Bishops grieve death penalty OK in House
“THEY may have won but it does not mean that they are right.”
This was the reaction of Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Socrates Villegas after congressmen voted 217-54 Tuesday night on final reading the bill reimposing the death penalty for drug-related crimes.
He said the House of Representatives has given its consent for the State to kill.
“We, your bishops, are overcome with grief but we are not defeated nor shall we be silenced,” Villegas said.
Villegas said, “In the midst of Lent we prepare to celebrate the triumph of Life over Death, and while we grieve that the Lower House has voted for death, our faith assures us that Life will triumph.”
He called on all Catholic faithful and all Filipinos who stand for life to continue the spirited opposition to the death penalty.
The CBCP head also urged Catholic lawyers, judges and jurists “to allow the gentleness of the Gospel of Life to illumine their reading and application of the law, so that their service to society as teachers and agents of the law and of justice may bring life”.
“It is, indeed, that we may have life to the full that the Lord came into our midst,” he added. (Tita Roces)
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