Even as I write -- the Milieu Prevails

Even as I write,
The Milieu prevails

I read

Aquino faces threat
of excommunication
By Philip C. Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Raising the ante in their conflict over birth control, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Thursday said President Benigno Aquino III could be “excommunicated” if he actively promoted the distribution of artificial contraceptives to Filipino couples.

A photo caption of President Aquino today reads: “It has come to this.”

  
Holding up a placard with the word Damaso on it, tourist guide Carlos Celdran screams at the clergy to get out of politics during Mass at Manila Cathedral. Damaso, an abusive Spanish friar, is immortalized in Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere.” EDWIN BACASMAS


Aquino stands pat
on ‘informed choice’ policy
on birth control
 By Christine O. Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:26:00 09/30/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Health, Family
Most Read
   
MANILA, Philippines -- President Benigno Aquino III vowed on Thursday to cotinue advocating informed choice on the issue of artificial birth control by couples in planning the sizes of their families.
“We are all guided by our consciences. My position has not changed. The state's duty is to educate our families as to their responsibilities and to respect their decisions if they are in conformity to our laws,'' the President said in a statement released by Malacañang.
The President was responding to a bishop's reminder of possible excommunication over Aquino’s birth control stand.
Palace officials said the President had always espoused for responsible parenthood.
President Aquino has expressed openness to the idea of using government resources to educate couples on a range of birth control methods, from natural (rhythm) to the artificial (contraceptive pills, condoms, IUD, ligation, among others).
A bishop of the Catholic Church, which has taken a hard line stance against artificial birth control methods, has threatened the President with excommunication if he continues to promote informed choice on birth control.


Another page 1 Inquirer story begins:

  Read Full Story
Holding up a placard with the word Damaso on it, tourist guide Carlos Celdran screams at the clergy to get out of politics during Mass at Manila Cathedral. Damaso, an abusive Spanish friar, is immortalized in Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere.” EDWIN BACASMAS


Here I am on the threshold of 82, an ardent admirer of Jose Rizal, Ninoy Aquino, and Cory Aquino. These are the staunch Catholic parents of Nonoy now threatened with excommunication because he upholds the universal basic human right of freedom of conscience.

And it is not only in the Philippines.
For example, from
John Greenleaf is back...
John W. Greenleaf | September 24, 2010 at 8:29 am | Categories: Roman Catholic Church | URL: http://wp.me/pSvU4-5k


The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement from its Committee on Doctrine, headed by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, regarding the book, "The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology."

The statement noted that the book "does not offer minor revisions to a few points of Catholic sexual ethics," but rather, "the authors insist that the moral theology of the Catholic tradition dealing with sexual matters is now as a whole obsolete and inadequate and that it must be re-founded on a different basis." Consequently, it continued, the authors, Creighton University professors Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler, "argue that the teaching of the magisterium is based on this flawed 'traditional theology' and must likewise be substantially changed."

3) During summer travels in Eastern Europe, I discoverd that the Catholic Church in Croatia is strong, and wealthy, powerful and arrogant -- and well ensconced in a nineteenth century Catholic ethos. When people complained that one local bishop was out of touch with the contemporary world, he shouted out in his cathedral: "If they don't like what I am doing, they can leave right now!"

And, the debate will go on;
Some of the country’s senators jumped into the “back and forth”:

Excommunication’ threats
can boomerang on Church
– senators
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:38:00 10/03/2010
Filed Under: Family planning, Politics, Churches (organisations), Benigno Aquino III
MANILA, Philippines – Senators said on Sunday that taking a hard-line stance on the controversial issue of birth control could ``boomerang’’ on the leaders of the Catholic Church in the country.
``The opposition against the RH (reproductive health bill) is too premature. A hearing has yet to be held and they are already against it. The Church and President Aquino are already fighting over it when we don’t even know the final form of the bill being pushed. It’s not even in first base,’’ said Senator Joker Arroyo in an interview with dzBB radio.
Arroyo said this would be the third time that Church and state have squared off on a major issue – the first was during the Commonwealth era when the President Manuel L. Quezon thumbed down a proposal to make religious instruction compulsory; and the second was in the post-war Congress when Congress proposed (and succeeded) to have Jose Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo required reading in school.
Senator Edgardo Angara said the threat of excommunication was an ``argument by those without an argument, if you can’t say anything, just make threats.’’
Angara said excommunication would be against the will of God .
``A religious group wanting to end the debate is a sign of intolerance and anti-God,’’ said Angara who has initiated an information drive on family planning in his home province Aurora even without a law. ``The right of an individual to determine the size of his family is as basic as his right to choose his faith."
Arroyo felt the Church was being ``too aggressive’’ on Aquino who was just voicing out his opinion on the issue. He said it was unfair for the Church to attack lawmakers, who have been open to the RH bill.
He said threatening excommunication could boomerang on the Church especially if Congress enacted the RH bill. ``Will the Church have the guts to excommunicate the majority of congressmen and senators who voted for it?’’
 

