Church’s Stance on RH Bill More Like EDSA or More Like the Rizal Bill?

by Tony Ahn • rhbillph.wordpress.com

Twenty five years ago in 1986, we Catholic Bishops made a prophetic moral judgment on political leadership. With this prophetic declaration we believe that we somehow significantly helped open the door for EDSA I and a window of political integrity. Today we come to a new national crossroads and we now have to make a similar moral choice. –CBCP Pastoral Letter, Jan. 30, 2011.

But is it similar? Because it looks a lot more like something that happened not 25 years ago, but 55 years ago. In 1956, Senators Jose B. Laurel Sr. and Claro M. Recto sponsored Senate Bill 438 requiring the inclusion in the curricula of all private and public schools the life, works, and writings of Dr. Rizal, “particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo” in their “unexpurgated” form.

The Catholic Church vehemently opposed the bill claiming it would violate freedom of conscience and religion. They said the “novels belong to the past and it would be harmful to read them because they present a false picture of conditions in the country.” A priest who was introduced in the senate committee hearing as an authority on Rizal, added that the Noli Mi Tangere was not a patriotic book since it only contained 25 patriotic passages as opposed to 120 anti-Catholic statements. Three Catholic Senators denounced Rizal as “anti-Catholic” and charged that his writings were filled with “errors of church dogma.” They said that Filipino students were “immature” and unprepared to understand Rizal’s writings. On April 22, 1956, a week after the Rizal bill was introduced, the Sunday newspapers all carried a statement from the Catholic bishops describing Rizal’s works as violating Catholic canon law on heresy and schism. Joining in opposition to the bill were the Catholic Action of the Philippines, the Holy Name Society of the Philippines, the Legion of Mary, the Knights of Columbus, and the Daughters of Isabela.

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