Last Saturday, the so-called “Moon Glow” phenomenon where the moon was supposedly in its brightest and nearest (356,577 kms away) to earth and thus would trigger more earthquakes and tsunamis have come and gone, and California is still intact despite the predictions that the San Andreas Fault would break and California would sink into the sea. Whew!
Indeed these are jittery times and we are just getting too many prank stories in either the Internet or in our text messages. But like what we wrote last Saturday, cataclysmic events can be averted through prayer and proof of that is Father Abraham’s “negotiations” with God not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if he could find a pious man there. In the end, God destroyed those two biblical cities. So what we really need is for us Filipinos to turn back to God through prayer. I heard that the Japanese government refused Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III’s offer of $14 million. At this point, if there is anything that the Japanese need, it is our prayers for their people.
At this point, we cannot do anything anymore if our country is hit by a huge earthquake. We just have to implore God’s divine mercy that no such disaster would befall our beloved nation. Nobody can predict where this world is headed for. The unrest in the Middle East has sent oil pump prices soaring all over the world. Now the international community with the support of the Arab League has given the go-signal to enforce a “No-Fly Zone” over troubled Libya and last Sunday the bombing of Libya has commenced. How this dramatic event would end, we really don’t know.
For sure the unrest in the Mideast has sent home thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were forced to leave their comfortable jobs and return to their homes. But this presents two major problems for our country, first a sharp reduction in the remittance of OFWs (which used to be in record highs) and second, these jobless people join the ranks of our new graduates in a very limited job market. In times of trouble, we Filipinos always turn to divine providence, giving our trust in the Lord that he would take care of our people and our country.
Perhaps we should ask… is God pleased with us? Let me say clearly that if we continue to displease God by going against his will, we too could suffer a cataclysmic natural disaster. By going against God’s will, I’m referring to that still controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Last week, an unheard of group that calls themselves “Catholics for RH” had a meeting at the ALU Building at the Cebu Port Area. Let me say to those so-called Catholics that they are better off joining other Christian faiths if they do not obey the tenets and doctrines laid down by the Catholic Church. Now where did these people come from? I have never ever heard of the existence of this group until the controversy of the RH Bill blew into town?
Hence I would like to make an appeal to the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to make an official statement denouncing this group for their effort in trying to deceive our Catholic brethren into believing that they are sanctioned by the Catholic Church. I gathered that this group is aligned with the US-based Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) which the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) already denounced. This group is part of that grand deception that taking contraceptive pills, condoms or IUDs which are all abortifacient is part of a woman’s human rights. No one has any right to kill the innocent and the unborn.
As our fellow STAR columnist Atty. Jose C. Sison wrote in his column last Monday, “Being the last country standing against this threat, there is an urgent need to stop it. So let us heed the call of Cardinal Rosales and join the prayer rally at the Luneta on March 25, 2011, 4:30 pm, the feast of the Annunciation, also the Day of the Unborn Children. This promises to be “another EDSA at the Luneta.” Indeed, all the nations that embraced an RH Bill ended by upping the ante with a divorce and eventually a law allowing abortion. I dare say, let us show to the world that Filipinos are God-fearing and will not succumb to pressure from the western world as it is not in our culture.
Last Saturday during the Feast of St. Joseph, around 50,000 or so Catholics joined the Penitential Walk for Life with the pro-life groups that walked from Fuente Osmeña down to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. I must confess that I really did not have much faith in our fellow Cebuano Catholics that they would join this church activity… more so that it was hampered by the rains last Saturday. But they came by the thousands! It was to be the biggest attendance in Cebu against the RH bill. They all came from various parishes, complete with placards against the RH Bill. If Cebuanos have shown the right path for our country, I’m sure Manila can come up with a much bigger number of people who will be against the RH Bill.
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.