BY GERARD NAVAL

MEMBERS of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines are set to hold today a special meeting, the second within a year, at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila, according to Church sources.

The CBCP held a special meeting last February at the height of the $329-million national broadband network project controversy. At the end of the day-long, closed-door special meeting, the bishops issued a statement condemning corruption "in all levels of government" but stopped short of calling for President Arroyo’s resignation.

The CBCP holds a plenary assembly, which is being attended by all of its 130 members, only twice a year, every January and July.

According to one of the sources, all bishops have been invited to attend the meeting which will be presided by CBCP President Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, although their attendance is not a must.

Another source said it was highly probable that among the issues to be taken up during the meeting is the reproductive health bill pending at the House of Representatives.

The bill, which the CBCP is strongly opposing, has not been tackled at the plenary.

The special meeting comes at the heels of the statement issued recently by Lagdameo, as archbishop of Jaro (Iloilo), and four other bishops calling on the public to prepare for a new form of government amid rampant corruption in the government.

The new form of government, Lagdameo has said, must come via radical reforms.

The high-level meeting also follows the testimony yesterday of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante, tagged the main architect in the diversion of the P728-millin fertilizer fund to the campaign funds of President Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections.

Lagdameo, in his homily at the 2nd National Basic Ecclesial Community Congress in Cagayan de Oro City, said Church leaders are also partly to blame for the country’s problems.

Lagdameo told fellow prelates attending the congress the Catholic Church has failed to initiate transformation and renewal in the society in various aspects, such as in liturgy, catechesis, social action, politics, communication, bible apostolate, vocation or temporalities.