“Contraception is corruption” – Archbishop tells PNoy

Fr. Soc Villegas says Church is not “autistic”

Exclusive by Raïssa Robles

A Catholic Church hierarch delivered today a stinging message at Philippine President Benigno Aquino who prides himself for his anti-corruption drive. “Contraception is corruption,” Socrates Villegas, Catholic Archbishop of the vote-rich province of Pangasinan said in a speech delivered for him by Tita de Villa, a prominent lay church leader who was once the country’s envoy to the Vatican.

In his proxy speech Villegas said that while the President had said “kung walang kurap, walang mahirap,” his administration was about to embark on a “corrupt” program that would give away free contraceptives to the poor.

The monsignor told the crowd of several thousand rallyists at EDSA:

My dear youth. Contraception is corruption. The use of government money, taxpayers’ money, to give out contraceptive pills is corruption.

I found the accusation shocking. How, I asked myself, can giving away condoms and birth control pills be considered a corrupt act and be similar to stealing from the state treasury or accepting bribes?

Villegas did not explain it very well to my mind. But I got the sense that what he meant was, it was a form of moral corruption because elsewhere he said:

We are battling against corruption because we know this can harm your soul. Believe me. Contraception harms your soul.

I wondered then if moral corruption is illegal under Philippine law and under what circumstances. I will have to ask a lawyer about this. Perhaps there is a lawyer out there who can expound on this.

What I did know was that today a serious breach was reached between Church-State relations. Because Villegas proceeded to add:

I know many of you my dear youth do not believe in the Church anymore. You think the Church does not understand. That the church is autistic. May sariling mundo.

The use of the word “autistic” was a calculated insult against a President who has been ridiculed with that term.

I’m guessing that a taunt like this will put the issue of the RH Bill beyond compromise.

I had interviewed Fr. Soc years ago. I thought then he was one of the lights of the Church who could explain these things in an edifying manner.

Fr. Soc did raise a very important point when he said:

The culture of contraception looks at babies as a reason for poverty. Birth control, they say, means more food, more classrooms, more houses and better health for others.

If more babies are the fault of poverty, are we now saying, kung walang anak, walang mahirap? That is not right. It is not correct.

We can have more classrooms, more food, more jobs if we would be less corrupt.

Send out the corrupt officials, not the babies.

My dear youth, your birth was not a mistake. Your birth was God’s gift to us, your elders. You are not the problem. You are our blessing.

However, he exaggerated when he said – are we now saying, kung walang anak, walang mahirap? – because the Reproductive Health Bill never advocated NO CHILDREN. In fact, it only suggests less children, preferably two, but without coercion or compulsion.

Fr. Soc had a point when he said:

Contraceptive pills are to be considered an essential medicine. If it’s a medicine, what sickness is it curing?

Is pregnancy a sickness?

If it’s a medicine that’s supposed to cure, why do women get sick with cancer after taking the contraceptive pills?

Every pill – even the lowly aspirin – may have a contraindication. Some women who take contraceptives develop cancer. Some don’t. But those who don’t want to take the pill need not take it. There’s the condom which has no side effect. And there are also natural birth control methods.

It’s a pity that Fr. Soc did not touch at all on the question of giving people a free choice, which the RH Bill would like to do. It is man’s innate prerogative – the right and power to sin if he wants to, and to go back to the fold when he wants to. Loving God is a free choice and God does not want it any other way. This is what I’ve learned in life.

Arguments against contraception 

Fr. Soc used four other arguments which I felt were weak. First, Fr. Soc told the Filipino Catholic youth in particular that they should listen to him because he was old, being 51 years of age:

I know many of you my dear youth do not believe in the Church anymore. You think the Church does not understand. That the church is autistic. May sariling mundo.

The bishops are not listening. The bishops teach from their ivory towers. The bishops are not aware of what the majority of the people undergo. They are distant and unreachable.

Matanda na kami. Totoong matanda na kami. Pero and matanda mapagpaalala sa mga bata. Kung puro bata tayong lahat, wala ng magtuturo at mapapaalala sa mga gintong aral ng kahapon.

There is a wisdom that only age and experience can give. We are old but God made us old minders not to forget our Filipino values, the commandments of God and the rules of good character.

You have told me to dye my hair so I can look young and handsome. Jokingly, or truthfully I told you I will not. It took me 51 years to have this. I am proud to be grey-haired and old.

The problem with this argument is that President Aquino is 52, which makes him older by a year than Fr. Soc and therefore, going by Fr Soc’s argument the youth should listen to Aquino more. It then becomes a contest between one who has white hair and another who has little hair. Absurd.

The second argument that Fr Soc used was to appeal to Filipino values. He said that:

there is no Tagalog or Pangasinan word for contraception, not because it is not only ungodly, it is also unFilipino.

Father, there are also no Tagalog words for “computer”, “satellite” and “camera”. Does this mean these are also ungodly and unFilipino?

The third argument that Fr Soc used was this:

Pope Paul VI prophesied that artificial contraception would open wide the door for marital infidelity and a general lowering of standards. We your elders plead with you. Do not follow that path to moral corruption.

Er, Father, this does not seem to jive with Philippine reality. A McCann-Erickson study years ago confirmed that infidelity was already rampant among Filipino males despite the country being largely Catholic, and without widespread use of condoms.

And when you talk of corruption and the need to fight it, many Catholics like myself cannot help but recall the deafening silence of the Church during the previous administration when corruption scandals were rife.

