Aquino-CBCP Dialogues are Pointless

Any dialogue President Aquino arranges with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is bound to be pointless. It is not as if the CBCP could simply change their doctrines. These meetings only serve to echo the discussions the Catholic Church had concerning the existence of limbo. And in both cases, I doubt the Church brought out any evidence supporting their claims.

We must not forget that the CBCP’s policy to interfere with what people do naked is given by divine right. If the Catholic Church is indeed the sole keeper of the truth as it pertains to the mystery of the supernatural, though I contend that they are not, their pronouncements reflect the desires of the creator of the universe himself. From this, we must understand that Catholics and their leaders are simply not allowed the freedom to pick and choose which of God’s commandments to follow, at least in theory. Even if the CBCP suddenly started caring about the consequences of their unsupported claims, abandoning centuries of prudery would unravel the entire enterprise of Catholicism, not to mention thousands of theology dissertations.

Any argument the President makes with regards to the misery of children born to homes that could not possibly support one child, let alone eight, will fall on deaf ears because the axioms of each of the two sides are fundamentally in conflict. And this conflict will never be resolved because the issue that drives the bishops to stick their noses in the problem of consenting adults and what they do with their bodies is this: sin.

It is because Catholicism, as defined by the Roman ecclesiastic establishment, has divorced the experience of human and animal suffering from the bogeyman of sin that we waste so much of our time debating about contraception, embryonic stem cell research, and gay marriage. The beliefs of conservative Catholics concerning the resurrection of the dead and the efficacy of prayer are flagrantly detached from the real world. Why should we expect their morals to be any different? It is this uncoupling of the key concept of Catholicism – sin – from the reality of suffering that is at the root of the disputes concerning moral questions – questions that should be as easy to answer as the matter of slavery.

According to the Catholic Church, the creator of Jupiter and its tiny neighbor, Earth, has deemed the sexual act between consenting human adults, when closed to the possibility of procreation, a damnable offense – one that, at least, deserves cleansing with purgatory fire, if left untreated by the salve of the confessional, if not outright eternal torture. With the moral and scientific progress that humanity has made in the past centuries, we can now see that such views belong to the infancy of mankind, when our brains had not yet evolved to be cognizant of the repercussions of actions as they relate to the flourishing and anguish of our fellow primates.

It does not worry a conservative theologian that euthanasia would lead to a person’s release from the unbearable pain of tumor growth. Euthanasia is a mortal sin according to the faith – the conversation ends there. It does not matter if two men have found within each other a loving partner with whom they would like to spend the rest of their lives. And, it most certainly does not matter that their partnership or, gasp, marriage inflicts no pain on anyone and leads to happiness the couple could not possibly attain should the Philippines become a true, as opposed to a de facto, theocracy. The moral framework of conservative Catholicism does not take into account the individual well-being of those involved. In fact, the Roman pontiff despises morals that allow for modification based on situation. The only thing that is important is that the God of Abraham get his jollies off and is worshiped through the strict adherence to his inclinations by those who declare for themselves that they possess freewill.

The reason why liberal and cafeteria Catholics are capable of understanding the undesirability of the condition that some children grow up in homes that never wanted them is that they have shifted from being troubled by the dogmatic definition of sin to being moved by pain, grief, and sorrow as experienced by their fellow thinking and feeling human beings. For this, the Holy Catholic Church they profess their allegiance to every Sunday disagrees with their moral perspectives in the same way the President’s pro-choice stance on reproductive health conflicts with that of the Church’s universal position against informed decision, which dates back to Adam, Eve, and the book of Genesis.

So, what is the purpose of talking to the Catholic Church regarding their opinions on reproductive health or on any policy, for that matter? Do the bishops hold some sort of information that would suddenly convince skeptics into joining their side? For people who care about intellectual honesty, human and animal suffering, and reason, the answer is a resounding ‘no,’ because for as long as the Church keeps their ideas of sin separate from the reality of human agony, the moral opinions of the Roman Catholic Church are irrelevant to human life.

19 comments

  1. colonization on morality starts here. the next step of the government will be the legalization of abortion, just like it's "uncle" Sam. nice uncle though…

  2. If the CBCP insists on dialogue with Noynpy, then they will have to invite EVERY other religion in RP to send a representative.

    Or, the gov't can invite nobody at all, and tell those bishop in silly dresses to STFD and STFU

  3. this article is basically correct. it is naive to somehow think that something useful can be derived from a dialogue.this is a clash of idealogies with absolutely no compromise whatsoever. it is the classic conflict between secularism and religious dogma. in more advanced countries like europe. the dust has largely settled with the secular state making substantial gains (the legalization of abortion, divorce, etc.). here in the philippines, the battle lines are still being drawn in this inevitable conflict. what we need to do in this ideological conflict is to carry on and ensure that progressive measures are continually passed.the RH Bill will be one of only several more issues (divorce, abortion, gender equality ) that will need to be eventually resolved.. though in retreat historically, we will see a catholic church and particularly it's ultra conservative elements fighting back very hard. our work as progressives is to push back and lobby equally hard. we can be encouraged by the fact that the church has always been on the wrong side of a debate for centuries. that it is always dragged kicking and screaming into every new century. that it must accept changes in order to survive. yes time and history is very much on our side.

  4. Setting aside all rationalizations about contraceptives having abortifacient effects or causing cancer, the Church's resistance against the RH Bill is rooted in Pope Paul VI's 1968 enclyclical "Humanae Vitae", which states that one cannot isolate the unitive from the procreative purpose of sex. Humanae Vitae was issued ex-cathedra, meaning it is supposed to be infallible because it was divine revelation given to Pope Paul. To change the Church's stand on contraceptives would mean conceding that Humanae Vitae is NOT infallible, and that would open up a can of worms as every Catholic dogma will now be open to questioning. Surely the Vatican would not want that to happen as it will undermine their divine authority.

  5. The church is already in the midst of crisis and this is very crucial issue specially for the filipino atheist who advocating and support the RH Bill and it's really really serious threat here in our nation………….

  6. catholics dogma had long been irrelevant to non-believers whether they speak on RHB or something else. the church has much as right as the non-believers to make a moral judgment call. non-believers cannot ask the church to leave this debate for that is practically allowing them to impose their own dogma of non-belief to those who otherwise believe.
    http://jcc34.wordpress.com

    • yea, to speak of moral judgement??????????????they must start cleaning with their own backyard first… the morality of pedophile priests..

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