Will the Church be isolated by opposing RH Bill 5043?

THE PROPONENTS ON THE CONTROVERSIAL RH Bill 5043 are actually saying that majority of the Catholics in the Philippines do support the bill. But they have not shown any exact figures yet. I think the crucial issue is not about statistics but it is about awareness and education. Surveys are perceptions because they simply show responses to a question that has been formulated to further a cause.

Last April and May of 2008, the seminarians of the Archdiocese of Caceres went to two remote parishes for their summer mission work and immersion. To take profit of their house-to-house visitation of all the families in the two parishes with a combined population of 20,000 parishioners, I have given them the task of conducting a survey whether they know the official Church’s teaching on family planning, responsible parenthood and artificial contraception, it was not surprising to know that 95% of all the respondents did not know anything about the Church’s teaching. I believe that this initial survey is symptomatic of a wider need to educate Catholics about the teaching of the Church on issues that affect family life.

“The Church has always considered that the systematic control of births, using directly or indirectly coercive means to limit population size, does not contribute to authentic human development. Moreover, anticipating certain contemporary criticisms of population control theories and practices, the Popes have regarded what is sometimes called “population crisis” only with great prudence. However, it should be noted that the Church’s teaching has closely followed the different population trends, paying equal attention to the population growth observed in some countries and to population decline observed in other places. The popes have vigorously striven to promote justice, peace and development by attacking the problems of poverty and hunger at their source” (PCF, 17-18).

It must be reiterated that the Catholic Church teaches family planning, responsible parenthood and the natural means for regulating birth. However, abortion, artificial contraception, and sterilization are ethically unacceptable and sinful because by their intrinsic nature they promote a culture of death, a contraceptive mentality and they prevent the fulfillment of the co-essential and complimentary goods of marriage—union and procreation.