In a recent interview with CBCP News, Jose Cardinal Sanchez, the eldest of the country’s three living cardinals, gave his thoughts about the RH bill.
He said that President Aquino was now “losing his popularity” and because of this, Congress would not be able to pass the bill. He then urged Catholic bishops to go on a charm offensive and befriend congressmen to win them over to the Church’s side in the RH debate.
He said that President Aquino was now “losing his popularity” and because of this, Congress would not be able to pass the bill. He then urged Catholic bishops to go on a charm offensive and befriend congressmen to win them over to the Church’s side in the RH debate.
In a way when you look at this statement, it is somewhat ironic to hear the church say that bishops should go on a charm offensive and befriend congressmen because isn't that one of the evils that the church has been fighting against for centuries – hypocritical politicians? And now because its foundation is being threatened, it chooses to act exactly the same way as the evil it has been built to fight against.
I also cannot quite understand the cardinal’s statement that “it is too much politics now and no longer religion.” Can’t this accusation be flung at the cardinal himself?
I actually agree with the author that this isn't about religion anymore. I doubt that this is anything more than a political debate between two powers of the nation. It is no longer about morality or ethics. What then is the purpose of the church now that they've actually forgotten their purpose in society. They claim that by accepting the Reproductive Health Bill you become unethical but in reality they themselves have lost the ability to become ethical.
Cardinal Sanchez suggested that the government should try improving the lot of Filipino families by increasing their income instead of “destroying” them, using the RH bill. Assuming that government succeeds in improving the lot of Filipino families, won’t the effects of increased income be diluted or negated when we end up having more children and mouths to feed and care for as a result of the Church’s ineffective birth rate control methods?
This statement has also been bothering me because is it really the job of the government to fix a broken family?I believe that family issue is a domestic and private business that is not suppose to be intervened by anyone outside the family unless the family allows it. It is not the government's job to fix a family. It is its job to fix the country.
On the matter of fewer priests, we have fewer priests now, and not in 50 years’ time as the cardinal predicts. The Church should shoulder a bigger share in the cost of educating seminarians, instead of relying on benefactors. The cardinal mentioned tendencies that threaten to destroy the Catholic Church. These tendencies, while not primarily aimed at destroying the Church, will be exacerbated by the Church’s obstinate refusal to accept the fact that the world has indeed changed.
The bottom line is that times have change and people have change. People no longer have as much faith in the church as before because people have also noticed that the church is nothing more than a political institution with a big cross in the middle.
Read more:http://opinion.inquirer.net/6165/filipino-families-already-being-destroyed-even-before-rh-bill
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