Catholic Church declares Davao City Council members persona non grata

Capalla: No Communion for dads for birth pills program

By ROGER M. BALANZA

Vice Mayor Sara Duterte and city councilors Angela Librado-Trinidad, Mabel Acosta, Leonardo Avila, Nilo Abellera, Edgar Ibuyan; Diosdado Mahipus, Danilo Dayanghirang, Bing Bangoy, Tomas Monteverde, John Louie Bonguyan; Victorio Advincula, Wilberto Al-ag, Louie Villafuerte, Rachel Zozobrado, Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz, Karlo Bello; Paolo Duterte and Halila Sudagar.

The Catholics in the list, according to the Catholic Church, are persona non grata to the Church and may no longer be worthy to receive the Holy Communion and other Sacraments, for supporting legislation promoting contraceptives.

The sanction, yet to be formalized, should naturally come as the Catholic Church lost its battle against a Davao City government program for children that the Church said would promote promiscuity and free sex and clashed with Catholic doctrine against artificial methods of birth control.

Contraceptive-flavored

City councilors yesterday approved the program also tagged as “contraceptive-flavored” by pro-lifers, even as Catholics held demonstrations aiming to prod city councilors to junk the controversial program. The Local Development Plan for Children (LDPC), pro-lifers said is a clone of pending legislation on reproductive health in Congress that would ultimately lead to legalization of abortion.

The vote apparently was inspired by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who at the last minute backed the program that would be implemented by City Hall.

Duterte on Monday made known his position on the issue: the Catholic Church should not meddle in state affairs.

I am a Christian, too, but I am in government. The city government program on reproductive health is not only for Catholics but for all including non-believers, infidels, those from other church denominations, Muslims. What government is doing is the best for all, he said late Monday a day before the councilors were set to deliver their crucial vote on LDPC.

Capalla’s appeal

The Davao City Council vote of approval for LDPC came even as Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla fired over the week-end a last minute appeal in a second Pastoral Letter with warning councilors who support the program would not be “worthy to receive the Sacraments.”

Archbishop Capalla, however said, Church sanctions like refusing of Sacraments “demands a thorough and individual verification by Church authorities.”

The Catholic Church favors only natural family planning methods and considers it a sin for couples using artificial methods like contraceptives that the LDPC promotes to adolescents in the three-year program.

After a three-hour deliberation by the predominantly Catholic 27-member council, city councilors threw their support to the program authored by councilor Angela-Librado-Trinidad, with 18 voting yes, four voting against and two voting in abstention.

Standing her ground

Councilor Tessie Mata-Maranon said the LDPC is contraceptive-flavored and against Church teachings. Maranon voted against with councilors Peter Lavina, Pilar Braga and Susabel Reta. Giving their vote of abstentions were councilors Conrado Baluran and Dante Apostol. Absent in the session were councilors Bonifacio Militar and Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling.

In defending her proposal, Trinidad-Librado, chair of the committee on children, women and family welfare, dismissed Archbishop Capalla’s appeal that the city government reproductive health control component for children in LDPC be family-based and not contraception-oriented, saying contraceptive use could not be separated from the program if population control is to be curbed.

She said she is standing her ground even with threat of ex-communication, a Catholic Church option on faithful in serious clash with church doctrines.

If I am ex-communicated because of this, and I do not win the election because of the Church in 2010, then future city councilors could pick up the cudgels for the Catholic Church and take away the program on contraception, said Librado-Trinidad, visibly pregnant with her second child.

The vote for LDPC comes a day after Duterte made public his position on the issue, defending the program as part of government initiatives to curb population growth.

We are doing the right thing. We do our thing. You do your thing, said Duterte late Monday afternoon, when asked to comment on Archbishop Capalla’s pastoral letter.

Duterte’s message apparently set the tone for the council vote, where the LDPC had went through a series of deliberations, with the Catholic Church opposition taking center stage.

Free sex

In a previous pastoral letter issued on Easter Sunday, Archbishop Capalla backed government plans of action for children but scoffed at a provision in LDPC which encouraged promotion of contraceptive among adolescents.

In particular, the Archbishop referred to Chapter 2 section b of the LDPC which states that “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.”

In his second Pastoral Letter, Archbishop Capalla said the LDPC, in the guise of reproductive health, “mocks parental authority, belittles the value of family, denigrates, the virtue of chastity, makes available contraceptives to children from 0-18 years old and promotes premarital sex and promiscuity.”