Age of Reason finally dawns on the Philippines

When citizens and politicians start publicly opposing the Church on an issue as serious to the Catholic doctrine as contraception, one cannot help but imagine that the Age of Reason is finally coming to our country. And when a Catholic priest himself says that reason cannot be substituted by dogma, it seems there may really be hope for a true separation of Church and State after all.

Chairman of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Panel of the Philippine Judicial Academy Fr. Ranhilio C. Aquino wrote in Manila Standard Today a very interesting article titled Excommunication and other issues. On the proposed dialogue between Malacañang and the CBCP, Fr. Aquino expressed skepticism it will work:

It is necessary that our Republic be neutral in matters of religion—and in that sense, secular.  In fact, the public sphere should be secular because religious dogmas, especially when they are exalted to the level of “mystery”, are notoriously opaque when it comes to verification and criticism. I am not saying that there are no mysteries; but you cannot invoke them in public discourse, except with others of similar persuasion.

The bishops and the supposedly secular government are on very different planes, the former insisting that their dogma is infallible and applies to everyone and the latter presenting facts and logic to say it isn’t so. Fr. Aquino continues:

Given the pluralism of our times, different persuasions thrive, and so there is no way that one can vindicate claims by invoking mysteries.

Take that, CBCP! And those were not the words of a secularist; they came from within your very own clergy.

If the Catholic Church rejects the reproductive health bill because artificial means of contraception will be readily available under the aegis of such a law, then it should rightly be asked: What does the Catholic Church have against artificial means of contraception?  If the only response the Church can give is “Humanae Vitae” and the consistent teaching of the popes and of most (certainly not all!) bishops, then that is not good enough an argument for the public sphere.

Indeed. If all they can say is that in 1968 God revealed to Pope Paul VI that sex must be kept open to procreation and that it is an abomination to isolate the unitive from the procreative purpose of sex, they cannot expect everyone to believe that. And if they say that Humanae Vitae is infallible because it was issued ex-cathedra, that won’t work either considering how science and history have shown how human fallibility exempts no one, not even the popes.

On the other hand, it is silly to demand of the Catholic Church that it “adjust” its moral teaching to suit populist tastes.

Of course, and that’s what true separation means: the State leaves the Church alone to preach to its own members whatever it wishes; the Church leaves the State alone to deliberate which laws would best serve the citizens.

And if the Church wants its own members to keep listening amidst the growing voice of Reason in the Philippines, the leaders should also try to hear what Fr. Aquino has to say:

At the present, that is what I find wanting: a truly coherent presentation of the Catholic position against artificial contraception that can meet with the approval of all of its members engaging in rational discourse as equals—whose voices are not silenced because they wear no miters on their heads!  Perhaps this is the opportune time for us in the Catholic Church to revisit the matter, to take one more look at our premises and to ask about their dependability.

And perhaps this is an opportune time for the State as well to truly assert its independence. As Jose Ma. Montelibano said in his article The Church Has Lost Her Dominance, “The Church has used fear, it has used force, yet lost. It may try to use attraction, may try to raise its credibility, it may try to be the voice more of conscience rather than edict. It is not too late, but it is very late.”

11 comments

  1. Hello everyone..

    Well this is my first ever post on the internet.

    Have been glued to this website for the past 2 days. Had got myself registered long back but never had the time or knew the value of the data available on this website.

    Couple of days back i had some free time, so i logged in to check this website and that's it, i haven moved out since then.

    I have been crazy about moving machines from childhood days, so its naturally inevitable that i enjoy every single post and bet my contributions will be worth reading.

    It is usually a great feeling to have just one like minded person in a new crowd you enter, but here it is truly unbelievable to have soo many people under the forum discussing awesome stuff.

    Missed soo much of time. Tracing back here from its start and updating my knowledge on it…

    Lots to read and catch up, lots to post. Lemme get started..

    Take care, Dean from no hassle loan website!

  2. hey, all of you….
    please be reminded that we are just FREETHINKERS here…
    we are not INTELLIGENT thinkers….
    common sense is not necessarily and morally right just because it is accepted by all…
    rather, it is a deeper and wider view of things…
    who the heck are WE to criticize the views of the clergy…
    as a matter of fact…they can defend and stand not as a cleric…
    we are fond of talking nonsensible facts…
    what if you are on that field?
    i think, the clerics won't spend their lifetime just to fornicate…
    or else you do!

  3. people dont love money but what money can do as described by John Maynard keynes. it is like a barter trade of the primitives who exchange what has value for another which is valuable in terrms of utility. Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy. There is a novel on amazon com. mrcp ii made easy. It describes Buddha as one of the first physician as he used the same modern approach championed by Osler ( the professor of Medicine in Oxford, Mcgill and Harvard ), 1.Diagnosis: the world we live in ( samsara not the perfume ) is characterised by suffering or dissapointments 2. The aetiology: are the three symbolic poisons at the centre of the wheel of life which is the snake, the pig and the cock. The snake represents our own venomous nature and clingig to ephemeral things and not remembering that your beautiful trophy wife will age,3. The prognosis : is good ( as Hipocrattes in his writings said that every patient wants to know the prognosis and this is very important , 4. the cure which is the four noble truths and the eight fold path. Buddha said in the Kalama sutra do not believe what I say or because a so called authority has said it but scrath my teachings and see if it is not painted lead. I was impressed as he described the debate between the Dalai Lama and Carl sagan. Also his description of the use of the FMRI long before SALT..Some of the stories will make you cry and others will make you laugh. It will save the lives of many with HIV and AIDS as the author has warned the third world physicians not to use gancyclovir for CMV retinitis ( as it causes rhegmatous retinal detachment ) but Foscarnet does not and this is a case for litigation . Read it because those of you who are worrying about your legs will fing many wiht no feet in this charity novel.

  4. A man of the cloth speaks rationality? Where are the numerous commenters now? How curious that they don't come out when there are signs of intelligence within the Catholic fold. Should we not praise this man, support him for his rationality? Should we not support him so that other clergy that are of a like mind can see that it is ok to speak out their minds and question the actions of the church they labor for?

    These are the people we should be uplifting so that they can become leaders of the church and spread the gospel of rationality to their flock. These are the people we should be engaging with so that we can see true change not just in the Catholic Church, but in society at large.

    His email's at the end of the article. Why not thank him for writing this article, or better yet invite him to the FF meetup?

    • Indeed.

      I've always wondered why the media won't focus on the more reasonable men of faith instead of the bishops that seem to have an uncanny ability to say something royally stupid every time they get air time? 🙁

      Actually, scratch that – why won't the CBCP tap priests like John Carroll?

      As for the matter of Montelibano, I still don't agree with his opinion – he acts as if the Church has the sole right to running RP, and that notion alone gets on my nerves. He laments the loss of theocracies as if it's a bad thing – as if Iran isn't a good enough example when a gov't is heavily influenced by one faith.

    • Good point about thanking him for that article. Might be a little of a stretch to get him to a meetup though. We are trying to do something about a secularism alliance and it would be good to keep Ranhilio in mind.

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here