UN committee to RP: Pass reproductive health bill !!!!!

UN committee to RP: Pass reproductive health bill !!!!!

MANILA, Philippines – Voicing “serious” concern over inadequate reproductive health services and information, low rate of contraceptive use and difficulties in access to artificial methods that contribute to teen pregnancies and high maternal death, a United Nations panel urged the government to pass the Reproductive Health (RH) bill. The UN panel likewise urged the Philippines to ignore the meddling of the Catholic Church in state affairs. The UN panel of course, can always meddle.

A report released this October containing the concluding observations on the Philippines of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the government should “adopt as a matter or urgency the Reproductive Health bill awaiting approval by Congress and ensure that the bill reflect the rights of children and adolescents as enshrined in the Convention [Convention on the Rights of the Child].”. The report added that "the right of the unborn from the moment of conception, as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution, does not need to be discussed.". This is because the UN Committee is still clueless whether a child grows out of a fertilized egg at conception.

“The UN Committee remains seriously concerned at the inadequate reproductive health services and information, the low rates of contraceptive use [36 percent of women relied on modern family planning methods in 2006] and the difficulties in obtaining access to artificial methods of contraception, which contribute to the high rates of teenage pregnancies and maternal deaths,”. The report also urged the government to strengthen formal and informal sex education for girls and boys with focus on the prevention of early pregnancies. The UN Committee cited the success story in Britain (read it here), where sex education is mandatory for kids starting at age five, while contraceptives are absolutely free and readily accessible, yet teenage pregnancies and abortions continue to increase. Oops...wrong example, the red-faced UN spokesperson quickly added. What the UN Committee further emphasizes is "strengthening of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns". Take for example the success story in Thailand (read it here), which embarked on an aggressive promotion of free condoms, yet HIV cases rises by cumulative figures each year. Oops...wrong again...

Building a church

Tucked somewhere among the remote hills of Antipolo is this modest church which serves as a venue for an ongoing CFC Christian Life Program where I was invited to deliver a talk yesterday. It is located in the Lower Antipolo area where the last stretch leads one through bumpy, rough roads. Having been accustomed to well-appointed churches and formation centers in the city, I was quite awestruck by the bare simplicity of this church and its verdant surroundings. The building is quite unfinished, unpainted and unfurnished. The lower floor serves as the main church-cum-formation center, while the upper floor serves as the priests' modest quarters. The parishioners are mostly from the nearby relocation settlement areas, composed of former squatters who were forcibly relocated from the city. CFC has established GK communities in the area, started around 6 years ago. I heard that more displaced settlers have been recently hauled into the site by the government, poor victims of the recent Ondoy storm devastation. These are people that need the most pastoral care.

I did not get to talk with the parish priest although an incoming assistant priest dropped by and we had the chance for a little chat. It appears they are missionary priests from the Augustinian order, and I guess they chose the right assignment. God bless them. They may have bare facilities, but they certainly know how to build the church.

The economic formulae for solving environment problems

Environmental woes blamed on RP’s huge population

MANILA, Philippines — An economist from the University of the Philippines has tagged the country’s robustly growing population as one of the factors that worsen environment-related problems.
...
Ernesto Pernia, former chief economist for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank, said the environment problems that recently led to hundreds of casualties would not have been as worse had the country’s population been contained. “Nobody has mentioned the population issue as one of the factors contributing to the country’s environmental problems...
...
Pernia said that with the country’s population already nearing 100 million, a zero population growth rate would be ideal.
...
[Per capita income is the total income of the economy, usually measured in terms of gross domestic product [GDP], divided by the country’s population].
The fact that population growth was already faster than the GDP growth meant that per capital growth had already been declining, Pernia said...

What a neat economic lesson from a chief economist from UP (wow!) .

PROBLEM: Environment problems = growing population

SOLUTION:

STEP 1 - Population growth x zero = Lower divisor for GDP,

STEP 2 - Lower divisor for GDP = Increase in per capita income !

STEP 3 - Increase in per capita income = Less environmental problems,

STEP 4 - Less environmental problems = Less people,

STEP 5 - Less people = Less casualties !!!

Absolutely brilliant !!! Who wuda thunk it? According to Pernia, "Nobody has mentioned the population issue..." (oh, but the incorrigible Rep. Lagman did), and we have to be extremely grateful for such an elegant, no-brainer, economic solution.

But wait --- there's another step.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
STEP 6 - Less people = Less economists = Less problems !!!
/

ON PERSONAL ORDINARIATES

All I know about it is that it seems like an ecclesiastical structure for flexible dioceses with no geographical boundaries. It is supposed to be called Personal Ordinariates, Personal Ordinates, Personal Ordinarinates,... whatever. Patrick of CMR says he simply cannot say this term three times in a row with a blood alcohol level of .04 or above. On the other hand I simply cannot say it three times in a row without suffering a nosebleed. At any rate, I had to understand what it really means after the Vatican announced that "the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church...".

