The last time our beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal launched a signature campaign in all the parishes of the Cebu Archdiocese was a couple of years ago to crush the Sugbuak group who wanted to dismember the Province of Cebu into four separate provinces. The Cebuanos responded positively to the Cardinal’s call and last year, Governor Gwen Garcia launched the One Cebu Political Party winning a massive majority in that election. It virtually put an end to the political ambitions of those last termer members of Congress.
Pissed at the blatant attempts by our members of Congress in trying to push the controversial Reproductive Health Bill no.4110 or Senate Bill no. 2325 “Act providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development, and for other purposes” Cardinal Vidal has once again launch a signature campaign rallying Cebuanos against the enactment of this proposed RH Bill.
The RH Bill has had a gestation period of 10 years. It was known then as House Bill no. 17, 812, 2753, 3970 and now it is 4110. The numbers have changed, but it is still an Act providing for a national policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development, and for other purposes. Aside from confusing the Filipino people with different numbers for this proposed bill, the title of this act in itself is deceptive because it talks about population development. But we know that the bottom line for this proposed bill is for population control!
This was clearly pointed out in a forum on Economics three weeks ago at the University of San Carlos (USC) by my former teacher Prof. Ernesto Pernia who is now an Economics Professor in UP who spoke about the Economy and the Fuel-Food Crisis. Towards the end of his speech, he openly declared his support for the Reproductive Health Bill while chastising the Catholic Church for blocking the gov’t’s population control program.
The very next day, USC held a forum on Reproductive Health. That makes two days of people speaking about the wonders of Reproductive Health. It has taken more than 10 years for Congress to have this bill approved because the Filipino people, the majority of whom are staunch Catholics do not embrace this bill because our population growth is not the cause of our poverty! It is the wanton corruption of taxpayer’s money that prevents the government from educating our children because there is not enough money to build schools and buy books and pay for teachers, all because the money earmarked for this has been stolen!
But economists like Dr. Pernia insist that our poverty is caused by our poor people making more babies than they should and chastising the Catholic Church for blocking the government’s population control programs. I believe that this was the last straw that made Cardinal Vidal decide that the time has come for those in the Catholic Church to stand up and be counted. This signature campaign seems to be limited to the parishes and that our Catholic Schools will not be joining the signature campaign. Why?
If there is anything that surfaced because of this ongoing debate on Reproductive Health, it has brought into the open a serious rift inside the Catholic Church. Many in the clergy including those in the Religious orders no longer accept the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. I know of professors teaching modernism or relativism inside formation houses or Seminaries, the very same modernism and relativism that no less than Pope John Paul II had condemned a long time ago!
In 1990, Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae wherein he called upon Catholic Colleges and Universities to renew their commitments to the doctrinal teachings and intellectual traditions of the Church. Back then, the Pope already knew that many Catholic Schools were only Catholic in name but in their teaching, they espoused modernism and relativism.
What does Pope Benedict XVI say about this? He spoke before American Catholic Universities last April 17, 2008 and said, “Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.” Are Catholic schools still teaching the doctrines of the Catholic Church? If not, they should stop saying that they are a Catholic school. Perhaps the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) should start to look at the problems of the Church!