Catholics to hold prolife rally in Batangas

While pro-life groups prepare to map out strategies against the reproductive health (RH) bill, Church officials are organizing a prayer rally against the bill in Batangas this weekend. Lipa (Batangas) Archbishop Ramon Arguelles urged Catholics to join a Marian prayer rally to show indignation against artificial contraception and sex education. “This is to signify our vehement opposition to the Reproductive Health bill being discussed at the House of Representatives," Arguelles said in an article posted Tuesday on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. He urged his archdiocese’s lay organizations, Catholic schools, the clergy and religious communities to attend the Marian Prayer Rally for Life on November 6. Arguelles said the rally, expected to draw thousands, will be held at the Lipa Youth and Cultural Center from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. During the event, participants will march to the San Sebastian Cathedral at 2:00 p.m. where a Mass is scheduled at 3 p.m. He urged the faithful to defend life and show their indignation against artificial contraception by attending the rally. Anti-RH strategies The rally coincides with the start of a three-day congress of Human Life International (HLI) for Asia and Oceania in Makati City. HLI for Asia and Oceania will hold its 17th Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith, Life and Family at the Dusit Hotel from November 6 to 8. “I pray that our clergy, religious and lay leaders will take this opportunity to know much more about the global agenda, and the many deceptions [and] subtle attacks against life and family," HLI Asia/Oceania executive director Ligaya Acosta said in an article posted on the CBCP news site. Preceding the congress will be a three-day international pro-life training for the clergy, religious and lay leaders of Asia and Oceania from Wednesday to Friday. RH bill 96 Several versions of the RH bill have been filed in previous congresses. In the present Congress, the RH bill is known as "Bill 96" whose main proponent is Minority Leader Edcel Lagman of Albay. The RH bill is based on the premise that the country's population growth impedes economic development and exacerbates poverty. The bill seeks to “guarantee to universal access to medically-safe, legal, affordable and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices, supplies and relevant information." The bill also seeks a “consistent and coherent national population policy," citing studies that show that "rapid population growth exacerbates poverty while poverty spawns rapid population growth." The reproductive health bill has been a contentious social issue in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country. It is estimated that 80 percent of the country's population are baptized Catholics. According to the National Statistics Office, there were 88.57 million Filipinos as of August 2007. The projected population for 2010 is 94.01 million. However, not all Catholics are against the RH bill. In an earlier report, Ben De Leon, president of the Philippine Center for Population and Development, which organized the recent Women Deliver conference, said that some members of the CBCP have expressed their support for the RH Bill, but not publicly. The Catholic Church promotes only natural family planning and is opposed to the use of artificial birth control methods such as condoms and birth-control pills, saying these could lead to promiscuity and a rise in abortion cases. On the other hand, RH advocates say natural family planning methods are not as reliable as artificial means of birth control. End contraceptive mentality CBCP President Nereo Odchimar earlier said the government must protect the sanctity of life by putting an end to contraceptive mentality. Odchimar said the bishops hope the Aquino administration will not pursue programs that promote the use of contraceptives such as condoms and pills. The Catholic Church accepts only natural family planning (NFP) methods. The NFP has two distinct forms: * Ecological breastfeeding (a form of child care that normally spaces babies about two years apart on the average), and * Systematic NFP (a system that uses a woman’s signs of fertility to determine the fertile and infertile times of her cycle). –VVP, GMANews.TV