IN a strongly worded pastoral statement on the dignity of the rural poor read to the media at the end of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) plenary assembly last January 28, the bishops called on the government for a full implementation of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) aimed at alleviating rural poverty.
Saying that the rural poor remain the greatest victims of the country’s unjust social structures and inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, the bishops called on government officials to put the common good above selfish interests.
“We ask (the government) that the CARP, defective as it is, be finally completed next year as it has been targeted. And if it is not sufficiently implemented by then, the program should be further extended and funded more seriously and generously,” the statement said.
CBCP also assailed the government’s lack of grit to fully implement the law on agrarian reform, saying that the government’s inability “mirrors the still over-powering opposition of the landed classes, the traditional political and economic elite of our country.”
Addressing the problem of rural poverty will reduce urban poverty since rural folk migrate to the cities simply to escape poverty in the province, the statement read.
As the bishops called on those who have the official responsibilities to act on behalf of the people they are called to serve and protect, they also challenged the faithful to ask themselves on what they can do as individuals, families, and communities to address the problem.
Citing problems of the rural poor as a serious social dilemma the CBCP urged basic ecclesial communities (BEC) in different dioceses to involve themselves in addressing social problems, big or small, whether on the national or local level; but also stressed that involvement must be done in accord with the social teachings of the Church.
CBCP also proposed holding a rural congress later this year to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Rural Congress of 1967.
The 1967 rural congress brought to light the neglect that rural areas suffer “both from government’s development programs and the Church’s pastoral care” hence, the call for “the Church to go to the barrios” and serve the needs of the marginalized members of the Church.
In the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, (PCP II) pastors and other Church leaders were exhorted to be in solidarity with the poor and to collaborate with the poor themselves and others to lift up the poor from their poverty.
“Preferential option for the poor means our respect, and upholding of the human dignity of the least of our brothers and sisters. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, we should be especially concerned with the last, the least, the lowest and the lost in our society,” said CBCP vice-president Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ.
In the planned congress the rural folks will do the talking and planning themselves, while the Church listens.
“It is the time of our solidarity with the rural poor, to look at unfinished issues like agrarian reform, and justice, in terms of extra judicial killings of peasant leaders,” Ledesma said.
The bishops hope the future rural congress will provide a venue for the poor to find their voice, and “as a people come together to work for the common good of the country and of ourselves.”
“Doing so, they will be effectively asserting the dignity that for so long has been denied them. And the rest of us, participating with them in their reflections and deliberations, we will be honoring their inborn dignity as children of the same Father in heaven,” the statement said.
Acknowledging that the planned congress is only a small thing to do in the face of grave social problems involving the poor, CBCP, nevertheless, stressed that the root of the country’s many problems and human injustices, such as graft and corruption, and killings, “are all rooted in the practical denial of the basic human dignity and rights of our very poor.”
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