The Vatican has called on the Filipino public to listen to their pastors regarding their stand on divorce as the measure legalizing it recently received approval from the House of Representatives.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, The Holy See's Secretary for Relations with States who made an official visit to Manila, said that the Catholic Church's teaching to marriage was "very clear and very well-known" after he was asked of the Vatican's take on divorce bill being currently discussed by Philippine lawmakers.
Except the Vatican which is the seat of the Catholic Church that takes divorce as a grave offense, the Philippines is the only country in the world that bans divorce.
Gallagher said there is still no communication between the Diocese of Rome and the Catholic Church as well as any diplomatic overture to the Holy See regarding current developments in Philippine politics.
But the archbishop said he is expecting to hear about it from the bishops he will meet during his participation in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)'s biannual plenary, its highest-level meeting, in Mindanao on July 6 to 8.
In May, the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading the measure entitled "an Act reinstituting absolute divorce as an alternative mode for the dissolution of marriage."
The measure, according to the lawmakers, would "save the children from the pain, stress, and agony consequent to their parents marital clashes or irreconcilable differences."
The measure also seeks to "grant the divorced spouses the right to marry again for another chance to achieve marital bliss."
Gallagher said he is now putting his confidence in the competence of the CBCP as well as of individual bishops.
"And we, as the Holy See, obviously, encourage Filipino Catholics, particularly to listen to their pastors and to try and offer whatever is the best approach to this," he said.
"It will [also] be interesting for me to get some feedback from them [CBCP] on this issue, which I will obviously be attentive to," he added.