MANILA Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin is vehemently opposed to the proposed divorce bill by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon.
“Divorce is immoral. It is so un-Filipino and it is absurd. I trust that we have enough sensible and intelligent legislators to fight this insane proposal,” Sin said.
The divorce bill, one of the priority bills of Sen. Biazon, was one of the controversial measures that was discussed in the opening of the 12th Congress last July 23.
Biazon argued that divorce would curtail the pain of children suffering from emotional scars caused by a disunited family. A spouse could choose to stay out of marriage due to certain reasons such as abuse, neglect, mistrust, and financial constraints.
Sin, on the other hand, maintained the vital role of marriage in the family and society.
“The strength of the nation is in the family. Destroy the family by a bill like divorce and all other values will come crumbling down. It only takes common sense to see this,” he said.
Furthermore, Sin emphasized that divorce would bring about more “spiritually-impoverished children” because their “spiritually-impoverished parents” do not choose to keep their marital commitments intact.
Meanwhile, Sin did not agree with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) plan to implement tithing, which would require Catholics to give 10 percent of their income to the Church.
“What the Church needs now is more piety than tithing. And talking about the issue is irrelevant when the poor are suffering, “ he said.
In addition, Sin emphasized that the Church should encourage the people to live as Christians instead of extracting money from them.
However, the CBCP clarified that there would be no specific amount for the reinforcement of “modified” tithing, which would soon be implemented in the Catholic churches nationwide.
With this tithing scheme, newly-elected CBCP president and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo said that the Church will eventually abolish corresponding fees for Church services including baptism, confirmation, marriage, and funeral. Anna Rachelle S. Ariola
