this point clearer: the CBCP was very quick (and in fact it was the CBCP vice president who took the initiative of issuing this document on behalf of the Conference’s president) in issuing a statement titled “Contraception is Corruption” on Dec. 15, 2012. Two years earlier it issued a statement on a similar topic titled “On the Government’s Revitalized Promotion of Condoms” on March 2, 2010. In 2013 (Sept. 5) it issued a pastoral statement on the pork barrel and in 2010 (Feb. 18) it issued a statement on the illegal abduction of 43 community health workers who were suspected as rebels, aka the Morong 43. We can continue with our litany of pastoral statements or letters that were issued outside of the bishops’ plenary meeting schedules.

One cannot but surmise that if the Conference would like to say something about anything they can do so even if it is outside of their meeting season. Unless of course if the apologists would tell us that the bishops have just changed their internal policies.

To further clarify my point, we are looking for a statement from the CBCP and not just from one or any of the bishops. We have individual statements from Bishop Pabillo, Archbishops Cruz and Villegas. The latest is that of Archbishop Arguelles. But these are individual statements, not a collective position of the Conference.

The absence of an official statement from the CBCP speaks a lot about how much change has happened to the institutions in this country. For some a statement from the Conference would be unnecessary if not irrelevant. This view however comes from a position that the bishops’ roles are totally or in no way connected to this country’s political life. Sadly, this is not the case because this year marks what they (the bishops) promised 25 years ago: for the Philippine Church to be a Church of the Poor. The CBCP from whom we expect a collective statement is the same group that was very quick to remind the government of its failures and lapses; the same group who gave us the letters and reminders that we listen to during Sunday masses.

A statement is not just a parchment or any piece of paper that belongs to the trash. It shows our persuasions and commitments. It tells the world whether we are with the oppressed or the oppressor. In whatever way the “preferential option for the poor” may be interpreted (because one bishop says it should be interpreted to mean as a preferential option for the weak) still our stance would and should reveal whether we defend the poor or the weak or both. --Rhoderick John S. Abellanosa

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