CBCP calls for 3 days of ‘intense prayer’

MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called for three days of “intense prayer,” from May 8 to May 10, to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten people’s conscience in their choice of new national and local leaders.

“We can only fight this battle in the best way we can – through prayer and well-discerned action,” CBCP president and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said in a two-page circular dated yesterday.

In his letter, David recommended the opening of parish churches on May 8-10 to keep the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration and called on the faithful to pray so that the polls may “become a concrete experience of synodality.”

He also urged the bishops and archbishops to simultaneously peal the bells in the morning of May 9 for 10 minutes and pray to drive away the evil spirits that influence “desperate candidates and their supporters” to do vote-buying, fraudulent practices, threats, intimidation and violence.