Philippines Abortion Advocates Blast Catholic Leaders on Abortion-Communion
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 15, 2008
Manila, Philippines (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates in the Philippines are blasting Archbishop Jesus Dosado of Ozamiz city after he released a paper saying pro-abortion lawmakers shouldn’t receive communion. They went as far as accusing Dosado of committing a criminal act by intimidating legislators.
Dr. Estrada-Claudio, director of the University of the Philippines’ Center for Women Studies, claimed Catholic leaders were using religion “to intimidate elected officials from doing their jobs."
According to GMA News, Dosado’s comments could be considered a “criminal act."
“If you are dictating a social policy by straining out your expertise which is religion, it is wrong. For me it is not defensible morally and legally," she said.
As LifeNews.com reported Monday, Dosado instructed parish priests to deny the sacrament to the pro-abortion politicians until they reverse their position favoring abortion.
“A Catholic politician who consistently campaign and vote for permissive abortion should be instructed on Church’s teachings and informed by parish priests that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin or otherwise he will be denied the Eucharist," Dosado said.
The letter covers all of the churches within Dosado’s archdiocese.
Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, head of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life , had also previously threatened to deny communion to politicians who have signed on to pro-abortion bills in the nation’s Congress.
GMA News said Aniceto said lawmakers were using vague terms like "reproductive health" to cover up their support for making abortion legal in the Philippines.
The Philippines has been under constant pressure from abortion advocates and the United Nations to legalize abortion and both have claimed that women are dying from the illegal abortions that occur there.
A representative of the United Nations Population Fund told the Filipino government in May 2007 that it should ditch its pro-life laws.
Suneeta Mukherjee, UNFPA representative to the Philippines told the nation that it must do more to promote "women’s rights … including reproductive health and family planning.”
The UNFPA claims that about half of all of the pregnancies in the Philippines are unplanned and would like to do more to promote birth control usage there.
In March 2007, pro-life advocates in the country celebrated the defeat of a bill that would have prohibited families from having more than two children each. The bill would have imposed up to six months imprisonment for families not upholding a reproductive health care agenda.
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