The move to approve the RH Bill in the Philippines is one of the most recent of the moral hot potatoes. The Church urges the Filipino Catholics to be firm in opposing the approval of the said bill because it will destroy Catholic Christian morality. The Church stands firm in its protest. Avoid immorality and away from moral sin. The Filipino people are divided when it comes to this issue even among the Filipino Catholics. The said Bill will promote the death of both the body and the soul because people will be prone to unchastely acts like premarital sex, extramarital sex and the worst the abortion of the unborn.
Religions vary widely in their views of the ethics of reproductive health especially birth control. The Roman Catholic Church accepts only Natural Family Planning and only for serious reasons, while Protestants maintain a wide range of views from allowing none to very lenient. Views in Judaism range from the stricter Orthodox sect to the more relaxed Reform sect. In Islam, contraceptives are allowed if they do not threaten health, although their use is discouraged by some. Hindus may use both natural and artificial contraceptives; however they are against any contraceptive method which works after fertilization. A common Buddhist view of birth control is that preventing conception is ethically acceptable, while intervening after conception has occurred or may have occurred is not.
My mother works as a city health worker. One of the works that she does is to go to remote areas in our place and do some orientation on family planning methods that includes the discussion about contraceptives. Being a son of a city health worker, the terms condoms, tubal ligation, vasectomy, IUD, cervical cap, diaphragm, spermicidal gel, etc., are not new to me. When I was still young these terms seem not so disturbing to me because I often hear my mother talking about these things to people who come to our house for consultations and there were times that I went with her so I thought that there was nothing wrong. I am in a dilemma because of this recent issue. My mother is a Catholic Christian but she herself does not really understand why the Church always looks at the dark side of the RH Bill. Some narrow minded Catholics would or might say that damnation awaits my mother when she would die. Will it be the case for doing one’s work? This issue rends the unity among people especially among the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic Church. It also rends the internal unity of the soul of individuals.
This pressing issue seems insurmountable but the Oneness of the Church will surely survive because Christ himself has promised that not even the gates of hell shall prevail over the One True Church. I do not know how this disunity will be overcome. Christ is the Sacrament of Unity between God and us humans. By sacrament, we mean a tangible sign, signifying an invisible reality and bring about the effect of the reality it signifies. The Church is the Body of Christ and is the visible sacrament of our unity with God but even the unity among us, unity is invisible. We are in a double darkness. What then is the sacrament of our unity? Nothing is visible as of now but light will shine eventually. Let us continue to pray that we may be one. Fray Arvin C. Salceda, OSA
My mother works as a city health worker. One of the works that she does is to go to remote areas in our place and do some orientation on family planning methods that includes the discussion about contraceptives. Being a son of a city health worker, the terms condoms, tubal ligation, vasectomy, IUD, cervical cap, diaphragm, spermicidal gel, etc., are not new to me. When I was still young these terms seem not so disturbing to me because I often hear my mother talking about these things to people who come to our house for consultations and there were times that I went with her so I thought that there was nothing wrong. I am in a dilemma because of this recent issue. My mother is a Catholic Christian but she herself does not really understand why the Church always looks at the dark side of the RH Bill. Some narrow minded Catholics would or might say that damnation awaits my mother when she would die. Will it be the case for doing one’s work? This issue rends the unity among people especially among the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic Church. It also rends the internal unity of the soul of individuals.
This pressing issue seems insurmountable but the Oneness of the Church will surely survive because Christ himself has promised that not even the gates of hell shall prevail over the One True Church. I do not know how this disunity will be overcome. Christ is the Sacrament of Unity between God and us humans. By sacrament, we mean a tangible sign, signifying an invisible reality and bring about the effect of the reality it signifies. The Church is the Body of Christ and is the visible sacrament of our unity with God but even the unity among us, unity is invisible. We are in a double darkness. What then is the sacrament of our unity? Nothing is visible as of now but light will shine eventually. Let us continue to pray that we may be one. Fray Arvin C. Salceda, OSA
RSS Feed