{"id":18386,"date":"2013-11-07T17:40:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T09:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cbcpnews.com\/cbcpnews\/?p=25797"},"modified":"2013-11-07T17:40:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T09:40:26","slug":"villegas-church-should-never-be-a-kingmaker-power-broker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/villegas-church-should-never-be-a-kingmaker-power-broker\/","title":{"rendered":"Villegas: \u2018Church should never be a kingmaker, power broker\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Archbishop Soc Villegas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MANILA, Nov. 7, 2013\u2014Amid the increasing involvement of the Philippine Church to the political affairs of the state, the incoming president of the collegial body of Catholic bishops in the country reminded members of the ordained ministry not to directly involve themselves in partisan politics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said that instead of basking in the political limelight, deacons, priests, and bishops must instead focus on their role of bringing Christ closer to the people and fulfilling the church\u2019s mission of becoming the \u201cconscience of society.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe church should never be a kingmaker, a power broker in the world because if the church will marry a political party, the church will become a widow in the next generation,\u201d Villegas said in the fourth episode of his \u201cThe Life of Faith\u201d videos posted in video-sharing website YouTube.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe church can never do that because it is the bride of Christ\u2026(It) was founded by Jesus Christ, and it has a spiritual mission in the world. The church is in the world, but the church does not belong to this world for it belongs to the world of God,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that above all, the church must focus on fulfilling its mission of total evangelization and promoting goodwill among humanity, primarily through teaching them to become more sensitive to the plight of less fortunate individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Villegas also noted that the church is responsible of urging the laity to engage in business, economics, politics, and all other straits of society in a manner that is \u201cconfigured into Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you speak of society, you speak of the government, peace and order, and economics\u2026The church composed of lay people should encourage the lay people to engage in economics, business, and politics the way Christ would do it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo that more and more, our society will be configured into Christ, so every human being will act, talk, and think like Jesus,\u201d Villegas added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Negative perception<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The initial findings of the National Filipino Catholic Youth Survey (NFCYS) 2013 showed that the youth negatively perceives the involvement of the church in various political advocacies, especially concerning the Reproductive Health Law seeking to use taxpayers\u2019 money to fund artificial forms of contraception.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon, outgoing chairman of the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Youth (CBCP-ECY), earlier expressed lament over the survey results and said that it is time to understand why the youth negatively perceives the involvement of the church to the political affairs of the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be a negative attitude (among the young) when the Church goes along this line. We need to understand why. Is it because they feel that the Church is venturing into an area where She should not be?\u201d Baylon said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey involved a sample population of 2,016 young people with single civil status from 18 universities and schools, 34 archdioceses, dioceses and vicariates, and 192 parishes all over the country, according to an article posted in the CEAP website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Conscience of society\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expounding on the church as the \u201cconscience of society\u201d, Villegas said that is through the fulfillment of this role that the church influences society to shun materialism and be more concerned with the enrichment of humanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we mean when we say we are the conscience of society? We say that we bring soul into society,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord said, \u2018What will profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?\u2019 Put together all the money and property in the world, you could not bring that to your grave. We enter into this world naked, naked we will return,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He also emphasized the importance of pondering over the spiritual mission of the church manifested through the care and concern given to one\u2019s neighbors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of our lives, we will only be judged according to what we did to the body of each one\u2014feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the lonely. These are the works that are truly spiritual because this is the work of Jesus,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the mission of the church? To become Jesus for the world because the world is looking for meaning, the world is looking for God,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray that everybody in this world looking for God will look at the church, the people of God, and will say, \u2018See those believers, see those Christians, how they love one another\u2019,\u201d he said. (Jennifer Orillaza)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Nov. 7, 2013\u2014Amid the increasing involvement of the Philippine Church to the political affairs of the state, the incoming president of the collegial body of Catholic bishops in the country reminded members of the ordained ministry not to directly involve themselves in partisan politics.\u00a0 Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcponlineradio.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}