Mother Church and Caesar

The Supreme Court yesterday issued a temporary restraining order against the Commission on Elections, which earlier urged the Diocese of Bacolod to take down a tarpaulin banner at the San Sebastian cathedral exhorting Catholics to vote for senatorial candidates who opposed (Team Buhay) the Reproductive Health bill and to junk those who supported it (Team Patay).

If theologians were to examine the production of the virtual sample ballot by the diocese under Bishop Vicente Navarra, the Church may be under obligation to reconsider.

In the Gospel according to Saint John, Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate faced off on the question of kingship just before the former was crucified.

Christ in the end implied that He is a king, though one whose kingdom was not of this world, otherwise his soldiers would be fighting for him.

While He implied that Pilate’s handing him over to those who wanted him killed was a sin (one of a lesser degree), Christ did not resist the sentence of crucifixion.

Latent in this non-resistance was his hope of ultimate triumph, which came by way of his Resurrection on the first Easter Sunday.

If the Church views the implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law as a form of crucifixion, resisting it using the earthly power of Caesar, that is, direct involvement in partisan politics is not a good testimony.

It only sends the signal that the Church is incapable of finding a new springtime, a way of promoting the natural means of regulating births in a manner that will render the RH Law inutile.

The Diocese of Bacolod’s act also runs counter to the teaching of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).”

“The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice,” Benedict wrote.

The Church has several lay organizations in the front lines of forming Catholic voters to elect leaders who uphold natural law. An example is catholicvote.ph, which has a wide network in the Internet, especially in social networking sites.

The laity should be left to do their part in creating a just society.

The Church hierarchy, on the other hand, should not compromise its duty to stay in dialogue with the flock, both the white and black sheep.

The Teacher from Galilee did no such thing. Up to the very end, He continued his dialogue with the Pharisees, Herod, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, even Judas, instead of calling down twelve legions of angels to annihilate them.

In the formation of consciences, Benedict XVI said, the Church “plays her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper.” But he added: “A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church.”