MANILA, Philippines\u2014A Catholic bishop close to President Benigno Aquino III\u2019s family on Monday urged officials not to look at the Catholic Church as an obstacle to progress but a \u201cmother\u201d protecting her children from the moral traps of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill.<\/p>\n
In his first pastoral letter on the family planning measure, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas appealed to the Catholic faithful \u201cto return to the voice of conscience\u201d to explain their stand and rebut their opponents with charity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this highly divisive issue, the Church is still a mother protecting her children from greater dangers and moral traps which until now her beloved children are still unable to foresee,\u201d said Villegas, who is also chair of the Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church throughout its 2,000-year history in the world and almost 500 years in the Philippines has proven itself as a potent agent for holistic authentic human progress and not an obstacle for development.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Palace on Monday reacted sharply to Sunday\u2019s blast by retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz. The prelate criticized the President\u2019s failure to address poverty in supporting population control and said that a \u201csagacious\u201d leadership was needed, not a laid-back \u201cguns- and girls-occupied Malaca\u00f1ang.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just one bishop<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOne bishop does not a flock make,\u201d said Mr. Aquino\u2019s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda. \u201cThe reality is that the sharp tongue of the retired prelate indicates a closed attitude remarkably free of either Christian charity or basic prudence.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, Lacierda said the bachelor President\u2019s support for the RH bill was \u201cpart of his comprehensive, holistic approach to achieving growth without sacrificing human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Villegas, a key figure in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution with then Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, was close to the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino, mother of current President.<\/p>\n Mr. Aquino has said he was prepared to face Church excommunication for supporting the RH bill, but he warned that the measure\u2019s opponents threatening to mount a civil disobedience campaign, including a tax boycott, faced sedition charges.<\/p>\n Moral corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n The President believes that families must be given the freedom to choose from a wide array of birth control methods, including natural and artificial, to plan families and children be given sex education as early as Grade 5.<\/p>\n Citing a lesson from Pope Paul VI, Villegas stressed that the cause of poverty was corruption of the soul and of society. \u201cContraception adds to the moral corruption of our society and family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Also Monday, a retired Vatican official, Jose Cardinal Sanchez, urged Filipino families to pray that Mr. Aquino would find moral light and spiritual wisdom.<\/p>\n Sanchez, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy in Vatican, said that if Mr. Aquino\u2019s mother were alive, she would have been first to enlighten his son. \u201cI only hope that the family who is very Catholic will do something.\u201d With a report from Christine O. Avenda\u00f1o<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MANILA, Philippines\u2014A Catholic bishop close to President Benigno Aquino III\u2019s family on Monday urged officials not to look at the Catholic Church as an obstacle to progress but a \u201cmother\u201d protecting her children from the moral traps of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill. In his first pastoral letter on the family planning measure, Lingayen-Dagupan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37],"tags":[1399],"byline":[136],"source":[206078],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n