The following are excerpts from the Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (1992), nos. 330-353.
8. The Church and the Political Community
330 Our times have seen significant political activities and changes regarding which the Church has been to no little extent involved. Such changes have also intensified the desire of many within the Church that as a community of Christian disciples the Church must participate towards an even more effective and lasting change in the political sphere, especially where a previous transformation has apparently lost its momentum and failed.
331 In the current situation of the Philippines, it is in the area of politics especially that questions and issues have been raised with persistence and emotion.
332 Using the teachings of Vatican II as guide, we present here some principles that should guide us, as a community of disciples, in our political participation.
333 We cannot possibly give specific answers to all the specific questions that have been raised. But the general question we can address is how the Church that is a community of disciples — participative, inculturated, local and preaching the Gospel of Christ in all its fullness — must relate to and act on the conflictive world of politics. This general question really begs two less general questions: (a) the clergy-laity issue, that is, what role does the Church assign to the individual members of the Church?; (b) the freedom issue, that is, when may an individual’s exercise of religious belief be curtailed?
a) Basic Premises
334 At the outset we state our conviction that the political community “exists for the common good: this is its full justification and meaning and the source of its specific and basic right to exist” (GS 74). We also believe that “political authority. . . must be exercised within the limits of the moral order” (GS 74).
335 “The limits of the moral order,” “the common good” are terms that are likewise intimately linked with the role of the Church. The task of the Church in announcing a message of liberation, of saturating every strata of humanity with the values of the Good News will necessarily have political repercussions, for the values of the Kingdom of God often serve as countersigns to prevailing political systems and practices.
336 The above premises connote: (a) autonomy and (b) cooperation. Or as Vatican II states:
The political community and the Church are autonomous and independent of each other in their own fields. Nevertheless, both are devoted to the personal vocation of man, though under different titles. This service will redound the more effectively to the welfare of all insofar as both institutions practice better cooperation according to the local and prevailing situation (GS 76).
337 Cooperation then is the basic relationship between two institutions which both serve the people but are independent of each other. It is not in essence adversarial. Conflicts arise when one does not recognize the competence of the other or when one unjustifiably interferes in the realm proper to the other. The basic differences as well as the essential cooperation between these two institutions have given rise to the Bishops’ position of critical solidarity vis-à-vis the government.
The Competence and Role of the Church in Political Matters
338 The general principles that govern the disciple-community’s intervention in the political order are the following:
a) “but at all times and in all places the Church should have true freedom to preach the faith, to proclaim its teachings about society, to carry out its task among men without hindrance, and to pass moral judgments even in matters relating to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls require it” (GS 76).
339 (b) “In order to achieve their task directed to the Christian animation of the temporal order, in the sense of serving persons and society, the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in public life, that is, in the many different economic, social, economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good” (CL 42).
340 The Church’s competence in passing moral judgment even in matters political has been traditionally interpreted as pertaining to the clergy. Negatively put, the clergy can teach moral doctrines covering politics but cannot actively involve themselves in partisan politics. In practice, religious men and women are also included in this prohibition.
341 The 1987 Synod of Bishops reiterated this line of thought noting how it is the part of pastors to enunciate moral principles regarding the political order and action while it is the laity’s to act in direct political action according to those principles (Message to the People of God, no. 22).
342 That pastors have competence in the moral principles governing politics and that laity have competence in active and direct partisan politics is a good rule of thumb to follow.
343 Pastors, besides having a teaching function, are also the foci of unity in Church communities of all levels and for them to take active part in partisan politics, in the wheeling and dealing that it entails, would tend to weaken their teaching authority and destroy the unity they represent and protect.
344 Still, the rule is not an absolute one. The distinction between moral principles governing politics on the one hand and partisan politics on the other is not always clear-cut in real life and they sometimes become inextricably linked — as when the bare enunciating of moral principles becomes, because of circumstances, in actuality an act of partisan politics. Besides, the area of politics (as far as it is part of the realm of morality) is not the sole concern of pastors but — like the Gospel itself — as well of the whole People of God, the Church as community. For these and other reasons, the principle the rule lays down must be seen as secondary to a prior, more basic principle which governs the area of politics and binds all Christians, whether cleric or lay, at all times. And the principle is simply that politics, like all human activities, must be exercised always in the light of the faith of the Gospel; and the requirements of the Gospel in regard to human dignity, justice, charity, the common good, cannot be sacrificed on the flimsy pretext that “the Church does not engage in politics”. Concretely, this means both clergy and laity must be involved in the area of politics when moral and Gospel values are at stake.
