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OPINIONS
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(October
6– October 12, 2008) Analysis Fr. Roy Cimagala Iodine on wound FORTY years have passed
since the release of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae
vitae. Dissent hounded it before, during and after it came out. Even now, its
debate continues, albeit in subtler, trickier forms. Of course, when it
was written, times were very different. The sexual revolution was at its
red-hot boiling point. People, especially in the Obviously, when
making whoopee is involved, especially if we try to integrate it with love,
marriage and responsible parenthood, I think it is far easier to teach Latin
metaphysics to gorillas. Ideological and
gratuitous claims were at their peak. There’s overpopulation, the world is
going to explode, screamed the ideologues, citing some so-called scientific
studies. Also, poverty was all over. That the poor have to be controlled was
in the agenda of many leaders. Then radical
feminism also started to act up. Women have rights to defend themselves from
aggressive men. They have rights over their own bodies, the feminists
shouted. Why should they be prevented from doing what they would think was
right for them? These were strains
that prevailed and dominated the environment. Even many Churchmen got swayed
by these sentiments and began to think that maybe it was time for the Church
to relax her moral standards. At least, artificial contraception should be
made acceptable. Thus, when Pope Paul
issued the encyclical, reaffirming the Church’s position on sexual morals and
responsible parenthood, there was howling and head-banging. The picture was
akin to a child being administered a tincture of iodine to his freshly opened
wound. When the critics got
tired of screaming, they went to laughing and ridiculing the document, and
eventually ignoring it as they continued to promote population control,
contraception, abortion, and the other logical consequences. They were
swallowed up by the spiral of their own myopic reasoning. The dispute simmered
down, even hibernated, but the division deepened. Still, the forty years have
also brought in some quiet but significant changes. For one, many of the
fears of the critics were proven wrong. Overpopulation? The
problem now is depopulation. People in many places are aging. The prospect of
a depleting population, even of extinction is getting clearer. Over-fertility of
women? Now almost everyone is convinced we are reaching below-replacement
fertility levels. People are getting averse to have babies. Not even big
government incentives are convincing them. Contraception will
stop the coming of abortion? Data worldwide show they always go together, one
cannot be without the other. Poverty is due to overpopulation? Poverty is due
more to greed and corruption of some people. Thus, poverty will stay even if
there are fewer people. In fact, studies
show that greater economic activity occurs where there is a greater
concentration of people in a certain place. Contraception and
other birth control methods can mean better married life, better attention to
children, etc.? They debase marriage and inculcate wrong values in the
family. Sex is trivialized, fidelity is undermined. Birth control
enhances women’s rights? Birth control has only reinforced the
depersonalization and objectification of women. Church is out of touch with
reality? Could it not that the critics are out of touch with the integral
nature of sex, love, marriage, responsible parenthood? The tampering of the
nature as in the case of There are many other
birth-control fallacies debunked through the years. Humanae
vitae has been vindicated. That’s why,
the birth and population controllers are reengineering themselves. Thus, you now hear
talks about reproductive health, again to appeal more to emotion than to
reason, let alone, to faith in God and in humanity. We are now entering into
a more ridiculous sequel of the debate. Added to that is
some move of well-intentioned leaders, even Church leaders, who try to blend
Church and pagan positions by saying that Humanae
vitae can have both Church and secularized governments working together in
promoting natural family planning. But
this would be corrupting the spirit of Humanae
vitae. It would frame the Church position within the cafeteria pagan
position, and would convert the natural family planning from being a way of
life to a contraceptive method only. Ilocos
Times copyright 2008 |
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