Most Rev. Ramon Arguelles, D.D.
It’s 21st century. Knowledge and understanding as well as the means of disseminating it grows by leaps and bound. In this age of instantaneous information transfer, anyone living near the edges of a suburb would have the same equal opportunity for wisdom as any other inside the city. And so it bothers me to find out and read about this row concerning of all things prophylactics, or a condoms.
What’s the row?
Catholic Church Opposed Use of Condom as HIV/AIDS and VD Shield
A Philippine lawmaker is being criticized by the influential Catholic bishops for supporting a bill in congress that would promote the use of condom as a way of protection from the spread of HIV/ AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases.
The Roman Catholic church in the Philippines is opposing the Philippine reproductive health bill being supported by a congresswoman who is also a medical doctor. Rep. Janet Garin said the Catholic church is misleading the public by claiming that the use of condom will not guaranty users against unwanted pregnancy, transmission of AIDS/ HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases. On the contrary, the lady physician and lawmaker said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has even recommended the use of condoms for the protection of HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases. In the Philippines, the use of condom is being supported by the government to prevent the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. The Department of Health had in fact spearheaded the use of condom in its recent valentine day campaign where condoms were given free to couples who bought flowers in a popular flower shop in Manila. Some government officials also claimed the use of condoms controls population growth in slum areas and in the countryside
read more here
Why does the Roman Catholic church oppose the use of condom not only for Family Planning purposes but also for the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS? This is what they said:
Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles and other bishops take the position that condom distribution promotes promiscuity and that it leads to the increase of AIDS as the use of condoms is not an absolutely fail-safe protection, suggesting that abstinence is the best policy. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) even wants a total ban on condom advertisements and condom distribution announcements, clearly a violation of constitutionally protected free speech rights.
Condoms promotes promiscuity? really? You mean Filipinos will be far more promiscuous because of condoms? If you believe that then I have a bridge I can sell you for cheap. I have a question for the good Archbishop which beg and answer. Isn’t promiscuity a moral issue, not medical one? And aren’t moral issues learned and instilled in the minds of people, in the home first by their parents and secondly in church by their religion? If so, then the question of promiscuity should be addressed in the homes and in the church, and not by the government but by religious leaders. Given that in the Philippines majority of the people are Roman Catholic then it falls into the control of Catholic parents and Catholic priest. It they’re doing their jobs, we wouldn’t need condoms.
What do you think?