Category: church

praying for a pro-RH, pro-divorce, pro-gaymarriage pope

but mercury is retrograde in pisces until the 16th, so if a pope gets elected by then, chances are the chosen one would be a conservative.  if some time after, when mercury is again moving forward in earnest, then there’s hope for a forward-looking one, hopefully like john paul the 1st, though god forbid that he meet the same end.  but if conservative, i am sincerely praying it won’t be our own cardinal tagle just because it would most likely mean a hundred steps backward for reproductive health hereabouts, and who knows what else.

ratzinger’s reign

Exhausted in the Vatican: The Final Battles of Pope Benedict XVI 
The Great Catholic Cover-Up
Catholic theologian preaches revolution to end church’s ‘authoritarian’ rule 

in fairness to carlos celdran (updated)

“Wherefore, premises considered, accused Carlos Celdran is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the crime of Offending the Religious Feelings under Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code and applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, there being no mitigating and aggravating circumstance, he is hereby sentenced to suffer imprisonment of two months and 21 days as minimum to one year, one month and 11 days…”

in fairness to celdran, there was an aggravating circumstance back then that drove him to take drastic action.  two days before, september 28, the new prez spoke out unequivocally in favor of RH in a town hall meeting with expats in san francisco, earning the royal ire of the church.  on the morning of september 30, newspapers and websites screamed the shocker that the CBCP was threatening the president with excommunication for being pro-choice and endorsing artificial contraceptives.  that very afternoon celdran dramatized his outrage by staging his rizal-bearing-damaso-placard act in the manila cathedral.

the CBCP denied that excommunication threat the very next day but it’s not clear now whose mistake it was, the bishops’ or the reporters’, and the damage had been done.

it is worth noting, too, that the guilty ruling was issued as early as december 14 but kept under wraps until yesterday (how did the church swing that?).  the house of reps had just passed the RH bll on second reading the day before, december 13, but the senate was dragging its feet and sotto had yet to deliver his may-I-ask-God-the-Father-to-forgive-us-for-we-do-not-know-what-we-are-doing huling hirit speech.  perhaps the bishops were still hopeful that sotto could get the votes, and they didn’t want the celdran case messing up things.

the rest is history.  the senate voted in favor of RH on december 18. theoretically, nothing to lose na ang church, but apparently they were able to put off the announcement of the ruling again, siguro papasko kay celdran, salamat naman, but what took them so long after the holidays?  it’s practically the end of january.

i suppose cardinal tagle’s january 9 homily should have warned us that the CBCP is truly going all out to battle the RH law.  though i’m not sure that showing an apologetic celdran no mercy is winning the church any points.

RH “mocks” Filipino culture?

james imbong, son of lawyer jo imbong who is reportedly the legal counsel of the catholic bishops conference of the philippines (CBCP), has asked the supreme court to nullify the reproductive health (RH) law.

Filing on behalf of their minor children, James and Lovely Imbong said the law “mocks the nation’s Filipino culture — noble and lofty in its values and holdings on life, motherhood and family life — now the fragile lifeblood of a treasured culture that today stands solitary but proud in contrast to other nations.”

ano daw?  bad writing aside, ano ba yang “filipino culture” na yan that the imbongs so sophomorically extol?  what’s so “noble and lofty” ba about filipino culture?  once upon a time there was jose rizal, but who else since, and what else, really, in this dysfunctional undeveloped disaster of a catholic country, where some 70 percent, maybe 80, are poor and hungry by default, thanks to an uncaring elitist leadership, administration after administration, ever long on promises but short on delivery, greedily thriving on systemic corruption and patronage politics.  and what is that “treasured culture” really but some fantasy movie in the imbongs’ and bishops’ pompous minds where families are whole and happy, rather than broken, riven, mother father wife husband forced away by economic necessity to keep family, and country incidentally, afloat.  i think it’s the imbongs who mock us, insult our intelligence, with their holier-than-thou platitudes.

and what about this from CBCP vp archbishop socrates villegas:

“The poor can rise from their misery through more accessible education, better hospitals and lesser government corruption. Money for contraceptives can be better used for education and authentic health care,” Villegas said.

as if.  what if, instead of fighting the RH bill law, the imbongs and the bishops fight, condemn, agitate against, the systemic corruption and patronage politics that plague the nation, for a change?  but first, maybe, the church should start paying taxes voluntarily, so that it’s not forever beholden to government for the exemption; then bishops can truthfully embrace honest-to-goodness pro-poor advocacies, sabay threaten elitist government officials with hellfire and brimstone until they stop enriching themselves in office and finally deliver on election promises of a better life for the masses, yes, accessible education, better hospitals, and lesser corruption, now na.