PHILIPPINES: Church at Political Crossroads

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fabio Scarpello

MANILA , Jan 4 2006 (IPS) - The newly elected president of the highly influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) wishes to steer the organisation back to its pastoral mission and away from politics. His wish may be difficult in the Filipino political arena, where the Church has always had a central, if controversial, role.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, the new leader of the country’s 119-member Catholic bishops organisation said that the CBCF should concentrate more on its religious duties and put politics aside.

“The working heart of the CBCP consists of the commissions. So all commissions should focus on the nine pastoral prioritiesà,” he said in one of his first speeches after succeeding Archbishop Fernando Capalla at the helm of the CBCF in December.

Lagdameo’s aim is rather at odds with reality in a country where the Church is the most influential institution reaching into every facet of society, including politics.

Catholicism arrived in the Philippines with the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and soon grew to become the country’s main religion, sweeping aside local beliefs and Islam. Today, with 67 percent of its 84 million inhabitants following Catholicism, the Philippines is the third largest Catholic country in the world after Brazil and Mexico and, together with Timor Leste, is also the only Catholic-dominated Asian country.

The fervor of the Filipinos’ faith and the size of the flock has earned the country some special attention from the Vatican. The late Pope John Paul II visited Manila twice. During his second visit, in 1995, an estimated four to five million Filipinos came to greet him. Pope John Paul II had planned a third visit before his health deteriorated.

The ascendancy of the conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy as Benedict XVI was greeted with delight in the Philippines, last April.

“We share the jubilation over the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a passionate Catholic, said in a statement back then.

Pope Benedict XVI has maintained the Vatican’s special attention for the Philippines. This year, for the first time the Filipino native language was added to the 33 uttered by the Pope during his Christmas greetings.

“The Tagalog version of the Christmas greeting was added by Pope Benedict XVI himself because he recognizes the deep Catholic faith of the Filipinos,” said Bishop John Patrick Foley, president of the Social Communications of the Roman Curia.

In November, Jesus Marquiña Maraño became the first Filipino and Asian to be named a parish priest in the Diocese of Rome. As the new head of Nostra Signora Di Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima parish), the 40-year-old will work directly under Pope Benedict XVI, who is also Bishop of Rome.

In the archipelago, the zeal of the flock has placed a heavy burden on the clergy’s shoulders and the Church has often acted as a political as well as moral guide for the people. Yet, its role has been somehow divisive.

“Filipinos have no other societal institution to turn to when it comes to seeking a moral rudder, and all in all, I think it is healthy that the Roman Catholic Church has a major pre-eminence in the Philippine political life,” Manila-based political analyst Jose Bayani Baylon told IPS.

On the other hand, according to Manuel L. Quezon III – political analyst and nephew of past president Manuel Luis Quezón y Molina – the Church has been mostly a reactionary force, historically mistrusted by the people.

“The role attributed to the Church in the country’s history is overstated. The Catholic Church became a supporter of democracy during martial law, most importantly in 1986 and then in 2001,” he said.

Quezon III’s comments refer to the crucial role played by the Catholic Church in ‘people power’ revolutions that toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and forced the overthrow of president Joseph Estrada in 2001.

Back then, under the leadership of the recently deceased cardinal Jaime Sin, priests and nuns led the people in the streets, forcing political changes virtually unthinkable in most other countries.

If the people power movements were the defining moments of the Church’s grip on the country’s politics, the church’s central role was highlighted again at the peak of President Arroyo’s crisis, last summer.

Arroyo, plagued by accusations of vote-rigging, survived three impeachment attempts brought against her in parliament by the opposition last July. Analysts agree that the Church helped her to stay in power.

“During the vote to impeach Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a congressman accepted that last minute calls by Erano Manalo, head of the Iglesia ni Cristo, kept him from signing the impeachment complaint”, said Baylon, stating one example of Church interference.

The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ, INC) is a religious group that declared its support for Arroyo during the last week of the 2004 election campaign, which Arroyo won by a contested one million votes.

Besides INC, another religious group that is actively involved in politics is the Catholic movement El Shaddai. “They can also deliver millions of votes,” added Quezon III.

Further, the role of the Church was instrumental in the failure of the opposition’s attempt to take the battle from the courtroom to the streets.

In a Jul. 10 pastoral statement, the CBCP declined to support the mounting calls for the resignation of President Arroyo. “In a spirit of humility and truth, we declare our prayerfully discerned collective decision that we do not demand her resignation,” the then CBCP president Archbishop Fernando Capalla read from the bishops’ three-page statement.

The statement meant that most people stayed at home and the protests never mounted to anything comparable to past people power actons.

Then Archbishop Angel Lagdameo took over and stated his intention to return to basics though he is expected to state his position on pressing political issues when the bishops convene sometime this month.

Expectations are mixed.

“The Church is divided. There are bishops who are conservative, others liberal. The clergy is divided. The faithful are confused. But with the new leaders we may see a return to the old pro-democracy Church of 1986”, Quezon III said.

Baylon hoped for a continuation of the status quo that sees the Church walking a fine line between being apolitical and becoming politically active.

“I believe the religious orders should maintain their activism in relation to moral issues which, given the weakness of political values and principles in the Philippines political system, means bordering on political involvement,” he said.

“However, at the stage the Philippines is in, the abdication by Church leaders would have even worse consequences,” he concluded.