At Large
The bishops' place
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:23:00 03/18/2008
MANILA, Philippines--Philippine Catholic bishops may appear to be reluctant these days to involve themselves in "partisan, political" affairs, even if they say they support the search for "truth." But there is one area where they have no reluctance at all making their presence felt.
And that area is sex. And the battleground is women's bodies--and women's autonomy, control, fertility and "morality."
At the height of the battle over the eventual passage of the Quezon City Reproductive Health ordinance, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco showed up at the City Hall in the full regalia of his office, including a staff and a miter, in an effort perhaps to intimidate the councilors and scare them from passing the measure. Previously, Ongtioco had led the charge against the ordinance, writing a scathing pastoral letter warning against the evils said to be inherent in the draft ordinance, from sexual promiscuity to abortion, and even an increase in the incidence of women's cancers. The letter was read in every Sunday mass in the diocese; and parishes prominently displayed banners denouncing the measure.
And yet, despite the name-calling against the ordinance's sponsors and supporters, despite the summons issued by Bishop Ongtioco to councilors for a "dialogue," and despite the mobilization of the faithful at the hearings, the ordinance was passed by a decided majority of the city council.
This tells me many things about the Church's campaign against reproductive health and rights. One is that the name of the game for the Church is intimidation, and only because the bishops know they have already lost the public opinion war on the issue of family planning. Another is that the Church will "win" only when legislators and policymakers allow themselves to be intimidated, or put politics before the greater good. And yet another insight is that despite the Church's incendiary rhetoric, nobody really believes it. The world is not going to end because teenagers are taught to use the condom or because women learn how to pop pills.
As one Filipino bishop wrote in a pastoral letter, there are so many evils in this world to denounce--such as, I would think, stealing an election, corruption of a scale that boggles the mind, and even the selling off of national patrimony--for the Church to spend so much time and energy on a matter best left to the conscience of couples.
* * *
THE CATHOLIC Church's attempts to assert itself on the issue of reproductive health and rights are not confined to just the Philippines. In an article cited Tuesday ("Freedom of Conscience and the Secular State in Latin America"), Mexican sociologist Roberto Blancarte writes that one of secularization's important aspects is the "relative privatization of religion due to the growing role of freedom of conscience and the need for the modern state to respect it." Even if the majority of citizens profess one religion, in the modern, secular state, that one or any religion ceases to dictate the norms and rules by which government operates, and at the same time protects the right of individuals to dissent from religious doctrines and "norms and values that were imposed based on that doctrine."
Thus, writes Blancarte: "(T)he ability of women to buy contraceptive pills at the corner pharmacy, to divorce and get remarried or to end an undesired pregnancy goes hand in hand with the existence of a lay state that guarantees that freedom of conscience and the acts that consequently derive from that freedom."
In Latin America, however, "many states still are strongly influenced by the Catholic Church or other religious hierarchies," says Blancarte.
And yet, on reflection, perhaps Catholics in these countries live under more liberal Catholic regimes, because their societies and churches at least concede the need and validity of contraceptives in the exercise of responsible parenthood. In the Philippines, even as divorce and abortion remain illegal (anathema in law, but not in practice), family planning (or responsible parenthood) remains disputed territory, with men's and women's access constantly threatened and constrained.
* * *
BLANCARTE, however, sees reason to hope. In Latin America, he writes, there has been a distinct move toward the secularization of the state. He cites three factors that have contributed to this: the growth of a significant religious plurality, a greater awareness of the need to protect human rights and the real and growing democratization of Latin American societies. Surveys done in different countries in the region, he says, show Catholics "expressing openly liberal positions that differ greatly from those of the bishops."
But obstacles remain. One of these, writes Blancarte, is the "political presence of the Catholic hierarchy [that] continues to be overpowering in some countries and in many places in Latin America it is actually oppressive." He cites how politicians "believe their best campaign is based on a supposed closeness to religion and very few dare to push laws and public policies that the population needs." At the same time, "few politicians see, analyze and understand what the polls show with regard to the secularization of society--that is, the distancing of the faithful from the doctrinal norms of their own churches or of religious precepts in general."
He might well have been writing about the Philippines and Filipino politicians, and also about the Catholic clergy and leadership here, who distance themselves from issues of moral and ethical clarity, but insert themselves in an essentially private matter. When will they, as the saying goes, "get with the program?"
|
