Church Won't Compromise Stand on Contraceptives
MANILA, March 11, 2010 -"The stand of the Church on contraceptives can't be compromised."
This was the statement of Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Media Director of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to a women group insisting that the Church change its stand on condoms.
"If contraceptives are immoral, nothing can change that. If the church teaches it's immoral nothing can change that, not even the vote of the whole country can change that. The Church does not compromise its teachings," he said.
Women workers of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), a labor party list, asked the Catholic bishops to "bless" the condoms as a reconciliatory gesture to unite for reproductive health and women's rights.
"We are hoping to have reconciliation with the Catholic Bishops. We highly respect the religious beliefs and the doctrines of the Church but we also would like the Church to respect women's rights and our call to reproductive health and one of these issues is the condom distribution," said Judy Ann Miranda, General-Secretary of the Partido ng Manggagawa Party List.
Miranda also asked the government to embark a nationwide education program through the barangays to educate the public on the many aspects of HIV-AIDS, teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, child spacing and family planning and to continue advertising condoms.
Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, CBCP President, said in a recent CBCP statement that advertisements on condoms should be removed because it is likely to cause serious or widespread offense.
"The multi-million dollar condom business... heavily targets the adolescent market, at the expense of morality and family life," Odchimar said in a statement.
"Condom advertisements should be banned from television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, and public places, as they desensitize the youth's delicate conscience and weaken their moral fiber as future parents," he added. (Kate Laceda)