|
A Letter to Pope Francis
His Holiness, Pope Francis,
Mabuhay at Kapayapaan sa Inyo (Welcome and Peace be with you)! We wish His Holiness a Blessed New Year and we pray for your continued good health and wellbeing. We are part of millions of Filipino Catholics who look forward to your visit on January 15-19, 2015. We welcome your inspiring presence and your heartfelt concerns for the welfare of the Filipino people, particularly the poor and marginalized, the survivors of calamities, the weak and the outcasts. The Catholics for Reproductive Health (C4RH) is an organization of Filipino Catholics who actively took part in the advocacy for the passage of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law, which our Congress passed in December 2012 and was affirmed by our Supreme Court in April 2014. We believe that everyone has the right to reproductive health (RH) information and services [and that it] which is consistent with our faith and morality as Catholic Christians. However, given the much-heated debate surrounding RH, C4RH not only was branded as a “fake Catholic organization” or simply “fake Catholics” but had to be especially [mentioned] cited in a Pastoral letter, “Clarificatory Note on Catholics for RH (C4RH),” which the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) released in May 2011. It warned sternly that “Any Catholic who freely identifies himself or herself with this group gravely errs.” Bishop's War on Reproductive HealthPromoting reproductive health is not an open defiance or an all-out war against the Catholic Church. On the contrary, we from the Catholics for Reproductive Health (C4RH) believe that it is consistent with the Catholic value of compassion and principle of social justice.
We are deeply saddened, to say the least, about CBCP’s statement in “declaring war on RH and President Aquino’s pro-RH support”; more so when it uses its position, influence, and resources to pressure our government officials and legislators in opposing the RH bill. |
A Letter to Catholic Church Leaders in the PhilippinesWe are Filipino Catholics loyal to our faith and faithful to our institutional church, but we cannot sit on the fence and not speak out our views regarding reproductive health. We are Filipino Catholics and members of a growing alliance of concerned Roman Catholics called Catholics for Reproductive Health (C4RH), who believe that reproductive health is both a right and a responsibility, and strongly support the passage of a Reproductive Health Bill!
|
Sta. Cruz Parish Priest reluctantly gives Catholic RH advocates communion during their Visita IglesiaOn Holy Tuesday, April 3, 2012, C4RH members in Metro Manila embarked on Visita Iglesia sa Semana Santa, the traditional pilgrimage of the Filipino Catholic to different churches.
Kaagapay sa Kalinga Volunteer Leadership Program |
Response to Lianne A.D. Tiu's "Warning in Some Products..."We have read the article “Warning in Some Products…” written by Ms. Lianne A.D. Tiu in her column, The ABC’s of Catholic Doctrine, which came out in the Santuario de San Antonio Parish Bulletin dated 29 January 2012. We do not claim competency on matters of the faith, unlike Ms. Tiu who seems to know the ABC’s of Catholic Doctrine. We are just simple members of the Catholic Church who believe that the teachings of the Church or the magisterium should also be rooted in the daily lived experiences of the faithful and guided by the Word of God. As members of the Catholics for Reproductive Health (C4RH), we believe that the right to reproductive health information and services is a human right.
|