Bishops hit use of sacred items

Archbishop Socrates Villegas. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Monday appealed to politicians not to resort to the use of sacred items to gain mileage in the coming elections.

At a press conference following their three-day plenary assembly, CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said secular aspirations and motives should only be supported by secular items.

Otherwise, he said, the politicians’ “abuse and misuse” of religious items will backfire on them.

“If we speak of the separation of Church and state, there should also be a distinction between what is sacred and what is secular,” Villegas told reporters on Monday.

Villegas made the statement when asked his views on politicians distributing religious items as part of their image-building campaign for the coming elections.

Last week, social media went abuzz over the beaded bracelets reportedly given away by Vice President Jejomar Binay to families of the victims of the ferry tragedy in Ormoc City in Leyte. Binay has publicly declared his presidential bid in 2016.

Photos of the bracelets, which looked like rosaries and bore the letter “B” in the center of the cross, went viral on Facebook and Twitter.

But a Binay spokesperson said they were mere bracelets that resembled rosaries.

In previous posts, some netizens said it was not the first time Binay gave away rosary bracelets. He was said to have distributed the same religious item during Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines in January.–Jocelyn R. Uy