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The
Catholic Church, through such declarations as the
encyclical Humanae Vitae, categorically opposes
artificial contraception—particularly abortion. This,
however, does not mean that family planning, population
management and related issues are no longer hotly
debated among the clergy and the laity.
In the
Philippines—as in other predominantly Catholic
countries—a line exists between those in the upper
reaches of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and those who
work closer among the flock in thousands of parishes
across the archipelago. Church authorities tend to hew
strictly to the letter of canon law, while those who
serve among the poor and the powerless are more
concerned about the practical implications of Catholic
teaching.
In
reaction to a bid by several congressmen to finally pass
what they call the Reproductive-Health Bill—after nearly
16 years of trying—several bishops have brandished the
Church’s ultimate weapon: excommunication. This might
sound ridiculous to outsiders unfamiliar with the
realities of Philippine politics, but in this country,
such medieval threats are not taken lightly.
Expulsion from a religious congregation ought not to
matter in our Republic that claims to be secular and
espouses the libertarian principle on the separation of
Church and State. In fact, the First Philippine Republic
emerged from the ashes of the revolution against
colonialist Spain and resistance to imperialist America;
it was led by a generation of young ilustrado who
were rabidly antifriar and, in many cases, Masonic.
Notwithstanding its historical roots, the Philippines is
now a country where the vast majority of voters are
Catholics—nominally, at least—and where bishops, priests
and nuns have helped turn the tide in favor of popular
uprisings. Politicians can ignore the threat of
excommunication, albeit resonant of the Inquisition,
only at their own peril.
Having
tasted the proverbial blood in 1986 and 2001, Church
leaders are not about to abandon their political
activism, notwithstanding frequent reminders from the
Vatican for them to temper their roles. They have
developed the mindset of stakeholders, ever ready to
speak out against what they see as the excesses of a
government they helped mightily to raise to power.
The jury
is still out on whether such ecclesiastical involvement
in state affairs would ultimately serve the Philippine
state in good stead. However, not a few
Filipinos—including those who regard themselves as
faithful sons and daughters of the Church—are beginning
to feel uneasy about the clergy’s meddlesomeness. To be
sure, they share their bishops’ objection to abortion,
which cuts short fetal development often violently.
Still, they are not entirely convinced that artificial
contraception—which physically or chemically prevents
the union of sperm and ovum, and, therefore, the
creation of the fetus—is an equally abdominal violation
of Divine Will.
Even
within the clergy, certain priests are not entirely
convinced that the bishops are wisely expending Church
energy and resources by ranting and raving against the
Reproductive-Health Bill.
Fr.
Robert Reyes, the so-called running priest, noted that
in the raging debate between the congressmen and the
bishops, “those who suffer the most are not heard,” said
Reyes.
In an
e-mail sent to his media contacts in Manila, Reyes—who
now works for the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong
Kong—wrote: “While big words like ‘life,’ ‘conscience’
and ‘law’ are being bandied about, an imp, a little
pesky god called convenience, is romping about. The
focus on population and threats of excommunication are
convenient tools favoring those it means to favor,
which, unfortunately, do not include the poor.”
Another
clergyman takes Church authorities to task for not doing
enough to ease the plight of poor couples saddled with
burgeoning households.
Fr.
Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, law dean of San Beda College,
wrote in a recent newspaper column that “if the Catholic
Church wishes the faithful to shun what it considers to
be unacceptable means of preventing births, then there
should be two priority items on its agenda. Catholic
health-care institutions should be more aggressive about
educating couples on natural family-planning methods.
Catholic faculties of medicine or health care should put
more into research toward refining these methods and
making them more convenient to the average Filipino.”
The
Benedictine priest added: “I remember that, at one time,
some perfunctory gesture in this direction consisted in
the distribution of thermometers designed to aid women
in determining periods of ovulation. These were
distributed to bishops who, in turn, distributed them
without much ceremony or instruction to priests who were
at a total loss as to what the thermometers were for,
how they were to be used and what to read from them.”
Aquino
concluded: “I do not think excommunication will go very
far in realizing what should be, to my mind, priority
items on the Church’s agenda. Priestly formation,
especially in respect to intellectual and academic
formation, might be a more promising concern. When the
average priest, for example, is asked by a member of his
congregation what the matter is with using condoms or
taking pills, with what arguments is the priest in the
parish prepared? Or is he even prepared at all?”
Amen to
that. |
