Are Catholics who disagree with the Philippine bishops’ condemnation of the reproductive health bill bad Catholics? The bishops’ statements would have the public believe so. Yet Vatican II documents will affirm that in advocating passage of the RH bill, the laity are indeed playing their proper roles in Church reform.
The other Sunday just before Mass, the congregation in our village chapel was called upon yet again to recite a prayer calling on God to have our legislators defeat the reproductive health (RH) bill pending in Congress.
Should senators and representatives carry out interpellation on the reproductive health (RH) bill in their home communities? Yes! Our legislators are, after all, conscious of their accountability to their constituents and their mandate to represent the latter’s interests. Why not, then, take the opportunity of the April-May recess to consult women living in the legislator’s [...]
In a recent article (BusinessWorld, 2/21/12), UP economist, Dr. Ernesto Pernia laments: “The [Catholic] Church today remains top-down, authoritarian, and dismissive of the voice of the laity. This is particularly so in the Philippines where the laity prefer to stay silent and be seen as submissive to Church authority.” He recalls Cardinal John Henry Newman’s [...]
In the seemingly endless agonizing of religious officials and associated lay followers over when life begins, whether some contraceptives are abortifacient, or which contributes more to poverty—inequitable resource distribution or population increase—almost totally ignored are the voices of those who bear and care for more children than they want—our poor women. How ironic that the [...]
