{"id":201772,"date":"2019-02-11T22:50:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T03:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201772"},"modified":"2019-02-11T22:50:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T03:50:42","slug":"balanga-diocese-bans-campaign-posters-in-church-grounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/11\/balanga-diocese-bans-campaign-posters-in-church-grounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Balanga diocese bans campaign posters in church grounds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Bishop Ruperto Santos said he has issued a pastoral directive to all churches under the diocese that tarpaulins of political candidates are not allowed to be posted in their patios and fences. (File Photo:<\/a> The Roman Catholic Diocese of Balanga – Bataan, Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The Diocese of Balanga is prohibiting the posting of campaign materials in the church premises.<\/p>\n

Bishop Ruperto Santos said he has issued a pastoral directive to all churches under the diocese that tarpaulins of political candidates are not allowed to be posted in their patios and fences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we have pastoral directive that there will be no political tarpaulins in any church patio and fences,\u201d Santos said in an interview on Monday.<\/p>\n

He said they also ordered church workers, who are endorsing candidates for public office, to take a leave of absence from their church commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who is working for political candidate and has any parish position must take a leave of absence from their church duties,\u201d Santos said.<\/p>\n

He added that they are not going to allow any participation of a candidate during a Mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo political candidate to offer during offertory processions,\u201d Santos said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Santos said a march for peace will be held this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn February 16 at 6 a.m. is our march for peace, from capitol to cathedral: political incumbents and candidates, clergy and religious groups, police and civic associations will walk, pray, attend the 8 a.m. Holy Mass and sign peace covenant for honest, clean and peaceful election,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said he did not issue such directive as the faithful know what is prohibited.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo need (to issue an order) because our people know that it is forbidden,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Last December, the Archdiocese of Caceres issued a circular also preventing the posting of any candidate\u2019s or political party\u2019s political advertisement (tarpaulin, banners, stickers, etc.) in church property including political rallies in church premises.<\/p>\n

The order, signed by Archbishop Rolando Tirona also prohibits the conduct of mass weddings, baptisms and confirmation sponsored by any political candidate or political party.<\/p>\n

It also bans the solicitation from political candidates or political parties\u2019 donation for church renovation and constructions or other church projects that may compromise the non-partisanship of the Church during the campaign and election.<\/p>\n

Priests are also not allowed to openly and directly campaign for a particular political party or candidate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 The Diocese of Balanga is prohibiting the posting of campaign materials in the church premises. Bishop Ruperto Santos said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":201800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-patinio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}