The Catholic church hierarchy’s renewed threat of civil disobedience against reproductive rights is highly misplaced and mistaken. It is directed at the wrong target. The church is wrong in rallying its flock to oppose the reproductive health bill, which is widely recognized even by the Catholic population as a fundamental human right. Such an action from the church hierarchy would only effectively alienate itself from the people it professes to look after.
As such, we urge the Catholic church hierarchy to focus its energy and sense of moral outrage to the real problems besetting our country such as the massive corruption inside the military establishment. It would be more persuasive and virtuous for the church to launch a civil disobedience against institutionalized corruption than to the reproductive health bill, which will save many human lives.
Civil disobedience is exercised to defend human rights and civil liberties, topple tyrannical governments and realize political reforms. It would be antithetical to call for civil disobedience to derail the expansion of the people’s rights and welfare, more so, to muzzle the people’s clear voice on the matter using the “promotion” of morality and religiousness as pretexts. Lest the Church hierarchy forgets, the voice of the people is the voice of God.
Hence, the Catholic Church hierarchy must learn to genuinely listen to the voice of its own constituency on this issue. And the growing consensus is, faith and reproductive rights are not contradictory. The church must learn to realize this fact.
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