Catholic vote

In the debate on the reproductive health bill, Rep. Edcel Lagman, the main advocate of this anti-life measure scoffed at the Catholic vote. He said there is no such vote unlike the monolithic Iglesia ni Cristo that votes as a block. He was sending a message to his fellow politicians that there is nothing to fear of a Catholic backlash in case they voted for the bill.

Lagman’s thinking leads one to say that since there is no such Catholic vote, then politicians should ignore the Catholics and whatever they stand for. Of course, as in the past, Lagman had no such statement while his colleagues were courting and cavorting with the INC.

It is generally known, and even published, that politicians troop to the INC in Quezon City to get the “blessing” of their supremo with nobody complaining, including those who would howl the loudest against any politician doing the same with a Catholic leader.

 Lost in this Lagman mentality is whether the Catholic Church stands for something good and moral. The only consideration to Lagman’s view is whether the Catholics can vote the politician to office or not and since they could not, what the heck has one to worry about a Catholic vote? Of course there is the dictate of international companies.

This mindset is a dangerous thing; it reduces all things into matter of politics, the politics of convenience.  

Thus, to this mind there is no need to be afraid of the Catholic vote because the INC supports the bill therefore, politicians should support the bill. This leads us to think that the INC is now dictating national policy even if they number less than 10 per cent of the national population.

What is important to Lagman and company is that the INC votes on orders of their superiors while Catholics can be set aside because the Church respects the conscience and freedom to choose of its members. Nobody begrudges their doctrine to have the authority to dictate even matters purely of political nature but should this thinking be the guiding principle in governance and not what is right and moral?

The debate on the RH bill now going on in Congress is not about votes but whether the proposal of Lagman and company are morally right and does not force people of whatever faith to violate their conscience. To penalize people who refuse to perform an act that violates his article of faith is not only totalitarian but evil.

But Benigno Aquino and Lagman and their minions are doing exactly that and this should be reason enough, more than reason, in fact, for Catholics, real Catholics to oppose their dictates.

I use the word “real Catholics” because there are politicians and non-politicians who claim to be Catholics but are vocal in defying fundamental Catholic doctrine. They are Catholics by convenience and one reason for this faith of convenience is to court the Catholic votes which Lagman considers non-existent.

If indeed the Catholic Church is the only one that opposes what is clearly an affront to God Who gives the gift of life, so let it be. This doctrine does not and will not change even if the United Nations which is the author of this population control policy since the 1960s says otherwise.

The United Nations has spent billions of dollars and ties up development aid to the adoption of reproductive health or planned parenthood which under its definition includes contraception, abortion and divorce. The measurement of the Philippines performance to get money from its Millennium Fund rests on the Philippines adoption of reproductive health.

The UN support is not a surprise; it officially confirms that from the beginning its hands had always been there with the money for those who kowtow to its program of population or birth control.

One so-called sociologist said on television that this RH bill has been filed in Congress since 16 years ago and therefore should be passed now. Is this reason enough? Should an intrinsically evil plan be approved simply because it has been there for 16 years?

Another one said we should approve it because we are the only two countries in the world that has no such bill that legally kills the child in the womb. If this is a justification, are not abortion, divorce, same sex marriages and euthanasia far behind?

Are we so bereft of any moral values that we just follow what others do for the money? There is no question about this whole thing but the money. But who would admit their values are for sale? Is this not rejection of God Who gave life? It is good that we have not jumped into this mess because the countries that did are now reaping the fruits of their folly.*

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