Time to move on, says Archbishop Villegas

Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas (cbcpforlife.com photo)

MANILA, Philippines–Let us move on!

While warning that the reproductive health bill was a “moral time bomb wrapped” as a Christmas gift, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas on Tuesday said it was time to come together and work for the country’s progress.

In a statement titled, “Let us move on!,” Villegas, a friend of President Benigno Aquino III’s family, said the outcome of the RH vote was “a time for soul searching and prayers.”

“This is a time for peacemaking. We might not see eye to eye but we can work hand in hand for the real progress that your people so richly deserve,” Villegas said in a message to his flock in Pangasinan.

“It is a progress with God, in God and through God. Daang matuwid (referring to Aquino’s famous slogan `The straight path.’) without God is a dead end street. Only with God can we see real progress of peoples,” he added.

Villegas said that “conscience attempted to speak” when the Senate and the House of Representatives “but it has been stifled!”

“They might have won through the tyranny of numbers but it does not mean that they are right. It is only a matter of time and then we will see more violations of `Thou shall not kill’ and `Thou shall not commit adultery’ among our families, our youth and children,” Villegas said.

“If the President will sign this into law, he will give us a moral time bomb wrapped as a gift to celebrate Christmas. This law will open more doors to abortion and more crimes against women,” he added.

Villegas urged the members of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan to intensify the “moral spiritual education of our youth and children: so that they can stand strong against “the threats to their moral fibre.”

“Let us use all the means within our reach to safeguard the health of expectant mothers in our communities. Let us make available the sacrament of matrimony to our poor couples so that they may be guided in the right path in living out their duties as husbands and wives and as Catholic parents,” Villegas said.

“Let us disseminate through organized pre-wedding seminars the teachings of the Church on natural family planning at the same time warning our people about the hazardous effects of contraceptive pills on the health of women,” he said.

“Let us conduct our own sex education of our children insuring that sex is always understood as a gift of God. Sex must never be taught separate from God and isolated from marriage,” he added.