CBCP on Orlando attack: Our differences can never justify hatred

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) grieves and unites itself with those who mourn in prayer for the Orlando tragedy that killed 50 people, including the gunman, and wounding 53 more, even as it urges government to educate the nation in the ways of respect for all life.

In a statement titled “We are brothers and sisters,” CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said, “A tragedy like this challenges us to ask ourselves how we can all, not Americans alone, become a better people after having recovered from our grief.”

“We call on all Christians to show the world that our fidelity to Christ and our citizenship in his kingdom are far more important than whatever else may keep us in disagreement,” he said.

Villegas underscored three things: first, he said the Orlando shooting in Florida, “was a hate crime – the murder of persons because of disgust for their sexual orientation.”

“Bearing in the depth of his or her soul the image of the Creator, no human person should ever be the object of disgust,” he said.

He added, “While we may have reasons to disagree with sexual preferences, or reprove certain forms of sexual activity, this can never justify hatred, let alone, murder of another human being.”

Regrettably, this tragedy occurs in the midst of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, he said.

But this grim event merely underscores how right Pope Francis was in convoking this year as a year of mercy, he added.

Villegas said the heartlessness with which so many were cut down in their youth or in the prime of life only makes clear how much the world needs mercy. As important as it is to be right, it is far more important to be merciful, he said.

Second, according to Villegas, “we can and should never reconcile ourselves with violence in society – whether this be the violence of lawless elements, the violence of the self-righteous, the violence of vigilante groups, or the violence of government.”

He said violence leaves only mourning, and loss, and bitterness in its wake.

“We cannot and should not accept a society that tolerates and perhaps even foments forms of violence, even if this should be in the name of restoring law and order,” he said.

Third, Villegas said while the whole world is rightly shocked by the brutality of the tragedy at Orlando, “from this darkness we see the light that Pope Francis holds out to us through his exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.

“No matter that we may disapprove of the actions, decisions and choices of others, there is absolutely no reason to reject the person, no justification for cruelty, no reason for making outcasts of them,” he said.

He said this is a project which Filipinos should join for many are still forced to the peripheries because the norms of “decent society” forbid association with them.

“Pope Francis sternly warns us that this cannot be Christian. We must continue the dialogue and the conversation with them over the things about which we disagree, but this dialogue must always be an encounter of brothers and sisters, an encounter of friends in the Lord,” he added.

He said bishops have asked school administrators and youth leaders to be particularly vigilant about cases of bullying, ostracism and harassment.

Muslim groups denounce attack

The Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) also condemned yesterday the acts of terror in Orlando where 50 people were massacred and the slaying staged by the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao.

PCID’s Amina Rasul Bernardo said they offer their condolences to the families of the slain.

“There is no possible justification for such heinous acts,” Bernardo said.

She said that the Holy Qur’an forbids murder, citing Surah 5:32: “… If any one slew a person –unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”

Bernardo said that the “Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said ‘Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. - With Jose Rodel Clapano, Paolo Romero