Church seeks justice, healing amid calls to end drug killings

Catholic bishops attend Mass in Cebu City. FILE PHOTO

MANILA— The Catholic hierarchy has appealed for justice as well as ‘healing’ from the country’s violence, as the recent killings of three teenagers triggered public outrage.

Following Tuesday’s meeting in Manila of the permanent council, the highest governing body of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, they said “the toll of ‘murders under investigation’ must stop now”.

“In the name of God, stop the killings! May the justice of God come upon those responsible for the killings!” the prelates said in another statement signed by their president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

“For the sake of the children and the poor, stop their systematic murders and spreading reign of terror! In memory of those killed, let us start the healing of our bleeding nation,” they appealed.

Their statement did not mention any politician by name, but criticized the “remorselessness” by which even minors are executed under the government’s ruthless drug war.

President Rodrigo Duterte has earlier said there will be no let-up in his campaign against narcotics trade until the last drug personality is punished.

“We stand firmly against drugs and the death drugs have caused, but killing is not the solution of the problem,” the bishops reiterated.

“The healing must begin. Caring must be restored. Compassion must be active. Communion must be gained back. The rule of law must prevail,” they added.

The church officials also called for an end to the “indifference” toward extrajudicial killings, and calling on the faithful to fight “the darkness not with spark of bullets but with the light of Christ”.

“We beg for prayers and we ask for a change of heart in all of us,” the bishops also said. CBCPNews