New CBCP pastoral letter calls for the end of lockdowns

This new pastoral letter released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) calls on educators, seminary professors and seminarians, the Catholic faithful and the non-Catholics to discern the truth behind the appearance of seemingly unstoppable increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The CBCP reminds us that we are naturally endowed with a powerful defense against all kinds of pathogens and urges the reader to nurture and make full use of this natural immune system. The pastoral letter encourages its faith communities to be critical of the false narratives present in media reports and the unscientific and unreasonable policies relating to COVID-19.

The CBCP also tasked Catholic colleges and universities  to make available scientific studies relating to COVID-19 in order to help educate the public from the plague of baseless fears and unnecessary anxieties. The letter urged the Catholic communications network to disseminate a holistic perspective so that responsible and reasonable voices may be heard, even when the insights presented are contrary to the mainstream narrative. Lastly, the letter called on its media arm to “hold on to and protect…freedoms of thought, movement, speech, and assembly”.

For non-Catholics, the CBCP makes the following call: to the media, for a balanced coverage of the COVID-19 crisis; to government officials to utilize new scientific insights and lessons from global experiences in handling the epidemic, and for a focused strategy that protects the most vulnerable; to parents and teachers to ensure the balanced growth and formation of their children in these extraordinary times.

Editor’s Note: The following pastoral letter is a powerful call for freedom. In case we are forgetting, lockdowns were never meant to be long term – it was simply a move to prepare our hospital system for the surge in COVID-19 cases [a surge that never came due to the erroneous Ferguson model, see More Data Gathered, More Proof That Early Fatality Estimates Were Massively Exaggerated, and Death Rate, Science, Lockdown, Fear, The “New Normal”, Vaccines, Social Control And The Immune System].

Five months of lockdown has programmed us into submission. For if we are not programmed, why would we allow the government to continue with lockdowns when there is increasing evidence that it never worked [see Norwegian Health Chief: The Lockdown Was Not Necessary To Control COVID-19 and Countries once praised for their handling of pandemic now suffering from “new” outbreaks]? Why would we willingly use face coverings without question when even the WHO does not recommend it for the general public [see What Does The WHO Say About Masking]? Why would we willingly allow the continuous destruction of our economy and our society, causing widespread suffering among our fellows?

Those of us who have comfortable homes have chosen to hide inside them, thinking that the unseen “enemy” will leave us unscathed. But there is no unseen enemy, because the enemy is within us. We have created our own prison by our refusal to see the light being offered to us [see Science has spoken: End the lockdown and No Need To Panic Over Infection Numbers: Deaths Continue To Decrease]. The SARS-CoV-2 virus simply showed us the kind of people we are, and the fragility of the foundation our societies are built on. All the destruction we see today – overcrowded hospitals, overworked medical professionals, massive poverty and hunger, and failing economy, excessive panic and anxiety – all these are due to our desire to control something that does not need to be controlled.

The death toll of COVID-19 today is at more than 773,000 globally, but the number of individuals suffering, their spirits slowly dying, is so much greater. Just look at the number of people experiencing isolation and depression, and those who are forced into hunger. Are we content to live our lives hiding inside our homes? Do we want our children to grow up without appreciation for the God-given beauty that are outside the four walls of their home? Do we feel great wasting away hours, day, and months that we will never get back? Is this the kind of life we dreamt of living? Is this the kind of life we want to pass on to our children?

In a previous blog Nicanor said, the first step to ending lockdowns is by freeing ourselves from fear [see END THE LOCKDOWNS: Stop it outside by ending the lockdowns inside us]. For the sake of our children, and the remaining ember of life pulsing within us, it is now time to break free.