No candidate, but CBCP endorses prayer for elections

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called on Catholic voters to pray for guidance in the upcoming polls to help them choose the nation's leaders.

 

CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged the faithful who will vote on May 9 to not only practice their right of suffrage but also vote as a public declaration of faith.

 

"The Catholic Church has never asked any political candidate to seek its endorsement, but the Catholic Church has always demanded of Catholic voters that they cast their votes as an act not only of citizenship but also as a public declaration of faith. We ask this most earnestly of all of you, Catholic brothers and sisters, in the forthcoming election," Villegas said in a pastoral statement this weekend.

 

The CBCP head also asked the candidates to stop deceiving the public by giving false promises and likewise advised voters to pray for guidance in choosing the right leaders.

 

"In less than two weeks, the sovereign people will choose who should govern them. It is this that makes us a free people. We, your bishops of this country, therefore ask of you to allow each Filipino the free and untrammeled right to an informed choice. This means, among other things, that you cannot deceive or mislead the people by proffering them falsehoods, much less defraud the nation," Villegas said.

 

"As we advise our voters, so we also say to you dear candidates: Pray! Pray not only to win but pray that the Lord may show by His signs His chosen leader for this nation, this nation who calls on Him at the crossroads of its national life," he added.

 

The CBCP urged Catholics to pray daily until May 9, election day.

 

"In particular, we encourage you to pray the rosary every day and receive Holy Communion starting May 1 until May 9. In this novena of rosaries and Masses, we claim from the Lord the gift of a godly electoral process. With the permission of the bishops, the Blessed Sacrament may be exposed for public adoration to beg the Lord for the gift of peaceful elections," Villegas said.

 

Villegas also encouraged those who will win in the May 9 polls to reconcile with their rivals and move forward for the benefit of the people and country.

 

"When the elections shall have been concluded and winners proclaimed in accordance with law, we beg you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, to be instruments of peace, reconciliation and healing," Villegas said.

 

"Let those who prevail rise in nobility above the hurtful words that may have been uttered by opponents, and draw them rather into a government of unity, but unity that firmly rests neither on expediency nor compromise, but on truth and justice," he added.

 

Villegas said that along with their priests, it will do everything so that the people down to the remotest barangays they minister to “may rally around a just and God-fearing government that visits no vengeance on foes but is characterized by mercy and compassion for all, not only for allies!"

 

"Whoever wins honestly, whoever takes the oath of his or her office seriously, whoever strives to heal the wounds of the divisiveness of politics, whoever respects the rights of all and is earnest in his or her fear of God and is zealous for his precepts has the support of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines." — Rosette Adel