Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Rome Jorge in Oplan Pepe
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton famously said. This holds true for religious institutions, which in the Philippines hold too much political clout and are much too profitable for their own good.
- Require financial transparency and mandatory public auditing on all religious institutions.
- Create and support affordable secular alternatives in quality education.
- Outlaw both religious and scholastic discrimination in employment. Meritocracy demands that we be judged for our work and not for the religion we profess or the school our parents could afford.
- All educational institutions—private or public—must be prevented from discriminating against children of single mothers and others with non-conventional lifestyles.
- Anti-sexual discrimination laws must be implemented in all institutions without exception—including religious organizations. Women must be allowed to rise to all ranks open to men.
- Members of policy-making and cultural bodies such as the MTRCB must be qualified by their artistic and academic credentials. Being a religious leader does not make a person more morally upright than anyone else.
- Any institution that is not democratically and financially accountable to the people should not have a say in a free and democratic society.
Christmas and Contraception
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Rome Jorge in Oplan Pepe
As we celebrate the birth of a Man immaculately conceived this Christmastime, know what conception truly is.
American and British laws define the beginning pregnancy and the conception of human life not at fertilization—when sperm and egg fuse to form an embryo—but at implantation—when an embryo adheres to the wall of the mother’s uterus. Implantation occurs about a week after fertilization.
Doctors, bioethicists and law experts define implantation as the beginning of human life for several reasons:
- The ability to create embryos in vitro (such as in test tube baby fertilized outside the womb) has proven that fertilization does not automatically result in pregnancy. Only after implantation does an embryo’s existence have an effect on the mother’s body. It is only upon implantation that a fetus receives oxygen and nutrients from the mother to grow into a human being. It is at this point when the fetus cannot survive except within the woman’s body. Any rights granted to it must come at the expense of the pregnant woman. Note that to be pregnant—which is to be implanted—means risking one’s life for nine months to bear a new one.
- Majority of fertilized eggs do not go on to become infants. With unprotected sex, many embryos are formed yet never undergo implantation. If fertilization were to be defined as the conception of life, then countless souls have been killed without knowledge or intent.
- After fertilization and implantation, an embryo can segment to become identical twins—separate and distinct individuals who, despite their similarities, develop their own personalities, experiences and decisions and possess their own unique DNA, fingerprints, etc. If segmentation defines the start of an individual with an indivisible soul, then an embryo prior to the stage of possible segmentation cannot be defined as an individual.
However, religious conservatives continue to believe that “ensoulment”—the creation of a soul within a human being after which its destruction would be tantamount to mortal sin—begins at fertilization. Because of this, they argue, certain contraceptives such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and “morning-after pills” that prevent conception even a few days after unprotected sex are abortifacients—substances that induce abortions.
IUDs and morning-after pills work by preventing both fertilization and implantation. Preventing implantation is abortion, so argues religious conservatives.
However, doctors, scientists and legal experts in many countries define the beginning pregnancy and the conception of human life at implantation, hence the classification of IUDs and morning-after pills as contraceptives and not abortifacients under British and American laws.
Tellingly, religious conservatives opposed to the Reproductive Health Act pending in Congress not only oppose IUDs and morning-after pills but also contraceptives that only prevent fertilization and not implantation. They oppose condoms—the only contraceptive device that protects sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS as well as accidental pregnancies. They also are against sex education and knowledge empowerment of young adults. Their definition of conception is but one of many arguments against reproductive health, responsible parenthood and gender empowerment.
This Christmas Season, know more about conception and know more about your reproductive health rights.
To know more about reproductive health, visit http://reproductivehealth.com.ph.
Hector
Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe
My wife and I are using contraceptives and it is a mutual decision not to have children. For now.
Does the use of contraceptives condemn us to the fires of hell? I don’t know.
Does this make us immoral? NO.
Does this make us un-Catholic? Yes, if a word like that exists.
On not having kids, it’s easy for people to judge and make conclusions. I would always get reactions like “It’s just a phase.” to “Wait until you get your own kid.” and I would just nod, smile, and be polite in telling them that we’re still enjoying our time together.
