A pastoral letter of a dud

It may be coincidental but President GMA’s trip to renew ties with mother Spain comes on the heels of another – the Pope’s. It is said that Benedict XVI is visiting this most Catholic country to reclaim ‘lost" territory. Since General Franco’s death in 1975, the power of the Catholic Church has been declining. Although more than 80 percent claim they are Catholics only 18 percent go to church every Sunday.

The Spaniards’ attitude towards the Church since the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1970s has changed with young people saying they are either agnostic, indifferent to religion and if religious, that they are not practicing Catholics.

Since it is the Spaniards who brought the Catholic religion to our shores, these are ominous signs. But here it is slightly different. Less and less Catholics may be going to church (although not as many as in Spain) but our churches still get full for Sunday mass albeit with an important nuance. Here our church-going Catholics observe the rituals but are not religious. There is a funny story about church goers who nod their heads in peace and then scramble to their cars to beat others to the exit.

There is a difference between ritual practicing Catholics and those who claim they are still religious even if they have stopped going to Church. Something is happening to our religious attitudes but the bishops seem not to have caught on. They are still in the medieval thinking mode that they can win more support and adherents by flexing their muscles in a show of force between church and state. Someone needs to tell them that they are dealing with a different Filipino populace, wired, questioning, and forthright especially those in the A & B classes. Less so among ignorant poor whom bishops want to continue proliferating with abandon.

It may not be as obvious as it is in more progressive countries, but the unbelievable is also happening here — people are beginning to use their own minds more readily than they have been used to. Boo for the bishops if they do not reckon with that. In Spain, as it is also in the Philippines, the church is losing a lot of power.

Some politicians may continue to pander to the church’s claim of power but they, too are out of sync. The church will continue to lose more and more followers unless they keep up with the times and certainly it does not go back only to the two Edsas and Cardinal Sin’s role in ousting Marcos and Erap.

President GMA might take her cue from Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero who said on the eve of the Pope’s visit that he did not expect the Pope to criticize him openly for his liberal policies. But the pope may "reiterate doctrines that have been controversial in our country as a result of certain laws, his vision of the family, his vision of matrimony". To that Zapatero answered "I respect the opinions of the Catholic Church, but I insist that it is Parliament that legislates in the name of the citizens in a democratic society."

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Yñiguez’ dramatic show of ecclesiastical force by signing a petition to impeach President GMA drew a stifled yawn. It was a dud. See what I mean? There is not even a point for debating the issue of the separation of church and state because Filipinos are not buying. With the CBCP poised to issue a pastoral letter supporting the impeachment of President GMA those who truly care for the church would do well to point this out to the bishops. Such a pastoral letter may hurt the church more than it would the state. Its posturing as the moral guardian of politics will become increasingly irrelevant.

Take the issue of Charter change. The bishops say they are for Charter change but not how it is being done. The people must be informed so they understand what they are signing for in a people’s initiative. Fair enough. The Adcom, Sigaw ng Bayan and ULAP are doing just that, going around the country as widely as possible to inform Filipinos.

But understanding an issue is as varied as the people who are informed. Moreover they understand and sign for different reasons. It is not always true that when people understand the issue they agree to sign. Those are two separate acts. To demand a uniform reason for agreeing to sign, smacks of tyranny. Same with the church and its fundamental doctrine of transubstantiation taking place during the mass. How many understand transubstantiation before going to communion? I would not put my bets on it but in a crowded church, may be five or seven, to be generous. But who is talking about stopping the giving of communion until they understand transubstantiation?

On morals, I have always had this suspicion of the church’s sincerity when it flays at politicians who are derelict in their duties but say nothing about its own minions who have made enormous sums of money on religious cults formally allied to the church at that. I am talking of El Shaddai. Recently the Alabang mansion of Mike Velarde was pointed out to me. Maybe the church, like the Senate, should begin its investigations in aid of morals and religion. Then I might reconsider its search for truth in supporting the impeachment of the president.

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Kudos to the Metrobank Foundation for its civic-spirited projects. George Ty may have retired from his post at the bank but he is the guiding spirit of many educational projects which he said would be his legacy to the country.

The Court of Appeals auditorium was full with so many curious to know what Justice Mendoza would say on "Amending the Constitution". This is the 2nd Metrobank Foundation Professorial Chair Lecture .It is a joint project of the Philippine Judicial Academy, the Supreme Court’s education arm, and the Metrobank Foundation, Inc. Professorial Chairs in Law are designed to encourage legal luminaries to publish treatises and more importantly, that they ‘introduce innovative concepts and approaches to law."

Justice Mendoza said despite Santiago vs. Comelec there is no reason why a people’s initiative should be barred provided it fulfills the constitutional requirements. Those who support the people’s initiative should be heartened by the former justice’s view that "the court could overrule its previous decisions as it has done so in a number of cases." So the 1997 ruling can be reversed. It was good to see Justice Reynato Puno and CA Justice Regalado Maambong present. Puno wrote a masterful dissenting opinion in the 1997 majority decision. Maambong penned the COMELEC resolution which unanimously voted that RA 6735 was adequate.

Mendoza urged the Senate to accept the invitation of the House for a constituent assembly. A joint assembly is better than nothing at all. He cited Speaker JDV’s view that the amendment clause means three fourths of all its members taken together. So if there are 236 representatives and 23 senators the required three fourths would be 194 whether they come from the Senate or the House. It was the intent of the 1986 Constitutional Commission to provide that ‘when Congress exercises its constituent power it should do so ‘in joint session assembled."

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