Dear Soc

DEAR SOC: This is what happens when the chief bishop is a diehard political partisan: He will not hesitate to use his pulpit (and the pulpits of all the other churches in the land) to further his totally secular agenda.

I don't know for sure if the bishops simply allowed you, their president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, to just impose your will on all of them. I only know that if you, who have never been ashamed of declaring your Yellow allegiance, wanted the CBCP statement to have maximum impact, you would have stepped aside from your position of leadership first. You certainly did not have to write the pastoral letter.

But you did not step aside. And yes, you wrote the letter read in churches all over.

I guess the notion that you could, as chief of the bishops, get back finally at a president you never liked using all pulpits nationwide was just too great a temptation for even you to resist. And so, Archbishop, you gave in.

And in one blow, you angered the members of the Catholic flock who didn't want their churches used for partisan politicking. You left the clergy "on the ground" to deal with the problem of mass disaffection with a church that you wanted to drag into an epic confrontation, not just with civil authority, but with the great mass of Catholics themselves.

Was it worth it, Soc?

You certainly gave it to Caesar. And you must be so proud of yourself. It must have made you think that your mentor, Jaime Cardinal Sin, is smiling down on you, with Cory on his side.

But as for giving to God what is rightfully his, only you can discern that.

PS: Don't ask ordinary church-goers like me anymore if we think you did the right thing today. If you don't already know by now, then your problems are much bigger than anyone, you included, suspected.

This post was taken from Jojo Robles' Facebook page. To follow him, click image above.