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Church tells RH advocates: Stop using 'excommunication' for publicity


A Catholic Church official asked advocates of the reproductive health (RH) bill to stop using the concept of excommunication to gain publicity. Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) secretary general Msgr. Juanito Figura said the CBCP never threatened anyone with excommunication over the RH bill. He reiterated the Church never made any such threat against President Benigno Simeon Aquino III or Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. Aquino earlier told graduating students at the University of the Philippines he was willing to be excommunicated because of his support for the RH bill. Lagman was also quoted as saying he is ready to be excommunicated just to ensure the passage of the RH bill. “I hope he knows what he is saying. In the first place, there’s no threat of excommunication to him, the president or anybody. It has never been talked about nor contemplated by the CBCP," Figura said in an article posted on the CBCP news site. He added that such a statement is unacceptable since it could put the CBCP in a bad light for a threat that was never made. “That’s like putting words in people’s mouths. It is not good," he said. Watch "RH Bill: The Grand Debate" Part 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 Meanwhile, Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said there is no more need for Lagman to be excommunicated because the lawmaker separated himself from the Church already. “We do not have to excommunicate him… He is excommunicating himself by doing that. That is automatic, by himself," Bastes said on Church-run Radio Veritas. “We don’t give him the honor to make him excommunicated," he added. Bastes said being in the frontline for the passage of the RH bill already shows that Lagman wants to “separate himself from the Church." Excommunication is a Church penalty, under which the person concerned is being separated from the spiritual benefits enjoyed by members of the Church, including the acceptance of the Holy Communion. The Church’s Canon Law states that the only ground for an individual to be excommunicated is when he/she hurts the Pope or when he or she commits and/or is an accessory to the commission of abortion. - VVP, GMA News

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