Massive Church rally set against RH bill

[Pag Hingowa]

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/241737/...gainst-rh-bill

The Catholic Church has started to bring out the big guns in its campaign against the reproductive health (RH) bill.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle on Thursday issued a circular urging the faithful to converge at the Edsa Shrine on Saturday for a Mass and rally against the bill.

“Relying on the power of prayer and the necessity of informed awareness, we will gather together to be informed, enlightened and emboldened once more. We also wish to express why we believe the reproductive health bill is not the solution to our many problems as individuals and as a country as it will even give rise to many other problems more pernicious and pervasive than the ones we face in the present,” Tagle said.

“I enjoin all parish priests and leaders of communities and lay movements to rally their members and endorse participation in this important gathering aimed at communicating a strong and sincere appeal to the goodwill of our legislators,” Tagle said in his letter.

The prayer rally will be a show of force for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) after President Benigno Aquino in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last week urged the swift passage of the bill, which would provide universal access and information on natural and modern family methods and reduce the number of mothers and babies dying during childbirth.

On August 7, the House will vote on whether to wrap up debate and move the bill forward. CBCP officials said they would have a vigil at the House on the eve of the vote and that mass actions would also be held in other dioceses.

Time for a vote

President Aquino said Thursday it was time to put the bill to a vote.

“I hope that the point when we need to vote comes. Otherwise, Congress may have already adjourned and we’re still in the period of debate; so we won’t know what the people want. Perhaps the debate should be wrapped up, and we should make a decision on this so-called responsible parenthood bill once and for all,” Mr. Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview.

On the anti-RH rally, Mr. Aquino said: “We’re all prolife, aren’t we? We want an improved quality of life for our countrymen. So that is their right and I’m sure they will not endeavor to do anything against the law. So we will secure this rally if it pushes through.”

Malacañang on Thursday also shrugged off an announcement that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now a Pampanga representative, will vote against the measure and that seven of her allies had withdrawn sponsorship of the measure.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said that Arroyo and Catholic bishops have been vocal about their opposition to the bill. He said the Church’s invitation to her to join the anti-RH rally should not be given political meaning. Arroyo was freed last week from eight months of hospital arrest after posting bail on election sabotage charges against her.

“I would not want to speak on behalf of the bishops about whether or not this is leading to some kind of support for the former President. This is a measure that should not be viewed in stark political terms because it actually got societal implications,” he said in a briefing.

Not Aquino-Arroyo showdown

A vote on the bill should not be seen as a showdown between Mr. Aquino, the bill’s chief campaigner, and Arroyo, Carandang said.

“It’s an important measure and we’re not viewing it in terms of partisan politics. It’s something that we feel is long overdue. It needs to be done, and we’re doing it in that context. I understand that there are observers who are viewing this (showdown) in that way, but we’re simply looking at it right now as a measure that has oppositors, that needs to go through the process and we’ll leave it at that,” he said.

Carandang said Malacañang respected the withdrawal of support by some lawmakers, but did not view the entire anti-RH bill campaign as “Arroyo’s effort.”

“We respect the democratic space in which the debate is being undertaken. At the same time, we hope that our friends in Congress will see the wisdom of this measure,” he added.

While Catholic bishops have counted 140 lawmakers as opposed to the measure based on survey and public consultations, Carandang said it was too early to tell whether the administration had the numbers to defeat them.

“You can never tell until the vote is there. But we are confident that we have support,” he said. “We’re hoping that those of us who are on the administration’s side will continue to support this effort."

[_Abyssinia]

Like with other attempts to promote contraception and abortion in developing countries, it is always outside organisations trying to push an almost imperial agenda.

Thailand and the Philippines AIDS broke out at the same time. Thailand promoted condoms, Philippines promoted abstinence. Twenty years after the outbreak, AIDS in Thailand is 50 times higher than in the Philippines. The population of the Phillipines is over 20 million more than Thailand, but it has a lower HIV AIDS rate thanks to abstinence being promoted

[_Abyssinia]

Pro-life advocates: Population control cartel behind Philippines’ Reproductive Health Bill?

Brian Clowes, director of Research and Training at Human Life International, pointed out that the bill’s language “seems to be written by the big international organizations like Center for Reproductive Rights, Marie Stopes International, and International Planned Parenthood Federation.”

“The language you see [in the bill] is the language of the international population control cartel, not the language of the Filipino people,” he said.

The country’s Catholic Bishops have come out strongly against the measure. They have organized a massive prayer rally on Saturday to protest the legislation, pointing out that “suppressing birth” will not solve poverty. The prayer rally will take place from 1:00-7:00 pm local time at the EDSA Shrine in Manila.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, head of The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), called upon the lay faithful to attend the rally and defend the sanctity of life and the family “because, more than anybody else, you are the target of the RH Bill.”

“This will be a demonstration of our sentiments and our advocacy for life,” said Palma. “Let us show that what we believe in is for the common good.”

Palma called the RH Bill “immoral” and “unconstitutional,” adding that it “erodes a lot of treasured Filipino values.”

President Benigno Aquino III has said that population control is the answer to the backlogged educational system. Palma has stressed that, on the contrary, the country’s “positive” birthrate is not a hindrance to the country’s success.

