Vidal says mothers are entrusted with a divine ‘gift’

All human life must be protected, including the unborn, said Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

He urged the faithful to spare the lives of unborn children from various threats that include abortion and contraception.

“Let us always respect the unborn life (which) is the greatest gift that the Lord has given us,” Vidal told reporters after he presided over Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday morning.

He and Archbishop Jose Palma officiated separate Masses to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, an obligation for Catholics around the world

Vidal spoke amidst ongoing Congressional deliberation of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which the church strongly opposes, and an Internet scandal over the video diary of Manila DJ Mo Twister, who revealed that his ex-girlfriend, actor Rhian Ramos, recently had an abortion in Singapore and that the child was his.

He held up a pregnancy kit test showing two red bands indicating a positive result.

“It’s so difficult. I’m so sorry. I’ll be sorry forever,” he said in the video, in between sobs and faint smiles.

“One day you’ll watch this, maybe when you’re an old man you’ll remember how difficult today was and I hope that by that time I’ll be married and I’ll have family that I can try to make it up to. You’re going to do something really wrong today. I’m sorry for that. This business is so hard,” he said.

The celebrity DJ, who is Mohan Gumatay in real life, left for New York, leaving a shocked Reyes telling her GMA News home station that she was “very hurt” to learn about the video. She did not deny the account of the abortion.

Gumatay implied that pressure from her family and TV station had forced her to have an abortion when he said: “Her parents are tough on her, her station, her channel, her manager is so tough on her that it has made her feel that having this baby is just no other option.”

GMA 7 officials firmly denied sanctioning any abortion and said they were studying possible legal action against the DJ.

Not all unwanted pregnancies end up in abortion.

In Cebu City, the story of “Baby Niño” tugged the hearts of many when the newborn boy was left by his mother, a struggling laundrywoman, in the care of a stranger, the barangay captain of Sto. Niño last Nov. 16.

The mother had used a false name and made up a story about the baby being abandoned by another woman she met on the bus in Bogo City.

Photos of the healthy red-cheeked baby prompted many readers and TV viewers to call asking if he could be adopted.

A week later, the mother, who had three other children to raise with a different father, returned saying she “missed” her son. Child care experts in the Department of Social Work and Development said they were counseling the woman and had to evaluate whether she was fit to recover custody of the child.

Cardinal Vidal, 81, echoed the Church’s stance against the RH bill, whose provisions include public access to government-funded supplies of condoms and contraceptives.

“Anyone who kills the unborn and prevents life is going against the law of God. If the RH bill is something that kills the unborn, it is against life,” Vidal said.

Vidal once said he would be the first to go to jail for violating one of the disputed provisions of the RH bill, that make it unlawful for a party to spread disinformation about the legislation.

He said “selfishness” was one reason people reject human life by using contraceptives or why some married couples avoid having children.

Vidal explained that the Catholic Church does not reject “quality of life” but raises it to a higher level where “fullness of life” can be attained when one respect human life and learns the meaning of self-denial.

The cardinal had a special message for all mothers: “They should remember their motherhood. They participate in the creative power of God, therefore as the Lord entrusted to Mary the only son of God, Jesus Christ, then God has entrusted to them the life of their children. They should always appreciate that it is gift from the Lord.”

Church dogma holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived in her mother’s womb free from the stain of original sin of Adam and Eve. The teaching on the Immaculate Conception is a major doctrine that Catholics are bound to accept.

Meanwhile Archbishop Palma, who presided over a 4 p.m. Mass, said the human body was a “vessel of life.”

“We claim that we have dominion over our bodies and our life. But we are not the boss. Our body lives by what God needs of us,” said Palma, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

He said the RH bill uses “people’s logic” to suit individual conveniences, but “as a people, we should ask ourselves how we can contribute with our lives to become life giving.”

In his homily, Cardinal Vidal highlighted the role of Mary in the history of man’s salvation.

“It is said that a mother is everything. She is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, our strength in weakness. Mary is our spiritual mother, the mother Jesus gave us as he died on the cross . . . ,” he said.

After the Mass, the congregation sang “Salve Regina,” a Latin hymn for Hail Holy Queen, and lined up to venerate the image of Mary in the cathedral adorned with white tulips, roses and orchids.

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was declared principal patroness of the Philippines in 1942. Ador Vincent Mayol with Marian Codilla, Candeze Mongaya, and Tweeny Malinao