On the use of contraceptives, the truth is:
1. It’s because we enjoy and value our own sense of freedom. I see pictures in Facebook of friends with their kids. I salute them. Parents have an honorable and difficult task in raising their children to become productive citizens. It’s a sacred thing BUT there are those people who equate having kids and raising them well as THE ultimate goal in life. My wife and I don’t share that view.
I believe that all of us have a different calling. Being a parent is just one of them. There are more.
2. We have practical reasons. Times are harder and I don’t see myself as a parent but more of an uncle. I love my nephew and niece. They are my “children” and I am one with my brother and sister-in-law in making sure that they would do something good for humanity. I can play with them but when they start throwing tantrums, I can easily get their parents to take over. Anytime, I can say NO to them without feeling a tinge of guilt.
But I made a promise that I will be their drinking buddy when they reach 12.
3. We’re 90 million and counting. I leave the others to excel in populating my Philippines. Not adding more Pinoys on my part is by choice. If I do have kids, I want them to go to the best schools, receive basic services from a government that serves THEIR interest, and I want them to know and love their country.
Subalit sa kalagayan ng ating bansa ngayon, hindi ko nakikita ang mga magiging anak o mga kaapo-apuhan ko na mabuhay sa ganitong sitwasyon.
Hindi pa handa ang Pilipinas na kumalinga sa mga Pinoy o Pinay na magmumula sa aming mag-asawa. Napakarami na natin.
PERO ayoko ring magsalita ng tapos sapagkat tao lang ako. Kung sakaling maisipan namin na magkaroon ng pamilya at medyo delikado na para sa asawa ko baka mag-ampon na lang kami. There are a lot of unwanted babies and if we can help in raising one well, it is our contribution to society and to our country.
Now to answer the questions:
1. How do you feel now about your religion? Compare this to how you felt about it as you were growing up and vs. what you were taught.
I don’t go to church anymore and I don’t know if there is a heaven or hell but I do believe in karma. I believe in a God that wants us to do good for humanity. I believe in this moving force that drives people to achieve what they want out of life. I don’t believe in a vengeful or jealous God who’s out to punish us or make us feel guilty for being human.
I now live under five rules: Be your own best friend. Live your passion. Do good to your kapwa. Don’t steal. Don’t kill.
Now that I don’t subscribe to the beliefs of the Catholic Church and no longer live under its rules, I have decided to stop hearing mass.
But there are things that I just can’t let go of. I consider myself a cultural Christian (if there is such a label then I’m happy to be one). I love Christmas, the gifts, long vacations especially during the Holy Week, old Filipino churches especially the Morong and Dauis churches, and I love singing “Lead me Lord” in videoke and listening to the chorale.
I don’t speak for everybody so I’m just guessing that some of us had a point in our lives when we wanted to lead holy lives by becoming priests or nuns. I was an altar boy when I was little. In my days in elementary and high school, I got high grades in Religion. There was also a time that I was a Bible Quiz champion having been raised in a Catholic middle-class family and watching Flying House and Superbook. At that age, I was also looking at a stack of porn that I accidentally unearthed but that’s another story.
I still pray but no longer to a God inside those magnificent structures but to a God that is everywhere; a God who is not trapped in dogma and used by selfish men to get rich or elected or both.
2. What brought about your new view of the church or its priests? Did you feel any guilt over your decision?
I’m more particular on the Church or any religious group’s involvement in Philippine politics and Rizal’s views on the friars as the roadblock to progress. I’m troubled over the fact that the Iglesia ni Cristo is using block voting and condemning people who want to think for themselves. I’m also troubled by Brother Mike Velarde and his (untaxed) millions of pesos and his millions of followers who have voting rights as well.
I’m also troubled by elected officials like former Mayor Lito Atienza (yes, MayniLA during his term) who have obstructed reproductive health programs in his city that could help the poor.
Oh, I’m also bothered that there are plenty of Caucasians in heaven while there are only two Filipinos there considering that we’re the largest Christian nation in Asia. There sure are racists in the Vatican 
I don’t feel guilty about my views because priests are human and as human beings, there are some who enjoy wielding power and influence over people. It’s easy to enslave people with ideas than with physical force.
3. What do you think about the Church’s meddling in state issues such as the Reproductive Health Bill and the Magna Carta of Women?
