Many opponents of the divorce bill expected fireworks from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) when it announced on Monday, July 8, that it will soon release a statement on the divorce bill.

We’re used to hearing churchmen speak, I know, but the statement was bound to be more consequential because it was produced during a plenary assembly of the CBCP. 

The CBCP plenary, held twice a year, is the only time when the country’s 83 active Catholic bishops, along with priest-administrators and retired prelates, gather in one place to discuss pressing issues. In other times of the year, it’s the 13-member CBCP permanent council – now led by Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, the president – that acts on behalf of all Catholic bishops. 

Considering the expectations of church watchers, the CBCP’s latest statement was therefore disappointing for many Catholic critics of the divorce bill. It was not the combative CBCP that Filipinos always imagined, certainly not the one which, during the reproductive health (RH) debates in 2012, declared that “contraception is corruption!”

I, as a journalist covering the Catholic Church, can attest that there was no easy headline for the CBCP statement that was released past 6 pm on Thursday, July 11. In other instances, a punchy direct quote from the statement can encapsulate the story for headline-writing purposes. Not for this one – where I had to sit down, read thrice, analyze, and even close my eyes.

Instead of seeing fireworks, I felt a tectonic shift.

In their statement, the Catholic bishops went beyond tackling divorce. They also faced one of their ghosts: accusations of breaking the separation of church and state.

At the expense of being called “weak” by a number of loyal Catholics, the CBCP, in a rare moment, set the boundaries of its engagement with government. It was a pivot from the image of a church that imposes its will on the Filipino people – a baggage from more than 300 years when friars ruled the Philippines in the name of Spain. 

The CBCP declared: “Despite what religionists might think, we do have religious freedom in this country, and we uphold the principle of separation of church and state. The church is in no position to dictate on the state what is best for Filipino families.”

“We know that our stubborn assertion that a genuine marriage cannot be dissolved, is not necessarily shared by all religions; and we respect that. But before we join the bandwagon, shouldn’t we ask ourselves on the basis of research and statistics, if the legalization of divorce all over the world has indeed helped in protecting the common good and the welfare of the family?” said the CBCP.

“As spiritual and moral leaders of the Church,” the bishops added, “we can only propose but never impose. We can only motivate our faithful to actively participate in reasoned public discourse as citizens.”

‘Much-awaited and spineless’

Many Catholics, including the ones most staunchly opposed to divorce, criticized the CBCP statement.

In the faith chat room of the Rappler Communities app, user MJCalingasan said that the Catholic Church in the Philippines “has lost its fervor and stand” against certain laws.

For MJCalingasan, the Catholic Church “has a right to dictate because it believes that it has a divine mandate from our Lord.” It is, however, “playing safe” with its statements – “maybe afraid or maybe they lost their sense of ecclesiastical authority.”

“We need another Cardinal Sin in our country, someone who will stand in the midst of this turmoil and will tell the flock what to do for their better good,” the faith chat room member said, referring to the late Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin who helped oust dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

For faith chat room member Wes, “the statement reflects the stance of the Church on freedom: while it suggests and counsels, it does not force itself to the decision process of the believer.”

Percy, another member of our faith channel, scored the CBCP: “Ang yabang yabang e (It is too arrogant).” 

The app user cited how the CBCP claimed to argue “on the basis of research and statistics,” but misused data from the National Center for Health Statistics of the United States. According to Percy, the CBCP cited US statistics on marriage failure rates and made it appear that it applies to “countries where civil divorce is legal.”

“What do we do with them, now that we have demonstrated that there is false information in the pastoral letter – that apparently, its scope is not ‘countries where civil divorce is legal’ but only the US? What if this is proclaimed in Masses, in religion classes, and other places?” Percy wrote in a mix of English and Filipino. 

Opinions are likewise divided on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Quoting my tweet on what I called a “much-awaited CBCP pastoral statement,” X user @JiroTheBen said, “Much-awaited and spineless.”

But for X user @jambiktoywood25, the statement was “a shocking yet refreshing change.”

X user @raymond_naguit said he appreciates “the level-headed position of the Church on divorce.”

But @IvanAtHome, who describes himself as a conservative Catholic, said, “Weak language like this is why the Church in the Philippines loses.”

For @IvanAtHome, the Church can dictate as “God’s government on Earth.” He also criticized the CBCP’s call for Filipinos to “discern together” on the divorce bill. “Bro, no! You are God’s representatives on earth. You have the answers. Give them!” he said.

Finding its place

In my opinion, the CBCP statement on divorce was not a show of weakness but a sign that it is finding its proper place in our modern society – where different institutions, no matter how old or revered, can assert their beliefs without imposing them on nonbelievers. 

Gone are the days when the Catholic Church was the state religion, as it was during the Spanish colonial era. Or when the word of a powerful archbishop, such as Cardinal Sin, was enough to make politicians nervous or change their decisions in fear of a powerful church.

For believers like myself, the Catholic Church remains the unbreakable foundation of the way we live our lives. I will fight for my Catholic faith any time of the day. But we need to understand that we practice our faith in the context of a secular society – and a secular Constitution – that promises equal treatment for believers and nonbelievers alike. 

It is also a world that detests the preachy ways of the past. 

Pope Saint Paul VI, who led the Catholic Church from 1963 to 1978 (and was the first pope to visit the Philippines), proved prophetic when he said in a 1974 speech to Consilium de Laicis: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” 

In his 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI explained: “It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus – the witness of poverty and detachment, of freedom in the face of the powers of this world, in short, the witness of sanctity.”

Imposing one’s faith on nonbelievers, in a secular state, is not a “witness of sanctity.” It is pride.

With its statement on divorce, the Catholic Church found strength not only to stand its ground but to face its shadows.  – Rappler.com