Church denies refusing communion

CEBU — The Archbishop of Cebu denied reports that the Catholic Church has refused to give communion to health workers actively campaigning for the government’s Ligtas Buntis program.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, the archdiocese’s media liaison officer, told The Freeman that the Catholic Church has been very vocal in opposing Ligtas Buntis, but it "has not refused to give communion" to anyone supporting the program.

The Catholic Church has been reminding the public only to stop committing what the Church has deemed immoral, he said.

The Catholic Church has branded the promotion of artificial family planning methods as "anti-life."

The Ligtas Buntis program, or other similar family planning campaigns, should include warnings that people would become sinners if they patronize artificial methods, Dakay said.

He likened this to cigarette advertisements that warn smokers that smoking is dangerous to their health.

He, however, clarified that the Church warnings against "anti-life" practices are not refusal of the sacrament to the public.

"Refraining from receiving communion is not the same as refusing to give communion," he said.

Dakay clarified that if a person thinks he had sinned, then it is already up to him to refrain himself from receiving the Holy Eucharist.

Dakay said the "excommunication" issue is borne out of "misinterpreted" reasoning.

He said excommunication is an act prohibiting a person from getting inside the church, and such an act has not been imposed so far against anyone actively promoting "anti-life" programs. — Freeman News Service