MANILA, Philippines—An army of priests has its marching orders from the Catholic bishops.

Vowing not to let up on its campaign against artificial birth control methods, the Catholic Church has directed its army of priests to “reach out” to lawmakers supportive of the reproductive health bills in Congress to pressure them into withdrawing their support for the measures.

Officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have said they would not allow a bill that would provide widespread access to artificial contraceptives to become law.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, CBCP president, said the Church would not budge from its position against contraceptives.

“The Catholic Church will remain steadfast against any measures that endanger life. Life is a gift from God that should be treasured,” Lagdameo said in an interview with the Church-run Radio Veritas Thursday.

Grateful to President

Lagdameo said he was grateful to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for supporting the Church stand on artificial contraceptives and for promoting natural family planning.

To ensure that lawmakers were informed of the Church stand, Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chair of the CBCP Commission on Family and Life (CFL), said the Catholic leadership had directed its members to talk to the politicians who support such initiatives in their dioceses.

Fr. Melvin Castro, CFL executive director, said about 50 lawmakers had signed the consolidated bill—An Act Providing National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and for other purposes.

The bill was introduced by Representatives Edcel Lagman, Janette Garin, Narciso Santiago III, Mark Llandro Mendoza, Eleandro Madrona and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel.

Castro said members of the Church would talk to these representatives to request them to withdraw their support for the measure.

Aniceto said the Catholic clergy’s mission was to explain to the lawmakers that the bill in the House of Representatives would have serious “moral repercussions.”

“We try to talk to them as brothers. We will reach out to them,” he said.

Right recognized

Last week, Ozamiz Archbishop Jesus Dosado said politicians who approve of abortion should be denied communion because they were committing a grave sin.

Although the CBCP has no official and national stand on the issue, Dosado has every right to ban a politician who supports abortion from receiving communion as enshrined in Canon Law, Aniceto said.

The Church has not identified any pro-abortion politicians who stand to face the Church sanction, he said.

He said the Church would not withhold communion to legislators who support the bill.

Aniceto made this disclosure after he and other CBCP prelates led by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal met with Ms Arroyo last week to stress their opposition to the reproductive health bill.

Imported ideas

Some officials do not realize that their proposals are “imported” from the ideas of foreign donors who recommend abortion to governments that accept their aid, the CFL executive director said. “We don’t condemn them,” Castro said.

Although the bills do not seek to make abortion legal, their provisions are a step away from it, according to Aniceto.

The House bill has many “moral repercussions” that could be considered anti-women and antifamily, he said.

Aniceto expressed fear that the provisions on wider access to artificial contraceptives “will open the floodgates to other measures that will deliberately stop life.”

“From all indications, in providing for a wide spectrum of contraceptives, it will graduate to abortion,” he said.

Sex education

The bill also provides for sex education in elementary schools and widespread distribution of contraceptives, according to Aniceto.

“They will lose their innocence and period of latency. Let’s not disturb them. They need a period of tranquility,” the prelate said.

It also has a provision strongly suggesting that the government encourage families to have only two children, he added.

Engine of growth

Aniceto and Lagdameo stressed that the country’s population—now almost 90 million—was not a problem. In fact, it is an engine of growth, Aniceto said.

Lagdameo said the swelling population was not the cause of poverty.

“It is not true that poverty is caused by a big population. Poverty is the result of misgovernance and corruption,” the CBCP president said.