Written as part of a collection commemorating the tenth anniversary of the EDSA event, this lengthy article reviews the interaction of the church with the Philippine state during that period, against the background both of the church’s own self-understanding and of the Philippine Constitution of 1987. It notes the efforts…
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Is the Church calling for people to march on the 25th?” a friend asked last week. By “Church” she meant not the community of the faithful but the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, a lapse into which even progressive Catholics can fall. Her hopes, and those of other Catholic…
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A statement that appeared in an article in The Economist concerning the government’s decision to allow the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos’ remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani says it well: “… [A]s one strongman buries another, the Philippines appears to be moving backward, not forward.” It won’t…
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I am uncomfortable with throwing around the word “miracle” too easily. In many cases I prefer to speak of Divine Providence, working in history and bringing together a series of contingent—might have been different—events and human decisions to bring about a definite outcome. Let us look at the Edsa 1986…
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Early in the morning of Feb. 22, 1986, Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J. was called upon to put his money where his mouth was. Claver had been the main author of the bishops’ post-election statement which declared that in their considered judgment “the polls were unparalleled in the fraudulence of their…
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When all you think you have is a hammer
I doubt if many people were surprised when President Duterte said that he would employ “assassination teams” and “death squads” against communist rebels and their sympathizers. Some may have been indignant or jubilant, but probably not surprised. Unfortunately, presidential pronouncements like these have now become par for the course. In…