A people’s Church

SINCE her arrest and detention on drug charges, Senator Leila de Lima has been issuing what can be described as commentaries on the issues of the day. But while the administration has been the regular subject of her scorn, her latest target was the Catholic Church.

Following the killing of another priest in Nueva Ecija, the third in recent months, the senator vented her undisguised ire on the Church, particularly its leadership.

“Save for a few bishops, priests, and nuns, where are the Church leaders who ought to be the first to stand and give an answer?” De Lima was quoted as saying.

“For a predominantly Catholic country, there seems to be a growing sentiment among the people I have spoken to that the Roman Catholic Church is slowly allowing itself to fall into irrelevancy,” she said.

Apparently, the irony is lost on the good senator. For while she condemns the administration for allegedly vilifying the Church, she herself used words that are disrespectful, if not tantamount to vilification.

The challenge issued by the good senator to the Church is also bewildering. I am certain she is quite aware of the history of the Church, and the vilification and persecution it endured in spreading the faith.

To be martyrs of the faith is implicit in the vows of priesthood. The very foundation of the Vatican, the seat of the Catholic faith, is the ground on which the apostle and first pope, St. Peter, was crucified.

Sadly, the present predicament of Senator De Lima has deprived her the opportunity to bear witness to the varied response of the Church to the rash of killings, not only of its priests, but of its flock.

The numbers may not approximate the crowds at EDSA in 1986, as the good senator seems to expect, but giant waves start as small ripples, created by a drop of a single pebble.

I came upon this article on the news website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), CBCP News. Entitled “The Prophetic Mission of the Church under Martial Law,” the article, written by Fr. Amado L. Picardal, was posted June 22, apparently in response to De Lima’s observations.

Father Picardal recalled that diocesan radio stations were ordered closed by the martial law regime. Priests, the religious, and seminarians were arrested but these “did not stop the Church from carrying out her social mission.”

Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) continued with their evangelical work, spreading the Gospel and reflecting on the national situation. Members of religious congregations joined rallies and protest actions. Many were harassed. Several were martyred. But the religious was not intimidated.

The Church would play an active role in pivotal events that led to the 1986 EDSA Revolution and the ouster of the dictatorship.

Just because we are no longer under martial law “does not mean that the Church has stopped exercising her prophetic role,” said Father Picardal.

“Those who accuse the Church of being a conservative and reactionary institution are misinformed or ignorant of the Church’s prophetic mission. The Church cannot be marginalized or eased out from the public sphere. She cannot be silenced nor will she remain silent.

“In season or out of season, under whatever form of government or administration the Church will always carry out her prophetic mission,” he concluded.

The present predicament of the Church in some countries has not escaped the attention of His Holiness Pope Francis, who has acknowledged that the persecution of the Church persists until today.

Many forces have tried to destroy the Church from outside and from within, said the Holy Father, but these forces “are themselves destroyed and the Church remains alive and fruitful.”

During the dark years of martial rule, the Church stood side by side with the people. It continues to do so now. And for speaking up for the poor and the voiceless, it is once again besieged.

The Church is not only its leadership, not only the bishops or the priests or the members of religious congregations and the laity. The Church is the small congregation who gather in quiet corners to celebrate their faith, the volunteers who reach out to the poor, and the multitude who take the streets to march against tyranny and oppression. The Church is the people. And it can only be as weak or as strong as the people who support it. We are the Church.