Happy Easter!
One of the longest religious holidays has to be the Holy Week. In this predominantly Catholic country, the Holy Week and the entire Lenten Season are very important in their religious life that most of their activities during this time are focused on the religious activities required by the church to be observed. The government then deemed it proper to declare Maundy Thursday and Holy Friday as holidays all over the country to give time for the Catholic faithful to observe the religious rituals and activities as prescribed by the doctrine of their church. There is however, the nagging issue on the non-establishment of religion or the so called separation of church and state as enshrined in our Constitution and jurisprudence. Will the principle of separation of church and state be violated if religious activities are conducted within the premises of the government buildings or offices. This was clarified in an administrative case A.M. No. 10-4-19-SC dated March 7, 2017. The question raised by petitioner is: Whether the holding of Catholic masses in the basement of the Hall of Justice in Quezon City violative of the separation of the church and state.
There is no Violation
The Supreme Court said: “Allowing religion to flourish is not contrary to the principle of separation of Church and State. In fact, these two principles are in perfect harmony with each other.” The Supreme Court says that for as long as the religious practice of the employees does not interfere with the discharge of their functions, they are to be allowed. “To successfully invoke compelling state interest, it must be demonstrated that the masses in the QC Hall of Justice unduly disrupt the delivery of public services or affect the judges and employees in the performance of their official functions.” The masses are conducted during lunch break and not during office hours and do not hamper the discharge of governmental functions. “Clearly, allowing the citizens to practice their religion is not equivalent to a fusion of Church and State.” If the activity does not interfere with governmental functions or offend or interfere with the religious activities of other churches or compel other employees to attend or participate in the masses, the state will not stop the same. “As there has been no detrimental effect on the public service or prejudice to the State, there is simply no state interest compelling enough to prohibit the exercise of religious freedom in the halls of justice.” The display of religious images in government buildings are however, not allowed and if ever they are to be used during masses or religious activities, they are to be removed after or covered and not displayed in government buildings. It might appear that the matter has been resolved regarding religious freedom but the future of this matter is actually uncertain. There might be an issue to be raised in the future as to the propriety of the observance of religious holidays since they actually interfere with the delivery of services. No government work is to be done during holidays including religious holidays and those needing immediate government transactions might consider the observance of religious holidays as a delay in the delivery of services. But then, this is an issue for another day. Again, Happy Easter!
