After Malta made divorce official in 2011, the Roman Catholic Church realized it had only one holdout on the issue of divorce – the Philippines. In a world that mainstreamed divorce centuries ago, the Philippines remains the last corner of the planet where divorce is taboo – at least officially.

That Malta legalized divorce was a source of great frustration and sorrow for the Church . After all, the Malta constitution enshrines the Church as the state religion. St. Paul , who wrote much of the New Testament , was said to have been shipwrecked at Malta, then called Melite, on his way to Rome for his trial. Malta is also an Apostolic See.

After that, the only remaining point of pride of the Church is the Philippines, which has been holding steadfast as the last country to outlaw divorce, in deference to its Roman Catholic roots. How long it would remain as the last place to outlaw divorce – not as a matter of practical policy but because of its respect for the Catholic Church – is now an issue that has come out of the discussion closet into the public square.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte mentioned the “D” word a few days back. And within the leadership of the Church there is worry, fear and trembling. The Speaker did not only mention the possibility of Congress’ taking up a divorce legislation. He was quoted as saying he was personally for it. In a Congress that often votes yes on the request, prodding or cajoling of the Speaker, that was , indeed, terrifying for the Church.

Looking back, the intense – often extreme – opposition of the Church to the passage of the RH bill is now becoming very clear. (They called President Aquino names, dictator, briber etc.) More than anything else, the leaders of the Church want to kill and kill for good , assaults on the two institutions that have great sources of pride to the Church . First is ( it is now was ) the lack of an official population management program, meaning there is no officially sponsored and legislation program. Second is the singular position of the country on divorce.

That the Church takes pride in such long-enduring , though anachronistic, conservatism is understandable . After all no country in the world nominally sticks to the old and discredited adherence to no population management and no divorce. Only in the Philippines, an oft-quoted phrase comes to mind, can these obsolete tenets still gain currency . Where in the world is the Church and its doctrines absolutely revered but in the Philippines?

Now this, the irreverent action of Congress to institutionalize population management . Even without the loathed “A” word, this was an act of Congress unacceptable to the Church.

Tactically, the Church moved heaven and earth to block the RH bill because the failure to pass the RH bill would discourage Congress from moving into the next challenge – pass a divorce law. By blocking the RH bill passage, the Church can buy time and stall the momentum of Congress, which would become more progressive with the success in passing the population management law. And as the Church has feared, the passage of the RH bill was immediately followed by a divorce legislation being put forth out of the closet into the public square .

The Church, this is the hard reality, should start cherishing right now the limited years of the no-divorce law. Because a divorce law is forthcoming, not right now, not in the present Congress, but in the one that would assume after the mid-term election.

You know what? A possible sponsor has been identified . And that sponsor is an unassailable character.

Except for the bragging rights, the Church has no more tenable reasons left to defend a no population management law. In fact, the RH bll passed is so timid that Cong Ben Evardone called it a population moderation law because there is nothing radical about it.

And except for the bragging rights, the Church has no more coherent, sane reasons left to defend a no-divorce law. Why? Because the current adherence to a no-divorce law is mere Potemkin Piety. Pious on the outside and rotten inside. Unions are shattered, vows are routinely broken, the sanctity of an everlasting marriage is more of a Utopian dream than a reality .

There is nothing to the no-divorce law except the undistinguishable distinction as the only holdout on divorce, the country that values its Catholic teachings so much to the point of being an outlier.

The doomsday spiels in the Philippines, you may have noticed this, have nothing to do with the end-times poppycock of the Mayan calendar. It comes from the wrath of raging bishops. The bishops, in the full glory of epistemic closure, have closed their eyes to the reality that countries that they hold as libertine , the Scandinavian countries for one, have the highest concern for health and education and where safety nets from the state have been gloriously flowing into those that need it.

The Church cannot seem to find the courage to march in lockstep with the 21st century . It must be the fraile mentality and the Potemkin Piety.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.