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By Fr. Roy Cimagala
Sorry if I have to bring up this issue again.
I’m actually tired to death talking about it. But there are just
some people, even senators and others who tout themselves to having
not only high IQ but also sharp human sensibility, who just don’t
get it.
I must say that if I were not a priest and have
not studied this matter thoroughly, most likely I’d be like them.
Perhaps, even more rabid than them, more sharp-tongued and critical,
since I too used to have strong anti-clerical sentiments, I do have
a temper and I’m quite capable of creating a mess.
Now though when I hear positions contrary to
that of the Church about this issue, I tend to be very
compassionate, because I know very well what the practical and
concrete difficulties are when one has a big family to raise and
he’s poor.
I come from one such family, and I’m in touch
with many other such families. I am fully aware of their situation.
It’s never a bed of roses. In fact, to survive is a daily concern.
All sorts of suffering come.
And so, I try to reach out, to explain and
clarify things as patiently as possible. Of course, these are just
the consequences. What truly takes place before anything else is a
lot of prayers and sacrifices to make people see the wisdom of the
Church’s teaching.
This is not easy at all, especially if one has
to contend with a party who’s both combative and articulate. One
such party that has figured recently in the media is Senator Lacson
who openly said the Church’s position is “parochial” and
“downright stupid.”
No problem. Everyone is entitled to his opinion.
No matter how much I disagree, we should respect the freedom of
everybody else in expressing his views. My respect for him and his
view has not diminished one whit.
I just would like to invite him to study the
matter more thoroughly, and consider or reconsider an angle, so
crucial and basic, that he seems to have missed, or worse, to have
derided.
And also, if he can be more refined in his
choice of words. We can always register our contrary views in a
civilized way. We have to presume we are all honorable men. To mock
anyone, let alone the Church, is below the belt.
The angle I’m referring to is that of
morality, of faith, of the spiritual and supernatural reality that
also governs us. We have to go past the purely economic, practical,
convenient or popular arguments. These do not give us the ultimate
answer.
If we would get stuck there, we can always come
up with the most effective ways, like just killing the old and
handicap. Of course, that may be illegal, but I’m sure if one is
clever enough, eliminating these people without getting entangled
with the law should not be a problem. There, lamentably, had been
precedents.
The moral-religious angle is indispensable, and
no one, much less, a senator, who is still at least nominally a
Catholic or Christian, can claim exemption from such consideration
simply because it’s supposed to be a civil matter only, not a
spiritual or religious one.
This is actually the underlying problem we have
nowadays. People are not living by their faith. They are just
keeping themselves afloat simply by using their reason and human
abilities. Faith is just a word, and not much else.
Without faith, it makes no sense to have many
children when these can only mean troubles, sufferings,
frustrations, etc. Without faith, there’s no point talking about a
morality that goes beyond what simply is practical and the like.
Without faith, the negative things in our life
possess no meaning, serve no purpose, and the only proper thing to
do with them is to hate and discard them.
Some women even have the temerity to say they
are losing their religion because of the Church’s position. Some
have called themselves “Catholics for choice,” which means their
Christianity is first and foremost theirs and not Christ’s.
They play their own God. They fail to see the
link between God, Christ, Church and personal conscience.
I wonder if they have a religion to lose in the
first place, since it would seem their religion is just an illusion,
a religion where God and his moral teachings are what they want them
to be, not what God has revealed to us.
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Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for
Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City ,
E-mail: roycimagala@hotmail.com
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