 More from Mon Tulfo
  
On Target
Excommunication as a weapon By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 10/02/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Churches (organisations), Family planning
IT’S VERY unfair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to threaten President Aquino with excommunication for standing up to the Church on family planning.
The President angered the bishops after he said the government would leave it to couples to choose their own method of bearing or spacing their children.
Because of the threat, the bishops have not only pushed the country’s Chief Executive against a wall, they have also painted themselves into a corner as well.
What if the President stood pat on the government policy on family planning and the faithful sided with P-Noy instead of the bishops?
The Church’s power over its followers is being tested to the limit because of the family planning controversy.
* * *
There are more Catholics who favor the government policy over the Church’s stand on birth control than those who do not. These Catholics are thinking people.
They hold responsible positions in government and society and are, therefore, in a position to influence fellow Catholics to their way of thinking.
To many Catholics, religion is out of the question when it comes to solving poverty caused by overpopulation.
* * *
What is excommunication?
It’s similar to an employer dismissing an employee for a perceived wrongdoing. The employer is the Catholic Church and the employee the faithful.
The follower can change his religion after he’s excommunicated in the same way a dismissed employee can work for another company.
* * *
All faiths—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism—are the same: They all lead to the Source.
Just because a particular religion has the biggest membership doesn’t mean it’s the right or true religion.
A religion that preaches it is the only way to salvation is fooling its members.
There is no such thing as the “true religion” or the “chosen people of God.”
* * *
I doff my hat to Carlos Celdran, a tour guide who dared to call Catholic bishops “Padre Damaso.”
Padre Damaso is a character in Jose Rizal novel, “Noli Me Tangere,” a hypocritical priest who could have fathered the book’s heroine, Maria Clara.
Celdran is so unlike many Catholics who go out of their way to please priests and bishops for fear of being sent to hell.
These same Catholics maltreat their domestic help or employees and steal people’s money if they are politicians, and then go to confession for their sins.
To Celdran: Idol!
* * *


And more
 On Target
P-Noy needs support
for family
 planning
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:55:00 09/29/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Population, Family planning, Churches (organisations)
NOY BUCKS Church, backs birth control—banner headline of the Inquirer Tuesday.
It’s time the government puts its foot down in dealing with the Catholic Church.
The Church has been interfering too much in the affairs of government, reminiscent of the Spanish era when the religious ran the government.
President Noy’s standing up to the powerful and officious institution is praiseworthy.
The Church has been put in its proper place.
Let’s all make our collective voice of support be heard by the President.
* * *
The report that P-Noy has sought a dialogue with Catholic Church leaders does not mean he has changed his mind on family planning.
The President has a mind of his own.
If he can’t be swayed by public pressure to fire his friend, Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, do you expect P-Noy to easily succumb to the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to change his mind?
* * *
P-Noy must have taken a long time to arrive at the decision to go against the teaching of the Catholic Church.
He belongs to a very Catholic family.
His mother, the late President Cory, was a devout Catholic, and so are most of his sisters.
He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Catholic school.
Although there is no such thing as a “Catholic vote” in this country, nevertheless the Church supported his candidacy on account of his alma mater.
It must have been very difficult for the President to issue a government policy that runs counter to the edict of the Catholic Church “to go out into the world and multiply.”
* * *
Unlike his predecessor, the convent-bred Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was scared of the Church, P-Noy has dared to challenge the Church’s edict against family planning.
The President has probably realized that one’s salvation does not depend on one’s Church but on his conscience.
If one follows his conscience—his greatest guide to what’s right or wrong—he will always be right
However, nothing in this Universe is right or wrong.
Everything just is.
To say that one thing is right and another is wrong is being judgmental.

