"Philippine church’s influence in the country wanes; Clergy lost fight with leader over contraceptives" by Hrvoje Hranjski |
Associated Press, January 06, 2013
MANILA — Twenty-six years after Roman Catholic leaders helped his
mother marshal millions of Filipinos in an uprising that ousted a
dictator, President Benigno Aquino III picked a fight with the church
over contraceptives and won a victory that bared the bishops’ worst
nightmare: They no longer sway the masses.
Aquino recently signed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive
Health Act of 2012 quietly and without customary handshakes and
photographs to avoid controversy. The law that provides state funding
for contraceptives for the poor pitted the dominant Catholic Church in
an epic battle against the popular Aquino and his followers.
A couple with links to the church filed a motion last week to stop
implementation of the law, and more petitions are expected. Still, there
is no denying that Aquino’s approval of the legislation has chipped
away at the clout the church has held over Filipinos, and marked the
passing of an era in which it was taboo to defy the church and priests.
Catholic leaders consider the law an attack on the core value of the
church — the sanctity of life — saying that contraceptives promote
promiscuity and destroy life.
Aquino and his allies see the legislation as a way to address how the
poor — roughly a third of the country’s 94 million people — manage the
number of children they have and provide for them. Nearly half of all
pregnancies in the Philippines are unwanted, according to the UN
Population Fund, and a third of those end up aborted in a country where
abortion remains illegal.
Rampant poverty, overcrowded slums, and rising homelessness and crime
are main concerns that neither the church nor Aquino’s predecessors
have successfully tackled.
‘‘If the church can provide milk, diapers, and rice, then go ahead,
let’s make more babies,’’ said Giselle Labadan, a 30-year-old roadside
vendor. ‘‘But there are just too many people now, too many homeless
people, and the church doesn’t help to feed them.’’
Labadan said she grew up in a God-fearing family but has defied the
church’s position against contraceptives for more than a decade because
her five children, ages 2 to 12, were far too many for her meager
income.
Her husband, a former army soldier, is jobless....
The law now faces a legal challenge in the Supreme Court after the
couple filed the motion, which seems to cover more ideological than
legal grounds....
Over the decades, the moral and political authority of the church in
the Philippines is perceived to have waned with the passing of one of
its icons, Cardinal Jaime Sin.
He shaped the role of the church during the country’s darkest hours
after dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law starting in 1972 by
championing the cause of civil advocacy, human rights, and freedoms.
Sin’s action mirrored that of his strong backer, Pope John Paul II, who himself challenged communist rulers in Eastern Europe.
