Will Cardinal Tagle advance the ‘Francis effect’?

We were at the SVD Dinner for the Missions held last March at Elements, Centris, Quezon City, which featured Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and CNN Vatican correspondent John Allen Jr. in a “conversation.” But for the time constraint, we wanted to ask the cardinal whether he agreed with Pope Francis’ position stated, on many occasions, that it’s time Catholic Church leaders and prelates moved away from being obsessed with doctrinal matters, rituals and rules (with respect to homosexuals, abortion, contraception, divorce, etc.) to manifesting simplicity, understanding, compassion and mercy toward the faithful, especially the poor. This, we think, largely sums up the essence of the “Francis effect” that Allen was referring to.

As is widely known, Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been deeply touched and, indeed, are excited about the “Francis effect” and anxiously waiting when that may translate into a “Tagle effect”—that is, when the good cardinal, the most senior among the Catholic leaders, would signal Pope Francis’ admonition and effort at reform to the rest of the hierarchy, clergy and laity.

What we have observed, just to cite one example, is that the hierarchy (represented by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines) appears to persist in its single-minded opposition to the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act (RH Law) that’s been stalled in the Supreme Court for over a year now. In fact, there are reports that some bishops, or their lay surrogates, have been making behind-the-scene moves at swaying the justices to the bishops’ position.

We appeal to the good cardinal to admonish the bishops to cease and desist from their persistence to see the demise of the RH Law (which had taken all of 14 years to finally pass in December 2012) before it could even be implemented to benefit mainly our poor brethren who want it. Please ask them to carefully study the RH Law which, surveys after surveys by reputable firms such as Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, have shown to be consistently favored by a compelling majority (at least 70 percent) of Filipinos, Catholics and non-Catholics.

Reading carefully with an open mind, one will find the RH Law extremely well-meaning and all for the good of the country. It categorically proscribes abortion and is authentically prolife. A main thrust is to provide couples the capacity for informed choice in the number and spacing of their children, thereby enabling them to lead more dignified and fulfilling lives. As shown by our progressive Asian neighbors, such a policy, precisely because it benefited mostly the poor, significantly contributed to reducing poverty and joblessness.

The RH Law is actually in accord with Pope Francis’ profound concern for the poor and marginalized in our country. Serious empirical research shows that without a government-sponsored family planning program—and even assuming reduced corruption—it is well nigh impossible to effectively deal with our country’s mass poverty.

—BEN DE LEON,

president, Forum for Family Planning and Development, [email protected];

BICBIC CHUA, president,

Catholics for RH, [email protected]