As Election Day nears, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has encouraged the church to be more involved in politics to help voters to choose the right candidates.

CBCP president and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio "Ambo" S. David said such must be done through collective discernment and consensus-building.

“We are proactively encouraging the church to get more involved in empowering the voters to choose the right candidates through collective discernment and consensus-building that will hopefully lead to supporting or helping particular candidates to win,” David told the media during a virtual press conference Friday, Feb. 25.

“Ibig sabihin, ‘yung talagang kumakatawan sa mga prinsipyo o at mga pagpapahalaga or values na nakapaloob sa Gospel at sa Catholic social teachings (Meaning, candidates that really embody principles and values of the Gospel and Catholic social teachings),” he continued.

David explained that the main point of their recent Pastoral Letter is that they “will keep on encouraging the church to be more positively involved in politics, in what Pope Francis calls the politics of the common good.”

With this, the CBCP president lauded some Catholic groups that have already undergone the process and have come up with a collective stand such as Couples for Christ, which recently backed the presidential bid of Vice President Ma. Leonora “Leni” G. Robredo.

“And proud kami sa mga example ng maraming (And we are proud of the example of many) Catholic groups that have gone through a similar process and have come up with a collective principled stand. For example, sigurado ako narinig na ninyo ang (for sure, you have heard about) Couples for Christ, they came up with a collective principled stand, ang Ligaya ng Panginoon, ang Sangguniang Layko , etcetera,” said David.

As a conference of bishops, David said they will keep on giving moral and spiritual guidance for greater involvement in the politics of the common good.

He also said that they will encourage the laity to be “frontliners in working for a more just society.”

Meanwhile, David said CBCP will not endorse any candidate, saying they will stick to their “role of promoting good politics through spiritual and moral guidance.”

“When our members in the church are able to reach the proper names through this procedure of discernment and consensus building, I’d say we are proud of them.”

Separation of church and state

The CBCP president said that many people do not understand the constitutional provision of the separation of church and state.

“This constitutional provision is more directed to the state than to the church,” he said.

David explained: “The real point to that provision is that the state has no business putting up a religion or favoring one religion against another because the state is a protector of the religious freedom of our people.”

According to the bishop, the members of the clergy are only prohibited to run for electoral positions and become part of political parties.

“But, do not forget, all the members of the church are also citizens of this country and they also have the civic duty to proactively participate in nation-building and part of nation-building is participation in coming up with a politics that favors the common good,” David stressed.