It’s Unilab’s people, not the company
BY AMADO P. MACASAET
The ante-modern bishop
A.G ROMUALDEZ JR., M.D
‘It is quite disconcerting that the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines appear to propose a return to the pre-modernist philosophies that led to the Inquisition.’
IN his pastoral letter of January 30, 2011, Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, refers to the pending reproductive health legislation or the "RH bill" as "the product of the spirit of this world, a secularist, materialistic spirit that considers morality as a set of teachings from which one can choose, according to the spirit of the age." He calls this a "post-modern spirit" that has "spread in our own Filipino society" and has resulted in a bill, "newly sanitized as the Responsible Parenthood Bill", which "does not respect moral sense that is central to Filipino cultures."
Post-modern thinking or "spirit" (as Bishop Odchimar prefers), generally refers to an intellectual movement of the mid-twentieth century that questioned what is perceived as the excessively rationalist scientific approaches to social and cultural development associated with the Age of Enlightenment that featured so-called modernist scientific thinking. The movement has positively influenced a number of creative human spheres of activity such as music (The Beatles), visual arts (Andy Warhol), and architecture (Robert Venturi). It is also seen as an advocacy for freedom from the constraints of modernist science.
Unfortunately, even as conservative thinkers like the bishop of Tandag lament the loss of moral anchors fostered by post-modernists, they promote a return to pre-modern modes of moral authority where all human behavior is dictated by a small group of celibate males known as the Church hierarchy. This "ante-modern" spirit would take humanity back to the medieval era of inquisitions and the burning of heretics at stake as it pre-supposes that the present Church has never changed its thinking "since time immemorial" (a phrase used by the bishop in referring to "Filipino cultural values" regarding human life).
Yet history has witnessed significant shifts in Catholic positions on many different issues during its two thousand year history. For example, on the early controversy involving the theologian Arius, according to a congressional conservative’s favored source, Wikipedia, the Church initially condemned "Arianism" as heretical during the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Arius was later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then, after his death, pronounced a heretic again at the First Council of Constantinople of 381.
Until the Age of Enlightenment, Church positions were basically influenced by internal politics as well as theological arguments. But as the hierarchy slowly and reluctantly was compelled to accept the revolutionary thoughts of scholars like Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo (men who suffered severely under Church Inquisitors including torture and death by burning in the case of Bruno), they began to accommodate science as a source for adjusting ecclesiastical views.
The most celebrated of these accommodations was Pope Benedict’s recently expressed view that, in the case of persons living with AIDS, the use of condoms during sex would be a lesser evil than continuing to transmit the disease to partners. This was a tacit acceptance of scientific evidence that condoms do prevent transmission of the AIDS virus - contrary to claims of some conservative extremists.
Even more recently, over the weekend, BBC News reported on a joint project of the Vatican and the Italian Space agency to establish a website dealing with information on issues that affect both science and technology. According to BBC News, "After centuries of mistrust between religion and science, the intention is to give the public a greater understanding of both sides." Clearly, the modernist scientific view is still in the ascendancy in most of the world including the Catholic Church.
It is true that most communities continue to find problems with the permissiveness that appears to be inherent in post-modernist thinking. Nevertheless, culture and the arts as well as behavioral sciences have benefited from these new ways of thinking. Certainly condemning the entire approach of post-modernism would pose obstacles to even greater progress in addressing many of the world’s problems.
For this reason, it is quite disconcerting that there still are authorities like the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines who appear to propose a return to the pre-modernist philosophies that led to the Inquisition.
One consequence of conservative Catholics’ insistence that they alone are in possession of all truth is the condemnation of fellow Catholics whose beliefs are at variance with that of members of the hierarchy. This has led to phenomena such as a proposed issuance from the Parish Pastoral Council of Santuario de San Jose of Greenhills that states in part, "we would like to advise parishioners who promote or support the RH Bill NOT (repeat NOT) to receive Holy Communion until they go to Sacramental Confession and renounce the RH Bill .…. The Church forbids receiving Holy Communion if we are not in a state of grace, meaning we have not committed a mortal sin. Because the RH Bill is inherently immoral and evil, recommending, supporting, defending, promoting and practicing its provisions and tenets constitute a mortal sin against many of the 10 commandments."
Although the issuance has not been publicly announced at the parish, former POPCOM Commissioner and Opus Dei stalwart Jose "Lito" Sandejas disseminated it through email to an Ateneo Yahoo group. This is contrary to the assertion of Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Family Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, who "blamed supporters of the RH bill for agitating the public, claiming that it is proof that there is an element of deception behind the bill".
The mere existence of such a document is deeply troubling, especially for Catholic supporters of RH, because it is evidence that the "Inquisitorial spirit" still lives on in some Catholic circles.
Email: alberto.romualdez@ gmail.com