The ironic thing about the Church is that they’re thinking that they’re helping or saving society by opposing and even muddling the RH Bill issue. They’re making sure that the only choice that WE have are the ones that THEY present. They claim to have the answers to almost everything.
The Church is for progress and happiness and you get all these in heaven. They say it with absolute CERTAINTY.
Women are on the receiving end of a bad deal when it comes to the Catholic Church. They cannot be ordained as priests and cannot decide on what is good for their body. Make no mistake, I am against abortion but I want women to have access to contraceptives. Those are two different things.
Women have to be subservient to men as written in the Scriptures and this is even enunciated in wedding vows.
My wife made it a point to take out that part in our wedding.
4. Anything else you might want to add about your insights on church, religion and the meddling modern day Padre Damasos in our midst?
One of the reasons that Rizal got shot was because of his progressive ideas and his attacks on the friars for confining his fellow Filipinos in superstition and ignorance. The two novels showed that friars can be damn wrong (He was vicious in the Noli) and these leaving these men of the cloth no longer untouchable.
Rizal believes in God and in man’s conscience in determining what is right and wrong and especially on education to free his people from suffering and ignorance.
Education is the key to be truly free. The Reproductive Health Bill is one of the ways to get to that point. We need to have choices available to us now and we need to make them without guilt or fear.
Oras na para gamitin ang utak dahil bigay ito ng Maykapal. Sobra na tayo sa puso katulad ng paboritong kong sports commentator na si Chino Trinidad tuwing nagco-cover ng laban ni Pacquiao
Maraming salamat sa pagbasa.
HECTOR
-30-
Ian Baltazar
Posted on 24. Oct, 2009 by Ian Figueroa Baltazar in Oplan Pepe
I was told I was “baptized” as an Aglipayan in my birthplace in Antique (my mother’s province), and was again “baptized” in a Roman Catholic ritual when my father moved us back to his hometown in La Union. My mother converted and became a devout Catholic and was an active officer in our local parish council. Though my father refuses to go to church, he never misses a Sunday weekly mass broadcasted on t.v. and often prays alone in private.
Long afflicted with polio since I was two years old, I never recovered the use of my two legs while my left arm was partly paralyzed. I went through school in a wheelchair with an aide to assist me.
It was during high school (I studied in a Catholic school) when I started asking questions about the flaws in the dogma of the Catholic Church. I was disgusted at how our religion class teacher had forced us to attend mass every Sunday and gave us demerits whenever we failed to. All students were required to make a personal weekly Sunday mass attendance card to be checked on Mondays by our religion class teacher and dreaded the moment when one was asked to stand and explain the reason why one failed to attend the mass. It was hellish and medieval – a rehash of the Inquisition. I found it absurd as one was miserably mocked and drowned with guilt from the theological chastising by the teacher. Later, I realized how this method of exacting blind obedience and faith could lead to losing one’s self-esteem and self-respect when some students eventually decided to lie about going to mass. They feared more the humiliation they would face from our Catholic Taliban teacher than from the punishment they would face in hell.
In the Catholic school where I attended, it has this tradition of herding students en masse to attend the sacrament of confession in the church where the parish priest would be waiting for every student inside the confessional booth. This ritual lasted the whole day depending on the quantity and severity of the “sins” the students confessed. It was really farcical since some students had to invent sins just to have something to confess of or else risked being castigated and bullied by the trigger-happy priest who loved to shoot his gun at the ceiling of his bedroom in the parish “convento” whenever he got drunk.
