Priests to lobby for bishops’ commission on labor

A GROUP of priests is supporting moves to establish a permanent commission to attend to workers’ concerns in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

San Alberto Carmelite Formation Center’s  Fr. Paul Medina, convenor of the National Clergy Discernment said a church-worker commission can extend clergy services for workers.

Medina, who attended the  Church People and Worker’s national conference last week said they would lobby the CBCP to approve the proposal.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, incoming CBCP president, earlier said a body has been created that may lead to the creation of the permanent commission.

Palma said he and the other bishops will talk about this in their plenary assembly in January 2012.

“ The abuses of our labor sector is already alarming,” Medina told reporters.

If a CBCP Commission on Labor would be created, the labor sector would have an ally in the church.

He said the church can  provide the educational component to maintain the  integrity of the labor sector through programs in Catholic schools and during homilies.

“The faithful should be aware of labor ideals of the church,” Medina said.

He said a commission can also provide legal services and sanctuary to victims of worker exploitation as well as  help create cooperatives and livelihood programs.

Medina said the ideals of the church on labor were not readily implemented due to the close relationship of most church officals with businessmen.

“The church is always in good terms with the businessmen, landlords and capitalists and they don’t want to offend thembecause they are all big donors,” Medina said.

Earlier, former CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said church ideals on labor have been advocated since 1891 when  Pope Leo XIII released an encyclical on the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, which supported the rights to form unions.

Lagdameo also cited the encyclical Pope Pius XI which encouraged free form of economic life that would be regulated by government authorities.

He noted how Blessed Pope John XXIII prescribed that it is the obligation of rich countries to help poor countries and cited the  1967 encyclical of Pope Paul VI which said that the church must not take sides in the conflict between workers and capitalists but prioritize the promotion of human dignity.

The church and workers’ conference hosted by the Archdiocese of Cebu marked  the 30th anniversary of the encyclical of Blessed Pope John Paul II titled “Laborem Exercems” or the Social Concerns of the Chur