It's a good thing I had my friend Doctor G. to supply some enlightening information. Here goes.
/
Apostolic Constitution

First of all, the announcement speaks of the promulgation of an "Apostolic constitution." An Apostolic Consitution is the highest level of decree issued by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. It will be a formal charter establishing the canonical terms and conditions upon which the "personal ordinariates" which it creates are to come into being and to continue to exist within the Roman Catholic Church. Now as to the personal ordinariates: they are an amalgam of two already existing structures in the canon law of the Church: personal prelatures and military ordinariates.

Personal prelatures and Military Ordinates

A Personal prelature is an institutional structure of the Roman Catholic Church which comprises a prelate, clergy and possibly laity who undertake specific pastoral activities. Personal prelatures, similar to dioceses and military ordinariates, are under the governance of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops. These three types of ecclesiastical structures are composed of lay people served by their own secular clergy and prelate. Unlike dioceses which cover territories, personal prelatures - like military ordinariates - take charge of persons as regards some objectives regardless of where they live. Opus Dei is an example of a personal prelature (and the only one to date), established by Pope John Paul II in November 28, 1982 thru the apostolic constitution Ut Sit. On the other hand, an example of a military ordinariate is the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines or MOP. It has jurisdiction over all military, police and coast guard personnel, their dependents, and the civilian employees of all branches of the armed forces.

Canon Law

Personal prelatures were made a feature of the 1983 Code of Canon Law after they were established by Pope Paul VI following a recommendation by the Second Vatican Council. Canons
294-297 deals with this feature. Here is Cann 294 to wit:

Can. 294 After the conferences of bishops involved have been heard, the
Apostolic See can erect personal prelatures, which consist of presbyters and
deacons of the secular clergy, to promote a suitable distribution of presbyters
or to accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works for various regions
or for different social groups…

/
So there.
Again we welcome our Anglican brethren to Rome Sweet Rome.
And again from Patrick, here’s the refrain from the ditty ‘Romeward Bound’,
with his apologies to Simon and Garfunkel and Anglicans everywhere.

Romeward bound,
I wish I was,
Romeward bound,
Rome - where TAC's escaping,
Rome - where fear's allaying,
Rome - where my Lord lies waiting,
Patiently for me.

Adorn?? Excuse me

Atheist ads to adorn New York subway stations

A coalition of eight atheist organizations purchased a month-long advertisement campaign that will place their posters in a dozen busy subway stations throughout Manhattan.

The advertisements ask the question, written simply over an image of a blue sky with wispy white clouds:

"A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?"

Silly question. I take the question to mean: Would you be rather be good without God, or good with God? If that advertisement had any sense in its snarky intent, then why do these atheists need to mention the word "God" in relation to being "good"? I was under the impression that these atheists laid superior claim to reason. A saner and more consistent statement for them would be - "A million New Yorkers are good, period. Are you?". But then, good at what? Posting advertisements that make sense? Nahh, I can't buy that and neither can the rest of the eight million New Yorkers.

The atheists further said they were not "forcing issues, they're just getting ideas out there,". Hmm, by spending $25,000 just to get the ideas out there? Man, there's still an economic crisis out there! Haven't these good atheists considered that the good thing to do at this time is to spend all that money to lend aid for the severely afflicted people in New York?

Now they go on to say that their ads are "not poking fun at religion and not being outright nasty".

Aw c'mon. A more credible statement would be - "our ads are poking fun at ourselves and we're just being outright crazy".
/

Welcome home Anglicans!

If you build it, they will come...

The Holy See took the ecumenical imperative to new heights with the result that the reunion of Christians --at least in one limited area of schism -- ensued. From the Vatican website:
/
With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion. In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy...

According to Levada: "It is the hope of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that the Anglican clergy and faithful who desire union with the Catholic Church will find in this canonical structure the opportunity to preserve those Anglican traditions precious to them and consistent with the Catholic faith. Insofar as these traditions express in a distinctive way the faith that is held in common, they are a gift to be shared in the wider Church. The unity of the Church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows. Moreover, the many diverse traditions present in the Catholic Church today are all rooted in the principle articulated by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: ‘There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (4:5). Our communion is therefore strengthened by such legitimate diversity, and so we are happy that these men and women bring with them their particular contributions to our common life of faith."...
/
Meanwhile, an early response from the Anglicans.
/
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

Today’s announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church....

The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution...
/

This is a great, great reason for Roman Catholics and their Anglo-Catholic friends to rejoice over.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Now na

Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective
-Valdimir Nabokov
/
Police to step up security in other malls

Food, evacuations readied for typhoon

Evacuation teams ready for 'Ramil'

Prepare evacuation plan, local execs told

Miriam pushes for National Flood Management Commission
/

All of which is just fine, except that all these should have been done eons ago.
Why do I get this feeling that most of our tragedies are inevitable outcomes of 'accidents waiting to happen'? The nation is already deeply suffering, but all the more, our future generations will feel the greater brunt of past neglect and complacency.The meaning of the word 'proactive' sorely needs to seep into our nation's consciousness.

As in now and pronto, please.