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.

CBCP To Question Condom Plans' Constitutionality?

The battle for the hearts and minds of Catholic Filipino couples over the free choice of using state-provided artificial birth control tools like condoms is heating up as the week begins.
Now the Catholic Church says its civil disobedience push will include mobilizing it’s laity groups like the Couples for Christ and even Parish-based organizations while hinting at a formal legal challenge to the constitutionality of the government’s espousal of the U.S.-supported “responsible parenthood” program.

Here’s what’s now on the web site of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (emphasis mine):

Church leaders say ‘civil disobedience a possibility’
MANILA, Oct. 3, 2010—Catholic leaders said civil disobedience is an option that can be considered by the Church should President Benigno Aquino make good of his promise to hand out artificial birth control devices.
Church leaders, in separate interviews said bishops and priests have the moral authority to teach and lead the faithful based on Church teachings.
Aquino has earlier said during a small town meeting in the United States that he may consider contraceptive methods to curb population even though it runs counter to the natural methods being promoted by the Catholic Church.
Artificial contraception is a moral issue and Church leaders said civil disobedience is an important option that maybe considered to bring the Church’s message to the current leaders.
“The Catholic Church in the Philippines can do that if it decides to do that because for one thing, civil disobedience is a moral option, one of the moral options,” said CBCP Secretary General Msgr. Juanito Figura in an interview with CBCP News.
He explained civil allegiance is the respect given by the people to the state and the laws of the state “and according to Church principles, we should do that but according to the same Church principles, if a law or a state policy is against Christian teachings, persons, Christians, Catholics are not bound by conscience to obey that.”
He said this is the very foundation of civil disobedience.
“When a law or state policy or state program is not in consonance with what the faith teaches so from that perspective, if the local church in the Philippines or the hierarchy in the Philippines decide to call for disobedience because of this possibility of enacting the controversial Reproductive Health bill and the distribution of artificial contraceptives the bishops would have a moral reason to do that,” he further added.
Figura said they have not received any call or letter from the Office of the President for a dialogue on the controversial issue although it was published in the papers that an audience with the Catholic bishops is being prepared.
“We have not received any communication so far,” the secretary general said, adding that it may be a good idea for Aquino to seek a dialogue with the Catholic bishops.
The previous administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had a liaison officer who was in constant touch with the CBCP secretariat.
But Figura said he is not sure if the present government “would appoint somebody to the position.”
CBCP Media Director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said only once it happened in the history of CBCP that the Church called for civil disobedience.
“Since the CBCP was established in 1945 until today there was just a single event that called for civil disobedience and this was after the February 7, 1986 snap elections,” Quitorio said.
But the actual civil disobedience did not take place because it was “overtaken” by events.
He emphasized that the CBCP has not called for any mass action so far.
Quitorio said he doesn’t know of any forthcoming meeting with President Aquino and the archbishops and bishops to discuss the controversial issue.
On his part, San Fernando de Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, expressed alarm on the statement President Aquino’s made while in the United States.
“Alam kaya ni Presidente Noy na marami sa artificial methods na iyan ay abortifacients na ang ibig sabihin ay they were designed not only to prevent conception but terminate a conceived child because once you already have a fertilized embryo you already have a human being,” the prelate explained.
The prelate said the 1987 Constitution guarantees the protection of the unborn as it is the duty of the state from the moment of conception.
“It is therefore unconstitutional to promote methods that terminate conception,” he explained. He said the country’s leadership seems bent on following the templates from highly developed countries which already backfired and failed.
“These countries have already taken a new approach to population management because they have already experienced a demographic winter,” the 51 year-old prelate added.
He said these developed countries should not force developing countries to suffer from their earlier experience.
“These countries are threatened by issues concerning geopolitics or an issue of power that their population may be overtaken by developing countries,” he further explained.
The prelate added the developed countries may become totally dependent on migrant workers.
Lingayen-Dagupan Auxiliary Bishop Renato Mayugba said the bishops may not anchor their statements on faith but on the country’s existing Constitution which calls for the protection of the unborn child from the time of conception.
“If the government will pursue programs that run counter to the provisions of the Constitution, it would simply mean violating the country’s constitution,” the 54-year old prelate said.
Meanwhile, Lipa Archbishop Ramon V. Arguelles called on the faithful of his ecclesial province to prepare to mobilize the laity for mass actions against the movement of the Aquino government to push for the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health bill and all population control measures.
In a text message to his flock from Italy, the archbishop said they are in solidarity with the lay faithful of Cebu in its opposition to the planned introduction of artificial methods to the Filipino families. (Melo M. Acuna)
http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/13320

Excommunication,Modern-day Padre Damasos, and Contraception

The quite reckless statement from a prelate warning that the President was ricking excommunication by his support for couples to free choose contraceptive options is whipping up quite a storm, it seems.

Online activist and exponent of walking tours in Manila’s historic sites, Carlos Celdran, gave vent to the dismay of many Catholics about how certain prelates are posturing like much reviled Spanish colonial era Friars.

The great Jose Rizal had immortalized the ‘Frayle’ in his revolutionary masterpiece Noli Me Tangere where Padre Damaso typified the oppressive and manipulative prelates that dominated Philippine life for over 300 years.

There is now what appears to be a retraction of the reported excommunication threat against P-Noy but people are angry over how Celran has been jailed for expressing his sentiments as a private citizen.

Articles 132 and 133 of the Revised Penal Code stipulates that the crime of “Interruption of religious worship.” Will be meted “the the penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon any public officer or employee who shall prevent or disturb the ceremonies or manifestations of any religion. If the crime shall have been committed with violence or threats, the penalty shall be prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods.
Art. 133. Offending the religious feelings. — The penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed upon anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful.”

While he can post bail, Celdran is refusing to and is asserting tat his protest was an exercise of free speech.

l have to see how this plays out.

But a thoroughly valid, albeit indignanr question to ask is this: while the
Fathers are posturing high and mighty, moralizing and threatening us
with excommunication what about the Fathers who fathered now fatherless
children???