Cardinal Vidal Sees 'head-on collision' on RH Bill

MANILA, Nov. 7, 2010—Speaking before 500 delegates during the 17th Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith and Family, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said the Church’s struggle to preserve and promote the values conducive to nurturing faith, family and life appears to be heading “towards a head-on collision” with those who push for the passage of RH Bill.

He downplayed claims by some sectors that the Catholic Church tries to impose itself on the rest of the citizenry.

“The Church is being portrayed as an intolerant power block bent on imposing its will on the nation, running roughshod over the will of most Filipinos,” the 79-year old prelate said.

He noted that during the EDSA I and II, “when the issue was political, and the goal was toppling a dictator or a corrupt leader, the Church was hailed as a force for reform and liberation.”

Having served President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in 1986, he said when the voice of the Church proved a useful instrument to attain the tipping point, “virtually everyone whose voice mattered praised the role of the Church.”

“Now that the issue is moral and much more proper to the Church’s concern, we are accused of using undue influence and interfering in politics,” he added.

He said he witnessed bishops and archbishops who drafted the post-election statement which declared the 1986 elections were marked by massive fraud.

He further said had the bishops then thought it undemocratic to issue that statement and if they respected the views of those who thought contrary to their opinion, history might have made a few more twists and turns before something like EDSA could happen.

“I assure you, the drafters of the statement did not rely on surveys and opinion polls as they read the situation based on their collective experience as they illumined their experience with principles from Scriptures and Church doctrines because they drew conclusions using right reason and sound logical principles,” he explained.

Cardinal Vidal told the delegates that it is the same right to speak from the same principle which is being exercised by the Church as the issue then was not about toppling a dictator “but the reclaiming of justice.”

“The issue not is not about claiming the power to dictate, but the protection of the values that hold our nation together and while the issues than and now may be different, the Church uses the same principles in its courses of action – what the Holy Father (Benedict XVI) calls as ‘the ethical foundation of civil discourse,” he added.

Referring to churchmen who criticize the Church for its vigorous opposition to the Bill on democratic principles who “may have also missed the point” because to reduce the debate into a purely religious issue is to imply that the objective moral principles that ground consensus are subjective opinions which will be open to further debates.

Cardinal Vidal explained in many cases when consensus is not attained “the resulting action has always been one of license – to allow everybody to do what he or she wants as long as nobody gets hurt.”

He said there is more to the RH Bill in its current form than mere democratic consensus or license because “if the RH Bill, in its present form passes into law, ironically, it will annul consensus” because it will impose itself on the consciences of individuals.