Public Religion and Basic Ecclesial Commnunities (BECs) in Action: A Case Study of the Community-based Rehabilitation (CBRP) of our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Camarin, Caloocan City

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Political Science, major in Global Politics (Thesis Track)

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Mr. Millard O. Lim

Abstract

Most of the scholarship on the relations between religion and politics in the Philippines provide an elite-centric approach, focusing on the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Going beyond this perspective, this thesis conducts a case study on the Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation Program (CBRP) of the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Camarin, Caloocan City, focusing on the roles carried out by basic ecclesial communities (BECs) in the program, as a local response to the war on drugs executed by the Duterte administration. It links this local intervention to the wider response of the Catholic Church on the drug war, as evidenced by pastoral letters, statements, and pronouncements of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Utilizing key informant interviews and archival research, it finds that the Church has operated as a public religion through comprehensive mobilization and presents an alternative political discourse through the unified message of healing for both the drug war and the larger issue of illegal drugs in the country.

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