đź“· alchetron. com
WITH an election taking place in less than a year, congressmen behind the passage of the Absolute Divorce Bill at the House of Representatives may not be getting any support from the Catholic voters.
According to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the legislative measure “would be perfidious to the reality of the sacrament” of marriage.
In a statement, Villegas said that “marriage should be entered into only by those mature enough for a lifetime of consecration and fidelity in wedded life.”
“To criticize this as an unreasonable demand is to cast a slur on the hundreds, thousands even, of couples in the Philippines who have remained true to the promises of their wedding day,” he prelate added.
“They are the tangible proof that such fidelity is possible. They are the empirical evidence that personality differences notwithstanding, difficulties are not impossible to overcome as long as couples do not give up on love,” Villegas further said.
In taking a position against the legalization of divorce in the Philippines, Villegas explained that its existence will not render divorce a moral option for Catholics as it runs against the Gospel and the teaching of the Church.
He also warned Catholics who would apply for and obtain a divorce and remarry will end up “in a seriously, morally wrongful state.”
“The Church urges those intending to contract marriage to discern with maturity their preparedness for the duties marriage imposes on them — and not treat it as some provisional arrangement that can be conveniently set aside when it so suits them.”
Instead of divorce, Villegas offered couples with marital problems to consider Family Life Apostolate offered in all dioceses and parishes.
With a vote of 131 in favor, 109 against and 20 abstentions, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 9349 seeking to legalize divorce as an alternative means of dissolving an irreparably broken or dysfunctional marriage.
Apart from the Vatican, the Philippines is the only country in the world that does not allow divorce.
At the Senate, pro-divorce senators include Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senators Risa Hontiveros, Robin Padilla, Grace Poe, Imee Marcos, Pia Cayetano, and Raffy Tulfo.
Except for Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, and Ramon Revilla Jr. who cited the need for a deeper scrutiny of the proposed divorce bill, others have expressed opposition. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
