By Amado P. Macasaet
The UP Population Institute, reports that these days teenage boys and girls have sex without love, emotion, feeling of attachment , least of all responsibility.
It is the worst sign that the Church, Catholic or otherwise, has failed its brethren on what morality and parental responsibility means.
The report is alarming. The Population Institute discovered prostitution is on the wane precisely because no money is involved in present-day sex between teenagers.
The report acknowledges a few use contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. But the trend is towards a fast increasing number of unwed mothers who, most of the time, are left alone with the child. The population explodes with children without fathers or disowned by fathers.
Teenage fathers do not feel they have a responsibility to help raise their children.
The ultimate result is ever expanding population that the economy cannot feed. The lesson that must be learned is the necessity of implementing the RH Law. The government succumbs to the objection of the Church in trying to implement the law.
The UP report points to the necessity of including sex education, including abortion, in the curriculum of all schools — public or private. Again, the Catholic Church objects almost violently although it knows that in Italy where the Vatican sits, abortion is legal.
We vehemently oppose abortion. We support the necessity of safe sex that can be achieved only with sex education. Before boys and girls come to the age of 15 to 19, the bracket where copulation is most prevalent, they must be taught ways of safe sex.
The purpose is not merely to avoid unwanted pregnancy. More important is for young boys and girls learn the dangers to the mother and her child of early but not necessarily premarital sex. The report mentions a substantial number of abortion cases without the benefit of consulting health workers.
The Catholic Church must realize that sex is a biological need. The need must necessarily be accompanied and tempered with responsibility. If desired, pregnancy can be avoided , not through abortion but on many other safe methods..
The Catholic Church closes its eyes to the moral and economic issues.
Early or teenage sex, according to the report, is most prevalent among teenagers in the lower, meaning poorer, stratum of society. What future can a poor and young mother provide for her child? Not much! The reason is gripping poverty made worse by the rapid multiplication of people from lawfully wedded couples or, as the UP study points out, teenage sex.
The Catholic Church does not have “sanctuaries” for unwanted children. Neither does it have enough for unwed mothers.
There need not be such “safe houses” if the Church and the State would cooperate in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Sex education is the only way.
The biggest problem is the Catholic Church has indoctrinated its flock to the hypocrisy that sex is dirty. Sex is a godly act if done between married man and woman. Otherwise, the act is a sin.
The “sinners” among teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 are fast multiplying according to the UP report. Yet in a recent survey, the government turned out to be the least trusted institution while the trust rating of the Church rose to higher than 70 percent.
It must be pointed out however, the survey was conducted on the issue of corruption. The Church is perceived to be least corrupt.
The Senate’s rating plummeted to its lowest as a result of the declaration by the Supreme Court pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program are both unconstitutional.
The Constitutional provision saying the Church and the State are separate and independent of one another will never give the Court to rule, one way or the other, a case involving the Church unconstitutional.
The Church and the State both exist for the people. The Church duty is moral and religious. The Church ensures the souls of its brethren do not end up in the Kingdom of Satan.
The duty of the State on the other hand, is to keep body and soul together by providing essential services. Educating the youth about safe sex is a moral and legal obligation hardly performed by the State precisely because of fears of the Catholic Church’s vehement objection to the inclusion of sex education in the curriculum.
If the State had not succumbed to the Church on this subject, there may be no need to pass the Reproductive Health Law that cannot be implemented anyway because of the objection of the Church.
It may well be this objection that created the present situation of illicit sex among teenage boys and girls.
Neither the Church nor the State can see the danger that the present sex practices and preferences contribute to population explosion.
The State should know the extent of maternal death resulting from natural causes compared to deaths due to ignorance on the part of the mother on how to handle pregnancy.
If the children had been taught earlier about sex, there would probably be less unwanted pregnancies.
It may be necessary to pass a law that requires a father to be held liable for the care of his children. Supporters of gender equality have not looked into this most violent offense against women.
If we must go farther in the implementation of this proposed law, there should be penalties against the father for abandoning his child.
***
Email:amadomacasaet@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment