Humanae Vitae vs. Filipino Politicians

“The Philippine government will provide contraceptives to poor couples who request them despite strong opposition from the dominant Roman Catholic Church,” President Benigno Aquino said while quizzed by Fil-Ams during a satellite television interview from the United States at the Silicon Valley.

From the very start of his presidency, Noynoy Aquino is firm in saying that he is a fair and square president and that the law is applied equally to all although that is open to questions and scrutiny these days.

Mr. Aquino and his subalterns might get a dosage of fairness when the Catholic Church declares  them excommunicated Latae Sententiae. That means an automatic excommunication by force of the law when the law is transgressed (Canon 1314). Excommunicated persons are barred from receiving the sacraments until they admit their errors and recant them before Church authorities who have the power  to put them back to the fold of believers. Excommunication does  not  intend to punish but rather helps  compassionately  the gravely erring faithful from committing further acts that risk his spiritual well-being.

What is wrong with artificial contraception?

Former senator and Opus Dei member Francisco Tatad explains:

1. Contraception goes against the conjugal moral order established by the Creator; and

2. State-sponsored contraception goes against the Constitution, which proclaims “the sanctity of family life” and obliges the State to “protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution” and “to equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” The Constitution recognizes marriage as the foundation of the Filipino family, and the family as the foundation of the nation.

Pope Paul VI’s prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae's first sentence teaches that “The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator".  In other words, every sexual act must be open to the possibility of the transmission of a new life.

If Mr. Aquino is serious in saying that artificial contraception paraphernalia will be available (not only) to the poor (but to all), we must  be prepared to bitterly accept the following prophecies of Paul VI in his encyclical that have become a reality long infecting our society.  Make no mistake that our communities and cities will be contaminated with an even more potent "virus" of social disintegration when condoms and IUD's are available to all.  We pray that our society will not suffer unimaginable destruction if we still believe that the family is its foundation.

Infidelity and Moral Decline

The Pope first noted that the widespread use of contraception would "lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." That there has been a widespread decline in morality, especially sexual morality, in the last 25 years, is very difficult to deny. The increase in the number of divorces, abortion, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and venereal diseases should convince any skeptic that sexual morality is not the strong suit of our age.

There is no question that contraception is behind much of this trouble. Contraception has made sexual activity a much more popular option that it was when the fear of pregnancy deterred a great number of young men and women from engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. The availability of contraception has led them to believe that they can engage in premarital sexual activity "responsibly." But teenagers are about as responsible in their use of contraception as they are in all other phases of their lives--such as making their beds, cleaning their rooms and getting their homework done on time. 

Lost Respect for Women

Paul VI also argued that "the man" will lose respect for "the woman" and "no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium" and will come to "the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." This concern reflects what has come to be known as a "personalist" understanding of morality. The personalist understanding of wrongdoing is based upon respect for the dignity of the human person. The Pope realized that the Church's teaching on contraception is designed to protect the good of conjugal love. When spouses violate this good, they do not act in accord with their innate dignity and thus they endanger their own happiness. Treating their bodies as mechanical instruments to be manipulated for their own purposes, they risk treating each other as objects of pleasure.

Abuse of Power

Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of contraception would place a "dangerous weapon in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." The history of the family-planning programs in the Third World is a sobering testimony to this reality. In Third World countries many people undergo sterilization unaware of what they are doing. The forced abortion program in China shows the stark extreme toward which governments will take population programs. Moreover, few people are willing to recognize the growing evidence that many parts of the world face not overpopulation, but underpopulation. It will take years to reverse the "anti-child" mentality now entrenched in many societies.

If and when the Church decides to declare officials excommunicated laetae sententiae, the president included, Mr. Aquino is not considered as a head of State but simply a gravely erring Catholic playing the hands of God on life issues.

The Church is also fair and square. -30-

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