From Ninez Cacho Olivarez:
How it is finally confirmed: The Vatican, in 2000, expressly told the Catholic bishops then led by Archbishop Orlando Quevedo and Jaime Cardinal Sin that they and the bishops should not join any moves to oust Estrada, the then sitting President, as he is still supported by the Holy See, and that it was wrong for them to topple a democratically and popularly elected President.
The Papal Nuncio was quoted by Newsbreak as having brought this up during the plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
It should be recalled that this was pointed out in a confidential report submitted by Tita de Villa, then the Philippine ambassador to the Holy See, that the Vatican expressed real fears that the Filipino bishops' involvement in highly political affairs would cause the loss of the Filipino flock's faith in the Catholic religion.
All this was all reported by the Tribune in 2000, yet Sin and Quevedo denied that such was the Vatican's exhortation and that the report was completely false. They insisted on demonizing Estrada and actively plotted, along with the elite forces, not only to demand his resignation, but also to oust him unconstitutionally.
And they actually embraced a demonstrably corrupt official's lies, knowing them to be pure lies, and all because they wanted to throw out Estrada simply because they don't like him.
To this day, however, none of these bishops publicly admits to this disobedience to the Vatican's exhortation. They are still apparently so suffused with the sin of pride, to humble themselves by admitting their wrong.
Instead, they now wish to right the wrong done to the nation and to the Constitution, now coming up with what is probably the most confusing pastoral edict on the political crisis, foremost of which is that the CBCP will no longer engage in politics, and that the constitutional process must be respected and upheld in resolving the current political crisis.
The irony of it all is that this should have been the bishops' stand in 2001, instead of today. In 2001, there was no electoral cheating issue involved. As for corruption charges and jueteng payoffs as well as betrayal of public trust leveled by the elite against Estrada, these were never substantiated, nor even proved at this late date and in court! Yet the moves by the bishops and the elite were condemnatory to force his ouster.
It stands to reason that for one who was ousted illegally and out of power for the last five years, any irregularity committed in office by Estrada would have surfaced by now. Enough evidence could have been collated by the new power — Gloria Arroyo and her elite forces-against Estrada, enough to convict him. Yet to this day, not one contract, not one irregularity during his term has been slapped against Estrada, yet they dared charge him with corruption and public betrayal and now, plunder before the court.
Now that there is a real moral issue in the political world, such as the evidence of the taped conversations between Gloria and the poll official which clearly speak of deliberate poll rigging, unabated corruption, graft, jueteng payoff charges that have not only been testified to witnesses but also corroborated by other witnesses' testimonies and documentary evidence, the CBCP chose to suddenly claim that the church should not involve itself in politics while skirting the real issue, which is morality.
Still, it is a correct stand taken by the bishops — at least in the position that the church and its leaders should not meddle in politics. But they should have done this in 2001.
Yet it is just as clear that they continue to do so, in many other ways. The Edsa Shrine Masses are only reserved for officialdom and the elite while excluding the poor or anti-government forces is already a religio-political message.
Besides, just how long will that position last, especially in cases where the church doctrines go against the government's stand? When will the churchmen stop getting money from the coffers for their needs?
Still, the loss of the bishops' moral clout can be gleaned from the fact that other religious leaders, as well as the usual church allies, took little notice of the CBCP pastoral admonition and instead based their continued calls for Gloria's resignation on the buts, yets and provideds in that same pastoral message.
While it is becoming clearer that the bishops' message could be taken one way or the other, addled by the very confusingly-worded ponencia of the Quevedo group, unfortunately for the bishops, what struck the public most was that they refused to call for the resignation of Gloria, thus creating the perception that the bishops skirted their moral responsibility, a development which further erodes their moral authority.
What the Vatican feared about the Filipinos' eroding faith has come to pass.
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