Keep off politics, don’t be kingmakers, priests told

Archbishop Socrates Villegas

MANILA, Philippines—The incoming president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reminded members of the clergy to refrain from directly involving themselves in partisan politics.

According to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, deacons, priests and bishops should instead focus on their role of bringing Christ closer to people.

“The church should never be a kingmaker, a power broker in the world because if the church will marry a political party, the church will become a widow in the next generation,” said Villegas said in an article posted on the CBCP website.

Negative perception

Villegas’ reminder came following the initial findings of the National Filipino Catholic Youth Survey 2013, which showed that the youth negatively perceived the involvement of the Church in various political advocacies, especially concerning the Reproductive Health Law which calls for sex education in schools and the promotion of both natural and artificial contraception.

The survey involved a sample population of 2,016 young people with single civil status from 18 universities and schools, 34 archdioceses, dioceses and vicariates, and 192 parishes all over the country.

Villegas stressed that above all, the Church must focus on fulfilling its mission of total evangelization and promoting goodwill among humanity, primarily through teaching them to become more sensitive to the plight of less fortunate individuals.

He added that “instead of basking in the political limelight,” members of the clergy should also focus on fulfilling the Church’s mission of becoming the “conscience of society.”

Villegas said that it is through the fulfillment of this role that the Church influences society to shun materialism and be more concerned with the enrichment of humanity.

Soul into society

“What do we mean when we say we are the conscience of society? We say that we bring soul into society,” he said.

“The Lord said, ‘What will profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?’ Put together all the money and property in the world, you could not bring that to your grave. We enter into this world naked, naked we will return,” he added.

He also emphasized the importance of pondering over the spiritual mission of the Church manifested through the care and concern given to one’s neighbors.

“At the end of our lives, we will only be judged according to what we did to the body of each one—feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the lonely. These are the works that are truly spiritual because this is the work of Jesus,” he said.

“What is the mission of the church? To become Jesus for the world because the world is looking for meaning, the world is looking for God,” he said.

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