RH Bill: Reason over dogma

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

Above the din of emotional outbursts and threats of excommunication is an article written by a Catholic priest in the Manila Standard Today last week. In his article, “Excommunication and other non-issues,” Fr. Ranhillo Callangan Aquino called for sobriety and rationality, and demanded that the Roman Catholic Church should be ready to convince the people – Catholics and non-Catholics alike – that the use of artificial means of contraception is not acceptable.

Fr. Aquino challenged his fellow priests to “study philosophy and theology more assiduously —and to engage skeptics as well as well-intentioned men and women who do not share our faith in intellectual dialogue, and to be prepared with arguments that can win the attention and the respect of those who have no patience with, or regard for Scriptural quotations.”

Fr. Aquino went on: “If the Catholic Church rejects the reproductive health bill because artificial means of contraception will be readily available under the aegis of such a law, then it should rightly be asked: What does the Catholic Church have against artificial means of contraception? If the only response the Church can give is “Humanae Vitae” and the consistent teaching of the popes and of most (certainly not all!) bishops, then that is not good enough an argument for the public sphere.

“The legitimacy of enactment is determined by its rational acceptability to all whom the law shall govern (presuming, of course the legitimate constitution of the legislature that passed the measure). If all that the Catholic Church can offer in opposition to the reproductive health bill is supposed argument drawn from its own reading of Scripture and the tradition of its teaching, that is argument that cannot be rationally accepted by other members of the Philippine political community who do not share our credal premises.”

Fr. Aquino, however, said it is also “silly to demand of the Catholic Church that it “adjusts” its moral teaching to suit populist tastes. Moral issues are not settled by the rule of the majority—a rule that, itself, is of doubtful morality!”

Fr. Aquino said there is a need for a truly coherent presentation of the Catholic position against artificial contraception “that can meet with the approval of all of its members engaging in rational discourse as equals—whose voices are not silenced because they wear no miters on their heads! Perhaps this is the opportune time for us in the Catholic Church to revisit the matter, to take one more look at our premises and to ask about their dependability.”

The father concluded his piece with a call to reason: “Let no one then speak any more of an anachronism like excommunication and let us all get down to the business of rationality!’

It is reassuring to know that there remains a voice of reason in the Roman Catholic Church, one that is willing to challenge the centuries-old positions of the Church regarding present-day issues, one that is willing to pit reason against dogma so that the Church can keep up with the needs of the times.

The heated exchange between the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and Malacanang over President Noynoy Aquino’s presumed support of the Reproductive Health Bill that has been pending in Congress since the time of the late President Cory Aquino, has opened a Pandora’s box that the Church has dreaded for decades. After the reported threat of excommunication by the CBCP on those who would support the bill that would allow the use of contraceptives, several congressmen and senators who would otherwise not dare speak against the Church suddenly found the courage to do so.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, for instance, said the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines should start rethinking its role in modern society or else its members will abandon it.
“The interpretation of dogma is evolving. Before, there was even a papal bull on witchcraft,” Angara said. “If the church is instrumental in the number of the poor, of malnourished and uneducated children, then it is not the church of the poor,” Angara said.

The senator urged the local Roman Catholic Church to keep in step with the times instead of propagating “outdated, unprogressive ideas.” He said that if the Catholic Church confines itself to pulpit preaching and does not back this up with social action, then it will lose moral authority.

The Church cracked its whip, but very few toed the line. Instead, the RH Bill that would not move beyond the committee level suddenly found supporters in several senators, including Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago who filed her own reproductive health bill in the Senate last week, and congressmen, including Speaker Sonny Belmonte who said he supported the RH Bill.

Evidently, politicians no longer fear the Catholic backlash nor would go all out to woo the Church’s support after Aquino still won by a landslide despite defying the Church’s threat of withdrawal of support when he stood his ground in favor of the RH Bill during the campaign.

Even the Church’s hold on the Catholic faithful was put in question when thousands showed its support for tourist guide Carlos Celdran who disrupted Mass at the Manila Cathedral and decried the Church’s meddling in government affairs with regards to the RH Bill while displaying a poster that said “Damaso” in reference to the fictional Spanish friar, Padre Damaso, in Dr. Jose Rizal’s novels.

While I must condemn Celdran’s grandstanding because of its blatant disrespect for a solemn religious ceremony, I must also agree with his admonition that the bishops must respect the constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.

The Church cannot impose on the government its belief that any kind of birth control method other than the natural method should not be allowed. The government has the responsibility, nay duty, to arrest the rapid population growth in the same manner that the Church has the responsibility to promote the spiritual well-being of its faithful according to the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church.

Obviously, the Church will not back down on its stand. On the other hand, the government must not turn its back on its responsibility to promote the general welfare of the people, which includes keeping the population within the limits of what the government can provide in terms of basic services and what the economy can support.

“East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet” and so be it. Let the State implement a Reproductive Health Bill that’s acceptable to the people, whether they are Catholics or not, and let the Church tell its faithful to stick to the natural method of contraception and reject any other means. After all, the proposed RH Bill does not aim to impose the use of any kind of contraceptive. It only aims to inform the people of their options with regards to planning the size of their family, and to assist them once they have made their choice.

I don’t see any problem with that arrangement, unless the Church is no longer confident that its dogma cannot hold its own against reason.

(valabelgas@aol.com)