Posted on 09/30/2010 5:38:01 AM PDT by markomalley
The Catholic Church may excommunicate President Benigno Aquino III if he pushes through with a plan to distribute contraceptives, says the head of the Philippine bishops’ conference.
Such an act can be considered an “accessory” to abortion although “there are certain conditions,” Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag said over Church-run Radio Veritas. “Abortion is a grave crime, excommunication is attached to [it],” he said.
The issues of birth control and reproductive health made headlines in Manila after Aquino announced that his government “might provide assistance to those who are without means if they want to employ a particular [family planning] method.”
Some say the remark shows the president is open to handing out contraceptives, a move the Church opposes.
“We have been consistent with our position that we are against it,” Bishop Odchimar said today.
However, he added that Church leaders are open to dialogue with Aquino.
“The CBCP [Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines] issued an open letter stating our position to have a dialogue,” he said. “As a matter of fact we open [the possibility of a dialogue] already before his state of the nation address” in July, Bishop Odchimar said. “We are just waiting.”
The presidential palace announced Sept. 29 that Aquino was willing to meet with Church leaders on the matter. The bishop, however, said they have not heard from the president.
Bishop Odchimar said the Church will exhaust “all peaceful means” for dialogue even as bishops support protest actions planned by lay organizations against Aquino’s position on birth control.
“We the bishops are expressing our support in lay movements spearheading this demonstration…. We don’t discount the possibility of mobilizing the lay organizations,” Bishop Odchimar said.
The bishops out to excommunicate Benny Boy for pushing the plan, not wait until it is enacted. Fight evil before it becomes entrenched.
The sin needs to be committed first before the penalty can be imposed
Nothing wrong with contraceptives the church should ignore them. Focus on stopping abortion thats the real crime.
You really don’t understand this, do you?
Maybe youare not aware that Many oral contraceptives are abortifiacients. some work by not permitting a fetilized eg from emplaniting in the Uterine walls and others work by making the 'environment uninhabitable. If you google Contaceptive abortifacients you will get well over 50 hits on it.
Or maybe, like me, he believes life begins at implantation, not conception — because to believe that life begins at conception requires you to believe that God wastes 35% of souls, as that is the percentage of conceptions that never implant.
“Many oral contraceptives are abortifiacients”
I was thinking only of condoms.
I see no sin in using them.
I do see your point on birth control pills.
I am living in the Philippines.
I also do not understand it - please explain. I will not question or respond to your response ...I’ll simply say ‘thank you for the response.’ (I will not make it a debate, I really simply need to understand why exocommunicating someone for allowing birthcontrol is the same as abortion). Thank you.
Or maybe, like me, he believes life begins at age 5, not conception or birth, or one’s second or third birthday — because to believe that life begins at conception or birth, or one’s second or third birthday, requires you to believe that God wastes 25% of souls, as that is the percentage of children who, in 1900 in the US, died before their fifth birthday.
That argument reminds me of one in an old Donald Westlake (comic) mystery. Several thugs were planning a job, which would necessitate that one kill a little girl. The soft-hearted thug assigned complained, "I can't kill no little girl!" The head thug replied, "God kills little girls all the time -- ya think you're better than God???"
The problem is that condoms are not 100% effective the lubricant can have the same effect of making the uterous "uninhabitable" to a fertilized egg. how is this different than the Pill?
Life if you want my opinion doesn’t start until the fetuses nerves start firing I think thats about seven days after implantation. Anything before that is just reproductive material not a human being.
You are talking about two different things.
1) The egg and the sperm alive. They each contain 1/2 of the gentic material to form a human being. So how is it that two living things can combine to form a non-living thing, that becomes living again after seven days?
2) Reproductive material? can you prove that this "reproductive material" is not human? Given the fact that upon fetilization it contains all the gentic material that identifies it as fully human how is it less than human?
3) Given that you have only provided, by your own admission, and opinion, wouldn't it be better to error on the side of caution?
I'm guessing you're not old enough to remember the firestorm of controversy when the Pill was introduced in the early 60s. Proponents argued that it would actually contribute to a decrease in the number of abortions. Opponents argued that it would weaken marriages, lead to an increase in fornication and adultery, change attitudes toward human life that would actually encourage the use of abortion and ultimately euthanasia. Shortly after the Pill, of course, we had the Sexual Revolution and Roe v. Wade. It also weakened in advance (by breaking the link between sex and conception) any argument against gay marriage.
Fallacious argument and you know it. But if it works for you, be my guest to keep on thinking that God ensouls conceptus that will never do anything other than flush out of the uterus when a woman has her period.
"Fallacious argument and you know it."
Okay, you've got the assertion part down.
Maybe you'll eventually make an argument to support it.
Until then, my analogy stands uncontested.
sitetest
Advocating for birth control is NOT the same as abortion and no one has ever said that it was.
I can't think of a better way to explain it better than this excerpt from paragraph 13 of Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life
It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality" -- which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act -- are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro- abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected. Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill".
But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion are practised under the pressure of real- life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centred concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed with the same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the life of the new human being.
Thank you for your response.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.