(Gabriel L. Cardinoza. The Manila Times).
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said on Tuesday that the Catholic Church cannot support the bill legalizing divorce in the country because “it makes legal what to us is a transgression of Christ’s sovereign will.”
“The existence of a divorce law will not render divorce a moral option for Catholics for whom it will always remain contrary to the Gospel and to the constant teaching of the Church,” said Villegas in a pastoral letter posted in his social media page on Tuesday.
The pastoral letter was Villegas’ reaction to the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, which was approved in its third and final reading last week by the House of Representatives.
Villegas is a former president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
“While we may not have the power to thwart the passage of a law that would legalize divorce by legislators minded to pass it, it nonetheless remains the duty of every Catholic to catechize and instruct fellow Catholics and brothers and sisters in other faith-communities the reasons why we cannot support [it],” said Villegas.