A recent Social Weather Stations survey that found 9.2 percent of Filipino Catholics sometimes think they might leave the Catholic Church was commissioned by the Aquino administration to discredit the Church. That, at least, is what retired archbishop Oscar Cruz, president emeritus of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, is saying.
Cruz, in a Sun Star Online report, says the administration and the Church have clashed on issues like the Reproductive Health Law, and “it has therefore become imperative to undermine the Catholic Church – such as by the supposed survey result of Catholics becoming un-Catholics.”
The administration’s Team Pnoy coalition slate includes candidates who supported passage of the Reproductive Health Law including Senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, and Alan Peter Cayetano, Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara, and former Akbayan party-list rep Risa Hontiveros.
Catholic groups have, meanwhile, launched the White Vote Movement, a campaign to gather support for candidates that they see as pro-life. “The Catholic Church in the country must be a big pain in the neck of the present administration,” Cruz said.
The same survey reported 37 percent of respondents said they go to church every week, down from 64 percent in 1991.
Cruz was in the news last week after saying Kris Aquino, the President’s sister, might run for vice president in 2016. He cited anonymous sources.
