Vatican pressured Filipino bishops to stay clear of moves to oust Arroyo—WikiLeaks

MANILA, Philippines—The Vatican did pressure Filipino bishops to remain neutral and not support widespread calls for the ouster or resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal in 2005, according to US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

A confidential cable

(https://www.wikileaks.org/cable/2005/07/05VATICAN500.html) dated July 15, 2005 stated that Msgr. Luis Montemayor, country director for the Philippines under the Vatican Secretariat of State, confirmed to Brent Hardt, deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires of the US Embassy to the Holy See, that the Vatican, through papal nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, “pressured the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to remain neutral in the controversy surrounding Arroyo.”

“[Montemayor] told us that although the Vatican’s preferences on the matter had never been a secret, Franco had for the first time on July 9, 2005 explained in no uncertain terms to the CBCP that the Vatican did not support popular uprisings as a method to remove a government,” Hardt said.

Another confidential cable

(https://www.wikileaks.org/cable/2005/07/05MANILA3202.html) dated July 12, 2005 and sent by Joseph Mussomeli, deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Manila inquired into reports that Franco “scolded” the Catholic bishops during their plenary conference, which resulted in a pastoral statement on July 10 that did not call for Arroyo’s resignation.

Mussomeli said “a Church contact” Bishop Romulo de la Cruz of San Jose de Antique, told an embassy political officer that Franco, in his address to the conference on July 9, 2005, advised the bishops that they should stay clear of political entanglements per Vatican policy, but did not “scold” them in any way.

Hardt quoted Montemayor saying that “we put a lot of pressure on the bishops” not to support the protests calling for the Arroyo’s resignation. Montemayor also said that Vatican “insisted that the bishops distinguish between pastoral care and political involvement.”

Montemayor, now an archbishop, is currently papal nuncio to the West African states of Senegal, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, while Franco is the current nuncio to Israel. De la Cruz is currently the bishop of Kidapawan.

Hardt is the now the US chargé d’affaires for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean while Mussomeli is the current US ambassador to Slovenia.

Montemayor, who had covered the Philippines since 2001, emphasized that he had always opposed Catholic clergy’s involvement in popular uprisings against the government, according to Brant.