Bishops willing to hold dialogue on Reproductive Health Bill

MANILA, Philippines – With the resumption of debates on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill in Congress, Catholic bishops said yesterday they are willing to hold further dialogues with congressmen on the contraceptive legislation.

Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)-Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education (ECCCE), said: “We need to dialogue with respect, with humility and the truth.”

The bishops would be open to dialogues with legislators — whether lawmakers have been sympathetic with the stand of the Church since the beginning or if they have been staunch supporters of the bill’s passage.

Villegas said the discussions would be done on a diocese level wherein each prelate would coordinate directly with congressmen in their respective dioceses.

Novaliches Emeritus Bishop Teodoro Bacani clarified that the relationship of the Church with congressmen has been “fraternal and cordial.”

But while the CBCP is extending its hand to hold further talks with the congressmen, it maintains that the bill is still not acceptable to them in its present form. – Evelyn Macairan