MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations on Sunday expressed its support for a proposed law that would provide Philippine government funding for contraceptives and has pitted the popular president against the influential Roman Catholic church.
The bill promotes contraceptive use in a poor country with one of Asia’s fastest-growing populations. The House of Representatives plans to decide Tuesday whether to end debate on the bill and put it to a vote, reigniting acrimony over an issue that has divided Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation for years.
Catholic bishops led a rally on Saturday by thousands of followers urging the bill’s rejection and attacking President Benigno Aquino III for supporting it. An archbishop, Socrates Villegas, urged Aquino to focus on his promise to eradicate corruption and poverty and not promote “a culture of contraception” that “looks at babies as reasons for poverty … a mistake and not a blessing.” [Source]
God bless the Filipino bishops and the laity united with them in this fight. I have other feelings regarding the UN and President Aquino who fell far from the tree of his saintly mother.
6 comments
Archbishop Socrates (how cool is that name!) Villegas is absolutely right. Children are not the cause of poverty.
When I teach social justice we examine the characteristics of poor countries. One of the things that we find is that poverty precedes population growth, not the other way around.
This is just another way for the culture of death to try and make stake its claim on the world.
I stand with Socrates!
Children are indeed a blessing. At the same time I can see the reasoning that children should not be added to a situation where the existing adults already struggle to provide adequate food, keep their health, avoid being persecuted, etc.
I fear it is easier, at least in the short run, to delay having children over delay having sex; such desires are not going to be easily tamed, for any number of reasons.
It’s like herding cats.
Actually, humans are not cats. They have imortal souls and the capacity of self control. In those sorts of situations, the initial funding of contraception very rapidly slided into forced contraception and sterilization 🙁 Education, rather than contraceptives, has always been the key to increasing both the standart of living and decreasing birth rates.
Eek – that would be slides. A sleepless night followed by the arrival of a grand-nephew in the wee hours. Babies are indeed a blessing! As the 2yo examined this sweet babe, checking out all the pertinent parts, he marvelled that this newly born little guy was just like all the other people he loves – yes, a newly born little human miracle!
sorry, I just meant keeping human instincts and desires under control can often be on a level with herding cats. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
My daughter’s “Human Geography” class pushes the idea of overpopulation quite often. I keep reminding her that poor distribution of resources, corruption and old fashioned greed (not to mention just hard luck and natural disasters) are what cause poverty.