Among the doctrines of the Catholic Church I found ludicrous was its fanatical devotion to the “Virgin Mary” – Jesus’ mother. We were systematically indoctrinated on this dogma, taught to pray the rosary several times a day (novenas) and celebrated the whole month of October as the Month of the Holy Rosary. The Church spends and lavishes so much time, resource and attention on the “Virgin Mary” making Catholics unwittingly unaware that they’re already worshipping her at par with God! Also, on October of each year, we were asked by the parish priest and our school to donate, solicit and raise money for Catholic missionaries – they call this Mission Month. They issued and distributed specially printed and marked envelopes to every student and gave us quotas or amounts to raise for donation. Students who were able to raise and surpass their quotas were given special privileges like bonus grades, quiz exemptions and school breaks. It was turned into a mad competition where it went as far as sponsoring cookouts where every class of students contributed money for capital, took turns cooking and selling food or snacks within the school to raise “mission money.” Interestingly, even the capital was also later given away for donation. Some students skipped meals in school to save their allowance for their “mission contributions” thinking and believing it was their little way of sacrificing and offering something to God and the “Virgin Mary.” Of course, others do it for their self-serving obsession to win the competition. Others stole or lied from their parents to obtain money. The not-so-well-off students felt guilty they couldn’t give much and often marginalized by rich and zealous students who constantly showed off with their huge donations.
I have read the bible at an earlier age but was puzzled in our high school religion class or catechism when our teacher introduced us to the Old Testament then decided not to go far beyond Leviticus. She skipped chapters, cherry-picking verses while bombarding us a plethora of undecipherable Catholic doctrines. Later on, she gave more importance to the New Testament focusing on the gospels. My inquisitive mind wandered and started to ask questions secretly out of fear of being mocked and rejected by my classmates and teacher. Reading the bible left me disturbing thoughts. I was shocked to read a God so malevolent, sadistic, vengeful, misogynistic, genocidal and egomaniac. Honestly, for a time I used to justify my own vindictive and violent temperament arguing God had his own violent episodes too.
When I read Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in our Filipino Literature class, my rational mind was awakened. I started to doubt. Then I craved for more references and books on the history of the Church and other religions. I also sought the books Rizal and his fellow freethinkers read and wrote during their time. I was obsessed dissecting the Noli even read it several times to draw off every secular and anti-cleric ideas Rizal had written about. I read his other essays then managed to get my hands on the writings and ideas of Del Pilar, Lopez-Jaena, etc. I got interested with Voltaire, Diderot, d’Holbach, Hume, Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, George Eliot and Robert Green Ingersoll… I became agnostic.
At the age of 17, I entered politics and convinced my parents to allow me to run for public office which they had very strong objections to due to my condition. In the end, I got my way and was first elected in the Sangguniang Kabataan or youth council. A few years later, I got elected for nine straight years as municipal councilor. During this time I never stopped seeking answers to my questions. I was angry and upset at the cycle of collusion between Catholic clerics and politicians in the forming of public policies on both local and top levels of our government. Secularism in our constitution is only a watermark that our government continues to ignore. The Filipino people are flanked on both sides by a pair of hungry wolves ready to tear them apart – on one side is the ever-arrogant, backward, sexually-repressive, hypocritical and profiteering Catholic Church while on the other is a government that formulates vague and deceptive policies to hide its plunderous, corrupt and inept condition.
In a country so steeped in religion and superstition, coming out in the open and declaring one’s self an atheist is not only suicidal but foolhardiness. Sometime ago, when I decided to finally discard the yoke of religion and took the path to atheism and secular humanism, it was sweet and victorious. I took it as an ultimate expression of freedom over ignorance and fear about our natural world and the universe as commonly espoused in the prejudices and superstitions of religion. It may sound utopian but I dream the day when all people become rational beings and understand and tolerate one another then someday there will be a world free from religion, bigotry, racism and conflict.
I enjoin all Filipino freethinkers to come out and renew the intellectual movement as we spread the light of reason among our people long groping in the dark. This is a challenge for us who live in a country and a world dominated by theists.
Frank III Manuel
Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Frank III Augustine Manuel in Oplan Pepe
I was raised a Catholic, and as a child, religion was all about loving my neighbors, singing songs, reciting the prayers and believing in Jesus, so while I was young it was all nice. Later on it became a set of rules I was supposed to abide by — don’t lie, don’t kill, don’t steal — and it made sense still, so it was okay. But then as I grew older it became about sin, about how I was born sinful and how certain sins meant that I was scheduled for an eternity in hell, and the only way out of it was to talk to a priest and eat some wafer. Loving my neighbors had taken a back seat to getting into heaven, but still I bought it anyway. For a while.
