My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
I thank you for coming over tonight to lend your support to the efforts of Dilaab in responding to the call of the times. The Archdiocese of Cebu is maximizing its available resources both to ensure that we shall have honest and credible elections, and that we shall have honest and credible candidates. The two-pronged approach is spearheaded by two movements in the Archdiocese: for the poll-watching, we have the C-Cimpel, and for the process of discernment, we have the Dilaab. The two are not mutually exclusive, but they are distinct, although in the end, they are complementary. Because of the position of parish priests, however, where they are at the frontlines of poll-watching, they cannot be involved in the Dilaab- initiated “Circles of Discernment”. Poll-watching requires that parish priests are free from any impression of partisanship, which they may incur if they are also spearheading the “Circles of Discernment”. The only way priests can involve themselves in discernment is to provide criteria for the mature evaluation of the faithful. Beyond this task, the lay faithful must take over. In this regard, I would like to refer to the Address of Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Council of the Laity last June 15, 2008. He says (and I quote):
I CONFIRM THE NECESSITY AND URGENCY OF THE EVANGELICAL FORMATION AND PASTORAL ACCOMPANIMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF CATHOLICS WORKING IN POLITICS, THAT THEY BE COHERENT WITH THE PROFESSED FAITH, THAT THEY HAVE MORAL FIRMNESS, THE CAPACITY OF EDUCATED JUDGMENT, PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND PASSION FOR SERVICE TO THE COMMON GOOD. (end of quote)
The idea of pastoral accompaniment may confuse us as to the role of the clergy in political affairs. Does pastoral accompaniment require that priests “accompany” their flock in discerning together whom to vote for in this coming election? Not necessarily. The Holy Father enumerates five areas which require pastoral accompaniment: 1.) coherence with their professed faith; 2.) moral firmness; 3.) capacity for educated judgment; 4.) professional competence; and 5.) passion for service to the common good. The first area, coherence with their professed faith, is properly the task of the priest. It is the role of the pastor to enlighten the faithful on the implications of their faith on any political issue. This is where pastors ought to show that the issue of the Reproductive Health Bill is very much an election issue, because Catholic social doctrine is an integral body of teachings: it begins with the teaching on the sanctity of human life without which we cannot even speak of human rights. The second and third areas, moral firmness and capacity for educated judgment, respectively, are also within the competence of the pastor. These areas are spoken of in Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus caritas est, where the Pope mentions the role of the Church in political matters as “awakening moral energies” and “purifying reason”. It is the proper role of the Church to awaken moral energies so that people may be “morally firm”, and to “purify human reason” so that people may have the “capacity for educated judgment”. In classical moral philosophy, the intellectual and moral virtues are closely connected by the common virtue of prudence. The intellectual virtues are supposed to be strengthened and given proper orientation by the moral virtues, whereas moral virtues are supposed to be enlightened by the intellectual virtues. The fourth area is mostly the field of the lay faithful. Professional competence belongs to the avocation of each person, an area which is as varied as the number of human endeavors. The priest cannot presume to know everything; he must rely on the capacity of the lay faithful in their various fields of expertise. The fifth area, passion to serve the common good, seems to me to be a result of all the above-mentioned four. Passion comes from competence, and competence is refined by moral energies and purified intellect. All flow from the same fountain of a coherent faith. While the abovementioned areas may be a locus for pastoral accompaniment, there is a point in each where the pastor must pause and stay, while the lay faithful must continue and move on to complete the mission. This is not because an invisible line exists that divides the world of the lay and that of the clergy, but because the areas of pastoral accompaniment by nature must grow into autonomy and maturity. Coherence in faith, moral firmness, educated judgment, professional competence, passion for service, all of these can only be tested to have gained full maturity when pastoral accompaniment lets go. The true test of a baby walker’s effectiveness is when a baby no longer needs it and walks on his own two legs. This is where I call on the lay faithful to spearhead the mission of a participative role in the elections that goes beyond poll-watching. In saying this, I do not commit myself to any one candidate, nor exclude from the list of choices anybody. It is precisely by your own coherent faith, moral firmness, educated judgment, professional competence and passion for service, that you will determine for yourself whom to vote for, and whom to reject. I thank you once again for your presence tonight. I pray that beyond this “cocktail”, you may blaze a new path of political engagement for the Church in the Philippines.
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