And another popular columnist adds her opinion:
 At Large
Friars and bishops
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:52:00 10/05/2010
…Still, the arrest and incarceration of Celdran speaks of the lingering vestiges of Church power and influence in this country. But by threatening (the possibility of) excommunication and even the launching of a civil disobedience campaign against P-Noy for his support of the Reproductive Health Bill, the bishops will soon find out that this time around they are on the wrong side of history.
* * *
SURE, they may be able to mobilize crowds (usually taken from Catholic schools and lay organizations) to protest against the Aquino administration’s policy, but the bishops should know by now that they have effectively lost ground in the arena of public opinion.
For decades now public opinion surveys have proven that Filipino couples and even youth strongly support family planning and believe a reproductive health law should be passed.
Reacting to these findings, the bishops have pooh-poohed the surveys, attributing it all to “propaganda.” Well, this is one “sign of the times” they have failed abysmally to read.
Bishops have also accused P-Noy of supporting reproductive health in exchange for aid from the United States. But this bogey will no longer work. Filipinos know by now that while a family planning program is supported by foreign governments, it is also good for Filipinos and for our future."


HOW DO WE TIE ALL THIS TOGETHER WITH LITTLE OLE ME?

I came to the Philippines almost 20 years ago when the devout Catholic housewife, Cory Aquino, was still president and I had the great privilege of going to the palace (more than once) with my prayer group and praying with and over a humble President Cory Aquino.

The father, Ninoy, was shot dead as a martyr for freedom during the Marcos conjugal dictatorship and from his blood a free nation arose. (And now his son is threatened with excommunication!).

Jose Rizal spoke out boldly against the abuses of the friars, their control of the lives of the people and the country. And he was shot dead, and from his blood a nation arose.

Now the bishops are indeed taking on the role of the friars of old, exposed by Rizal, and pointed out graphically in the photo above by a man dressed as Rizal doing what Rizal did, this time in front of the Cardinal and church dignitaries at the high altar of the Manila cathedral. (And that was denounced from the pulpit and elsewhere as a very naughty (makulit) thing to do.!!)

And what’s the problem? For one thing, the people of the Philippines are the only people in the world, except those on the island of Malta, who do not have freedom to divorce, thanks to the power of the catholic bishops over congress. And on and on, the stiff opposition to condoms and the Reproductive Health bill, and and and. The only country in the world which allows the catholic bishops to control the congress. Will they also control President Aquino with the threat (blackmail) of excommunication? I guess it is wait and see.

The next day  President Aquino affirmed his stand to be unchanged. The bishops seemed to take a half step backward and say they never officially threatened excommunication. Mon Tulfo in his column in plain language spelled out the woes of the country caused by the stands of the catholic bishops. Sermons at Sunday Mass defended the bishops and condemned the sinful action of the Rizal lookalike, calling him no hero but a sinner who desecrated the temple of God.
 

 

 
On Target
Excommunication as a weapon
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 10/02/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Churches (organisations), Family planning
IT’S VERY unfair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to threaten President Aquino with excommunication for standing up to the Church on family planning.
The President angered the bishops after he said the government would leave it to couples to choose their own method of bearing or spacing their children.
Because of the threat, the bishops have not only pushed the country’s Chief Executive against a wall, they have also painted themselves into a corner as well.
What if the President stood pat on the government policy on family planning and the faithful sided with P-Noy instead of the bishops?
The Church’s power over its followers is being tested to the limit because of the family planning controversy.
* * *
There are more Catholics who favor the government policy over the Church’s stand on birth control than those who do not. These Catholics are thinking people.
They hold responsible positions in government and society and are, therefore, in a position to influence fellow Catholics to their way of thinking.
To many Catholics, religion is out of the question when it comes to solving poverty caused by overpopulation.
* * *
What is excommunication?
It’s similar to an employer dismissing an employee for a perceived wrongdoing. The employer is the Catholic Church and the employee the faithful.
The follower can change his religion after he’s excommunicated in the same way a dismissed employee can work for another company.
* * *
All faiths—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism—are the same: They all lead to the Source.
Just because a particular religion has the biggest membership doesn’t mean it’s the right or true religion.
A religion that preaches it is the only way to salvation is fooling its members.
There is no such thing as the “true religion” or the “chosen people of God.”
* * *
I doff my hat to Carlos Celdran, a tour guide who dared to call Catholic bishops “Padre Damaso.”
Padre Damaso is a character in Jose Rizal novel, “Noli Me Tangere,” a hypocritical priest who could have fathered the book’s heroine, Maria Clara.
Celdran is so unlike many Catholics who go out of their way to please priests and bishops for fear of being sent to hell.
These same Catholics maltreat their domestic help or employees and steal people’s money if they are politicians, and then go to confession for their sins.
To Celdran: Idol!
* * *


