SPEAKING from the papal plane on his way back to Rome from a four-day visit in the Philippines, Pope Francis told reporters on Monday, Jan. 19 that Catholics should not breed “like rabbits” because of the Church’s ban on contraception, but should instead practice “responsible parenting.”
Pope Francis said there are plenty of church-approved ways to regulate births and natural family planning methods. During his Asian visits to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, the Pope condemned what he called an “ideological colonization” of the developing world, saying that no outside institution should impose its views on regulating family size and attacking traditional family values.
“This is ideological colonization. They colonize people with ideas that try to change mentalities or structures,” he said, critiquing wealthy countries and international groups who have tried to influence the morals of young people in poorer nations.
The Pope’s taste for straight talk in speeches has become a hallmark of his simple, colloquial style as leader of the Catholic Church.
He also spoke at length about birth control and population, major issues that arose in the Philippines, where the local Church opposes a government law making contraceptives easily available.
“Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits, but no,” the Pope said, mentioning a woman he met who had seven children by caesarean sections and was putting her life at risk for becoming pregnant again, calling it an “irresponsibility.”
“But God gives you methods to be responsible,” he said.
He also restated the Church’s strong ban on artificial birth control, adding there were “many ways that are allowed” to practice natural family planning. The Church approves of only natural methods of birth control, particularly abstinence from sex when a woman is ovulating.
During the Vatican’s recent meeting on the family, African bishops denounced how developmental aid groups and lending institutions often condition their help on a country’s compliance with their progressive ideals: allowing health care workers to distribute condoms, for example, or withdrawing assistance if legislation discriminating against gays is passed.
“When imposed conditions come from imperial colonizers, they search to make people lose their own identity and make a sameness,” Pope Francis said. “Every people deserves to conserve its identity without being ideologically colonized.”
Echoing the Church’s conservative standpoint on traditional marriage and the family, he also insisted that an “openness to life is a condition of the sacrament of matrimony.”
(With reports from Associated Press, Reuters)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek January 21-23, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
