COMMENDATION AND PRAISE

 

 

During the 112th Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference held in Cebu City from January 22 to 24, 2016, the bishops voted to issue a message of commendation and praise to the Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership, a community of lay faithful from various Christian churches who have come together to engage in the work of God in the field of politics.

 

As the group presented its programs and vision for Christ-oriented political engagement, the Catholic bishops recalled with gratitude the challenging words of the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et Spes:  

 

This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come, think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties, each according to his proper vocation. Nor, on the contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious life. This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age. . . . The Christian who neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation. (GS 43).

 

We encourage the Catholic bishops of the Philippines, as decided during the plenary assembly, to organize on the diocesan level lay, leaders who can bring to fulfillment the vision of God-centered, honest, competent, committed, strong willed servant leaders for the country by encouraging the Diocesan Councils of the Laity to support the Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership.

 

The Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership is a significant gift of the Spirit to our Catholic laity inspired by the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI who taught us that “there is a need for authentically Christian politicians but, even more so, for lay faithful who witness to Christ and the Gospel in the civil and political community…Christian membership in faith-related associations, ecclesial movements and new communities can provide a good school for these disciples and witnesses, sustained by the charismatic, communitarian, educational and missionary resources of these groups. (Address on May 21, 2010).

 

May this work of God for the conversion, transformation and renewal of politics in the Philippines be blessed a hundredfold!

 

From the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, January 31, 2016

 

  

+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS

  Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan

  President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines