US cable: Vatican 'silenced' bishops on Arroyo resign calls in 2005

UPDATED 5:15 p.m. - A supposed United States diplomatic cable in 2005 said the Vatican had pressured Catholic bishops in the Philippines not to support calls for the resignation of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged election cheating. The cable dated July 15, 2005 and published recently on the Wikileaks website, quoted Monsignor Luis Montemayor, Holy See Country Director for the Philippines, as saying Philippine bishops were asked to remain neutral in the controversy surrounding Arroyo. Montemayor told US Embassy officials that the Vatican, through Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Franco, ordered the prelates not to support calls for the resignation of Arroyo, who was accused of massive corruption and cheating in the 2004 presidential polls. "We put a lot of pressure on the bishops" because the Vatican "insisted that the bishops distinguish between pastoral care and political involvement," the cable said, allegedly quoting Montemayor. Although the Vatican's preferences on the issue had never been a secret, Montemayor said the Holy See did not support popular uprisings as a method to remove a government. Despite several attempts to overthrow the Arroyo government, the former president was never toppled from office and finished her term until June 30 last year. Be perceptive, bishop says Meanwhile, a former high-ranking official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the public should be perceptive when reading the supposed US cable about Vatican pressuring Philippine bishops not to support calls for Arroyo's resignation. “WikiLeaks has a lot of wonderful things but you don’t take it as a hook, line and sinker," said former CBCP judicial vicar and Archbishop emeritus Oscar Cruz. “One should also be perceptive of reading it… most of them are perceptions. Wala namang documentation etc,," Cruz added. Cruz said it is not the Holy See’s policy to intervene in the local socio-political issues. “The Vatican has global concerns and I don’t think that it will involve itself in such a ‘small thing’ as Garci tapes," he said, referring to the "Hello Garci scandal" that allegedly involved Arroyo discussing supposed election fraud on the phone. Holy See The Vatican or the Holy See is the preeminent "episcopal see" of the Catholic Church. An episcopal see is the official seat of a bishop. In the Vatican, the Bishop is the Pope. Vatican City is a landlocked sovereign city-state with an area of approximately 44 hectares. It is a walled enclave within Rome, Italy with a population of just over 800 people. According to the US cable released on the Wikileaks website, the principle of avoiding direct political involvement is enshrined in canon law. Even if not always followed, it is always pointed out. “Unlike in matters of ‘faith and morals,’ the Holy See's control over local bishops on political matters is uneven," the cable said. In its assessment, the US Embassy said the Vatican “is hesitant to get out in front of its bishops in opposing local political leaders," but also loathes "to see clergy take active political roles." Major obstacle According to the cable, the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin was described by Montemayor as a “major obstacle" to the Vatican's influence over the bishops." With Sin's death, Montemayor allegedly said the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) became “more amenable to instruction" from the Holy See. According to the cable, Montemayor told US officials that he and Sin do not see eye to eye on the issue of political involvement of the clergy. Sin, Montemayor said, “felt it was his moral responsibility towards the people to intervene." Sin retired from office in 2003 and died on June 21, 2005. He played a key role in the anti-Marcos movement in the 1980s, endorsed and denounced candidates for political office, and made declarations on political issues. In the cable, Montemayor reportedly said he had always opposed Catholic clergy's involvement in popular uprisings against the government. In 2001, when there were protests against former President Joseph Estrada, Montemayor said he “pressured the bishops to stay neutral," the US cable said. "They wouldn't listen to me." Pastoral rather than political matters In another US cable dated July 12, 2005 that was also released by WikiLeaks, former embassy Charge d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli said the Catholic Church in the Philippines was leaning towards pastoral, rather than political matters, with the end of Cardinal Sin era. “Although Sin was close to John Paul II, especially on doctrinal matters, the Vatican was not fully comfortable with his political activities," Mussomeli allegedly said. Despite this, Mussomeli said there is no indication of any change in the CBCP's views on social issues, such as artificial methods of family planning. Putting lives in danger Meanwhile, a report of Reuters on September 1 said WikiLeaks is defending itself against accusations that it may have put lives at risk by dumping uncensored U.S. diplomatic cables on the Internet. In a series of cryptic Twitter messages, WikiLeaks suggested that sloppy handling by people who formerly worked with WikiLeaks and at least one mainstream media outlet resulted in the inadvertent disclosure of unredacted versions of all 251,000 State Department cables which the whistleblowing website is believed to possess. Meanwhile, US government officials have criticized WikiLeaks itself for including in its latest public release of tens of thousands of cables some documents which identify suspected militants and U.S. Embassy contacts by name. The latest squabble among current and former WikiLeaks insiders has become increasingly heated and arcane. But the key issue is who, if anyone, released unedited documents that could put those named at risk or complicate anti-terrorism operations. In a message on its Twitter feed, which WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is believed to control, WikiLeaks accused an unnamed "mainstream news organization" of having "disclosed all 251k unredacted cables." In an earlier message on Tuesday, WikiLeaks said: "There has been no WikiLeaks error. There has been a grossly negligent mainstream media error, to put it generously." - with a report from Reuters, VVP, GMA News