Are they resurrecting
Reproductive Health Bill?

IN MY sortie recently to a Mindanao city, I was amused to see banners and streamers of politicians, strategically located near the cathedral and other churches, greeting one and all Happy Easter!

It must be the political season once again, I immediately thought. But I said I was amused because I recognized some of these greeting politicians to be among those behind House Bill 4110, the proposed Reproductive Health Act of 2002.

There is some kind of anomaly and hypocrisy involved here. How can one sound so Christian and Catholic, and yet approve of something that goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church?

Not that I begrudge them for making that Happy Easter greeting. That's just being civil, to say the least, and we should all be happy for that. It's just that these politicians who are supposed to be well educated and all that don't seem bothered by the discrepancy of their position.

They like wearing two hats, or even more. They wear so many faces, never mind if there is no consistency. In fact, I was told there was going to be another meeting about this HB 4110 where the politicians are supposed to explain to Catholic leaders why it is good.

The nerve!

I thought HB 4110 was already six feet under ground. It occurred to me that the Happy Easter greeting of these politicians may not be to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but rather could refer to the resurrection of this morbid monster and showcase of the culture of death.

For that is what it is! Any effort to promote reproductive health by way of contraception, of liberal and hardly regulated massive sex education in schools, involving even children of tender ages, not to mention the courting of possible approval of abortion, is by any angle an active element of what the Pope regards as the culture of death!

Why am I mad at this bill in the House of Representatives? Simple. Because it promotes a concept of reproductive health influenced by an ideology many of whose tenets go radically against the teachings of the church.

In the first place, this ideology's idea of morality, if it bothers to tackle that matter, is that of what is popular, what is consensual, what is safe and practical, without bothering about the objective analysis of the human act itself.

It's concerned more with the end without giving due attention to the means. And that's a no-no. You don't need the church to teach you that.

With this idea of morality, it is easy to understand why contraception is promoted, and many other things that the Church considers immoral.

Of course, with all the confusion going around now, many people, the majority of them even, can ask for what actually are immoral means.

But this is precisely where political leaders could come in and be of great help. Especially, if they are Catholics themselves. Yes, there are times when they have to make hard decisions, those that go against current public opinion.

These happen when they have to uphold what is moral over what is popular and practical. They have to realize that ethical and moral considerations are not merely optional considerations. They are essential, indispensable, unforgoable considerations.

The effectiveness of any means proposed can only be guaranteed, whether achieved in the short-run or in the long-run, when these moral considerations are properly integrated.

Otherwise, we will just be deluding ourselves. There may be some practical benefits derived from an immoral means, but bet your life on it, sooner or later, the inevitable consequences of this immorality will show up. And we will have a bigger problem, much bigger problem than what we had before!

I get the impression that the underlying problem we have is that our political leaders themselves, Catholics though they may be, don't have a good grasp of their faith.

Which only shows that the question of faith always shows in all aspects of one's life, in his personal and private life as well as in his public life. One sooner or later has to make a choice of whether to have faith in God and his church or faith in himself, in his reason, cleverness, etc.

The reasons and theories about this phenomenon are many and are quite well known. I don't have to repeat them here. I just wish to call on our political leaders to take their Christianity more seriously.

And on the rest of us, let us pray and offer sacrifices, have recourse to the sacraments, wage our daily ascetical struggles, do catechesis and other Christian duties, until we make our society a truly human and Christian society, and help our political leaders to be consistently Christian.