"Catholic Church, Stop Meddling!”

The persisting rumble ignited by the artificial family planning issue gets uglier. In the process of an ecumenical Mass at the Manila Cathedral attended by the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Edward Adams, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, high ranking Church officials and counterparts from different faiths, a Jose Rizal-looking guy named Carlos Celdran unfurled his “Damaso” protest placard suggesting the hypocrisy of the clergy. 

(Padre Damaso, a Spanish Franciscan who had a daughter named Maria Clara is one of the fictional characters of the national hero’s NOLI ME TANGERE. The anticlerical novel exposes the abuses of the Spanish clerics when the country was under Spain’s colonial rule.)

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman is more unkind in his words as he sides with Celdran when he reminded that “Damaso” was just an “apt reminder” to Church officials of the “abuses and inequities of the clergy during the Spanish colonial regime when the Church wantonly interfered in secular activities and dictated on civilian authorities.” He goes on further saying “The message of Celdran is that ‘Father Damasos’ have survived the Spanish era and continue to bedevil government up to today,”

The Philippines during Rizal’s time is different from the Philippines today although somewhere along the line, there are indeed similarities. Rizal’s depiction of the abusive friars during his time is based from what he saw. At some point, Rep. Lagman is correct in saying that “Damasos” are still around in the persons of arrogant, self-centered and abusive priests. In fact, “Damasos”, are always in our midst for priests are also human like us who are sinful and imperfect. 

The point where I don’t agree with Lagman and countless fellow citizens is the issue on “interference in secular activities and on civilian authorities”.

When did the Catholic Church interfere in our secular activities and when did it dictate civilian authorities on what to do or what to legislate and what not to legislate?

If what is in the mind of Mr. Lagman is the Church’s opposition to artificial contraception and the Reproductive Health bill, I have not yet read or heard the Church/clergy telling us directly that we must not use artificial contraceptives. I have not yet heard the Church/clergy telling or compelling our legislators to enact or not to enact a particular law. I have not yet heard members of the Church castigating a politician or an ordinary citizen as a womanizer, gambler, corrupt, murderer, thief, etc. The Church/clergy has no intention to make us robots by telling us what to do and what not to do. It merely says what is wrong in our dispositions and actions with the intention to correct.

Whenever issues on morality and social justice are at stake, the Catholic Church cannot and will not remain silent or cowed. Contraception and artificial family planning, jueteng, graft and corruption, inequality in the justice system and neglecting the poor to name a few are all moral issues. In a country like the Philippines, if the Church remains silent who will take the side of the poor and the oppressed?

It’s true that there are some members of the clergy who are worse sinner than some of our politicians. Some have bad examples and they are indeed a disgrace. However, let me stress clearly that the clergy is not the Church --- they are a part of the Church.

The Church as a teacher of faith and moral issues cannot be shut up nor be threatened when the message of the Gospel is twisted or taken for granted

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We want to do a lot of things good and bad. It is easier to do bad than good for that is the human impulse. It is easier to go against the Decalogue than to forgive. Can we imagine if there are no laws governing the country? In that case, there would be chaos and anarchy. In the same manner, when the Church does not have laws, anybody can do anything like probably what was done in Sodom and Gomorrah.

We may not agree with the teachings of the Church but that does not mean that our perspective is right and that the Church is wrong. There are a lot that we cannot understand on what the Church is saying but it is not correct to say that because we don’t understand them, they are wrong. If we believe that there is an Almighty who calls Himself “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, anything that that Being says must all be true even if we don’t understand or like what He says.

Thus the Church is always around to meddle to show us what is morally right and wrong. The issue on artificial family planning falls on that. -30-