The Contraceptive Issues

Many misunderstand the Church’s official position versus the use of artificial contraceptives and abortion, which are included in the controversial RH Bill; so too the present issues on sex education, which the Church sees as to be gradually developed as is natural within the family supervision rather than to be publicly taught in the public schools. This is exposed to corruption of the youth since pornography or indecent images are very much commercialized without control in the Internet media.

There’s no denying the fact that the proliferation of artificial contraceptives, many of which are abortifacient, can and do really reduce population. A friend Bishop of mine, Bishop R. Baccay, from the Tuguegarao Archdiocese, confided to me his observation in various places or sites he visited abroad where you can no more hear babies’ cries but rather the coughing of older people. Where then is the future of our country if the young people are being cut down in number. Yea, if there be a plan for a 2-child policy, can we then have the famous Cardinal Sin who was 14th in a family of 16 children, or a Manny Pacquiao who is 3rd among the children?

The Church would rather we endeavor to increase the food production and school facilities rather than limit the guests to the table of life. The Bible tells so in the very first chapter of the book: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it” (Gen. 1:28). And we must not forget in conscience lest we commit a big mistake if we do not listen to the successor of Peter, the first Pope, whom the Lord Jesus commissioned, saying: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven” (Mt. 16: 18-20).

There is still the angle to consider that the use of artificial contraceptives may lead to concealed cases of infidelities or immoralities in the sexual relations of the male and female population, as well as many other abuses because of the various anti-life and money syndicates that capitalize on the weakness of the human person in the line of sexuality. As an addendum we include below the Church’s official stand on the matter of sexual ethics which falls under the 6th commandment, taken from an address by Pope John Paul II to the bishops of the United States of America:

“With the frankness of the Gospel, the compassion of Pastors and with the charity of Christ, you have dealt with the question of the indissolubility of marriage, correctly saying: “The covenant between a man and a woman united in Christian marriage is as indissoluble and irrevocable as is the love of God for his people and the love of Christ for his Church. Exalting the beauty of marriage, you have rightly taken a position against both the theory of contraception and contraceptive practice, as did the encyclical letter Humanae vitae. I myself, today, with the same conviction as Paul VI, ratify the teaching of that encyclical issued by my Predecessor “in virtue of the mandate confided us by Christ”.

Describing the sexual union between husband and wife as a special expression of their covenant of love, you have correctly said: “The sexual relationship:is a human and moral good only within the sphere of marriage: outside marriage it is immoral”. As men who speak with “words of truth and the power of God” (2 Cor 6,7), as authentic teachers of the law of God and as compassionate pastors, you have correctly said: “Homosexual practice (which is to be distinguished from homosexual orientation) is morally deceitful”….”Both the Church’s teaching, according to its constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have stated without any hesitation that masturbation is a practice grievously and intrinsically disordered” (Declaration of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith concerning certain questions of sexual ethics,, Dec. 29, 1975, No. 9)..