Are we truly a secular society?

see - Are we truly a secular society?


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Bishops and candidates

The mid-term election is just one of the manifestations of this Catholic omnipresence in our country.

The first salvo came from the Bacolod diocese which launched its infamous Team Patay-Team Buhay campaign, with oversized poster hanging on the façade of the city cathedral. The lawyers of the Bacolod diocese defended this as a free-speech issue during the oral arguments in the Supreme Court when all the Comelec wanted was for them to follow the rules on poster size.

Then came Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles who openly endorsed the senatorial candidates of Kapatiran, a fringe political party but which Arguelles described as one “founded on the principles of Catholic social doctrine.”

The website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines reported that this is not the first time that the archbishop endorsed the Kapatiran bets: “In the 2010 presidential elections, Arguelles and five other bishops openly endorsed John Carlos “JC” delos Reyes who was then the party’s standard-bearer. Delos Reyes, however, lost to Benigno Aquino III and placed last among the nine presidential candidates. All of the eight Kapatiran senatorial candidates also lost in the general elections.”

Chapels, statues

Look at our government offices. Many display statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as if it were the most normal thing to do.

When I wrote about how Catholic the Supreme Court is, from its official prayer recited before the justices’ weekly en banc meetings to its seal which includes two tablets representing the 10 commandments, readers shared their experiences with other government offices.

JC Punongbayan wrote: “In some government offices there are indeed full-fledged chapels, halls dedicated solely to holding noontime masses (everyday!) and other religious services. Flag ceremonies are also incomplete without decidedly Catholic prayers. Whatever happened to the Constitution's non-establishment of religion clause?”

He raised an important point: “If public funds are to be dedicated to Catholic ceremonies and services in public institutions, why not dedicate funds too for Islamic, Buddhist, Mormon (etc.) purposes? In effect, government offices are subsidizing the Catholic church using funds from the public.”

“Our department has a chapel…yet [we have] no clinic,” was Igmidio Gilingan’s comment.

From Ipat Luna: “My biggest problem was when I saw a huge Virgin Mary right before the room where Certificates of Candidacies need to be filed in the Comelec. What does that say to all other faiths about the independence of Comelec?”

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