Separation of Church and State is often used to protest
when religious leaders denounce government policies and government officials as
they do injustice and oppress the people. But this is a wrong principle to
invoke because Church people, even as religious leaders, do not lose their
citizenship, therefore their right and duty to participate in political
matters for the sake of the common good. Besides, it is within the mandate of
the Church to proclaim what is good and to denounce what is evil wherever these
may be found.
The doctrine of separation of Church and State, in fact,
has been laid down for the government in order that it may not favor one
religion over the other, but should treat all legitimate religions equally. It
also means that government officials and policies should respect the internal
governance and policies of all religions as long as they do not create any
public harm. This principle has been laid down in order to assure the freedom
of religion of everyone. Each citizen has a right to join any religion and to
practice it according to its teachings.
What can we say then if the very president of the country
destroys the good name of a religion, or tells the adherents of that religion
not to follow its practices and teachings, such as going to church? Is this not
a breach of the principle of the separation of Church and State? And these are
precisely what Duterte is doing! Nay, more! What he does is already a form of
religious persecution. And he does it unprovoked! He inserts his tirades in
speeches which have nothing to do with the Church nor its practices at all.
Are these tirades just outbursts of unresolved issues or
hidden anger that lurk within his mind that he does not speak rightly anymore?
If so, we should really pray for him and be afraid for our country. Pray for
him, because he is not in his right senses; pray for our
country, because we have someone in the helm who is mentally or emotionally
sick.
But no! These tirades can also be deliberately planned.
They are strategies to divert the attention of the people to what is seriously
wrong in the country. There are really serious issues in the country which are
getting out of control. Many people are suffering because of the economy. The
inflation is getting out of hand and many people are getting poorer. None of
the promises of change ever took off: the traffic situation is worse,
joblessness is not being arrested, the promised end of ENDO is nowhere in
sight, criminality is on the rise, and the drug situation is worse in spite of
the tens of thousands unjustly killed and more tens of thousands orphaned. Now
the Chinese connections of Duterte is being publicly questioned. He has brought
the country to the tutelage of China and has greatly compromised our
territorial sovereignty. A way to keep these problems from the attention of the
people is to create non-issues for the people to talk about. Hence the unprovoked
attacks on the Catholic Church and its leaders.
Poor man! Does he think that Filipinos are slow of
intelligence and can easily be fooled? Whatever purpose he may have in ranting
against the Church, he is breaking the separation of Church and State! This in
itself is a grave abuse of power!
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