Bishops to formally discuss RH Bill with PNoy

By Louise Dumas

Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, DD, cleared that there were no talks in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) of ex-communicating President Benigno Aquino III because of his support for the Reproductive Health Bill.

Archbishop Ledesma said that in a recent dialogue with the president, together with CBCP President, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, His Eminence Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal and Bishop Chito Tagle on October 11, PNoy said that he was also against abortion and was for responsible parenthood and informed choice.  The government is to provide information for family planning.  PNoy reportedly said that the Philippines will not be like Thailand where pro-choice means abortion.

“The meeting was cordial and with a frank atmosphere,” said Archbishop Ledesma.  “Hopefully, it will bring about convergence.  There is no talk of ex-communication and it was just sensationalized by the media.  We are arranging for a more formal dialogue with the president.”

The Reproductive Health Bill is an act providing for a national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood & population development.  “It is not so much as the macro population issue,” said Archbishop Ledesma.  “Rather, it is about helping low-income families to plan the number of their children.  Large families are not sustainable.  It [reproductive health] is a matter of social science – not of faith and morals.”

In his article, Three Challenges of Humanae Vitae, however, Archbishop Ledesma makes it clear that legislative measures should not ‘infringe on the rights of parents or resort to contraceptive methods deemed contrary to the moral law.’  Citing Humanae Vitae, 12, he stated that ‘These measures tend to devalue the true nature of marriage by artificially separating the “unitive and procreative meanings” of the conjugal act.’

The church approves the active Natural Family Planning Program.  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is stated that the Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.  These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom (CCC, 2370).
The All-Natural Family Planning Program which is implemented through the Christian Family and Life Apostolate, as the name indicates, does not combine natural methods with artificial contraceptives.  It includes temperature and mucus methods, sympto-thermal and lactational amenorrhea methods, the Standard Days Method and the Two Day Method.

PNoy, stating that the government would support the approach recommended by the church, however, has no bias for what kind of family planning.