THE late Jaime Cardinal Sin declared, “Politics is not dirty. It’s good.  It is ordained for the common good of the people.  It is the people who practice politics who make it dirty.” 

It was the Cardinal’s voice that called on the Filipinos to go to EDSA in February 1986 to protect the military and government men who were defecting from the dictator.  The late Church leader made his mark in Philippine politics.

What is politics, after all?  It is good governance and authentic public service -- this is its truest definition.  It is not a dirty thing to be avoided.  It is what we need to put order in our society.  “The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his first encyclical.

The Pope further stated, “A just society must be the achievement of politics, not the Church.”  The Pope called on the laity to take up the cause of a just society by participating in politics.  He wrote, “The direct duty to work for the just ordering of society… is proper to the lay faithful.”  This is the gospel of politics.

And this call to participate in politics extends to every citizen.

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