Philippines’ bishop conference on divorce bill: ‘Let’s keep our cool’

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines reiterated its stand against the Absolute Divorce Bill in the country, reminding everyone to take some time to discern such a complex matter.

In a two-page pastoral statement issued on July 11, CBCP quotes a common Tagalog expression to emphasize their call: “Maghunos-dili muna tayo at mag isip-isip” (Let us keep our cool and ask ourselves.)

It was released three days after the episcopal conference’s mid-year plenary assembly.

With the Philippines being the sole country in the world without divorce aside from Vatican City, Filipino bishops stressed that there is no hurry to join the bandwagon.

“Do we really want it for ourselves? Do we really want to make it easy for civilly-married couples to have their marriages civilly dissolved when they ‘want out’ already, or when they don’t ‘feel like it’ anymore?” said the statement.

“Shouldn’t we ask ourselves on the basis of research and statistics, if the legalization of divorce all over the world has indeed helped in protecting the common good and the welfare of the family?” they also said.

The bishops also clarified that Catholic teaching about divorce does not change even in countries where it is legalized.

“Catholics still cannot simply get remarried in Church unless they file for a declaration of nullity of their previous bond of marriage — which is not the same as divorce,” they explained.

Moreover, CBCP took note of the data from the National Center for Health Statistics showing that “failure rate for first marriage is roughly 48%, 60% for second and 70% for third marriages” in countries where civil divorce is legal.

Therefore, the Episcopal conference suggests focusing more on listening to stories of couples who have strengthened their bond after getting through crises instead of pushing for the legalization of divorce.

Furthermore, CBCP clarified that they cannot impose legal changes to civil marriage.

According to them, they only act as spiritual and moral leaders of the Church to motivate the faithful to participate in reasoned public discourse as citizens.

Therefore, they called on the combined efforts of the Church and State to explore more effective ways of maximizing remedies to marital problems.

“We can only hope and pray that [legislative bodies] consider the gravity of the task entrusted to them and the need to engage the citizens in serious conversations about the implications of the laws they make,” said the statement.

Last May, the Philippine Congress moved the Absolute Divorce Bill a step closer to becoming law with its passing to the third and final reading. For it to be finalized, the country’s Senate must also pass its counterpart bill.

Various Catholic movements have voiced their opposition to this proposed measure.

One of the most recent campaigns is the creation of the Super Coalition Against Divorce (SCAD) in the Diocese of Novaliches, composed of around 40 lay organizations.