Saturday, September 06, 2008 Manila church begins signature drive vs RH bill
THE archdiocese of Manila has started a signature campaign endorsing the church’s stand against the reproductive health (RH) bill pending before the House of Representatives.
In a circular to all parish priests and chaplains in the archdiocese dated August 28, 2008, Manila chancellor Fr. Rufino Sescon said the action was decided upon at the August meeting of the clergy of Manila.
He said Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales also insists that proper catechesis on the Responsible Family Planning according to church teachings should accompany, if not precede, the presentation of the position paper to the people for signing.
“We must adequately teach our people the scriptural, theological and even scientific foundations of our position,” Sescon said in the circular.
The circular also urged the priests to intensify the Family and Life Ministry in their parishes and chaplaincies.
According to Sescon, the method of implementing the signature campaign has been left to the priests in exhausting all means available to have the signature campaign reach the most number of people in the archdiocese.
Following is the Position Letter being presented for the signature campaign:
We stand by the Church as she (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) respectfully signifies her strong objection to the contraceptive program the Bill promotes, considering the practices which it shall engender.
We call the attention of lawmakers to the knowledge about the abortifacient nature and effects of contraceptives that violate the provisions in the Philippine Constitution on the protection of the life of the unborn from the first moment of fertilization/contraception.
Moreover, the Church also poses serious objections, in that this contraceptive program, while supposedly championing the cause of women, ignores the proven harmful side effects of contraceptives and the instances where woman’s rights are violated.
We fault the Department of Health for the disregard of, and mere “lip service” it pays to, Natural Family Planning (NFP). Greater promotion of the more scientific and unarguable morally superior option for the NFP must be done. Both Sacred Scripture and Reason propose that the best form of birth regulation is self-discipline.
The six years of value-free sex education that the Bill proposes violate the rights of the parents to keep watchful guard over the moral education of their children. The modules are not an education to sexuality, which is needed, but are information on how to have sex and use contraceptives.
The Church also strongly opposes the use of the term Reproductive Health as defined in the Bill, as the bottom line is that Reproductive Health is made synonymous with abortion packaged as a method of family planning.
Finally, the Bill as well as the Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2009 is setting aside more than P2 billion of tax payer’s money for the purchase of contraceptives. This is money that could instead be used to provide education, livelihood and basic public services.
Likewise, the circular also included their commitment:
* To pray for the lawmakers who champion life, as we pray even more for those who we ask not to look upon the rational being that is the human person as a mere being;
* To engage ourselves in intensive catecheses on the family, enshrined in Paul VI’s “Humanae Vitae” and John Paul II’s “Evangelium Vitae;” and
* To appreciate “the discipline of the desert” that we may be strengthened to withstand the fleeting attraction offered by a materialistic-oriented lifestyle.
The Catholic Church is opposing the RH bill authored by Representatives Edcel Lagman, Janette Garin, Narciso Santiago III and Ana Theresa Hontiveros-Baraquiel. (FP/Sunnex)
