Philippines senator asks bishops not to excommunicate her due to contraceptive bill conflict

[Holly3278]

Responding to reports that excommunication is a possibility in a conflict over the Philippines’ “reproductive health” bill, one of the country’s senators has written to the Catholic Church asking that she not be excommunicated. Her letter also repeats a common dissenting interpretation of the 1968 papal encyclical which reiterated Christian opposition to contraception.

In a Friday letter to Bishop Nereo Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago defended the proposed legislation as a way to “liberate the poor from social, political, and economic oppression.

ewtnnews.com/new.php?id=1829

Personally, I would fully support the excommunication of this senator as well as anyone else who supports this disgusting bill. The bill is clearly an attempt to introduce population controls in Filipino society. The Catholic Church teaches that artificial contraception for contraceptive purposes is wrong and this woman seems to think that the Catholic Church is wrong on contraceptives. Maybe she should do some research and realize that the Catholic Church has been opposed to such things since the very beginning.

 

[Semandreu]

I am a Filipino and I also disagree with this bill. Our leaders are saying that they are only concerned about our peoples’ education regarding sex and responsible parenthood. They are also saying that the use of artificial birth control will be voluntary. Reproductive health bill will educate people of the options whether to use artificial or natural family planning. But if this bill’s main agenda is to educate people, why distribute condoms? It seems like it is promoted.

I am disappointed with our president, Benigno “*Noynoy” *Aquino III. He’s the son of Corazon "Cory" Aquino who died last year and is expected to have her canonization process started sooner or later.

Please let us pray for the Philippines. May Cory guide her son towards the betterment of our country and the Church.

Sa mga Pilipinong Katoliko, ito ay isang malaking hamon sa atin. Katoliko lang ba tayo sa pangalan? Kailangan nating manindigan at ipaglaban ang buhay!

 

[preyoflove]

I pray that the Church in the Philippines would indeed find the guts to call this senator’s bluff, "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?’’’

I don’t know. While I am saddened by this bill, part of me somewhat welcomes an opportunity that forces the Church in my country to draw a line on the sand and force all its members to make a choice. Perhaps this would fulfill what Pope Benedict XVI envisioned of a smaller but purer church at the onset of his pontificate.

It seems to me that the Church, on the whole, is too cozy with how corrupt the bureaucracy runs my country. Painful though it is to say this, but I’d rather belong to a small, persecuted Church.

Brother Semandreu, I hate to be pessimistic, but it seems that the fact that the majority of Filipino Catholics are Catholics in name only has long been obvious. I think excommunications should have been imposed a long, long time ago.

God love us all.

 

[Willy_Jose]

I find Senator Miriam Santiago’s letter to CBCP strange and… quite funny. If she had doubts about her faith, the correct way was to confide personally with her spiritual confessor to sort things out. In person. Imagine a request not to be excommunicated by letter. It’s just as strange as confessing your sins by a letter to priest. If I were Bishop Odchimar, I would respond by sending her a letter (an email would just as fine) stating she is now excommunicated. haha

 

[markomalley]

It’s sort of irrelevant, isn’t it?
Can. 1364 §1. Without prejudice to the prescript of can. 194, §1, n. 2, an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication; in addition, a cleric can be punished with the penalties mentioned in can. 1336, §1, nn. 1, 2, and 3.
If she, through her actions, supports a bill that is in violation of Humanae Vitae, she is a manifest heretic and she separated herself from communion with Christ and His Church. All a bishop would be doing would be making her state as publicly known as her vote on this bill.

But a word of comfort for this senator, though: excommunication is intended to be a medicinal penalty, not a expiatory one. She should thoughtfully consider her ideas, repent of them, and publicly renounce them. Then I am equally sure that her bishop would very publicly receive her back into communion with Holy Mother Church.

 

[Willy_Jose]

It’s sort of irrelevant, isn’t it?
Can. 1364 §1. Without prejudice to the prescript of can. 194, §1, n. 2, an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication; in addition, a cleric can be punished with the penalties mentioned in can. 1336, §1, nn. 1, 2, and 3.
If she, through her actions, supports a bill that is in violation of Humanae Vitae, she is a manifest heretic and she separated herself from communion with Christ and His Church. All a bishop would be doing would be making her state as publicly known as her vote on this bill.

But a word of comfort for this senator, though: excommunication is intended to be a medicinal penalty, not a expiatory one. She should thoughtfully consider her ideas, repent of them, and publicly renounce them. Then I am equally sure that her bishop would very publicly receive her back into communion with Holy Mother Church.

Thank you for that citation, Mark.
Besides, there also appears to be a catch-all in Canon Law:

*Canon 1399 Besides the cases prescribed in this or in other laws, the external violation of divine or Canon law can be punished, and with a just penalty, only when the special gravity of the violation requires it and necessity demands that scandals be prevented or repaired.
*

Since the President is a public figure and an avowed Catholic, he would be creating a grave scandal once he decides to promote contraceptives. “Just penalty” here can go all the way to excommunication.

 

[canadianguy1143]

I don’t mean to hijack this thread but what is this Senator doing that can cause her to be excommunicated that “Catholic” politicians in the US and Canada aren’t doing? It would suggest to me that those who say that Pelosi et company can’t be excommunicated are wrong.

 

[ThomasEugene]

people asks for food, Government gives them condoms and pills. Weird government. I am a Filipino and I am sad that our president would support such nonsense bills.