Bishops call for ‘light’ in Corona trial

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Monday appealed to all those involved in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona to put the entire process “under the light and shadow of a praying people.”

The CBCP also called for the expeditious resolution of the trial so the nation could return to normalcy and the poor—the silent victims of the trial—could finally be attended to.

The bishops made the appeals at the close of their three-day bi-annual plenary assembly yesterday, attended by roughly 100 bishops from all over the country at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila.

In a press conference, CBCP president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said the Church hierarchy was not issuing a formal statement on the trial and that what he could say were merely “some few thoughts” he had jotted down in his notebook.

“Our collective sentiment is to exhort our fellow Filipinos to pray, study and do what ever is legally and morally possible that truth and justice will be attained or realized,” Palma read from his notes.

“We exhort our people to pray, especially for wisdom and guidance… finally, we exhort our people to give their respect and trust to the senator-judges and, of course, respect and trust to the constitutional processes,” he added.

For his part, CBCP vice president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas underscored the importance of the prosecution and the defense “subjecting their work to prayer.”

“A prosecution that is not connected to God, a defense that is not rooted in prayer will not be for the good of anyone,” said Villegas.  “As pastors, our first appeal is that the whole process will be under the light and under a shadow of a praying people.”

He added that it was very important that the process be “expeditiously resolved” so the needs of the Filipinos, particularly the poor, could be prioritized.