FOR SO long – albeit intermittently – has the nation been in contentious talks, if not contemptuous confrontations, about the Reproductive Health Bill.
In the short existence of this paper – gaining independence and basing here in October 2007 – no less than six editorials have dealt on the RH Bill.
With the pros and cons girding for what is considered their final confrontation, allow me to present my take on the issue here with what I consider the editorials that best impacted the pith of the issue.
What problem?
“POPULATION, WHEN unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical rate. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison to the second.”
A sort of a demographic god did the 19th century English economist and historian Thomas Robert Malthus become with his Essay on the Principle of Population.
Not too hard really for us ordinary minds that high population growth is one hell of a problem.
It depletes a country’s resources.
It impacts tremendously on the environment.
It severely depresses the provision of social services.
“The power of population is superior to the power of the earth to provide subsistence…that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.” So warned Malthus.
A warning that is not lost to those vigorously pushing for the reproductive health bills in Congress, rattling off some statistics to boost their case:
The 2.36 percent population growth rate has “put 2.6 million babies at risk in view of the evolving and intensifying food crisis.”
According to Reuters, there were more than 473,000 induced abortions in the country in 2000 – a rate of 27 abortions per 1,000 women which is above the US average rate of 20.
The high population growth rate adversely affects efforts to reduce poverty incidence.
So how do you solve the problem of population growth? By engaging the Church in a debate on the reproductive health bills in Congress?
“We want the debate to be more clear-headed. And I suggest four questions, and if (the Church) answers “No” to these questions, then (it) should support the bill,” dared Felipe Medalla, former director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority. The questions are:
Should the government do nothing to help women, especially the poorest and the least educated among them, to plan their families? Should the government do nothing to help women who have unmet needs for family planning? Do you think that modern contraception such as pills, IUD, vasectomy and condoms are immoral? Does promoting these methods promote or increase abortion?
To Medalla: “(The Church) has two options: To be unclear, or to be clear and wrong.”
Medalla, sadly, got it all wrong. The Church has another option. The revered Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz has put it most succinctly thus: “High population is the country’s asset, not a liability.”
Even Malthus will find that hard to crack. So, how do you solve a problem that is not a problem?
Rage for life
“IT IS not the health or dignity of the family that is being defended here. It is greed and profit motive that is the main goal of this conspiracy against life.” Thus spake the Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D., archbishop of San Fernando as he enjoined his flock to “fight the culture of death, the anti-life conspiracy… the Reproductive Health Bill.”
The good archbishop, chairman of the commission on family and life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, sounded the call to arms on a most auspicious day — September 8, in Catholic tradition the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in Pampanga, the 52nd canonical coronation anniversary of the Virgen de los Remedios (The Virgin of all Remedies), the patroness of the province. He was main celebrant at the Mass offered by some 30,000 devotees at the Villa del Sol subdivision in the City of San Fernando.
Apu Ceto charged that the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008, which promotes the use of modern contraceptives, was part of a global conspiracy against life. That which the Catholic Church is morally mandated to oppose, as it accepts only the natural form of contraception.
The day after the archbishop’s call, all 91 parishes under the Archdiocese of San Fernando were reported to have mobilized to gather at least a million signatures from Catholics in the province against the RH Bill.
“We have given out the forms. We will gather at least one million signatures against the RH bill,” Apu Ceto was reported as saying.
Expected to be completed in two months, the million signatures from Pampanga along with similar manifestos and position papers will be consolidated by the CBCP to be presented as a strong lobby against the RH Bill at the House of Representatives.
A fight for life, this is one war Apu Ceto and the Catholic Church will never give up.
“Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
…At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
…Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity…”
Onward then to March 27, 2011, Sunday, 1 p.m. at Villa del Sol Quadrangle, City of San Fernando for the Crusade of Penance for Life and Peace.
In the short existence of this paper – gaining independence and basing here in October 2007 – no less than six editorials have dealt on the RH Bill.
With the pros and cons girding for what is considered their final confrontation, allow me to present my take on the issue here with what I consider the editorials that best impacted the pith of the issue.
What problem?
“POPULATION, WHEN unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical rate. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison to the second.”
A sort of a demographic god did the 19th century English economist and historian Thomas Robert Malthus become with his Essay on the Principle of Population.
Not too hard really for us ordinary minds that high population growth is one hell of a problem.
It depletes a country’s resources.
It impacts tremendously on the environment.
It severely depresses the provision of social services.
“The power of population is superior to the power of the earth to provide subsistence…that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.” So warned Malthus.
A warning that is not lost to those vigorously pushing for the reproductive health bills in Congress, rattling off some statistics to boost their case:
The 2.36 percent population growth rate has “put 2.6 million babies at risk in view of the evolving and intensifying food crisis.”
According to Reuters, there were more than 473,000 induced abortions in the country in 2000 – a rate of 27 abortions per 1,000 women which is above the US average rate of 20.
The high population growth rate adversely affects efforts to reduce poverty incidence.
So how do you solve the problem of population growth? By engaging the Church in a debate on the reproductive health bills in Congress?
“We want the debate to be more clear-headed. And I suggest four questions, and if (the Church) answers “No” to these questions, then (it) should support the bill,” dared Felipe Medalla, former director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority. The questions are:
Should the government do nothing to help women, especially the poorest and the least educated among them, to plan their families? Should the government do nothing to help women who have unmet needs for family planning? Do you think that modern contraception such as pills, IUD, vasectomy and condoms are immoral? Does promoting these methods promote or increase abortion?
To Medalla: “(The Church) has two options: To be unclear, or to be clear and wrong.”
Medalla, sadly, got it all wrong. The Church has another option. The revered Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz has put it most succinctly thus: “High population is the country’s asset, not a liability.”
Even Malthus will find that hard to crack. So, how do you solve a problem that is not a problem?
Rage for life
“IT IS not the health or dignity of the family that is being defended here. It is greed and profit motive that is the main goal of this conspiracy against life.” Thus spake the Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D., archbishop of San Fernando as he enjoined his flock to “fight the culture of death, the anti-life conspiracy… the Reproductive Health Bill.”
The good archbishop, chairman of the commission on family and life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, sounded the call to arms on a most auspicious day — September 8, in Catholic tradition the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in Pampanga, the 52nd canonical coronation anniversary of the Virgen de los Remedios (The Virgin of all Remedies), the patroness of the province. He was main celebrant at the Mass offered by some 30,000 devotees at the Villa del Sol subdivision in the City of San Fernando.
Apu Ceto charged that the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008, which promotes the use of modern contraceptives, was part of a global conspiracy against life. That which the Catholic Church is morally mandated to oppose, as it accepts only the natural form of contraception.
The day after the archbishop’s call, all 91 parishes under the Archdiocese of San Fernando were reported to have mobilized to gather at least a million signatures from Catholics in the province against the RH Bill.
“We have given out the forms. We will gather at least one million signatures against the RH bill,” Apu Ceto was reported as saying.
Expected to be completed in two months, the million signatures from Pampanga along with similar manifestos and position papers will be consolidated by the CBCP to be presented as a strong lobby against the RH Bill at the House of Representatives.
A fight for life, this is one war Apu Ceto and the Catholic Church will never give up.
“Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
…At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
…Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity…”
Onward then to March 27, 2011, Sunday, 1 p.m. at Villa del Sol Quadrangle, City of San Fernando for the Crusade of Penance for Life and Peace.