The fourth argument Fr.  Soc used was to appeal to emotions. He said he was doing all these out of love:

Youth of the Philippines, because I love you, I will fight contraception. The battle is for you and I’ll fight for love of you.

Personally, I felt sad today while tuned in to Radio Veritas broadcasting the anti-RH Bill rally. I had wanted to hear words that would convince me to fight for the stand of my Church. Instead I find myself questioning the very values of the Catholic Church more deeply.

Earlier, other speakers at the rally had vowed that come election time, they would campaign against those who would vote for the RH Bill. One of the speakers, I think it was Fr. Melvin Castro, even asked the crowd: Ano pong gagawin sa Malacañang?

And the crowd, led by a female over the microphone, yelled: “Ibasura.”

Among the politicians present during the rally were Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senator Gregorio Honasan and senatorial aspirant Mitos Magsaysay.

I am reprinting Fr. Soc Villegas’ speech against contraception below.

The  asterisks (***) stand for phrases which I was not able to capture.

I know how much it saddens you to see your parents fight at the dinner table, in the car or anywhere.

Maybe our fault is we have not clarified it.

This quarrel is not for us. It is for you.

We are fighting errors because you might be misled. We are battling against corruption because we know this can harm your soul. Believe me. Contraception harms your soul.

Contraception is corruption. You heard the candidate, now President Noynoy Aquino, during his campaign say – kung walang kurap, walang mahirap. He was elected in a landslide victory because he said what we carried in our hearts.

Corruption is the cancer of the Philippines that prevents us from going…when he bans wangwang in the streets …and in the bureaucracy we followed his vision.

My dear youth. Contraception is corruption. The use of government money, taxpayers’ money, to give out contraceptive pills is corruption.

Contraceptive pills teach us this: it is alright to have sex with someone provided you are safe from babies. Babies are a nuisance.

The culture of contraception looks at babies as a reason for poverty. Birth control, they say, means more food, more classrooms, more houses and better health for others.

If more babies are the fault of poverty, are we now saying, kung walang anak, walang mahirap? It doesn’t rhyme because it is not correct.

We can have more classrooms, more food, more jobs if we would be less corrupt.

Send out the corrupt officials, not the babies.

My dear youth, your birth was not mistake. Your birth was God’s gift to us, your elders. You are not the problem. You are our blessing.

The problem is the corruption of your elders. Your elders must change so your future can be brighter.

Far from those who say children are a nuisance, no, no, no. You are a blessing. And I embrace you all. And I love you all.

**

Contraception…will give birth to an abortion generation. Contraceptive pills are to be considered an essential medicine. If it’s a medicine, what sickness is it curing?

Is pregnancy a sickness? If it’s a medicine that’s supposed to cure, why do women get sick with cancer after taking the contraceptive pills?

**

It looks at babies as nuisance, not gifts.

My dear youth, anyone who treats you as a nuisance I will fight. I am against contraception because I am pro-child.

Because I am pro-mother.

**

I know many of you my dear youth do not believe in the Church anymore. You think the Church does not understand. That the church is autistic. May sariling mundo.

The bishops are not listening. The bishops teach from their ivory towers. The bishops are not aware of what the majority of the people undergo. They are distant and unreachable.

Matanda na kami. Totoong matanda na kami. Pero and matanda mapagpaalala sa mga bata. Kung puro bata tayong lahat, wala ng magtuturo at mapapaalala sa mga gintong aral ng kahapon.

There is a wisdom that only age and experience can give. We are old but God made us old minders not to forget our Filipino values, the commandments of God and the rules of good character.

You have told me to dye my hair so I can look young and handsome. Jokingly, or truthfully I told you I will not. It took me 51 years to have this. I am proud to be grey-haired and old.

It makes me look different from you but it also gives me a chance to be a reminder of the silver lessons of the past and the golden promises of the life to come. Ang matanda ay tanda. Ang matanda ay living reminder.

When we teach you that contraception is corruption, we are not being insensitive to the challenge of modernity or deaf to surveys of social behavior.

Rather that we are just protective of you.

**

The West is now on the downtrend. It is losing its soul because it now relies on the influx of migrants…they are facing a severe wintertime in their childbirth. It is losing its identity because it does not have youth to hold them in the torch. They started with contraception. They embraced abortion and now they’re killing their sick and weak grandparents.

Pope Paul VI prophesied that artificial contraception would open wide the door for marital infidelity and a general lowering of standards. We your elders plead with you. Do not follow that path to moral corruption.

Dare to be different. Dare to be better. We want to be a tiger economy in Asia like our neighbor countries.

But what is a tiger without teeth? What is progress without our laughing children? For whom do we envision progress? For ourselves?

What is victory at the expense of immortal soul?

Matanda na kami. Kaya kami tumanda para mayroon kayhong tanda sa buhay. Mga apo, mga anak, mga pamangkin at mahal sa buhay, there is no Tagalog or Pangasinan word for contraception, not because it is not only ungodly, it is also unFilipino.

Contraception is corruption.

Contraception is the mother of abortion.

Contraception makes sex pleasure cheap without responsibility.

Contraception says babies and children are annoying. Contraception is contra-youth.

Contraception is contra-children.

Contraception is against God.

Fight contraception or we perish as a Godly nation.

Youth of the Philippines, because I love you, I will fight contraception. The battle is for you and I’ll fight for love of you.

From Pangasinan, Fr. Soc Villegas.

___________________________________________________

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