POLITICALLY CORRECT OR INCORRECT? PRIESTHOOD AND POLITICS

By Fr. Casmir Odundo 

“For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.” 2. Tim 1: 7

The Priesthood is a great gift and a great mystery. God has a reason why he called men and not angels into the priesthood. A priest is first of all a human being. He is a man. A citizen of a nation, he may even come from an ethnic community. But over and above that he is a man of God. A man of the church and a father of all. Jesus, the model of our priesthood, also belonged to a nation and a tribe. This belonging to a certain community though it may seem like a disadvantage, is a great advantage to the priest and to the life of the church. It means that the priest like Jesus is “incarnated”, fully human and shares the burdens of the people. 

The situation in Kenya is quite unique because different dioceses have different demographics and different political dynamics.  Many Kenyans still vote on tribal lines and sometimes that affects how they see a priest, especially pre- and post-election time.  The situation is different in dioceses where the people are more or less homogeneous (belonging from one ethnic community) and in dioceses that are heterogenous where there are many people from different communities. The more communities the better. And the more the priests from different communities the better. In two dioceses in Kenya for example, there are diocesan priests incardinated who have Indian origin. These priests give a sense of pride and belonging to these minority indian communities. Over and above that, I must say that the Catholic Faithful in Kenya have deep respect and veneration for all clerics irrespective of the origin or the place where they come from.

So, are priests allowed to participate in political life? The Code of the Canon Law prohibits Catholic clerics from assuming public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power. (Canon 285, § 3) So a priest cannot present himself for political office. Though we know that few certain exemptions have been permitted in this regard. 

The directory of the ministry and the life of the priest says that “The priest, as servant of the universal Church, cannot tie himself to any historical contingency, and therefore must be above any political party. He cannot take an active role in political parties or labour unions, unless, according to the judgement of the ecclesiastical authority, the rights of the Church and the defence of common good require it. In fact, even if these are good things in themselves, they are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state since they can constitute a grave danger of division in the ecclesial communion. 

Like Jesus (cf Jn 6:15 ff.), the priest "ought to refrain from actively engaging himself in politics, as it often happens, in order to be a central point of spiritual fraternity".All the faithful, therefore, must always be able to approach the priest without feeling inhibited for any reason. 

The priest will remember that "it does not fall on the shoulders of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in political activities and in social organisations. This task, in fact, forms part of the lay faithful vocation, in which they work by their own initiative together with their fellow citizens". Nevertheless, he will not be absent "in the effort to form in them an upright conscience".  (The Directory of the ministry and the Life of Priest, 2013 n.33).

So is the priest to bury his head in the sand, and completely distance himself from the political affairs of the people? During his homily of Chrism Mass, this year (2022) that came immediately after the elections in the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Buenaventura Villegas of Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Philippines had this to say:  

Archbishop Socrates Villegas

“We as priests are also citizens of the Republic. We were not born priests. We were born as infant boys. Because we are priests, we are called men of God. A man of God must also be a good man of the motherland. We are Pro-Deo and Pro-Patria. Love of country is one of the forms of showing love for God. Our country and our citizenship are God's gift to us. We must be good stewards of this motherland as we are stewards of the Mother Church. 

Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? What Belongs to Caesar? But Caesar and God and God are not co-equal. Because Caesar is from God and will account before God in due time. 

Our critics and those who do not understand what being a priest means want us to stay confined with cult and worship. They like the smell of incense, but not the odour of inhuman poverty. They like the sight of candles lit in churches but want us to ignore the gunfire against the innocent. They want us to say that Jesus is the truth, but they want us to keep quiet about the lies in cyberspace. They want us to feed the poor, but they get angry when we ask why they are poor? They want us to decorate the churches, but they want us to keep quiet when the image of God is one who is defeated, defaced among his children. 

As priests we do not want to be anti or against anybody. We simply want to be the builder of a great affirmation. The affirmation of God who loves us and who wants to save us. That is who we are. This is who we are. We are priests, yes, but we are Filipinos too. Willing to live and die for God and country. 

Those who hear us speak against the misuse of power in society. Those who hear us challenge that unbridled use of public money, those who get angry when we condemn vote buying, those who find nothing wrong with killing the poor…Desperately ask, how can we get rid of this troublesome priest. That is what unfortunately King Henry said of Thomas a Becket. That is what the Knights of this king heard and drove them to hack the head of the archbishop. His brain became red with blood and his blood became white, mixed with his splattered brain. For God and for the country, I will lay down my life. 

As priests, in every project we begin, in every dream we pursue, in every statement we make our starting point is Christ. Economists begin with money in mind; politicians begin with civil power as goal; builders begin from the architect's design. For us priests, our starting point is Christ, only Christ, always Christ. If politics is without Christ, we must bring Christ there. Do not worry, God cannot be damaged and blasphemed when we bring him to politics. On the other hand, politics will be very dirty and sinful, if we do not leave politics before the feet of Christ the King. Our goal is not victory in the elections, that is too short sighted and myopic. Our goal is to bring godliness to governance. Believing that godly governance will bring us closer to the plan of God. Jesus said, a thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy, I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly. So, we will rebuke as we support. We will commend as we reject. That is what Christ in politics means. That is what a Pro Deo and Pro Patria priesthood means. But we have to remember that as priests we are not strategists, we are not tacticians, we are not interested in votes, but if we convince even one voter to vote for Christ, then we have won, Christ has won.” Said the Archbishop. 

