THE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), led by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, has directed its dioceses to offer their facilities, rectories and services for the rehabilitation of drug dependents.

Villegas issued the directive in a statement Tuesday titled “Our country and our faith” even as he expressed concern over reports that high-ranking officials could have been involved in the drug trade.

He said CBCP urges pastors to engage the services of qualified guidance counselors and psychologists who are active in the service of the Church.

The statement also described daily reports of suspects and detainees shot by law-enforcers supposedly because nanlaban sila or nang-agaw ng baril as very disturbing and distressing.

A government cannot “credibly claim that it is waging a relentless war on drugs to preserve life – while in the process abetting, encouraging or fomenting the destruction of life thought – wrongly – to be unworthy!”

CBCP also denounced illegal gambling in all its forms, opposed its legalization and appealed for concerted police and local government efforts to stop it.

It also called on communities to vigorously combat the expansion of organized and systemic legal gambling, such as e-bingo, small town lotteries, and casinos.

And while reiterating its support for an end to discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, the bishops said they “sense a threat to the institution of marriage and to the family…proposals that make same-sex unions analogous to and treated in the same manner by the law as marriages!”

CCBCP also reiterated its opposition to the bill to restore the death penalty quoting Pope Francis that “death penalty does not render justice to victims, but instead fosters vengeance.”

The CBCP statement also emphasized need to strengthen family in view of teen-age pregnancies, of substance-abuse, of school truancy, even of suicide by youngsters all point to dysfunctional families.

They urged caution and circumspection in the enforcement of the recently passed RH Law, insisting that parents make responsible choices both in respect to the number of children and to the spacing of births.

Also, CBCP acknowledged President Duterte’s “heart for the poor” as commendable and his swift action in addressing the everyday concerns of the poor is evident and urges businessmen and entrepreneurs “to generate not only wealth, but, more importantly, well-being for our people.”

“The concept of “corporate social responsibility” has been a welcome development in the re-moralization of business and of the market but must be anchored in genuine solidarity with all, especially society’s weakest and most vulnerable,” they pointed out.

CBCP said it supports the President’s resolve to end contractualization because it is “concerned about the travails of those who work under contracts that make use of them for a time – but guarantee that they never get to enjoy the benefits of permanent employment.”

There is no moral justification for the exploitation of the working Filipino, and for denying the laborer the benefits of permanent employment,” CBCP said.

In issuing the statement, Villegas said they are aware that many would rather that they desisted from public statements, especially in the wake of unpleasant incidences in the recent past.

“We have a Gospel to preach. We have the person of Jesus to proclaim. We will do so, in season and out of season. We are enemies to none. We endeavor to be merciful,” he said.  “We, your bishops, acknowledge our own faults. We know we are sinners. Our failings are always before us. Repeatedly, we have begged for forgiveness for our own shortcomings and sins. But though wounded – and perhaps, precisely because of our wounds – God entrusts to us the yoke of the Gospel and commands us to preach it to all the world,” Villegas intoned. (Tita Roces)

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