Blind faith or sheer arrogance?

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/22 March) — One thing I hate listening to
during masses is when the priest riles against the Reproductive Health
Law. I hate it more when he does so in utter ignorance of the final
version of the law by insisting that it promotes abortion.
The intellectual torture doesn’t stop at the pulpit. Catholic lay
workers who obviously haven’t read a single section of the RH Law add
to the efforts of the priests and bishops to mislead the faithful into
thinking that the law is intrinsically evil.
The bishops and their loyal followers who would never tolerate any
deviation from Church dogmas on the reproductive sphere of earthly
existence are saying in effect that the legislators and every citizen–
Catholic or non-Catholic – who favored its passage did so with evil
motives in mind. It seems that their medieval mindset could not come
to terms with the fact that those who have supported the RH Law have
done so with a clear conscience.
Trapped however in the medieval mindset that Church teachings are
infallible, the bishops have refused to see the writing on the wall
that the law is an idea whose time has come. They have resorted to
blackmail and vindictiveness, for example, by issuing threats of
excommunication. They forgot this is no longer the era where even
Spanish governors-general would shudder at such threat and walk on
their knees towards the altar.
Pathetic that the Church’s brand of self-righteousness can only lean
on the statistical fact that it is the majority religion in this
country. This is the same imaginary weapon that the Diocese of Bacolod
is using against senatorial candidates in its “Team Buhay, Team Patay”
campaign.
Whether or not the Diocese of Bacolod is having delusions that there
is a Catholic vote in this country is not the issue. (I believe the
senatorial candidates referred to in the hate campaign will win or
lose owing to factors other than what the Catholic Church have to say
on them.)
What I find disgusting is the refusal of the Church to acknowledge
that their core objections to the law have been addressed in its final
version. For one, prohibitions against abortion have been made more
specific. In addition, health workers will not be forced to perform
functions – for instance, administering contraceptives – if they think
such functions are inconsistent with their religious beliefs.
Still, the Church has insisted that the law is unconstitutional even
if its arguments are already passé, to say the least. I am inclined to
believe that the continuing opposition is nothing more than a
desperate assertion of Catholic teachings on contraception, if not an
assertion of its dwindling influence on policymaking itself.
But with the growing secularization of Philippine society in general,
the bishops may already be waging a losing war. The passage of the RH
Law signaled the beginning of the end of Catholic influence on state
affairs. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C.
Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com)