Rereading of Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines’ Pastoral Statement on Death Penalty and its Communion with the State
Authors: Esparagoza Christopher 
Published: October 2022

This paper will identify significant roles of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines as a critical collaborator with the State. Instead of retribution and legal execution, the leaders of the Church in the Philippines are calling the government to encourage non-retribution-based justice; a non-retaliatory principle based on love, mercy and justice being taught by Jesus. Other than theological and Biblical perspectives to support above key points, multi-disciplinary approaches such as juridical, sociological, psychological, criminal justice and other fields of thought will also be used to explain the relevance of the statement of the  Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines as a willing yet critical cooperator with the affairs of the State. 

References

1997. Catehism of the Catholic Church. 2nd. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s.

2010. “The New American Bible.” Vatican Website. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM.

Adams & Bastoy. 2010. “Sentenced to Serving the Good Life in Norway.” Time Magazine. July 12. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2000920,00.html.

Ager, Maila. 2017. “”Pacquiao invokes Bible to defend death penalty.”.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.  January 17. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/863105/ pacquiao-invokes-bible-to-defend-death-penalty.

Amnesty International. 2017. “Amnesty International Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2016.” Accessed January 2019. https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5057402017ENGLISH.PDF.

Angeles, Albert Lee G. 2013. “Wrongful Conviction and the Case for Forensic Evidence in the Philippine Criminal Justice System .” Ateneo Law Journal 1155-1174.

Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD). 2017. “An open letter to Tim Cook: Immediately remove apps that are promoting war on drugs in the Philippines.” Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD). October 10. http://www.anpud.org/an-open-letter-to-apple-ceo-mr-tim-cookimmediately-remove-apps-that-are-promotingwar-on-drugs-in-the-philippines/.

Aurelio, Julie. 2017. “Pope lauds parish-based drug rehab: ‘This is the path to take’.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 22. Accessed July 6, 2019. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/939723/war-on-drugs-drug-rehabilitation-drug-killingsextrajudicial-killings-sanlakbay-luis-antoniocardinal-tagle-oscar-albayalde-pope-francis.

Bandura, Albert. 1977. Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Barkan, Steven E. 2012. Criminology: A Sociological Understanding (5th edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Bernas, Joaquin G. 2009. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines: A Commentary. Quezon City: Rex Bookstore, Inc.

Bureau of Corrections. n.d. Bureau of Corrections. Accessed July 6, 2019. http://bucor.gov.ph.

Catholic Biishops Conference of the Philippines. n.d. “Catholic Biishops Conference of the Philippines News.” Catholic Biishops Conference of the Philippines Statements. Accessed June 25, 2019. http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/category/statements/cbcp-statements/.

_______________ 1998. “Catechism on the Church and Politics.” CBCP Documents. May 11. Accessed January 16, 2019. http://www.cbcponline.org/documents/1990s/1998-church_politics.html.

_______________ 1998. CBCP Media Office. May 11. http://www.cbcponline.net/documents/1990s/1998-church_politics.html.

_______________ 2017. “CBCP Pastoral Statement on Death Penalty.” CBCP News. March 19. http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/cbcp-pastoral-statementon-death-penalty/.

_______________ “Preamble / Constitution.” CBCP Online. Accessed February 17, 2018. http://cbcpwebsite.com/preamble.html.

Delaney, Tim. 2016. Classical and Contemporary Social Theory: Investigation and Application. New York: Routledge.

Fair Punishment Project. 2016. “Too Broken to Fix: Part I, An In-depth Look at America’s Outlier Death Penalty Counties.” Fair Punishment Project.August. http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FPP-TooBroken.pdf.

Falcon, Florio R. February 4, 1991. The Separation of Church and State in the Philippine Constitution: A Myth or a Reality? Manila: unpublished thesis presented to the Faculty of Canon Law.

Francis. 2017. “Address to participants in the meeting promoted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.” Vatican Website. October 11. Accessed July 4, 2019. https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/october/documents/papa-francesco_20171011_convegnonuova-evangelizzazione.html.

Gould, Jon, Julia Carrano, Richard Leo, and Katie Hail-Jares. 2014. “Predicting Erroneous Convictions.” 99 Iowa Law Review 471 489.

Hass, Moloney, Chambliss. 2017. Criminology: Connecting Theory, Research and Practice. London: Routledge.

Hill, John Lawrence. 2016. After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Modern Moral and Political Values. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

Hontiveros, Romeo. 2016. “What is the true meaning of separation of Church and State?” PagadianDiocese. org . May 26. http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2016/05/26/what-is-the-true-meaning-ofseparation-of-church-and-state/.

John Paul II. 1995. Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html.

_______________ 2000. “Jubillee in Prisons.” Vatican Website. July 9. Accessed January 15, 2019. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000709_jubilprisoners.html.

John XXIII. 1963. Pacem in Terris. April 11. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem.html.

Kendall, Diana. 2016. Sociology in Our Times. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. McCrudden, Christopher. 2008. “Human Dignity and Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights.” The European Journal of International Law 19 (4): 656-657.