Philippine Bishops have urged voters not to gamble with the country’s future in national elections in May by voting for corrupt and incompetent candidates.
Their call came as senior Catholic officials, together with religious congregations and lay-people, gathered in Manila on April 6 for a solidarity Mass on the Catholic Church’s role in the polls.
The “Solidarity Mass for Moral Choice,” held at the National Shrine of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran, Manila, was presided over by Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula and members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
The prelates said the aim of the Mass was to have one heart and mind as priests, religious and laypeople on the Catholic Church’s role in politics.
“If faith cannot guide us in our role in politics, then perhaps we have not done enough in our duty. It is easier to just name a candidate to vote for rather than to teach our people how they should vote,” Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, president of the bishops’ conference, said in his homily.
He said that there is no division between faith and politics, especially when issues in politics are moral in nature such as truth and falsehood.
“Truth is like lime pressed on one’s wounds. It hurts but it keeps us awake. But sometimes, if the truth hurts and causes us inconvenience, we choose to be blind and deaf … we choose to be neutral”