Renewed threat of civil unrest against the reproductive health bill


“Choose life, Rejecting the CBCP Pastoral letter” is my response to the CBCP Pastoral letter entitled “Choosing Life, Rejecting the RH Bill”. The CBCP feels threatened it has to resort to this pastoral letter. It has resorted to threats to civil disobedience if the Reproductive Health Law is passed.

“We will have a civil disobedience. Those laws that are immoral, we will tell the people not to obey,” Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said in an interview on Church-run Radio Veritas.

Last I heard, there is separation of Church State. The Philippines is currently governed by the 1987 Constitution, which states in Article II, Section 6:

The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable.

True, it is the moral obligation of the Roman Catholic Church to impart teachings to its faithful but carrying it to a national level is beyond their scope. Perhaps as an individual, they can cry out loud in the streets.

Having researched and reflected on the Reproductive Health issue since 2008 , I have long arrived at the conclusion that the Reproductive Health Law will actually save MORE lives.

Risa Hontiveros shares her thoughts on the renewed threat of civil unrest against the reproductive health bill

The Catholic church hierarchy’s renewed threat of civil disobedience against reproductive rights is highly misplaced and mistaken. It is directed at the wrong target. The church is wrong in rallying its flock to oppose the reproductive health bill, which is widely recognized even by the Catholic population as a fundamental human right. Such an action from the church hierarchy would only effectively alienate itself from the people it professes to look after.

As such, we urge the Catholic church hierarchy to focus its energy and sense of moral outrage to the real problems besetting our country such as the massive corruption inside the military establishment. It would be more persuasive and virtuous for the church to launch a civil disobedience against institutionalized corruption than to the reproductive health bill, which will save many human lives.

Civil disobedience is exercised to defend human rights and civil liberties, topple tyrannical governments and realize political reforms. It would be antithetical to call for civil disobedience to derail the expansion of the people’s rights and welfare, more so, to muzzle the people’s clear voice on the matter under the pretence of promoting morality and religiousness. Lest the Church hierarchy forgets, the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Hence, the Catholic Church hierarchy must learn to genuinely listen to the voice of its own constituency on this issue. And the growing consensus is, faith and reproductive rights are not contradictory. To ignore the voice of the people would be to commit the very sin the Church leadership itself falsely accuses reproductive health advocates of being guilty of—“moral corruption.”

Have the CBCP initiated a dialogue with the poor women and generate an assessment of their reproductive health needs? Listen to the voice of your own constituency on this issue.

Cocoy hits it right in the nail when he tweeted that ” the CBCP is out of touch, and clueless about how to lead.” which prompted Lattex to reply “that the CBCP has become irrelevant even in the context of my Catholic faith”.

Carlos Celdran is telling the CBCP and it’s minions that the Php200,000.00 ad of their pastoral letter “is enough to feed a small village for a month. Seriously. Those full page ads in the papers shows your lack of priorities. I’ll say it again. STOP GETTING INVOLVED IN POLITICS. Don’t let me go back there again.”

The CBCP should just continue their teaching inside the church and let their flock choose to reject the RH Bill or not.

Be more informed. Know and read the Reproductive health bill.

Photo source: wn.com