No, You Cannot Be Catholic AND Pro-RH Bill
Mga Katoliko Dagsa Sa Mga Simbahan Ngayong Unang Araw ng Kwaresma
So many flocked to Church on Ash Wednesday…
How many truly understand what Ash Wednesday is? How many of them understand what being a real, dyed-in-the-wool Catholic is? How many of them openly support the Reproductive Health Bill? How many of these people go and get their ashes and then leave the Church to go worship at the altar of “Choice”?
Can one be Catholic and pro-RH bill? Despite the lies perpetrated by RH Bill supporters, the answer is NO, you cannot be Catholic and pro-RH bill. “pro-RH bill Catholic” is an oxymoron. There is no such thing. Either these people are terribly misguided and don’t have a full appreciation of whatScripture and Tradition have taught from the beginning, OR they are deliberately misinterpreting what “Catholic” is.
Catholic means you mold yourself to conform to God’s will, not ask God to conform His will to yours, or pretend that God’s will matches yours. God’s Fifth Commandment is clear and unambiguous: Thou Shalt Not Kill. God is the Author of all life, and none of us have the right to end — on a whim — what He has authored. You can argue ’til the end of the time that a fetus is merely a clump of cells. Reason tells us — not religion, not morality — that this clump of cells is the beginning of life. It does not develop into a tumor or a cyst. The conclusion is the same no matter how much we try to twist the facts: the moment of conception means NEW LIFE. And since some contraceptives act AFTER fertilization, there is always the risk that you aren’t just preventing a pregnancy, you’re ENDING a pregnancy. Do you really want that on your conscience? If your conscience is well-formed, you won’t.
Catholic means you agree with and obey the Church’s teachings. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
Catholic means you take the time to understand what CHOICE really means and why you need to fight for REAL choices. It is an irony that many women who undergo abortions do so precisely because they feel THEY HAVE NO CHOICE. And if what you’re fighting for is that women get to choose what they do even if it means the death of another human being, that’s no different from saying “I am against murder, but I fully support someone’s CHOICE to kill another human being.”
In Archbishop Carlson’s words:
People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment. That’s why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion. We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life.
Catholic means you respect EVERYONE’S choice, not just your own. That includes people who choose to exercise their properly-formed consciences and go against what’s popular or even what’s legislated. For instance, abortion may be legal, as in the United States, but that doesn’t make it right. Abortion is still an intrinsically evil, morally-depraved act. Since the RH bill has conditional conscience protection clauses, it still effectively discriminates against those who for one reason or another may choose to not provide contraception or abortion services.
SEC. 28. Prohibited Acts. – The following acts are prohibited: Any healthcare service provider, whether public or private, who shall:
- Knowingly withhold information or restrict the dissemination thereof, and/or intentionally provide incorrect information regarding programs and services on reproductive health, including the right to informed choice and access to a full range of legal, medically-safe and effective family planning methods
- Refuse to perform legal and medically-safe reproductive health procedures on any person of legal age on the ground of lack of third party consent or authorization. In case of married persons, the mutual consent of the spouses shall be preferred. However in case of disagreement, the decision of the one undergoing the procedure shall prevail. In the case of abused minors where parents and/or other family members are the respondent, accused or convicted perpetrators as certified by the proper prosecutorial office or court, no prior parental consent shall be necessary; and
- Refuse to extend health care services and information on account of the person’s marital status, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, personal circumstances, or nature of work; Provided, That, the conscientious objection of a healthcare service provider based on his/her ethical or religious beliefs shall be respected; however, the conscientious objector shall immediately refer the person seeking such care and services to another healthcare service provider within the same facility or one which is conveniently accessible who is willing to provide the requisite information and services;Provided, further, That the person is not in an emergency condition or serious case as defined in RA 8344 penalizing the refusal of hospitals and medical clinics to administer appropriate initial medical treatment and support in emergency and serious cases
Catholic means you take the time to understand why any artificial form of contraception is unacceptable. Not only because some forms of contraception are actually abortifacients, but because a contraceptive mentality goes against our very essence as God’s people. A contraceptive mentality says, “No Lord, not Your will but Mine be done.” A contraceptive mentality says, “No, Lord, I know better than You.” A contraceptive mentality makes the Self its Pope and its God, with no room for humility, correction or obedience. The contraceptive mentality says, “The poor are having too many children too soon.” As mere creations, it is not our office to decide who should bear children and when. Sexuality is a complex thing, yes, and while most of the world knows its mechanics, many remain blind and deaf to its true meaning. It behooves us, then, especially those of us who continue to call ourselves Catholic, to develop a fuller grasp of what God’s design means as manifested in our bodies.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.
But, my conscience tells me it’s okay to be pro-RH bill! Dear reader, that only means that your conscience has not been properly formed:
When forming your conscience, please don’t settle for informing it instead. Be informed, yes, by all means. But not by mere information gleaned from sources that do not have your best interests at heart, certainly not your moral or spiritual interests. Allow yourself to be formed what God has revealed to us. By what the Church teaches in the liturgy and in the Catechism. How convenient that our conscience can tell us that whatever we decide is all right and perfectly justified. See how easily we deceive ourselves. “We know better than the Church. After all, we know better than God, don’t we? Why, we can be gods, deciding for ourselves what is good and what is evil.”
You cannot be pro-RH bill, pro-abortion, or pro-contraception and remain a Catholic in good standing. You might think that limits *your choices*, but in reality that should be more freeing for you than confining. Because YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE: You can either believe the lies of those who stand to benefit the most from your moral and religious confusion, or you can choose to trust the wisdom of the Church in this matter and the Words of your Creator. If you don’t understand Scripture and the Catholic faith fully, take heart. Especially this Lenten season, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your learning. Ask Him to open your eyes to the Beauty of God’s Truth. Immerse yourself in Scripture and the Catechism, before saying that you are “merely following your conscience”. But stop stubbornly clinging to a label that has lost most of its meaning for you. A pro-RH bill Catholic deludes no one but himself.
Posts