And then I attended one too many Masses with burning incense and fragrant oils and flashy ceremonies with billowing robes and funny hats and large jeweled crosses and TV cameras, with people convulsing in the aisles and women mumbling unintelligibly with their hands raised. It was at this point that I grew up, the church became ridiculous, the Bible became just another story book, and I decided religion was not for me.
The Catholic Church is like a hospital gone wrong. It tells everyone they’re sick, and that the only cure lies with someone from an old story book. You can be the healthiest person in the world and still they insist you’re ill and don’t know it, and they shove their medication down your throat every chance they get. Some of them actually believe they’re doing you good, trying to save you. Some of them just don’t want hell-bound sinners contaminating their flock.
Fact is, the Catholic Church thinks you’re stupid.
It thinks you don’t know what’s good for you, and that you need them to point you towards the way, the truth and the light. If you think you don’t need them you’re obviously lost, and if they’re not trying to save you, they make sure you know you’re going to burn in hell.
And now the Church is getting its grubby hands all over our politics.
As I see it, the RH Bill aims to inform citizens of scientifically proven (and legal) methods of family planning and women’s health care, and to make these available to anyone who asks for them. Personally I’ve never found anything wrong with information and accessibility, as they neither change my moral convictions nor force me to go against them, but I can understand why the Church would be opposed to educating their flock. Education, after all, leads to informed choice, informed choice leads to an exercise of free will, and free will, when it doesn’t coincide with the Church’s teachings, leads to the dark side. So the Church wants to keep you uneducated.
The Catholic Church thinks you’re stupid, and it wants you to stay that way.
Instead of preaching to its flock to choose according to what they consider moral and good, the Church would rather keep Filipinos ignorant to the family planning options already available. Instead of trusting that Catholics live consistently with the Church’s teachings on hormonal contraceptives, the Church would rather meddle with politics to keep them inaccessible. The Catholic Church does not trust its flock.
If you’re Catholic, the Church thinks you’re a hypocrite.
–
The Church’s opposition to the Magna Carta for Women is something I consider more troubling. Here is a law empowering women, protecting them from discrimination and bias, and the Church opposes it because it goes against the “natural calling of women.” I find it terribly disturbing that the Church would allow single mothers to be denied education and forced to stay home, under-educated and unemployed, all for the sake of gender roles. The misogyny is sickening.
The RH Bill and the Magna Carta for Women are all about Education and Freedom — education about reproductive health and freedom of women — and the Catholic Church opposes both. The comparison to Padre Damaso is strikingly appropriate: the Church is keeping Filipinos ignorant and women subjugated. It is 1886 all over again, and the Church is abusing its power over Filipinos. What do you do?
You speak out.
On Planet Church
Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Rome Jorge in Oplan Pepe
The Church is out of this world.
On Planet Church, land is limitless and natural resources are infinite, so population growth is never a problem. People there don’t create pollution and cost nothing to feed.
After all, more people mean more offerings and donations as well as more churchgoers and clergymen. A population growth rate that outpaces economic growth ensures more poor people. And it’s the poor that give the most.
There’s a reason why people in advanced, prosperous and democratic countries people hardly go to church. They know something we don’t. More Filipinos forced to work overseas because of local economic conditions also mean more churchgoers the world over.
On Planet Church, people only have sex when they need to procreate—like animals that only rut during mating season. Making love out of tenderness, passion or pleasure is unheard off. This most basic act, responsible for our existence, is still a source of shame and guilt. Abstinence and rhythm method are practical and foolproof. And on their planet, priests are truly celibate and no sacristans are molested.
In their world, consenting adults don’t mind supposedly celibate people meddling in their sex lives. And parents are okay with people who supposedly took a vow poverty charging exorbitant tuition fees for education.
Any other institution that forbids women from holding the same offices as men or discourages the children of single mothers from entering its schools would be charged with sexual discrimination. But on Planet Church, time stands still and the same norms that applied during Spanish Inquisition—when the Philippines was Christianized—still applies.
Any other institution with a massive network of properties and assets would be taxed properly, especially in these difficult times. And any other institution that collected money from its members weekly would be held accountable—literally—with public audits. But that’s too far out for these guys.
Cathy Quiogue
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Cathy Quiogue in Oplan Pepe
Hello!
I know I am in the minority here but I feel the need to stand up for my faith, too. Hope you have room for dissenting views as well.
