By Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla
On the Local Development Plan for Children of Davao City, 2007-2010
Promoting promiscuity and free sex
The welfare of the children is of utmost importance for both the local government and all the sectors of society, including the Catholic Church, and rightly so, because the children are the future of the city and of the local Church.
It is imperative, therefore, that children should grow up in a nurturing environment, not only in terms of their physical well-being but also in the other aspects of life: psychological, emotional, social, moral and spiritual.
For this reason, there is a need to give an unqualified support in the proper care of children by strengthening their natural environment —the family. The family is the proper venue where human life and human values are first nurtured and sustained. Thus, speaking about the children’s welfare, all means at our disposal (whether they be political or spiritual) should respect the primordial value of family life and the primary role and responsibility of parents.
The proposed legislation in the Davao City Council adopting the Local Development Plan for Children of Davao City, 2007-2010 is an attempt to bridge the gap. However, in our judgment, it has not sufficiently taken into consideration the role of parents in the proper care of children. It has not also given the proper moral orientation in the psycho-social and emotional growth and education of children, which must be the point of departure of programs that deal with the so-called “reproductive health issues.” Instead, it is our belief that the LDPC would render it more difficult for parents to guide their children, particularly the parents among our Catholic faithful who take their faith seriously in matters of morality and sexuality.
In particular, we refer to Chapter 2 section b of the LDPC: Long Term and Medium Term Goals for Children Program, Policy and Structure. The goal set under the so-called survival right says “All children will have equal chance for survival by making sure that everyone will have full access to affordable services and accurate information that will promote safe pregnancies and produce and nurture healthy babies.”
We raise our deep concern for the possible implications of this provision. Does it mean that all children (0-under 18) will have full access to all means of artificial birth control, including pills that are considered abortifacient, in the guise of the so-called “safe pregnancies?” Does it include the immoral and insensitive display of these contraceptives anywhere and anytime so that they will be accessible to children? Does promotion of safe pregnancies also include abortion?
This concern is not unfounded. Based from the experience in the barangays where our parishes and GKKs are also ministering, the reproductive health services of government entities are principally the venue for the promotion of different artificial birth control methods. We are aware of the ongoing programs like Ligtas Buntis and the active role taken by the City Government on the mutilation of reproductive organs (vasectomy and tubal ligation). Thus, we fear most especially when the proposed legislation speaks of providing comprehensive community-based health services in the guise of protecting from high-risk pregnancies, for, to our judgment, it means one and the same thing.
What worries us most is the fact that the recipients of this program are supposedly children. But if this is indeed legislated, we would make them a prey to the so-called modern technology of safe pregnancy, and in doing so, we uncritically promote and encourage promiscuity and free sex for as long as it is “safe.”
We recommend a careful and sensitive discernment on the part of our honorable legislators to help our parents in promoting chastity-based education for our children that respects the integrity of human sexuality and interpersonal relationships, and not to legislate programs that would be counterproductive of such effort like the active promotion of artificial means of birth control.
We further recommend that any legislation for the welfare of the children should be family-oriented and respectful of the right of parents for the rearing and education of their children, and the religious sentiments of the same.
It is our fervent hope that these concerns be given due consideration before presenting the LDPC 2007-2010 for approval by the City Council.
Filed under: BIRTH CONTROL, Catholic Church, davao city | Tagged: birth, CAPALLA, catholic, CHURCH, city, control, davao
i am not from davao but would like to post this comment for davaoenos to see. the Davao City government’s approval of the resolution in question (LPDC) drastically changed my view of the Duterte government. i used to be a strong admirer of the way the city was kept so clean, peaceful, safe, etc. in fact, i even thought of moving to davao because i like it very much. i would hear about the “death squad” but i would not attach any importance to it. i thought Duterte was/is a strong leader, all right, and he made a damn good place of his city. but now i’m having serious doubts about the duterte style of governance. now it seems to me the Davao “death squad” is real, after all, because the Davao government is also championing a “culture of death.” now they want to kill the children, too, and the unborn. didn’t they know? those 18 public servants who voted for the LDPC resolution approved a “Reproductive Health” program that is suicidal! it is now cleverly disguised as a life-saver, but in the long run it will KILL the conscience of the people! and a people without a conscience, even if they were the wealthiest on earth, are a dead people–the living, walking DEAD. you need not put a bullet in someone’s head to kill a person–just be stupid enough to approve a suicidal resolution, and in time it will wipe out a whole race.