The CBCP urged its flock not to vote for anyone who supports the Reproductive Health bill.
Ricky Carandang reports his strange conversation with Fr. Melvin Castro, the priest who heads the CBCP commission that prepared voting guidelines for the Catholic faithful. (READ HERE)
He asked the priest why candidates who commit plunder and acts of corruption are not being condemned in the same way that reproductive health advocates are.
The priest replied plunder and all of those corrupt acts are an offshoot of the lack of respect for the family and therefore not as bad in the heirarchy of catholic morality as family planning which is as he says, anti-family.
In other words, it’s okay to plunder as long as you don’t wear a condom.
An even crazier religious leader spoke about the disaster in Haiti. (READ HERE)
Pat Robertson, in the January 13, 2010 edition of the Christian Boadcasting Network’s 700 Club, blamed the Haitians for the earthquake that hit their country.
PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.” True story. And so, the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.”
And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.
KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.
God help us.
Popularity: 2% [?]
CBCP = Cretin Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
The priest just demonstrates his warped sense of moral theology! Plunder is anti family and anti life since it results in killing, sometimes killing whole families. Since it involves the worship of money, it violates the 1st commandment. I won’t concede such idiocy to the whole Catholic Church as a whole. Too bad the Philippine Church hasn’t got the sharpness of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI!
As for Pat Robertson who should take him seriously? He is like a pot calling the kettle black!
Blackshama, Pope Benedict has in the past declared that the threat of homosexuality was as grave as the destruction of the rainforest…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7796663.stm
And recently, he has declared that homosexuality was a direct threat to creation…
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/01/11/pope-says-gay-marriage-threat-to-creation/
The Pope has shown he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed either.
The church have done this before in other Catholic countries. Why are we the only one that listens to it?
Things are obviously not what they seem. The purported fear of politicians to an angry church is inconsistent with the personalities of our politicians. We’ve passed a death penalty bill before. Didn’t the church oppose death penalty, too?
Blaming the church is a cop out. Cop out or intellectual masturbation of a people who do not expect change. The powerless love to daydream. You’re daydreaming.
Politicians don’t want this bill because they don’t want Filipinos to change, especially the women and young folks. Sex without fear of pregnancy and disease is more freedom. It opens minds. The pols don’t want rebels within their families, rebels they cannot kill. They fear change. That’s why.
BrianB: There won’t be a sensitivity to CBCP stance on Reproductive Health had May2010 not be so close. Villar is anti-RH. A strongly articulated, a persistently verbalized stance by the CBCP concerning Reproductive Health bill can translate into extra percentage points going Villar’s way.
Nah, this percentage points for Villar due to the CBCP stance is overstated.
HOw many truly devout zombie Catholics are there?
I agree with BrianB.
Because who listens SERIOUSLY to the church to the very last detail anyway..Give filipinos some credit.
We should simply ignore the church…as I have done, in my humble way…and continue to engage in pleasurable and safe sex.
Crankiness is the sign of not getting any.
The Church has failed to promote a vibrant, productive, safe society. They define their own increasing irrelevance by denying responsibility, then throwing up barriers to good deeds. Seems a tad satanic to me.
Joe
Well, the bible did warn about the coming of false prophets :P
All that the Catholic church really want is maintain its power over the minds of the Filipino people as before and keep its stocks and bonds and valuable pieces of real estate. The church has really done nothing substantial for the upliftment of the Filipinos. When Aguinaldo was trying to gain recognition for the new republic, the Pope ignored the cries of the Filipinos but sent Bishop Chapelle of New Orleans to the Paris conference. He successfully negotiated a special provision in the Treaty of Paris which recognized the right of the church on the landed property of the religious corportions that were confiscated by a law passed by the Malolos congress. Such was the influence of the Pope that Felipe Agoncillo, the Filipino government representative, was barred from the conference. Also, while the Filipinos wanted the Friars expelled and replaced by secular priest, the same Bishop Chapelle decided in favor of retaining them, obviously because they were and still are the administrators of most of the revenue generating property of the Catholic church. Then, there was that infamous court decision, obviously with the backing of the Pope, which restored the church buildings to the Catholic church that were taken over by the Aglipayan converts. Finally, there is the controversial purchase of friar lands, which were negotiated by Governor Taft in a visit to the Vatican, the price of which was much more than market value, and which were found to be too high for the ordinary farmer to buy. I could hardly see the spirituality. I can clearly see the toleration of fanaticism, superstition and commerce.
Indeed Manuel B, God help us!!!!!
The fact that the Catholic Church loves to forget is that religion is just one of the means to an end. The end being a good person. Aristotle’s Nachomachean Ethics had proven that you do not need religion to be a good person. I do not understand why the God damn CBCP is so obsess with reproductive health when they should pay more efforts in producing good people which the Philippines badly needed. Talk about priorities. It is very easy for the CBCP to talk about reproductive health because they are not the one with a vagina. They are not the one who is going to endure the brunt of a failed reproductive health policy. The only rightful people who should be in control of reproductive health are women since they own a vagina. They should be the one in control not the CBCP. CBCP should just stay away from any issue regarding the vagina. Filipinos should wake up and control their lives for once instead of having it dictated by the Catholic Church.
What’s sad about the CBCP’s stance on the RH Bill is that not even the Vatican can make up its bloody mind on its own policies.
It’s not well known, but in the 60s, the church created the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, in light of the rise of oral contraceptives at the time. The commission was initially composed of six non-theologians, and was eventually expanded into a 72-member group by 1963.
While a majority of the commission had advised the Vatican that artificial birth control was not against its teachings, Paul VI instead relied on the advice of a minority report that was signed by four other members of the commission that was opposed to the church changing its stance
Pope Paul VI overruled this commission’s advice, and pushed with encyclical Humanae Vitae, which considers any form of contraception as a form of abortion. Paul VI would eventually use this minority report as the basis for Humanae Vitae.
Now tell me – how can I trust an organization that so badly afflicted with head-in-cement syndrome?
For quite many Filipino politicians the vernacular meaning of trapo also applies:basahan.
Mga Basahang Pulitiko.
Correction, the comment properly belongs to the post on Villar.