By Sun Star
A TOP bishop yesterday explained he never threatened to excommunicate President Benigno Aquino III for his views on family planning and reproductive health.
But Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Bishop Nereo Odchimar also continued his campaign against the reproductive health (RH) bill.
“The RH bill is gaining favorable momentum,†said Bishop Odchimar in his homily at the Pontifical Mass at the Indiana Aerospace University in Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
“Sooner or later, we may become a country that detests conception of life, a country with government officials with their contention that population growth is a hindrance to economic progress, and progress is impossible without contraceptives to control human birth,†he added.
Radio Veritas, the Manila-based official radio station of the Catholic Church, is expected to issue an advisory regarding the “misquoted†statement, said Odchimar.
In the meantime, Cebu-based canon lawyer Msgr. Esteban Binghay said more than civil disobedience, the church should focus on formation of conscience. Binghay is the Episcopal vicar of the Archiocese.
“This case is not for confrontation but dialogue,†he said.
Opponents of the RH bills started on Saturday a daily prayer session dubbed “Prayer for Life.†They said the activity will run until the president listens to their calls.
The prayer sessions, held in the Fuente Osmeña oval from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sundays, are led by the Human International Life (HLI) and the Archdiocesan Council of Marian Devotees.
“We will hold this activity until God answers our prayers, until Malacañang gives in to our demands,†Dr. Rene Bullecer of HLI told Sun.Star Cebu.
Advocates of the reproductive health (RH) bills have expressed their support for President Aquino, who recently said the government is open to artificial means of family planning.
The Reproductive Rights Resource Group (3RG)-Cebu, an alliance of groups supporting the bills, said the couple’s right to choose should be respected through a comprehensive family planning program.
Bullecer, however, said the people behind the RH bills are misinformed, hate the church or receive funds from certain institutions abroad.
According to the United Nations, 90 percent of 350,000 women who die annually from complications during child pregnancy or childbirth are in developing countries.
Achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015 is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
But Bullecer described the MDGs, especially the ones related to reproductive health, as “anti-poor.â€
The main problem in the country, he said, is not how to restrict population growth, but how to eliminate graft and corruption.
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