CBCP chief: Church has a role to play in political governance

Present times call for Church participation in state matters and the "separation of Church and State" is not an excuse against it, a senior Catholic Church official asserted Friday. Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Angel Lagdameo said such participation is "limited" to "changing the politicians" by appealing to their morality. “What about ‘the separation of Church and State’ enshrined in our Constitution and commonly invoked. How can we understand this? The basic purpose of this provision is that Church and State should enjoy and respect each other’s mutual autonomy. By this we understand that they should not interfere in each other’s affairs, should not seek to control each other, or allow themselves to be simply the instrument of each other," Lagdameo said in his web log (abplagdameo.blogspot.com) Friday. He said this separation of Church and State “cannot be used as an argument against the participation and involvement of the Church in shaping the politics of our country." In the Philippines today, Lagdameo said the faithful must participate more actively in political affairs because politics has become an obstacle to integral development. Even Pope Benedict XVI, he said, cited the faithful’s direct duty to work for a just ordering of society is proper to the lay faithful. “As citizens of the state, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation ‘in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good.’ Such involvement is not optional; it flows from the very core of Christian faith," Lagdameo said. Bishops and priests, he said, can teach moral doctrines covering politics though they still cannot actively involve themselves in partisan politics. He said the principle is simply that politics, like all human activities, “must be exercised always in the light of faith in the Gospel." “The common good cannot be sacrificed on the flimsy pretext that ‘the Church does not engage in politics.’ Concretely this means both clergy and laity must be involved in the area of politics when moral and Gospel values are at stake," he said. Lagdameo said changing Philippine politics to change Philippine means to change the politicians running the government, not necessarily change in the form of government. “To do this we need the concerted participation and struggle of all Filipinos of goodwill in political activity. In the language of faith and morality, it is a participation in the battle against human sinfulness, lodged deeply in Philippine politics. It is a struggle to make God’s grace and ethical principle victorious in the Philippines. As one theologian has said: the politics of guns, goons and gold must be converted into the politics of gospel, grace and God," he said. - GMANews.TV