“The country’s robust population is a big boost to our economy,” he said. “The population control policy of the RH Bill would only stall our economic growth. The problem of countries with former robust economies is the lack of young workers for their industries and inadequate support for their aging population.”

A recent survey put out by the country’s Catholic Bishops found that 140 of 215 congressmen surveyed would vote against the controversial initiative. Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes pointed out that their poll indicates the true sentiments of many of the country’s lawmakers toward population control measures as a solution to the country’s problems.

The Wall Street Journal article raised concerns about Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s promotion of the Reproductive Health Bill, which would “put the Philippines in danger of following China’s path into middle-income development followed by a demographic trap of too few workers.”

“The Philippines doesn’t have too many people, it has too few pro-growth policies,” the article, titled “Keeping the Philippine Dream Alive,” suggested.

Various versions of the bill have been filed and defeated in Congress since 1989.

Human Life International (HLI) has asked pro-life supporters “around the world” to join the Filipino people in prayer on Saturday to “defeat the RH Bill.”

“Now is the time to defeat this bill, which threatens rights of conscience, the dignity of human life, and protections for life and family under the Filipino Constitution,” said HLI president Father Shenan J. Boquet in a press release on Thursday.

“Supporters of life and family have worked tirelessly to stop this Bill from moving through Congress, but on Saturday I invite all those dedicated to building a culture of life to join in prayer with our Filipino brothers and sisters to ask for the Lord’s help and protection.”

Note: Human Life International has produced an eye-opening video about how Bill 4244 will devastate the life, family, and faith affirming values of the Filipino people.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro...es-reproductiv

[Pag Hingowa]

http://cbcpforlife.com/?p=8278

MANILA, August 4, 2012—Despite his ties to the Aquino Family, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas today reminded President Benigno Simeon Aquino III that his administration’s “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” slogan should not mean to say “kung walang anak, walang mahirap.”

In a message to the youth, read by Henrietta de Villa during the “Prayer Power Rally Against the RH Bill” at EDSA shrine, Villegas said it is corruption that the government should cure, not nurse.

“Corruption is the cancer of the Philippines that prevents us from growing. When President Aquino called us his boss, we cheered; when he banned wang-wang in the street and moral wang-wang in the bureaucracy, we followed his vision.

“[But,] My dear youth, contraception is corruption. The use of government and taxpayers’ money to give out contraceptive pills is corruption,” Villegas said.

Although he was not physically present during the anti-RH bill rally spearheaded by the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL), Villegas made his presence felt when he also reminded the Aquino government to focus on getting rid of corrupt government officials, not unborn babies through the promotion of artificial contraception.

“A culture of contraception looks at babies as reasons for poverty. Birth control, they say, means more food, more classrooms, more houses and better health for mothers. If more babies are the cause of poverty, are we now saying, ‘kung walang anak, walang mahirap?”

“It doesn’t rhyme because it is not correct. We can have more classrooms, more food, more jobs if we would be less corrupt. Send out the corrupt official, not the baby,” he told the youth.

‘Your birth is not a mistake’

Villegas vowed to join the fight against the passage of the RH bill in Congress, saying the fight is more to correct the misconception that children are a mistake and not a blessing.

“My dear youth, your birth is not a mistake. Your birth was God’s gift to us your elders. You are not the problem; you are our blessing. The problem is the corruption of your elders; your elders must change, for your future can be brighter.

“I am standing to defend you. We are fighting the error because you might be misled. We are battling corruption because we know it can harm your soul. Believe me, contraception harms your soul,” he added.

Villegas gave a subtle reminder to the government that if the RH bill is passed into law under the Aquino administration, Aquino’s legacy will be a “contraceptive generation, which will eventually give birth to an abortion generation.”

“If a contraceptive pill is to be considered an essential medicine, what sickness is it curing? Is pregnancy a sickness? Why is it that women get sick with cancer after taking the contraceptive pill? My dear youth, contraception, makes healthy people sick,” he added.

Protective of the youth

The prelate also clarified to the youth that the Church is not lost in its own world about the issue on artificial contraception nor being insensitive to the signs of the times.

“When we teach you that contraception is corruption, we are not being insensitive to the challenges of modernity. We are just being protective of you because it can destroy you sooner than you think.

“Artificial contraception could open the door to moral infidelity and a general lowering of standards. We your elders do not want you to follow the path to moral corruption,” he added.

Villegas also warned government economic advisers that population control will not make the Philippines a tiger economy in Asia.

“We want to be a tiger economy in Asia like our neighbors but what is a tiger without teeth? What is progress without our laughing children? For whom do we envision progress? What is victory at the expense of the immortal soul?” he asked.

Though he did not direct his message to the President, the prelate vowed to fight anyone who will push for the passage of the RH Bill.

“We shall fight contraception or we will perish as a Godly nation. Youth of the Philippines, because I love you, I will fight contraception. This battle is for you and I fight for the love of you,” Villegas added.

Villegas was a staunch supporter and friend of President Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, since the EDSA People Power Revolution.

Other bishops present during the prayer power rally against the RH Bill at EDSA Shrine today were Bishops Jose Oliveros of Malolos, Pablo David of Infanta, Gabriel Reyes of Antipolo, Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, and Leo Tumulak of the Military Ordinariate. (YouthPinoy)