Demographic Politics And Population Growth - 2

[G.Subramaniam]

the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines has actually started making good its threat to refuse the sacraments to government workers carrying out government birth control programs..because the church is opposed to birth control methods pushed by government.

http://www.thefreeman.com/opinion/index.ph...050311&id=28146

What then after Pope John Paul II?

by Jerry Tundag
March 11, 2005

The reaction of President Arroyo on learning that the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines has actually started making good its threat to refuse the sacraments to government workers carrying out government birth control programs has been described as one of surprise.

That, of course, was for public consumption. Deep within her, we would not be surprised if Arroyo seethed. We ourselves seethed at the thought. How can the Church do that to people who have no choice?

Government workers, by force of circumstance of being employed by government, have no choice but to carry out the orders given to them. If they are told to implement the government birth control programs in every barangay, that is what they will have to do.

Of course there is a moral question involved if the workers are Roman Catholics because the church is opposed to birth control methods pushed by government. But the fact that the workers continue to push the government programs clearly shows they have made their choice.

Actually it is very easy to see why making the choice was never a dilemma to the workers despite the moral question thrown into the equation. It does not take any brains to choose between keeping and losing a job.

Of course the church could have made it easier if it offered to take in all the government workers who could get fired for refusing to carry out the work for which they are being paid to do.

But not only is the church not capable of absorbing all the displaced workers, it is also not clear if it would even be willing to take in just a token number of them. The church, after all, is an institution that is always on " the receiving end. " Now you may wonder why the church is taking it against the government workers but not against the government itself. Of course the church has been lambasting government but it has never taken any action beyond words, unlike its virtual excommunication of government workers.

The answer to that is because the church cannot lift a hand against a government that is actually one of its biggest benefactors. Several government agencies are among the biggest donors to some of the biggest charities of the church.

And that brings us to another point, which is the perceived inconsistency ( hypocrisy would have been more appropriate but let us refrain from using that word ) of the church in dealing with a number of issues.

The inconsistency, in fact, starts right here with this very issue about birth controls. While there is all hell to pay for government workers, only harsh lip service is reserved for the government itself.

Now, closely related to birth controls is the issue about sexual immorality, which catches the church in another inconsistency. While it is very vocal about sexual immorality in the general public, it is very secretive about sexual immorality within the church itself.

Catholics find this very odd because while the pope himself has repeatedly made widely publicized public apologies for the sexual abuses committed by bishops and priests, nobody lower in rank has chosen to follow suit. Everybody prefers to keep the skeletons in the closet.

That, in fact, is another inconsistency. Yet here is another. What really is the stand of the church against gambling? The question is asked because while it condemns gambling, its main charity continues to be a major beneficiary of the state's largest gambling agency.