Personally, I believe that the question should not be if a priest should participate in politics but the role of a priest in politics. A priest is a man of God and a man of the Church. But a priest, especially a diocesan priest lives his priesthood not in heaven but in the world. He shares the joys, the burdens and the pains of the Christians. If for example a pandemic like Covid-19 comes, then we as priests are not immune. If the prices of fuel and the costs of living go up, it also goes up for the priest. For those of us who have had the privilege of living abroad, we know the benefits of having good governance. In the end the lives of our Christians are uplifted. 

A priest in the contemporary world as envisioned by the fathers of the Vatican II Council is called to be a minister of the word, a minister of the sacraments and a leader of God’s people. In performing these tasks, a priest will find himself also exercising a prophetic ministry. A prophet is not a weatherman: his work is not to tell us merely about the future whether it will rain or not. A prophet lives in the present and interprets God’s will. 

In the bible we have examples of Great prophets who lived out their religious roles. The prophet Elijah stood out and condemned King Ahab and Jezebel for corruption and death of the poor man Naboth. He had to suffer because of this but God protected him. Another example is the prophet Nathan who confronted the King David when David and laid bare his sins: adultery and murder.  Prophet Amos from the South was sent to condemn the corruption in the North. He suffered a lot because of this. We have other examples like Jeremiah who suffered a lot because of prophesying the Babylonian captivity. We may not exhaust the list here.

We also know that other than the true prophets. We also had many false prophets. These false prophets far outnumbered the true ones. We are told that Jezebel had thousands of false prophets of Baal. These false prophets were loved because they prophesied what the people and the kings wanted to hear. In other words, they were frauds. But there was a very thin distinction between the true prophet and the false prophet. 

The last of the prophets was John the Baptist. His end was tragic as he was put in prison and decapitated for condemning the infidelity of the King in taking the brother's wife. John the Baptist was a martyr of the family. He also spoke against many evils in the Jewish society then. 

In the modern world we can speak of modern-day prophets. An example is Cardinal Sin of Manilla who was instrumental in the peaceful, “People Power” revolution of 1986 that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos as well as the 2001 EDSA revolution.  We can also talk of Pope Paul VI as a prophet with his teaching on Humane Vitae in the 1960’s at the height of the sexual revolution. We cannot forget Pope John Paul II and how he helped end communism in his country Poland. 

Closer at home we remember the likes of Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, who opposed President Jomo Kenyatta to his face regarding the controversial oath in 1969.  In the same year he also criticized the government following the assassination of Tom Mboya. Another is Bishop Ndingi Mwana a Nzeki, who, as our first Bishop in Nakuru opposed the oppressive Moi regime to the core. 

Archbishop Ndingi

To be a priest in the contemporary world is very difficult because often you will have to make a choice. The choice you make, whether to speak for or against, can easily be interpreted on the basis of political affiliation. “He is saying this because he supports so and so…” or He is saying this because he belongs to a certain tribe. Some priests, perhaps in dilemma or fear of being politically incorrect have resolved to be silent on these matters. The most comfortable position for a priest will be to keep silent. But there are situations when even keeping silent means choosing a side, siding with the oppressors. We recall the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the priest and the Levite who wanted to perhaps be politically correct, passed by and abandoned the victim. The Social teaching of the Church is clear on where a priest should stand in case of a dilemma. The church teaches the preferential option of the poor. The word poor here is broad, it implies not only the materially poor but also the oppressed, the minority, the victims. Though the church is clear that we priests should not participate in politics. No Christian ought to remain neutral in the face of abuse of power. 

The priests have an obligation to teach the truth and do so objectively. They have an obligation to form consciences. They have an obligation to remind the faithful that a wrong is a wrong even if it is committed by your favourite political leader or party.  They have to remind Christians that they are not fans of political parties or leaders but actually citizens and therefore should hold them to account. The priests have an obligation to speak about the sanctity of human life. They have an obligation to condemn abortion, mysterious deaths and anything that seeks to take away human life. They have an obligation to preach about unity, condemn tribalism and discrimination, exhort values such as respect for leaders and elders. They have an obligation to probe the integrity of leaders appointed to state offices, they must speak about electoral injustice, women's rights and corruption.

In doing this the priest will probably not please everybody. There will be attempts to compromise him, to warn him or even to silence him as they did to the prophets. But a priest must always remember that his mission is not to be liked by people. He is not a coin to be accepted by everyone. After all, Jesus said, blessed are those persecuted because of righteousness' sake. It is a great privilege to be a martyr for truth.

The author is a Priest of the Diocese of Nakuru Kenya and currently a MA student at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome.