CBCP President calls on Priests to leave Politics alone and stop ‘Homily Abuse’

The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines approached his “sibling clerics” on Maundy Thursday to stop “lecture manhandle,” or conveying “chaotic, ill-equipped” sermon before their assemblage.

In a Facebook post, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas such instructions are among the “numerous misuse among the church.”

“Simplicity means resisting to use the pulpit as a means to get back at those who oppose us – patama sa sermon. Simplicity also demands that we keep divisive election politics away from the lectern. Simplicity in homilies means not desiring to make people laugh or cry – that is for telenovelas and noontime shows,” he said.

He added: “The simple lifestyle of priests is the homily easiest to understand.”