345 The principle just laid down is one that becomes most obvious to people in a Church that is striving to be Communion. For in such a Church, the sense of community and solidarity in the faith is strengthened. And so is the commitment to the common good of both the Church and society. Where the role of the Church in the area of politics is seen as integral to its mission of conversion and accepted as a matter of course, and as a result, continuous communal discernment (CL 17) goes on as a matter of course too, the faithful develop a more refined critical sense in matters political, knowing almost instinctively when a particular political issue involves moral and Gospel values. The role of the Church vis-à-vis politics thus becomes, if not less problematical, at least clearer as far as clergy and laity are concerned.
b) Implications on Preaching
346 A very important and urgent pastoral conclusion regarding preaching follows from this reflection. Christ taught in a most powerful way — “Never before has anyone spoken like this man” (Jn 7:46) — giving the Church an example of how it should go about its preaching. Christ taught by example, by actually doing the very Gospel He preached: “Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:19). In view therefore of its role in regard to society, the Church’s preaching must (1) be bolstered and preceded by its acts and (2) be thoroughly and genuinely prophetic.
347 Prophecy by word and act must be stated then as a principle in the Church’s playing of its role vis-à-vis society. In the concrete this means enhancing, encouraging, supporting what is good in Philippine society; criticizing, condemning, doing all that it can to lessen what is bad in it. This means the Church must act as conscience to society; more, it must help in the binding and healing of its wounds. The role of prophetic preaching is one that the Church in its leadership has played well in recent times, at least as far as speaking out is concerned. Much still has to be done in the participative manner of preaching by doing, that we say is Christ’s way.
9. Laity’s Involvement and Leadership in Politics
348 In the Philippines today given the general perception that politics has become an obstacle to integral development, the urgent necessity is for the lay faithful to participate more actively, with singular competence and integrity, in political affairs. It is through the laity that the Church is directly involved.
349 Charges of careerism, idolatry of power, egoism and corruption that are oftentimes directed at persons in government, parliaments, the ruling classes, or political parties, as well as the common opinion that participating in politics is an absolute moral danger, does not in the least justify either skepticism or an absence on the part of Christians in public life (CL 42).
350 Our Plenary Council stands on record to urge lay faithful to participate actively and lead in the renewing of politics in accordance with values of the Good News of Jesus.
351 But that politics may truly be renewed, let us all be reminded that Catholics who are given a charge of public life faithfully abide by the Gospel and by the moral and social teachings of the Church, given the parameters of religious liberty. In a special way, in the context of our political imbalances, the following truths must guide the participation of Catholics in political life:
(a) that the basic standard for participation be the pursuit of the common good;
(b) that participation be characterized by a defense and promotion of justice;
(c) that participation be inspired and guided by the spirit of service;
(d) that it be imbued with a love of preference for the poor; and
(e) that empowering people be carried out both as a process and as a goal of political activity (CL 42; see supra, nos. 48-52, 98-101).
352 Catholics in politics have to work in favor of legislation that is imbued with these principles. Knowing that the wrong behavior and values are often rewarded or left unpunished, Catholic politicians have to put teeth to good legislation by making certain that the correct system of rewards and punishment be strictly enforced in public life.
353 The over-all value that must be infused into the political order has to be that of solidarity, which, expressing concretely the commandment of love, urges “the active and responsible participation of all in public life, from individual citizens to various groups, from labor unions to political parties. All of us, each and everyone, are the goal of public life as well as its leading participants” (CL 42).
Note: In the light of the above guidelines, Loyola School of Theology as an ecclesiastical institution will not endorse, nor insinuate to endorse, any particular candidate nor political party in the May 13, 2019 General Elections.