And more

On Target
P-Noy needs support for family planning
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:55:00 09/29/2010
Filed Under: Benigno Aquino III, Population, Family planning, Churches (organisations)
NOY BUCKS Church, backs birth control—banner headline of the Inquirer Tuesday.
It’s time the government puts its foot down in dealing with the Catholic Church.
The Church has been interfering too much in the affairs of government, reminiscent of the Spanish era when the religious ran the government.
President Noy’s standing up to the powerful and officious institution is praiseworthy.
The Church has been put in its proper place.
Let’s all make our collective voice of support be heard by the President.
* * *
The report that P-Noy has sought a dialogue with Catholic Church leaders does not mean he has changed his mind on family planning.
The President has a mind of his own.
If he can’t be swayed by public pressure to fire his friend, Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, do you expect P-Noy to easily succumb to the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to change his mind?
* * *
P-Noy must have taken a long time to arrive at the decision to go against the teaching of the Catholic Church.
He belongs to a very Catholic family.
His mother, the late President Cory, was a devout Catholic, and so are most of his sisters.
He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Catholic school.
Although there is no such thing as a “Catholic vote” in this country, nevertheless the Church supported his candidacy on account of his alma mater.
It must have been very difficult for the President to issue a government policy that runs counter to the edict of the Catholic Church “to go out into the world and multiply.”
* * *
Unlike his predecessor, the convent-bred Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was scared of the Church, P-Noy has dared to challenge the Church’s edict against family planning.
The President has probably realized that one’s salvation does not depend on one’s Church but on his conscience.
If one follows his conscience—his greatest guide to what’s right or wrong—he will always be right
However, nothing in this Universe is right or wrong.
Everything just is.
To say that one thing is right and another is wrong is being judgmental.
·         * *
·         
·         And,
Once, again, lest it be thought that I  (rrm) claim to be the inventor of sex positive theology…
“Pure Nonsense: U.S. Bishops Condemn Book by Creighton Theologians
John W. Greenleaf | October 4, 2010 at 10:15 am | Categories: Roman Catholic Church | URL: http://wp.me/pSvU4-5N

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement denouncing as "harmful to one's moral and spiritual life" a 2008 book by two theologians at Creighton University, a Roman Catholic institution. The book, The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology, by Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, was published by Georgetown University Press, and the press website features much praise for the work.
"Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler's new book...is among the most important works in Catholic sexual ethics to emerge in the last two decades...Their book will be noticed because of its controversial positions on contraception, same-sex relationships, cohabitation and artificial means of reproduction. However, its contribution is its clear articulation of a person-centered natural-law ethic that offers Catholics an authentic way to think about sex in relation to their faith."—National Catholic Reporter



And little ole me.

That’s the  milieu in which I am about to celebrate my 82nd.

I have been staunchly upholding the catholic teachings of Jesus here for 20 years, and advocating freedom of conscience to depart from unchristian sex negative theology and embrace sex positive theology in line with the life and teachings of Jesus. Perhaps as the first pastor to do so publicly in this country, I have done so in lectures, speeches, panels, seminars. at universities and  organizations, and even a little on television, for 20 years. (To say nothing of the annual Pride Marches we started with Oscar Atadero in 1994.)

 Now I have condensed it all into three “Sex positive Theology” courses available for the asking by internet, free of charge. (saintaelred@gmail.com)

I realize the debate about sex negative theology will go on and on. I call it sex negative theology becauwe it is indeed related to God -- in a sadly negative way. The amazing thing is that sex negative theology seems to have its strongest-in-the-world stranglehold on the lives of citizens of all religions right here in our country.

And that’s the milieu which continues as I prepare to observe my 82nd birthday next month.