Padre Damaso And The 'Condom Summit'

So the 'Philippine Condom Summit' has begun minus the acrimonious language from the embattled Catholic Church leaders who threatened to excommunicate the President and defy the legal program to give Filipinos freedom of choice in planning their family size.

The agreement forged at the condom summit's low profile start was for Church and State to keep communication lines open.

Their positions are not necessarily poles apart but with Philippine population ballooning, and Filipinos unwilling or unable to use the Church mandate for natural family planning (limiting sexual contact based on the female spouse's fertility cycle) the use of condoms by men and IUDs or birth control pils by women simply cannot be banned by the Church.

The Catholic Bishops Conference Of the Philippines that it cannot afford to be friar-like and intractable lest it become further alienated from the people.

The long sought Reproductive Health Bill is almost sure to be enacted in the 15th Congress and it will do good for the CBCP to actively participate in harmonizing the bill's five versions.

Many believe that even the passage of a divorce law will come sooner rather than later... and further into the future - legal abortion.

These weightier issues will surely be hard-fought and socially divisive.

For now, the Philuppine Catholic Church must regain the trust and confidence of its flock by actively helping fight poverty, and corruption.

This includes dipping into untaxed coffers to fund shelters for street children, broaden access to its exclusive schools and owning up to the immorality and other abuses of some of its own priests.

The stigma left by Padre Damaso must be erased for the Catholic Church to be embraced anew by its flock.

Coming Soon: The Condom Summit?

The Catholic Church, long held as THE DOMINANT (if not domineering)influence in the life of Philippine society which is variously estimated as 90-98% Christian, has tempered somewhat its widely reported threat to excommunicate Pres. Aquino, and by implication, other Catholics who will subscribe to the governments "freedom of choice" program making condoms and other contraceptive options to Filipinos.

No less than CBCP president, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, 'clarified' at week's end that his excommunication remark was "misreported" by the usual whipping boy - the news media.

Responding to the 'clarification, Malacanang is restating its readiness "to dialogue with the Church."

We do not know yet what form the 'dialogue' will take but we think there won't necessarily be 'Condom Summit' but a more politically correct packaging.

One party who is not changing his tune is tourist guide and Twitter activist Carlos Celdran whose Padre Damaso-dressed-as-Jose-Rizal stunt gave face to many Filipinos sentiment over the Church's seeming violation of the constitutionally-enshrined separation of State and Church.

Of course not everyone praised Celran with not a few saying he not just disrupted the religious service at Manila Cathedral.

"Celdran insulted us and disrespected our faith," quite several dear friends told your Midfielder.

They may actually be correct in trashing the disrespectful stunt Carlos used to deliver his message... but I think the message itself warning against what I'd call the dangerous return of the 'friar mentality'cannot be blithely ignored.

So Celran was allowed to post a P6,000 bail for his temporary freedom in relation to the charge filed by a security guard of the Manila Cathedral.

Given the upcoming Condom Summit (pardon the pun), I foresee the case's withdrawal to finally clear the air.

To its credit, the Aquino administration is marking its 100th day in office by preventing a full blown public quarrel with the Catholic Church.

A footnote: CBCP knows obly too well that quite other influential Christian denominations have seen their flock swell in recent years if not decades, not least among them the Iglesia Ni Kristo and the so-called Born Again congregations of El Shaddai and Jesus Is Lord whose "Servant Leaders" continue to nurture presidential dreams.

Civil Disobedience VS Free Choice?

Let’s be blunt.

With our population growing ballooning by one million souls each year and 9 in 10 statistically listed as Christians, just exactly how long will the Catholic Church continue to figuratively, and literally, have its cake and eat it too???

The Church’s threat to wage a campaign of civil disobedience over the State policy of giving the citizenry free choice in the matter of planning their family, including getting government-funded condoms, smacks of outright meddling in governance and the delivery of health services.

This is not to argue against the teaching that children are God-given blessings nor is this a brief for practices that are lead to the abortion of fetuses.

But how is it the our religious shepherds can meddle in secular concerns while ignoring the harsh reality that that they are failing in the primary task of educating, nay, guiding and making their flock follow the Catholic edict that parents’ temper their reproductive urges, whether or not induced by love, with their practical capacity to raise their innocent progeny.

Sure the Church runs token shelters and orphanages, but the truth is the countless children neglected or abandoned by their Christian parents become street urchins who beg for a living while also being victimized by criminals, pedophiles included!!!

Oh sure, there are schools run by religious orders but we are only too familiar with how the high matriculation fees further elitism in the educational system if not Philippine society as a whole.

I wish we had ready statistics about how parochial schools impact on the educational system.

But in the main, what leaves this writer disconsolate, if not angry, is the fact that our Catholic shepherds are loudly sounding like promoters of a theocracy while being unable to minister to the herd in meaningful and life changing meanings ways.

Civil disobedience against lawful government laws and programs?

This I’ll have to see.