In a previous post, I gave some of the figures from the UNAIDS report showing the enormous difference between the Philippines and Thailand, in numbers of people living with HIV. It is not surprising that the Philippine Bishops should be concerned to avoid the same disastrous policy in their country.
Speaking on behalf of his brother bishops, Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, the president of the bishops’ conference, said:
Among the many concerns, the media has shown a particular concern on sex education and reproductive health bills. There are no changes in the stand of the Church. Human life starts at conception, and conception takes place at the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Human life is a gift of God and has to be respected and protected from conception till natural death. The Church is always concerned with the poor, and the many church institutions and groups that help the poor bear this out. Poverty cannot be solved by promoting contraceptive education and programs. Education does not merely deal with knowledge and skills; rather it must promote values that are inherent to us as Filipinos. Parents have the primary right to educate their children and sex education is properly to be done in the family.EWTN Report: Philippine Bishops Urge New President Not to Foster Contraceptive Mentality
H/T SPUC News
1 comment:
I worked in the Diocese of Tandag for 11 months in 1993-94. I remember speaking to a groups of people in a barrio about the beginning of life and I could see that they were awestruck when they realized that at the moment of conception all the potential was present in the new human being - the features, the abilities, and so on. We need to constantly remind people of these facts.
One widely-read columnist in the Philippines recently advocated 'safe abortions'. On one occasion she began her column advising couples getting married that the most important decision they had to make was deciding which contraceptive they should use.
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