SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga, Philippines—Protect the family. This message rang out in Pampanga on Christmas Day when Archbishop Paciano Aniceto dwelt on the dangers posed by the reproductive health (RH) bill in his pastoral statement that was read in 92 parishes during Misa de Gallo.
Aniceto said the story of Christmas is really a story of a family steeped in God’s love.
But Filipino families are disintegrating due to instances of dissolving love and patience between parents or among parents and children. Aniceto chairs the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
“The second danger is external like liberal and modern ways of population or birth control. Advocates say reducing population will lead to development. This is a big mistake, the effects of which will be on the culture of family. There will be irreversible effects,” said Aniceto in a pastoral message written in Kapampangan.
Among the Church’s perceived ills are the likelihood that people may get cancer from the use of contraceptives.
Aniceto spoke about the elimination of a culture of sacrifice and concern for others when contraceptives become the national norm. He also spoke about fears that contraception may lead Filipinos to treating their bodies as purely physical and material objects.
Referring to Albay Representative Edcel Lagman’s RH bill 96, Aniceto warned that “this danger is now at our doorstep, it’s being talked [about] in Congress.”
According to the bishop, adherents of “population control for development” brought the RH agenda to the Philippines despite its failure in Europe.
“Sex education and contraceptives destroyed the morality of their youth. They don’t listen anymore to their parents. They don’t care anymore about their spiritual development. They do whatever they want to do [against family and social norms],” he said.
If Lagman’s bill becomes a law, Aniceto said, priests, nuns, pastors and lay workers face imprisonment or penalty of P20,000 if they assert religious and moral rights amid provision of so-called reproductive health services.
“Poverty is the result of graft and corruption, wrong governance, lack of industry and infrastructure and injustice. We are poor because we don’t have jobs,” he said.
“Let us pray for our country and our lawmakers so that they will be enlightened on real measures that will make the family safe, strong and progressive.”
He added: “The Pope said the family is the new temple of life. The family is sacred, a gift of God. Let’s protect and respect the family.”
In a speech at the Arellano University in February, Lagman told nurses: “It is a pity that the debate has been confined to contraceptives because the other elements of RH, which will similarly protect and promote the right to health and reproductive self-determination, have been largely ignored.”
Apart from Lagman’s measure, the other RH bills are House Bill No. 00101 (An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and population and development by Iloilo Rep. Jannete Garin); HB 00513 (An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and population and development by Akbayan party-list Rep. Arlene Bag-ao); HB 01160 (An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health by Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon); HB 01520 (An act to protect the right of the people to information about reproductive health care services by Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco); and HB 03387 (An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health for women in development by Gabriela party-list Reps. Luz Ilagan and Emmi de Jesus). -Tonette Orejas, Central Luzon Desk
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