Archbishop Socrates Villegas. NIÑO JESUSORBETA
“Wake up my people! Wake up!”
Saying there is no peace for cowards, Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Filipinos to speak up against the sin of killing suspected criminals rather than be comfortably mum.
In a pastoral message, Villegas stressed that “what you do or not do for the least of your brethen, you do to Christ.”
The pastoral message was to be read on Sunday in all churches and chapels under the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in lieu of the Sunday homily.
“If you agree with us that killing suspected criminals is a crime and a sin itself, why do you just stay seated there in comfort keeping quiet? Whatever you do or not do for the least of your brethren you do to Christ,” he said.
READ: Church: Thou shall not kill
He warned that at the end of days, the blood spilt will judge those who, instead of doing something, chose to keep quiet on the issue of summary executions of suspected criminals.
“There is no peace for cowards. The next life to be snuffed out could be yours,” Villegas said.
This is the second time that Villegas spoke out on the issue of extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals, particularly those linked to illegal drugs, under the Duterte administration.
Last August 5, he issued a pastoral message entitled “Let Humanity In Us Speak,” in which he appealed to the public’s sense of humanity amidst the spate of killings.
READ: Grieving Bishop Soc: Enough of killings; let our humanity speak
Back then, it was the first time that an official of the Catholic Church issued a statement as the Duterte administration waged a bloody war against illegal drugs.
Villegas’ latest pastoral message was titled “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”
The archbishop referred to a “bloodied soil” soaked with the blood of suspected criminals as well as innocents caught in the war against illegal drugs.
Villegas pointed out that even with hundreds of deaths, sin, violence and murders have not ceased and even continue to this day.
He also offered a prayer to those struggling to break free from their dependency on illegal drugs.
“The ground continues to cry with the pitiful voice of the blood of our brothers and sisters. Their blood cries not for vengeance. Their blood pleads for an end to violence,” he said.
He stressed that a person killed might be an offender, but is still a child of God and that God’s plan for them is not death but life.
The archbishop said while the Philippines must protect society from drug dealers, killing suspected criminals is not the answer.
“We can fight criminality without killing the law offenders. Who are we to judge that this offender is hopeless? Death ends all possibilities to change. We do not hold the future in our hands. There is no certainty that someone is beyond correction,” Villegas said.
The goal of justice, he pointed out, is not revenge but the restoration of harmony, and that hatred can only be appeased by love and not vengeance.
Villegas warned that in the pursuit of criminals to be executed, innocents become victims of mistaken identity and that the trigger-happy vigilante, not the gun, make the fatal mistake.
He urged Filipinos to pray for those who have been killed, may they be innocent or guilty, as well as those who carry out the killings as they have violated the Fifth Commandment: Thou shall not kill.
“We pray for those ruined by drug dealers now dead even if they still breathe. Let the Lord be their hope and God’s grace lift them up from darkness into light,” Villegas said.
He pointed out that on Sunday, the day of resurrection and a day of rest for families, around 1,000 families are grieving because they are no longer complete because of the murder of one of their own.
“They are crying and they can see no light ahead. No one is there to console. No one is there to assure them their loved one’s killing will be the last,” he said.