DESOLATE LAND

“They have made it a mournful, desolate place, desolate before me. The whole land has been devastated and no one takes it to heart.” (Jer.12:11-12) Considering present situations that are happening in the Philippines today because of acute discords as regards the RH Bills, it seems to be at the root of many problems, as we know that some big nations and pharmaceutical companies are offering monetary bribes just to sway people’s minds and control the Philippine population.

Check following data for example, and evaluate in conscience what is true for you. After all “truth will out”. One way or another, in spite of all efforts to conceal it, the truth will come to be known. As the above text from Prophet Jeremiah suggests to us – let’s “take it to heart”, that is, be serious about the present happenings, in connection with RH Bills.

A) In 2004, Joseph Chamie, Director of the U.N. Population Division, reported that 60 countries have TFRs (total fertility rates) below 2.1 which means that they will eventually
experience decline and aging. He asserted that the efforts of these countries to raise fertility rates will not be enough to bring them back to replacement levels. Many of these countries are now asking their people to have more children. Why then are our legislators thinking of cutting down our best asset, our people?

B) The Church in the official stand expressed in the Encyclical of Pope Paul VI Humanae Vitae, (on Human Life, dated 1968) has expressed its official stand versus abortion and the abortifacient contraceptives that definitely contribute to the decline of population.

C) The Church defends that since marriage is for love and family institution, sexual relations must be kept for transmission of new life. And then, they must not hide the following truth –

D) Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs) have been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 1 carcinogenics (cancer inducing).

E) The Church’s mind is that the table of life must be open to guests as good citizens of the earthly country because of facilities of food, work and education and then become future citizens of the kingdom of heaven, which is our eternal and final destiny as a reward of the good works we may have done.

While legislators are still presently deliberating and debating on the merits or pros and cons of the RH Bill, one important angle is to tackle the issue on the Church’s position banning contraceptives and abortion as immoral and anti-life because it tends towards an aging population that eventually will self-extinct . God’s word has spoken on this in Genesis 1:28, the very first book of the Bible: “God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it’.“ Are they going to legislate on what is evil and immoral, anti-life and anti-Filipino? The Catholic position expressed at the Vatican Ecumenical Council spoke then: “The judgment concerning the interval of time between births, and that regarding the number of children, belongs to the spouses alone. This is one of their inalienable rights, to be exercised before God with due consideration of their obligations towards themselves, their children already born, the family and society.” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2368).

I believe it unnecessary for legislators to threaten with sanctions in the RH Bill, v.g. 6 months imprisonment or a fine of P50,000 “to maliciously engage in disinformation about the intent or provisions of this Act.” First of all we have to resolve the question whether it is moral to enforce contraception and abortion that may tend towards an aging population and eventual self-extinction.

If we know these plus other facts why are there so many monetary bribes to propagate what is harmful to the people. We ought to respect the future of life, not just look on these realities under the aspect of scot-free pleasures, forgetting that for all our actions we are answerable to God. “What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with the angels, and, when He does, He will reward each one according to his behavior.” (Mt.16:26-27).