When I immigrated to Canada in the 70s, I did not focus on the religious affiliation of then Prime Minister Trudeau. I was more concerned with the setup of the Canadian government and its democratic process.  What I liked about it was that it has a system that respects the freedom and rights of its citizens, something that was lost in my old country and which motivated me to emigrate. Surprisingly, of the ten Prime Ministers who occupied Sussex Drive in Ottawa, the present occupant included, only one is not Roman Catholic, but Christian nonetheless, belonging to the Anglican denomination. This was a bonus to me, being a Roman Catholic myself. I like living in a place where the people are governed with a conscience and not in terms of personal gains derived from the exercise.

I consider myself lucky in that I wasn’t born before the 17th century when church and government representatives were sharing the task of governing the land. I look at it as a messy situation, characterized by invoking the name of God in every legal wrangle. In 1632, English philosopher John Locke wrote about the concept of church and state separation. He argued that the state has no authority to control a person’s conscience. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, thereafter wrote “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” making the separation of state and church in the US official. Canada has no formal document discussing the separation of church and state.  Instead, its courts have gradually used this idea in implementing the basic human rights of freedom of religion and prohibition against religious discrimination.  

The Catholic Church has always had a tumultuous history but I have learned to separate the human from the divine aspects of this institution. For example, the sex abuses surrounding the clergy may shock everyone but I attribute these to man’s weakness. Humans are flawed, even people of the cloak. In the year 2000, when Pope John Paul 2nd started drawing a list of apologies for the church’s behaviour during the past two millenniums, I applauded this humbling gesture coming from the leader of the world’s biggest religious following. Since he assumed the papacy in 1978, he has apologized for the crusades, the massacre of French Protestants, the trial of Galileo and anti-semitism, the church’s role in the African slave trade, the sins committed against Jews, women, heretics and native people. During his 1983 visit to Managua, Nicaragua, he was photographed scolding Father Ernesto Cardenal for his political involvement in the Sandinista government which crossed that line separating the church from state activities. Father Cardenal sat in political posts under the Sandinista government.

In the 47 years that I have lived in this country, I have observed our politicians steer away from anything related to religious issues unless they they violate the basic human rights of freedom from discrimination, freedom of thought and religion, freedom of opinion and expression, and right to assemble – all of which directly relate to any religion, not just the Roman Catholic’s. The existence of a Separate School Board to educate Roman Catholic children even has been challenged more than once but because this is written in the constitution, it was left alone for now. The only way to eliminate this is to amend the Canadian constitution which would require a monumental undertaking. For the record, teachers in the Separate School Board get the same training as those in public schools. So maybe, this temporarily halted the move for its elimination.

As a rule, I don’t talk about my faith but every now and then, I like engaging with a Muslim who like me immigrated to Canada. My old country has a Muslim community in the south. Eleven percent of the Philippine population are Moslems, Islam is the second-largest religion in a predominantly Christian country. In 1987, the Philippine government created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which last year became Bangsamoro, an autonomous region south of the Philippines. This acknowledges the existence of that 11% of the Moslems in the Philippines whose main deity is Allah. Without the initiative of the Philippine government and the cooperation of Moslem leaders, this would not have been possible, given the fact that when I left the Philippine military was warring with the Moslems in Mindanao. When I think about this, it basically translates into Filipinos fighting against their countrymen over recognition and acknowledgement of their religious beliefs.

At this time in my life, I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I chose correctly where to settle and spend the rest of my life. In Canada, I can practice my religion at the same time engage in political activities without impinging on either one.