The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, damaged as it was in history, is one of the institutional casualties of Gloria Arroyo’s War To Keep Herself in Power. The Fortress by the Pasig has done well, using classic tactics to damage whatever reputation is left out of the Church.

The relationship between Arroyo and the Church started amiable enough. One of the pillars of EDSA 2 and she the recipient of that premeditated and premature action (legally), the crack began showing in the tumultous year that is 2004. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines at that time concluded that the elections were clean and peaceful, contrary to the popular belief. By being implicitly complicit with Arroyo, the Church’s reputation has somehow been tarnished.

The impeachment fiasco of 2005 showed no improvement on the outlook of the Church. While the CBCP called for a search for the truth, many felt that the pastoral statement issued back then fell short of what it was expected to say. Then there was a change in leadership of CBCP. The outgoing president of that group was seen to be an Arroyo apologist, and there was hope that the new president would be a better replacement. Also in this year, Arroyo and the Church were drifting away from each other.

This year, which is fast becoming a repeat of last year, the Fortress has utilized a two-prong approach on how to neutralize the Church’s influence on the public. Basically, the Fortress’ aim is to further reduce the public’s trust on the Church as an institution. The attacks are either subtle or brazen, or both.

First, it courted the support of the bishops by doling out cash and other help in the runup to the CBCP plenary this month. Many bishops came out in the open, decried the obvious bribery ploy, and condemned such a foul attempt. Many bishops also saw nothing wrong with the doleouts. Thus, the plenary was divided on how to come up with a pastoral statement. The idea of a consensus, to me, is more of a compromise than a true consensus. And we will probably never know the effect of the doleouts in the voting at the CBCP plenary. You know what happened next.

Second, those who refused the doleouts and seen as against Arroyo are painted as destabilizers. The instruments of these attacks – the NBI, Raul Gonzalez, Lawrence San Juan, disgruntled jueteng witnesses – claim that several bishops are in cahoots with destabilizers. While most of the bishops deny the accusations, the damage has been done.

The disunity of the princes of the Church reflects the division of our society, and the evolution of our social norms and values. And the net effect of the two-prong approach is the tarnishing of the reputation of the Church as an institution. The Fortress has shown that if it cannot coopt an institution, it will rather reduce it to disrespute. It has coopted the Congress, the Comelec, the military, the civil society. And while it has coopted some members of the CBCP, it cannot stifle the opposition. Thus the attack on the reputation of the Church as a whole.