Let them multiply

One evening in the mid-Fifties, I was with the visiting American socio-political critic, Sidney Hook, at Alba’s, the restaurant in Ermita. At the next table, four friars in their white cassocks were finished with their meal and were drinking and smoking. Because they were quite loud, Sidney asked who they were and I said they were Spanish friars. He snorted, “How can they convert you with those big fat cigars!”

The other evening while I was watching on TV a discussion on the opposition of the Catholic bishops to the use of contraceptives in family planning, I was reminded of Sidney Hook’s comment. Friars with big fat cigars, and now, bishops without a profound knowledge of procreation objecting to contraceptives only because a very conservative Pope condemned it — both images are caricaturesque, incongruous, and anachronistic.

Furthermore, it would seem as if those good bishops and the Church, which they control, seem far removed from the pervasive poverty in this country, the hundreds of homeless right here in Manila. They were not sleeping on the sidewalks before, now two families are sleeping right in front of my bookshop!

The princes of the Church must realize it is not so much the population but the poverty they should attend to — they must act forcefully on that ancient encyclical, the Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. Europe was then at the apex of the industrial revolution. In a sense, Marxism, which ushered in the communist movement, was hardly different from what the encyclical attacked — the unfettered individualism which powered capitalism caused the impoverishment of the workers and bolstered the tyranny of the capitalists. It was therefore the duty of government to strengthen labor, pass laws that would protect the lower classes from the rapacity of the wealthy.

Years afterwards, on May 15, 1931, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (In the 40th Year) as an extension of the Rerum Novarum. The new encyclical, which was subtitled “Reconstruction of the Social Order,” is a thorough and moral analysis of the burgeoning economic order that had ushered in communism and the dangers as well of unrestrained capitalism. While the Pope condemned the loss of freedom and human dignity that were both explicit in communism and fascism, he was just as critical of capitalism that denied resources to small enterprises. The encyclical argues for dignity and freedom and since ethics is religious in nature and origin, it is within the Church that action is not only necessary but also righteous.

To these, we may add that it is only those with admirable courage and ethical belief who can restore justice in such an oppressive society. In the context of our own condition, the Church should condemn the profligacy of the oligarchy. The evidence of their recreance is there for everyone to see — the absence of the very rich in the recently published list of the top highest taxpayers.

Sure, we have a population problem for we have already breached the 80-million population limit that could be ably supported by our resources, as established by a demographic survey in the Sixties. But even so, developments in technology and in agriculture can easily take care of that surplus.

 Item I: Let us go back into the recent history of our part of the world. Before the Communists took control of China in 1949, that vast country had a population of just half a billion — or 500 million. Famine haunted the Chinese every year, and thousands died. Then, after 1949 — sure, there was still plenty of hungry Chinese and during the Cultural Revolution in the Sixties, many died of famine. But now, with over a billion people — more than twice that many Chinese in 1949 — there is no more famine in China although, according to The Economist, some seven percent still experience hunger. Sure, the Communists imposed a one-child rule per family, sure there were many instances when hunger strikes were held — but on the whole, the majority of the Chinese can look forward to better times, even with their growing population.

What this Chinese experience clearly illustrates is that it is not the population as such which hinders development; it is how a country’s leaders rationalize wealth, the country’s resources that promote progress and stability.

Item 2: We have more agricultural acreage than Japan whose arable land is only 20 percent because that country is mountainous. Yet it produces enough rice for its people while to this very day, we continue to import rice in the thousands of tons. And Japan has a population of 120 million compared to ours of 100 million.

Polls indicate widespread approval of the use of contraceptives. A good bishop argued that not everything that the people say is in consonance with God’s wishes. He is right, of course, particularly when we see how the masa elects to office ignoramus movie actors and basketball players. What then is the real meaning of the popular saying Vox populi, vox dei  (the voice of the people is the voice of God)? Is the voice of a fallible Pope the voice of God?

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales has a perceptive social outlook; his initiative in savings by the masa, for instance, is laudable and should be institutionalized by banks and by the government itself.

The Catholic Church is not impoverished. It could do much more for the many who are poor. In the cities, for instance, it can provide soup kitchens for the hungry and, where spaces are available, provide shelters for the homeless to sleep in at night and vacate in the daytime. This really should be done by city officials, but forget it. They do not care.

 For years, the brilliant economist Bernardo Villegas has been arguing that with its huge population, the Philippines has a mass market. The weakness in his expectation is obvious — the masa doesn’t have the thousands to buy the goodies which industry is supposed to make. But they have the pesos to buy cell phones, which explains the fat profits of the communication companies.

Businessman Endika Aboitiz also argues that our population should bring us blessings, not problems because all over the industrialized world, particularly Japan, the populations of these wealthy countries are diminishing. And they will need all the young and cheap labor which the Philippines and other developing countries can provide.

Again, the fault of this argument is that we have millions of workers, true, but they have no training for the specialized jobs in the West.

And that perceptive political scientist Wilfredo Villacorta concluded that upper and middle-class Filipinos need the masa for their housemaids, drivers, and common peons. In fact, he goes on to say that some Filipinos purposely keep progress away from the masa so they can be a steady pool of cheap labor. Well said, for in affluent societies, only the very, very rich have servants.

The good bishops cannot be blamed for their desire to conform with doctrinal purity, but at times like now, it is best for them to focus on more immediate problems — the moral malaise which hobbles Filipinos, the rapacity of our elites, the low quality of education provided by our schools, both public and private.

As for President Noynoy Aquino, here again is another test of his character. He should stand firm in keeping secure the constitutional proviso separating the church from the state.

The Catholic Church and all thinking Filipinos should realize that our foremost obstacle to development is an oligarchy which controls the wealth of this country without any sense of social responsibility.

We will certainly fall victim to the consumerist dystopia which is on the horizon, a fate which can only be avoided if today, there are enough men of untarnished moral strength to see to it that capitalist domination of the environment is curbed, that people should be able to live simpler lives, knowing that life and this planet are finite, and so are we, and that we cannot bring anything with us to the grave.

The determination to abolish poverty springs not from an economic or social ideology but from a deep moral conviction such as that which the Church or profound religious faith can engender. And thank God, there are so many people endowed with this compassion — obscure priests and nuns, followers of other faiths, and just ordinary people who care.

Both encyclicals mentioned here affirm the commitment of the Church to help the very poor. The princes of the Church can very well be true to what the Vicar of Rome had ordered them to do, but to be credible, they must never be seen with those big, fat cigars.