Pope Benedict xvi speaks to all Filipinos

Yesterday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer came up with a headline news "Pulse: 69% Fa-vor RH Bill" which just gives us an idea of how the foreign lobby money must have reached Pulse Asia just to show that more Filipinos support the RH Bill. But all these are nothing but a pack of lies… as we don't even know where Pulse Asia collated their latest information about the RH Bill. More importantly, I'd like to know whether this is true or not?

Coincidentally, the Vatican Press came up with a story that Pope Benedict XVI received prelates from the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) who visited Rome. Pope Benedict XVI told the visiting Filipino prelates, "To be such a leaven, the Church must always seek to find her proper voice, because it is by proclamation that the Gospel brings about its life-changing fruits. Thanks to the Gospel's clear presentation of the truth about God and man, generations of zealous Filipino clergymen, religious and laity have promoted an ever more just social order. At times, this task of proclamation touches upon issues relevant to the political sphere.

This is not surprising, since the political community and the church, while rightly dis-tinct, are nevertheless both at the service of the integral development of every human be-ing and of society as a whole. As the same time, the Church's prophetic office demands that she be free 'to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine…and also to pass moral judgments in those matters which regard public order whenever the fundamental human rights of a person or the salvation of souls requires it. In the light of this prophetic tasks, I commend the Church in the Philippines for seeking to play its part in support of human life from conception until natural death, and in defense of the integrity of marriage and the family.

In these areas you are promoting truths about the human person and about society which arise not only from divine revelation but also from natural law, an order which is accessi-ble to human reason and thus provides a basis for dialogue and deeper discernment on the part of all people of good will. I also not with appreciation the Church's work to abolish the death penalty in your country."

The Pope continued with this statement, "A specific area in which the Church must al-ways find her proper voice comes in the field of social communications and the media. It is important that the Catholic Laity proficient in social communications take their proper place in proposing the Christian message in a convincing and attractive way. If the Gos-pel of Christ is to be a leaven in Filipino society, then the entire Catholic community must be attentive to the force of the truth proclaimed with love." I look at the Pope's statement as a call for all Catholics to unite and support the Catholic Church, especially in its fight against the RH Bill. This is why I find that group that calls themselves Catho-lics for RH Bill so very and totally hypocritical.

Finally, Pope Benedict emphasized the Church's mission of proclaiming the life-giving word of God and her commitment to economic and social concerns, especially with re-spect to the poorest and the weakest in society. He said, "The Church in the Philippines takes a special interest in devoting herself more fully to care for the poor. It is heartening to see that this undertaking has borne fruit, with Catholic charitable institutions actively engaged throughout the country.

Many of your fellow citizens, however, remain without employment, adequate education or basic services, and so your prophetic statements and your charitable actions on behalf of the poor continue to be greatly appreciated. In addition to this effort, you are rightly concerned that there be an ongoing commitment to the struggle against corruption, since the growth of a just and sustainable economy will only come about when there is a clear and consistent application of the rule of law throughout the land."

While I was reading the Pope's message to the visiting CBCP Prelates, I thought that Pope Benedict might as well be addressing this message to our politicians, especially those who still claim to be Catholics, yet they refuse to support their own church at the time that they are needed the most. Indeed, there are just too many hypocritical Catholics within our midst.

Meanwhile, in the Senate front, Majority floor leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto last Friday expressed his opposition to the Aquino government's plan to allocate P880 million for family planning, specifically for the purchase of artificial means of contraceptives. Sena-tor Franklin Drilon did not deny this question by Sen. Sotto and rightly pointed out that doing so is in direct violation of the Philippine Constitution, which recognizes the sanc-tity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. So the RH fight in the Senate has already begun!

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