According to The Inquirer, on May 23, 2011
ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Oscar Cruz said on Sunday that President Aquino’s support for population control programs was an official admission of his administration’s inability to undertake socioeconomic programs to ease poverty.
“His government’s simplistic option and blatant decision is lessen [the number of] Filipinos to have a better Philippines,” Cruz said in a strongly worded statement issued in the midst of an escalating conflict between Malacañang and the Catholic Church as Congress debates a reproductive health (RH) bill.
“Forgotten is the once proud and loud shout ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ (If there’s no corruption, there’s no poverty). Now the maxim sounds ‘Kung walang ipapanganak, walang mahirap’ (If no child is born, there’s no poverty),” he said.
Instead of thinking of ways to produce more food and houses for people, the government had subscribed to this idea that “the less people eat, the more food there is … the fewer people are housed, the more houses there are,” he added.
“Let there be a dedicated, not a laid-back national leadership. Let there be a wise, not a dull national government,” Cruz said.
In its blind rage against the intention of the Government and Legislature of the Philippines to allow people the same access to family planning as they have in the great majority of nations around the world, the senior clergy the Philippines is now resorting to demagogy. Even a child knows that there is no single solution to poverty. Even Canada, one of the richest and most egalitarian countries, is still struggling with the fact that around 1 million children there live below the poverty line.
The misdemeanour of the Catholic Church is serious and dangerous. For all the bad things one can say about it (I am prepared to say a few), this Church has so far been respected for its honesty and integrity. As much as one could disagree with its teachings, you could normally assume that it would promote them by teaching, not by spewing out slander much in the manner of “traditional politicians”. You could rely on it to arbitrate conflicts and to denounce abuses by the powerful without ulterior motive, without any other guiding principle than as Pope John Paul II used to put it “Peace and Justice”. No more, unfortunately
What has for decades been the most trusted pillar of the society that is The Philippines is now destroying itself.
Let there be a truthful, sincere and wise church….
