Some Catholic bishops had ordered their priests not to give communion to politicians who support the bill on reproductive health, population control and sex issues. However not all their priests agree. One of them, Fr Robert Reyes, the running priest, accused the bishops of falling into the trap of selective morality. There are other issues to face and the Filipino bishops concentrate in coercing the legislators to drop the bill, which tries to stem the runaway growth of the Philippine population. Since the voting public is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, they may yet succeed.
Excommunication has been a thing of the past. Except for those thoroughly conditioned and indoctrinated, leaps of faith are common among the masses. People change religions or religious sects through political or economic persuasions or whatever. Politicians, the most pragmatic of the professionals may toe the Church line because of the Catholic vote. They may have to trade moral or intellectual dishonesty for political survival. But their hearts would be elsewhere.
The Philippine population is almost 90 million. Our annual growth rate is 2.6% one of the highest in Asia. According to the Unicef, the Philippines have a fertility rate of 2.4 children per woman, one of the highest in the world outside of Africa. As of the present, we are almost 90 million and by 2025 we would reach the 130 million mark. With dwindling natural resources, it is possible that we will experience food and gas riots, which are now happening in some parts of the world. Overpopulation, uneven distribution of resources and the lowering of the standard of living would become a problem of epic proportions.
The Catholic Church failed to make a distinction between contraception and abortion. Abortion is murder. Definitely. A living being is killed. However, prevention of the union of the male and female reproductive cells does not fall under this category. A cell, part of a living being is not the living being since it cannot live by itself. It can exist for a while but it cannot live for long. There has been arguments about when a fertilized cell becomes a human being, whether at the time of fertilization or after it had developed to a certain stage.
The Church advocate the rhythm technique, the "natural" way, which means avoiding the union of the reproductive cells of both sexes by timing the copulation during the periods when the female is not fertile. The biological urge is one of the most powerful forces in nature. This stems from the instinct of the preservation of species. To the undisciplined, restraint is for the birds.
To make things more difficult, determination of the fertility cycle of a human female is very intricate even to the most educated. To complicate things further, the Church frowns upon "artificial" means of preventing the fertilization union either by physical – using condoms or diaphragms, by vasectomy or tubal ligations or by chemical means – using contraceptives pills, injections or using spermicides.
The Catholic Church is facing modern times and modern moralities. Sex education in schools is nonexistent. Despite all the laws and taboos, more and more neonates have been found on garbage dumps or thrown out of the windows. Sociologists see this crime as example of the weakening of our moral fiber. A US President once said that the doctrines of the placid past may no longer be applicable to the turbulent present, Vatican II under Pope John XXIII did bring the Church up to the present times but there are those who say that was not enough.
The ban on the use of contraceptives is canon law, they say. However, canon law is not dogma. Physical and spiritual welfare cannot be separated since the human being is both. Overpopulation could wreak havoc on our spiritual outlook. There have been opinions that most of the poor countries in the world are predominantly Catholic. We hope it is not true. - published by Sunday Post
Excommunication has been a thing of the past. Except for those thoroughly conditioned and indoctrinated, leaps of faith are common among the masses. People change religions or religious sects through political or economic persuasions or whatever. Politicians, the most pragmatic of the professionals may toe the Church line because of the Catholic vote. They may have to trade moral or intellectual dishonesty for political survival. But their hearts would be elsewhere.
The Philippine population is almost 90 million. Our annual growth rate is 2.6% one of the highest in Asia. According to the Unicef, the Philippines have a fertility rate of 2.4 children per woman, one of the highest in the world outside of Africa. As of the present, we are almost 90 million and by 2025 we would reach the 130 million mark. With dwindling natural resources, it is possible that we will experience food and gas riots, which are now happening in some parts of the world. Overpopulation, uneven distribution of resources and the lowering of the standard of living would become a problem of epic proportions.
The Catholic Church failed to make a distinction between contraception and abortion. Abortion is murder. Definitely. A living being is killed. However, prevention of the union of the male and female reproductive cells does not fall under this category. A cell, part of a living being is not the living being since it cannot live by itself. It can exist for a while but it cannot live for long. There has been arguments about when a fertilized cell becomes a human being, whether at the time of fertilization or after it had developed to a certain stage.
The Church advocate the rhythm technique, the "natural" way, which means avoiding the union of the reproductive cells of both sexes by timing the copulation during the periods when the female is not fertile. The biological urge is one of the most powerful forces in nature. This stems from the instinct of the preservation of species. To the undisciplined, restraint is for the birds.
To make things more difficult, determination of the fertility cycle of a human female is very intricate even to the most educated. To complicate things further, the Church frowns upon "artificial" means of preventing the fertilization union either by physical – using condoms or diaphragms, by vasectomy or tubal ligations or by chemical means – using contraceptives pills, injections or using spermicides.
The Catholic Church is facing modern times and modern moralities. Sex education in schools is nonexistent. Despite all the laws and taboos, more and more neonates have been found on garbage dumps or thrown out of the windows. Sociologists see this crime as example of the weakening of our moral fiber. A US President once said that the doctrines of the placid past may no longer be applicable to the turbulent present, Vatican II under Pope John XXIII did bring the Church up to the present times but there are those who say that was not enough.
The ban on the use of contraceptives is canon law, they say. However, canon law is not dogma. Physical and spiritual welfare cannot be separated since the human being is both. Overpopulation could wreak havoc on our spiritual outlook. There have been opinions that most of the poor countries in the world are predominantly Catholic. We hope it is not true. - published by Sunday Post
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