These are not intellectually uplifting times for Catholics in the Philippines. It began with the knee-jerk reactions of many of them to the proposed reproductive health bill, followed by wild-eyed demonstrations against the proposed divorce bill, and, lately, with foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria over an art exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Let us first look at the CCP brouhaha. The exhibit could have passed as a non-event, involving as it did participants with no name recall. But no, a passing viewer needed somebody else to shudder with her in indignation over the “obscenities” on display. And so the word was passed on to the pious to see the show even if they have to set foot inside a gallery for the first time.
And so it came to pass that, thanks to an emotion-driven mob, a designer named Mideo is now enjoying attention-grabbing notoriety. The over-zealous Catolicos cerrado have actually gifted him with what many mediocre paint-dabbler would pay for: instant celebrity!
The claim of the cerrados is that they are against “obscenity.” Obscenity is the Maguindanao massacre. Obscenity is selling used helicopters and passing them off as brand-new. Obscenity is calling “Hello, Garci.” Obscenity is refusing to answer a Senate inquiry on the ground of self-incrimination. Obscenity is a prelate asking for a birthday gift of a vehicle from a president. Obscenity is burying a dead despot with full military and state honors despite a name that is associated with ill-gotten wealth.
Then there is the divorce bill. A divorce law would allow divorce for couples who need it. Would allowing divorce mean that there would suddenly be a stampede among Catholic couples to split? The only reason to fear a divorce law is a sense of insecurity that the “faithful” have not been trained to be faithful enough. There are so many types of medicine in the market, but it has not meant people gobbling up everything just because they are available. Having a divorce law is not a mandate for people to separate. The Church should exhort all good and obedient Catholics to stay together forever and ever, but, for charity’s sake, it should not deprive non-Catholics the right to divorce.
Objectors to an RH bill stubbornly insist on equating the bill with abortion, accompanied by imprecations against “murder of the unborn.” Pray tell, what unborn would there be to murder if a man has undergone a vasectomy and is therefore unable to impregnate his partner? The same holds true for a woman who has had a laparoscopy. And what is so natural about the so-called “Natural Family Spacing” which requires a couple to engage in sex, not according to when the urge drives them, but according to calendars and what-have-you?
CCP Chair Emily Abrera, according to friends, has been receiving death threats. Those who are threatening her are brain dead. They are driven by envy for a woman who has not only the intelligence but the
cojones to take a principled stand against the inanities heaped on the CCP staff.
—BILL IBAÑEZ,
billibanez@yahoo.com