CBCP head scores ‘DEATH’ bills in Congress

MANILA, Philippines — The head of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Thursday scored what he called "DEATH bills" in Congress that violate a papal encyclical on life. In a homily during a mass marking the 40th anniversary of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (human life) at the Manila Cathedral, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said many of the proposed bills have been identified by the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life as DEATH bills because “they ultimately lead to the promotion of Divorce, Euthanasia, Abortion, Total Reproductive Health, Homosexuality (same sex marriage)." “On closer scrutiny of the proposed bills they are anti-life, violative of the dignity and sanctity of human life and anti-family; they disunite rather than untie couples, and destroy the family consecrated by God as the sanctuary of human life," he said. He lamented that some of these bills that encounter opposition from pro-life and pro-family lawmakers are enacted in some local government units despite "moral objection" from the Church. He said marriage today and human sexuality have devalued, treated both "lightly and with disrespect." Population growth and responsible parenthood are linked with the regulation of birth while natural family planning is promoted alongside artificial birth control, he added. "While we consider population growth as a valid concern, which should be addressed more directly with socio-economic methods, all men of goodwill are tasked to promote completely and clearly the teaching of the church concerning the sanctity of marriage and the regulation of birth," he said. Lagdameo noted the encyclical came against the prevailing expectation of liberalization in the 1960s and 1970s, that the Catholic Church would change its traditional teaching on conjugal morality. Instead of allowing all forms of birth control, Pope Paul VI in "Humanae Vitae" re-affirmed the Church's traditional teaching regarding birth control and responsible parenthood. He said that "Humanae Vitae" does not prohibit family planning but rather enjoins that family planning be done in a right way and not in a sinful way. Direct abortion must be rejected as a means of regulating birth or even therapeutic means, he added. It is a serious error to think that a whole married life of normal sexual relations could justify a contraceptive act of sexual union, he added. He said that attacks on large families stem from a lack of faith and the product of a social atmosphere incapable of understanding generosity, trying to conceal selfishness and unmentionable practices under apparently altruistic motives. "Countries which impose birth control on the other countries, like the Philippines, are now themselves in need of growth in their population and are importing from Asian countries workers and caregivers for their senior citizens," he noted. For his part, Papal Nuncio Edward Joseph Adams scored modern man's "arrogant desire to control, to control, to play God." "Even over the laws that regulate the transmission of life. And here the Pope is pointing to a wider vision of the problem. We think everything belongs to us but the reality is we belong to God," Adams said. "Human life comes from God. It belongs to God. It goes back to God. You are not your own, St. Paul tells us. Sex and having children are aspects of a whole group of realities that make up our existence, the existence of human beings. But some people labor under the illusion that all these human activities belong to us. And we can (do) what we want with them," he added. Adams called for self-giving that "starts in the God of love," adding sex should not be treated as a pleasurable experience but as an act of self-giving love. "Yes, we have been made in the image of God for self-giving love. Sex is the proof. It is so real and so big that it is frightening. That is why so many people today are afraid of the full and only meaning of sex. That is why Pope Paul wrote Humanae Vitae to help us understand," he said. - GMANews.TV