The Catholic leadership has lauded the staunch support of a world-wide lay organization of men in the Church’s ongoing fight against the reproductive health bill being pushed in Congress.
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar said the presence of the Knights of Columbus in the country’s dioceses is a big boost in the Catholic Church’s pro-life advocacy.
“The Knights of Columbus is a big deal to the Church in the Philippines,” he told hundreds of participants during the 129th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Denver, Colorado on August 5.
He appealed for collaboration even as he acknowledged the financial support of the KC to the Church so as to aggressively push its fight against the reproductive health bill.
With so many foreign lobby groups allegedly financing the legislation of the RH measure, Odchimar said the Bishop’s conference has only one international institution it could rely on for help.
And that is, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus, he said.
The Knights of Columbus have been at the forefront in the fight against measures that threaten the sanctity of life and family.
Church’s greatest challenge
Odchimar conceded that the issue of RH bill has placed the Philippine Church on a crossroads.
“Perhaps never before in the history of our faith in our country that we have been confronted with a greater challenge than today when the Reproductive Bill and Divorce Bill are vigorously pushed in the halls of Congress and the Senate to be enacted into laws,” he told Convention participants.
The issue on the RH bill has divided the country’s predominantly Catholic population and pitted the Catholic Church against the government that is pushing for its legislation.
He noted that the recent attacks made on the person of some bishops were perceived to have been made “in view of discrediting them and pulling down their moral prominence in their crusade against the legislation of the RH Bill.”
“We stand as the last bastion that still holds on to the respect for the culture of life and the unity and indissolubility of marriage in our national legislation,” Odchimar said.
Proponents of the RH measure have also revived lately the discussion on Divorce law after Malta, a Catholic nation, approved in a referendum the legislation of divorce, leaving the Philippines outside of Vatican, as the only country without divorce.
“There has been no time in the Philippines Church history when the Catholic Church has been so much challenged, attacked and even maligned than today,” he said.
The bill has been introduced in Congress off and on for the past 15 years but has not gained much support from any sitting president, until now.
Due to this, the Church has been pro-active in the campaign against this anti-life legislation, Odchimar said.
Odchimar explained that the financial assistance the CBCP acquired from the KC Supreme Council in the fight against RH bill is being used for education, lobby, mobilizations and media.
Support Church various advocacies
In the country’s 85 ecclesiastical territories the over 260,000 member knights are active in their pro-life advocacies and promotion of the parish’s pastoral programs.
The Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc. (KCFAPI), KC’s insurance arm; and two charitable foundations, KC Philippines and Fr. Willmann Charities, are committed in fulfilling its social responsibilities through various works of charity, relief distribution, building houses for the poor, and providing scholarships for priests, seminarians and lay students.
Aside from the three states of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the CBCP has always been grateful to the assistance rendered by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus, Odchimar said.
He noted that the CBCP has been a recipient of financial assistance from KCFAPI through a P10M Seed of Hope Fund aimed to finance priority projects of the bishops’ conference.
And this year, he said, the organization has also partnered with the CBCP in the project of evaluating the implementation of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines.
He also acknowledged the financial support given by the Supreme Council to the CBCP Office on Women for its Women Advocacy program and to CBCPNews, the official news agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
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