Catholic Church: Call to Action

There were many diverse groups that organized the anti-Marcos rally last Wednesday. The participants came from the entire ideological spectrum from the Left to the Right and came from different social classes. This was evident from the means of transportation the rally participants utilized to come to the People Power Monument. They came in cars and vans; buses and jeepneys; and the MRT.

It was very noticeable that in the vanguard of the rallies and marches were delegations from Catholic schools. Among the organized marches, the largest contingents came from La Salle, Ateneo and St. Scholastica. On the day of the clandestine Marcos burial, these schools were also the first to immediately react  by going out on the streets to demonstrate.  This active participation of Catholic schools should not be surprising for those who have studied Catholic social teachings. In fact, what is surprising is that here has been limited action by the Church.

In his encyclical Octogesima Advewniens ( A Call to Action), published in 1971, Pope Paul VI called on Christians “ to live up to the duty of participation in social and political reform as a way of discovering the truth and living out the Gospel.” In that same encyclical, he issued a warning that should be heeded even by the Church hierarchy. Pope Paul VI wrote in that same encyclical [ para. #48]:

“ Let every person examine themselves to see what they have done up to now, and what they ought to do. It is not enough to recall principles, state intentions, point to crying injustice and utter prophetic denunciations, these words will lack real weight unless they are accompanied for each individual by a livelier awareness of personal responsibility and by effective action.

It is too easy to throw back on others the responsibility for injustice; if at the same time one does not realize how each one shares in it personally, and how personal conversion is needed first. ...The Christian’s hope comes primarily from the fact that he knows that the Lord is working with us in the world...This hope springs also from the fact that the Christian knows that other men are at work, to undertake actions of justice and peace working for the same ends.”

 The 1971 Synod of Bishops issued a document Justicia in Mundo ( Justice in the World). Although it is not a papal encyclical, it is still regarded as a major document of Catholic social teaching. The document proclaimed that work for the promotion of justice is “ an essential part of the mission of the Church.” Here is a quotation:

“ Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world appear as a constitutive dimension of the reaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.

Towards the end of his Call to Action, Pope Paul VI has an advice for Christian groups:

“It is in this regard that Christian organizations, under different forms, have a responsibility for collective action. Without putting themselves in the place of the institutions of civil society, they have to express in their own way and rising above particular nature, the concrete demands of the Christian faith for a just, and consequently necessary, transformation of society.”

These messages from Catholic social teachings will be disconcerting to those who believe it is enough to go to mass and communion and donate to charity in order to be a good Catholic. These messages should be a wake up call for those priests and bishops who seem to believe that their principal role is to focus on increasing collections and finding ways to improve the physical appearance of their church.

The clear message is that for Catholics, participation in social and political reform for the transformation of our country to achieve social justice for all is not a right but a duty – an obligation.

The Church and human rights

Pope Pius XII on June 1, 1942: “To protect the inviolable field of the rights of the human person and facilitate                                                                                                                                  the fulfilment of his duties, should be the essential task of every public authority.”

Erneso Gallina wrote a document The Church and Human Rights. Here is his opening paragraph:

“ In the Universal Declaration on the rights of man, on Dec. 10, 1948, it is explicitly affirmed that the recognition and the rights of man is the foundation of freedom justice and peace. And that disregard and contempt for them are acts of barbarousness that offend the conscience of mankind...We should have to write a great deal if we wished to illustrate the complete role played by the Catholic Church, the chief figure in every effort to promote and protect human rights.”

In his address on October 4, 1965 to the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Paul VI, posed these challenges:

“ How can we ensure the fundamental rights of man when they are mocked? How can we intervene, in a word, to save the human person wherever it is threatened? How can we make those in charge realize it is a question of  an essential heritage of man that no one can harm with impunity, on any pretext, without making an attempt on what is most sacred for a human being and thus ruining the very foundations of social life?’

Today,  the world, including the Philippines, must again face the same challenges Pope Paul VI articulated 51 years ago. Is the Catholic church prepared to meet and surmount these challenges?

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