1. I have grown to love and appreciate the Catholic faith even more now that I am an adult. The more I learn about its history and its tenets, the more I treasure my faith.
2. Priests are only men, human beings, so they can make mistakes. I have been sickened by the scandal of the pedophile priests especially in the US but they are distinct from the faith itself. Jesus Christ is the eternal High Priest and Mediator between God and Man and will remain the model of the priest.
I do not and will never based my faith on the actions of the priests alone.
3. As I have said, the Church is not meddling in state affairs when it speaks out against the RH bill because this concerns a moral decision. It would be highly remiss of her to be silent when she should be helping her flock in forming good consciences to help them make good decisions.
Should the Church be silent when the government steals from the public? Just as she can’t be silent in the moral aspects of political life, she can’t also be silent in matters where conscience and morality matter.
4. History has kindly judged Cardinal Sin who needled and criticized the Marcos dictatorship constantly and he was instrumental in bringing us our freedom. Was he wrong to have “meddled” in our politics back then?
In fact, the media has criticized the CBCP for their silence on GMA’s corruption and has even gone as far as saying that the Church has lost her moral ascendancy because of her silence. So it seems a damn-if-you-do-and-damn-if-you-don’t proposition for the Church.
Many people are still looking to the Church for moral guidance, so it behooves her to do her duty by being faithful to her role and commission here on earth.
Thank you very much and I wish you all well.
Keats Ronquillo
Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Powghee in Oplan Pepe
I was a Catholic, not a just a pews type of Catholic, I was an altar boy and memorized the mass.
Even at 1st grade I was confused at the logic of why I needed to go to confession for the forgiveness of sins. If it was to God that I sinned then it is from him I ask forgiveness.
And the whole “go to the mother” politics of Marian doctrine was really weird to me. Even as a Catholic I found the pantheon of saints superfluous as I believed in a personal God.
This is what brought me over to becoming a Protestant.
Sure there are egoists and megalomaniac personalities in our side of the fence but every member is encouraged to read our own bibles, study it ourselves and make it personal. Truth lay in a personal relationship and scholarly study of God’s word.
That decentralization made me a whole lot freer.
The Church (i.e. the Catholic Church) has been meddling too much in state affairs. They presume too much that the Philippines is Catholic, and as such would like to control the Philippines like, as so aptly pointed out by this site, we were still in the time of Padre Damaso.
There is no Biblical precept that supports their stand on contraception. The oft quoted story of Onan is presented in the wrong context. His punishment was not due to the withdrawal of his semen, but due to his selfishness not to fulfill his brotherly duty of continuing his brother’s family.
To further justify their stand they accuse all other forms of contraception to be abortifacient. Not even to discuss masturbation, if they believe that the spilling of semen is sinful then every adolescent whose experienced nocturnal emissions is guilty of genocide.
Which is more economical: a pack of condoms to prevent pregnancy or a supply of formula to feed that baby?
While, as they are religious leaders, they have every prerogative to spiritually blackmail, and brainwash their constituents, everyone else outside their religion IS NOT fair game. Turn every Catholic woman to Maria Clara for all I care, but non-Catholics should be exempt from this.
I live in a province which I say is more Catholic than Filipino — Bohol. Every 3pm and 6pm the 3 o’clock habit and the Angelus never fails to play in every radio station and every mall on this little island. Time stands still and all services stop when prayer begins and non-Catholics who ignore the call to prayer are seen with very dirty looks as if you are a spawn of Satan himself.
But in flag ceremonies no one cares to stop and respect the flag.
I am not Atheist or Agnostic but I wish for a secular state, if only one can be free to practice or not practice his religion.
There is a separation of Church and state to be respected and our nation is not a diocese. They should realize that.
Mike Aquino
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by Pepe in Oplan Pepe
I no longer consider myself a Catholic
I no longer consider myself a Catholic. No matter how fondly I remember the good parts of being Catholic – the songs, the retreats, the lessons – Catholicism for me became increasingly difficult to reconcile with common sense and decency.
I can’t reconcile so-called Catholic values with the Catholic institution’s nasty tendency to close ranks around its priests. Child abuse in the priesthood was given cover for so long because bishops would rather hide abusive priests rather than confirm that such abuse took place. Justice became secondary to the preservation of appearances.
