The Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations on Monday stressed the Catholic Church’s position on marriage amid efforts to pass a divorce bill in the Philippine Senate.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, however, clarified that the bill is “principally” a matter to be addressed by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which is holding its bi-annual retreat and plenary session over the weekend.
“Well, the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to marriage is very clear and very well known,” the British prelate said in a press briefing following a meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo in Manila on Tuesday.
Gallagher said there has been no communication with the Vatican and the Philippines, the only two countries in the world where divorce is not permitted, regarding the measure.
“And at the pastoral level, the question is within the competence of the bishops’ conference of the Philippines and the individual bishops,” he said.
Gallagher is set to meet with Filipino bishops at their retreat and preside over Mass at the Abbey of Transfiguration in Malaybalay, a city in the nearby province of Bukidnon, on July 4.
“We, as the Holy See, would obviously encourage Filipino Catholics, particularly their political leaders, to listen to their pastors and to try and offer whatever is the best approach to this. But it is essentially a matter for the bishops, who I will be seeing these days in Mindanao,” the Vatican official said.
“I would presume, because it is an important issue, that they will be discussing it. So we will look forward to hearing from the bishops on this in a matter which is principally of their concern,” he added.
The House of Representatives approved the “Absolute Divorce Bill” allowing the dissolution of marriage on specific grounds on third and final reading on May 22.
At the Senate, the “Dissolution of Marriage Act” has passed the committee level and is undergoing interpellations at the floor.
A number of bishops have publicly expressed opposition to the divorce bill while the episcopal conference’s public affairs body has maintained that divorce is “anti-family, anti-marriage, and anti-children.”
“It’s a betrayal of their constitutional mandate to uphold marriage and the family,” Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs said in May.
The 1987 Constitution considers marriage to be an “inviolable social institution.”
