MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Following last Friday’s Supreme Court decision ousting Maria Lourdes Serena from her post of Chief Justice, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has issued a new pastoral letter that will be read at all churches today, Sunday:

May 13, 2018

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
First of all, we would like to greet all moms a Happy Mothers’ Day — except single moms, divorced moms and those who have had abortions in the past.

We, your beloved bishops are saddened by the decision of the Supreme Court to oust one of our devout and avid followers and a generous contributor to our Sunday collection baskets — Maria Lourdes Sereno — from her post as Chief Justice.

We have done all we can to prevent this kind of decision by the Supremes.  We sent our priests and nuns to the protest lines, encouraged our followers to fast for ten days, and even did many pray-overs for Sereno.  All to no avail.

So, we are now asking our legislators to amend our Constitution and abolish the principle of Separation of Church and State which has prevented us from doing more to come to the aid of our distressed brothers and sisters.

Abolishing this absurd provision in our Constitution will enable our men and women in robes to be more openly and actively engaged in the political arena, and even run for public office.  We sincerely believe that this is the only way we could truly make a difference in the lives of our faithful.

We appeal to our friends in Congress and Senate, including Senators Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Franklin Drilon, as well as Congressmen Ted Baguilat and Gary Alejano, to immediately propose a bill calling for a Constitutional amendment to strike the Separation of Church and State from the supreme law of our land.

We ask all our faithful to pray hard for this to happen, and to be generous with the collection baskets this Sunday, so that we may be able to pursue this urgent and much-needed legislative action.

Tuloy and laban!

Very sincerely,

You concerned and loving Bishops