Conscience and votes

That rally by the pro-life Catholic group last Sunday was rather disappointing in terms of attendance. Two thousand more or less was the estimate of the participants. Only that few? Perhaps the reason for this is that the Catholic leadership itself both local and national seems to be lukewarm to this kind of movement.

Vote according to your conscience, was the advice of a Cebuano bishop when asked about the wisdom of voting only for pro-life candidates. This too seems to be the stand of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on the same question. The implication is that Church leaders don't care who gets the mandate as long as they are the choice of conscience-driven electors.

Very rational, this way of thinking. Since the formation of one's conscience involves personal values and since values are influenced by one's faith, any action based on the dictates of conscience is therefore something inviolate and sacred. That's why the aphorism: the voice of the people is the voice of God. Who can quarrel with this?

Conscience and vote should ideally go together. If one is a Catholic, his choice should be a Catholic's choice. But alas, this is easier said than done. In the context of Filipino Catholicism, a split has long occurred in the believer's psyche generating a double faceted personality - one, that of a serious minded churchgoer and two, that of a man of the world. In the church he is a picture of saintliness as he listens to the word of God, says Amen to what the priest intones, and takes the Holy Communion. But as he steps into the sunshine of the secular world he loses at once his halo and plunges into the race for name and gold.

We are talking here, remember, of the 40 percent of the Catholics who take the bother of going to church Sundays and holidays of obligation. For the remaining 60 percent, only God knows where their conscience would be at election time.

Vote according to your conscience is acceptable only if the Church has a serious-minded conscience formation program designed precisely for election purposes. But we have not heard of any. Of course, Church leaders can easily say that their religious programs - the masses and novenas, the retreats and recollections and such - are enough towards this end. The sad thing, however, is that these have not touched the very core of the faithful's inner selves.

Almost five hundred years of Catholic oriented culture, yet the Filipino has remained only a distant cousin of the truly Christian. Decades ago when life was simple and the godlessness of the West had not yet soiled the Filipino soul he was a true believer, proof of which was that two of his kind have been elevated to sainthood.

But in today's world, life is entirely a different ball game. The race for gain and gold has intensified; the struggle for name and fame has gotten out of control. And those we have chosen to lead us politically have lost their sense of balance. Are we surprised of the RH bill? More surprises are in the pipeline: divorce law, euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriages and similar abominations. If we don't do something now, these will be forced on us by those who are now in the power circles.

By “we” I mean the entire Catholic populace - the bishops and the priests, the religious brothers and sisters, the mandated groups, the laity and the Charismatic communities. The tragedy is that it has been all quiet in the leadership front of the Church. Except for a bishop or two, no bugle call has been heard from convents and bishops' palaces. Let the laity do their thing, seems to be the mood of that leadership. But without the shepherd the sheep tend to scatter and get lost. Right now, just a few days before elections, they are not quite sure whose name to shade or to bypass.

Conscience? The politicians have already taken care of this, and it is far from that of a Catholic?