There’s a huge “Catholic conscience” segment that condemns the immorality of abortifacient usage and the mindset of committing abortion when fair or foul means fail.
Artificial birth-control methods, when legalized by the reproductive health (RH) bill, render the guilt of sin nebulous, damaging the moral fiber of individuals and society.
Politicians who will vote for the passage of the bill are public knowledge, and for sure anti-RH bill Catholics will express their displeasure come election time.
Political analysts have long observed that a Catholic vote is non-existent during Philippine elections. What all politicians recognize is the Iglesia ni Cristo (two percent of the population) block vote for a common candidate dictated by the Iglesia hierarchy. The Iglesia block vote is hotly courted and lobbied for by candidates running for national positions.
The Catholic Church as an organization does not endorse a particular candidate. It respects the freedom of choice of all its members. The best that the Catholic hierarchy can offer is to issue guidelines on the moral fitness and criteria for a model public servant.
The Catholic population in the Philippines is an awesome 83 percent of the 93 million, and growing every year.
It’s misleading to think there’s no Catholic vote. What’s true is there’s no legislated block voting among Catholics. But this doesn’t mean Catholics don’t have a collective stand on state policies that infringe on moral and doctrinal integrity. The Catholic hierarchy and lay apostolate are actively arguing against passage of the RH “birth control” bill.
40 million potential voters
The Catholic population of the Philippines, in head count and institutional facilities and structures, covers 600,000 parish churches and two million chapels, millions of parishioners and Catholic lay organizations, religious orders of priests and nuns, seminaries and convents, Catholic universities and colleges, hundreds of charitable institutions and halfway houses. All add up to a rough estimate of 40 million potential voters.
The critical mass of Filipino Catholics who nurture and practice their faith will manifest their view on the immorality of the RH birth control law.
The psychological, physiological, mental and spiritual functions and dictates of Christian humanism are conclusive criteria for condemning the bill.
For Catholics, there are bottom-line behavioral and attitudinal impulses for obeying the doctrines of their faith. They will reject pro-RH politicians in the 2013 elections.
The most powerful motivators of human existence are the same motivators that create a “Catholic conscience”: primeval instinct and human nature. Procreation is a psychological and physiological function of the male and female gender.
In man, it’s masculinity, the machismo thing. In a woman, it’s femininity and maternal instinct. When the gender urge is satisfied, the act is driven by intellectual and emotional love, followed by physical sexuality.
The magical process is procreation, and the miraculous reward is an infant, another new life. The unitive function of man and woman evolves into the formation of the family, the building blocks of society, which led to the formation of nations and civilizations.
The home evolved as the universally acknowledged institution for family love, virtuous values, unity of vision and spiritual needs.
The healthy man has organs of masculinity, while the healthy woman has the organs for manifesting femininity and maternal instinct.
For abortifacients and medical devices to ruin or disable these reproductive organs is to render them impotent and diseased. Men and women who are baog suffer from the shame and stigma of being impotent.
Scriptural truths in the Old and New Testaments are clear and unequivocal. “Go forth and multiply,” “Thou shall not commit adultery,” “Thou shall not covet they neighbor’s wife,” “What God has joined together, let now man put us under,” “They are no longer two but one flesh.”
Irresponsible pleasures
Sex acts inside or outside of marriage, whose sole purpose is to pursue licentious and irresponsible pleasures, are signs of materialism, to the exclusion of God’s design of procreation.
The denial of biblical truths on the unitive functionality of man and woman desecrates the sanctity of marriage; hence, the proliferation of divorce and broken homes, a fact of life in lifestyle centers of the world where secularism and unbelief in God have taken over.
Our Filipino culture defines our identity as people—our vibrant religiosity, our freedom-loving heroism, our creative exuberance in the oral and visual arts, our township and family celebratory Catholic rituals, our educated minds and our service excellence admired and preferred throughout the world.
Our family values are behaviors our parents taught, trained and exemplified: honesty, respectfulness, politeness, industriousness in our relationship and endeavors.
Family values likewise manifest our transcendent relationship with the Almighty. Our spirituality inspires us to love God and our neighbor in our pursuit of holiness to merit eternal justice and happiness in the afterlife.
The RH bill is the most horrible destroyer of our family values, since it devalues respect for women. It’s also a vicious act of vandalism on our Filipino culture, because it creates a sinful but guiltless society.
Fear of God is the most visceral motivator for Catholics to obey the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” whether a person has a simple childlike faith or theological knowledge.
Catholic catechism says, “Human life is sacred because from its beginning, it involves the creative action of God, and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: No one can, under any circumstance, claim for himself the right to directly destroy an innocent human being.”
Murder as a premeditated, willful act or intent is the bottom line in the termination of life at any stage. It’s a mortal sin, deserving of hell as punishment, if unrepented for and unforgiven. For Catholics, to burn in hell is the most horrific and painful punishment.
E-mail the author at hgordonez@ gmail.com