Bishops vow huge anti-RH bill rally on March 25

Catholic bishops plan to mount what they called a "grandmother of all rallies" against the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on March 25. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the bishops will join forces with other anti-RH bill advocacy groups to pressure lawmakers into rejecting the bill. “Being the last country standing against the vicious attacks of power in connivance with lawmakers, we see the urgent need now to stop the attack by the proposed RH bill on our valued culture of life," Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said in an article posted on Tuesday on the CBCP news site. “This orchestration instigated by those against life, local and foreign, has to be stopped. We shall all stand united against the assault on life and its values," he added. According to the CBCP, the rally, the second this year in the Manila Archdiocese, will coincide with the Feast of the Annunciation, and the Day of the Unborn Children. Pro-Life Philippines President Eric Manalang said Quirino Grandstand was chosen to be the venue to accommodate the expected huge crowd. “I think this is one of the occasions to be with the cardinal joining something like this because he will officiate the Mass after the interfaith rally," Manalang said. Protests in provinces In Cebu, pro-life groups will walk barefoot for three kilometers to dramatize their opposition against the RH bill on March 19. The “Penitential Walk for Life," will be held from the Cebu Provincial Capitol to Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. Other dioceses in Visayas are also planning rallies to show their indignation against the RH bill. In Mindanao, anti-RH bill groups are also preparing a huge rally in Butuan City on March 22. CBCP pastoral letter On January 30, the CBCP issued a pastoral letter rejecting the RH bill, saying it is "a major attack on authentic human values and on Filipino cultural values regarding human life." The pastoral letter said: "Advocates contend that the RH bill promotes reproductive health. The RH Bill certainly does not. It does not protect the health of the sacred human life that is being formed or born." "The very name “contraceptive" already reveals the anti-life nature of the means that the RH bill promotes. These artificial means are fatal to human life, either preventing it from fruition or actually destroying it. Moreover, scientists have known for a long time that contraceptives may cause cancer. Contraceptives are hazardous to a woman’s health," the letter added. – VVP, GMA News