I can’t reconcile so-called Catholic virtue with its hierarchy’s politics, often exercised to uphold retrograde policies against family planning and reproductive health. Empowered by its mass believer base, the Catholic Church continues to abuse its political power in the secular world.
In Manila, doctors were forbidden to prescribe contraceptives to patients, because Mayor Atienza thought he could implement Catholic doctrine into municipal governance. Church pressure has distorted the Reproductive Health debate; the simple question of “should government-run health centers provide reproductive health services, including artificial family planning methods” has been drowned out by priests railing against it from the pulpits and banners hung from churches.
There has been no good-faith effort by the Church hierarchy to explain their side; there has only been arm-twisting and emotional blackmail. Church representatives have ignored or walked out on any efforts to engage them in discussion.
In short, I can’t believe the Church is moral anymore. A fatal conclusion for someone who was raised to believe that Catholic priests acted in persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ.
I now know that is a lie; many Catholics, laymen and priests alike, use their faith as cover for some of the most grievous immoralities. Not just in the Philippines; the Church hierarchy is complicit in genocide in Rwanda, torture in Argentina, and child abuse in the West. In persona Christi capitis my ass.
Due to the Church hierarchy’s own actions, the current situation is becoming more and more unstable – the Church cannot maintain the status quo for long. At least two presidential candidates have declared their disagreement with Church policy on reproductive health, a position that would have been political poison a few years ago. More Catholics are speaking out, or voting with their feet. The Church is less and less seen as being infallible – increasingly its clay feet are showing.
In time, I hope an increasingly secular electorate will realize a few things about the Church and the civic sphere:
The Catholic hierarchy’s interests are not those of the community at large. Catholic interests cannot predominate in a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional community. A Muslim or Protestant mother must not be compelled to settle for government services tailored only to meet Catholic sensitivities, which is what happens when the Church is able to bully legislators into substituting the Catholic agenda for the government’s.
The Church can no longer impose its particular views onto a secular government. Bishops may have to settle for a conversation with equals, instead of expecting to have their own way every time. Catholic scholar David Hollenbach argues that Catholic involvement in the public sphere “must proceed according to a mode of dialogue and persuasion… faith and theology are seen as participants in a drama that involves numerous other actors. The church is not the producer or director of this drama.”
In real life, the usurpation of government decision-making by ecclesiastics has always ended up badly for everyone. The Church loses moral authority, government decision making powers are hobbled, and constituents end up being badly served by dogma-driven decisions.
I no longer consider myself a Catholic. I still remember my Catholic upbringing and influences with fondness, but so much of present Catholic doctrine treats truth and morality as if it can be decided by fiat (”Roma locuta est…”), and I simply cannot be a part of that.
Romeo
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by romeo.macapobre in Oplan Pepe
1. How do you feel now about your religion? Compare this to how you felt about it as you were growing up and vs. what you were taught.
i do not follow any religion at this time. growing up i was taught to fear existence and to fear life. i was taught to memorise long winded prayers which i barely took into heart. i lived in fear and guilt. i was taught self hate and superstition.
2. What brought about your new view of the church or its priests? Did you feel any guilt over your decision?
although i was born into catholicism, i manage to break away from it after years of learning about science, philosophy and especially history. if people knew more about these three things, then i’d think religion will play a lesser role in religious people’s lives.
3. What do you think about the Church’s meddling in state issues such as the Reproductive Health Bill and the Magna Carta of Women?
i believe the church is entitled to its own opinion about these issues. what they are not entitled to is deliberate misinformation and fear mongering. it is thus fustrating when the media or society itself is indifferent about it. as we have learned from history whenever any church dictates over the state, civil liberties disappear. scientific and social progress slows or worse halted. The RH bill will stir us in the right direction to manage the population individually without coercion. While the magna carta of women eliminates discrimination against women.
4. Anything else you might want to add about your insights on church, religion and the meddling modern day Padre Damasos in our midst?
I think the church should be treated, meaning taxed and audited, like any other business. And the institution must be held liable for criminal offenses like hiding a criminal (pedophiles).