As your bishop,\u00a0I must exercise my obligation\u00a0to\u00a0inform you about\u00a0several pending bills in our Legislature that will\u00a0affect the common good if enacted into law. \u00a0These pending bills deal with gambling.<\/p>\n
Leadership in a community is a sacred trust.\u00a0It is the responsibility of everyone in the community\u2014but particularly the leaders in the community\u2014to pursue the common good for the benefit of the community. It is helpful to remember that the common good refers to those circumstances which allow us to become that which God created us to be. \u00a0Thus the common good includes not\u00a0only economic benefit but cultural, educational, spiritual, moral and material development.<\/p>\n
Part of the role of the Church is to be a moral guide. That is, the church must help the community discern\u00a0what is the best path to take as it establishes policies and laws in pursuit of the common good, based on the principles found in the Gospels.<\/p>\n
In discerning the morality of various acts several criteria can be used. A particular act can be seen as inherently good, neutral, or evil. An inherently good action\u00a0should be pursued. An inherently evil action should be avoided. A neutral act should be considered in light of additional criteria. Saving a life or helping someone in dire need would be an inherently good act. The taking of innocent life, as in murder, is inherently\u00a0evil. <\/p>\n
In its desire for a sustainable economic and tax base the CNMI\u00a0leadership\u00a0has flirted with commercial gambling for decades. This often has taken the form of poker machines and casinos. Gambling has traditionally been considered by the\u00a0church to be a morally neutral act. The criteria that are applied is an examination of the consequences of this technically neutral act. That is, what impact does commercial gambling have on the community? Does it promote the common good? Does it work against the common good?<\/p>\n
Regarding the various proposals, the church has consistently opposed the various forms of commercial gambling that have been proposed for the CNMI.\u00a0Commercial gambling has been a consistent source of problems for many people in the local community who have\u00a0suffered from gambling addiction, loss of property value due to proximity to gambling establishments and increased crime rates.\u00a0Karidat\u00a0and our clergy have had\u00a0firsthand experience\u00a0over the decades in trying to help persons who have been negatively impacted by commercial gambling. It is because of this experience and the negative consequences of commercial gambling that the church has opposed commercial gambling in this community.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, a zoning law was passed which provided for commercial\u00a0gambling but limited it to specific areas that would focus on the tourist industry and avoid the negative consequences it has had on the local community. This seemed a reasonable compromise. Recently the Legislature passed H.L.B. 20-48,\u00a0which rezones previous residential areas into mixed commercial\/residential areas, with the intention of allowing commercial\u00a0poker establishments\u00a0in residential areas. It appears that this bill will undo the compromise embodied in the current zoning law. Further, the bill was passed without public hearings and contrary to the recommendation of zoning professionals.<\/p>\n
As bishop of the people of God in the CNMI, I respect the right of the Legislature to pass laws regulating public life in the CNMI, even if I disagree with certain measures,\u00a0such as the expansion of commercial gambling. I respect the right of the governor to sign or veto those bills sent to him by the Legislature and then to enforce those laws. However, as bishop, I request that H.L.B. 20-48\u00a0not be signed into law.\u00a0Allow the community to present testimony and debate the issue by holding hearings on rezoning. Provide an example of real\u00a0leadership, that\u00a0is not afraid to pursue the common good in the light of public scrutiny and debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As your bishop,\u00a0I must exercise my obligation\u00a0to\u00a0inform you about\u00a0several pending bills in our Legislature that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,4374,21,67],"class_list":["post-276853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-hlb","tag-life","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}