BRENDA!
***
The threat to charge 159 faculty members of the Ateneo de Manila University with heresy for expressing support for the reproductive health bill (RH) is an infringement of their constitutional right to academic freedom,
which is also recognized by Vatican II, according to Sen. Miriam Santiago.
[Surprised with that rant from a looney tunes?]
“Academic freedom is enshrined in our Constitution. You cannot dictate to a professor what to teach. I think this is a backward-looking message,” Santiago reminded the Ateneo management and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which had warned the faculty members they face possible charges of heresy.
[Obviously her professors at MaryHELL School of Theology did not teach her about the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde ecclesiae?]
Santiago said the Vatican II ecumenical council already defined the changing role of the Catholic Church and society.
“You can no longer punish Catholics for their freedom of conscience… That’s why it was called an ecumenical council
because it abandoned all its previous strict conservative ways and is now more open to what can be called questioning concern,” said Santiago, a constitutional expert who has a master’s degree in theology.
[See that? She is just repeating what was taught to her by her theology professors at MaryHELL School of Theology. She is just being true to herself, give her that. Liberal Modernist theologians insist that Vatican II created a NEW CHURCH. All laws have been discarded. BUT!!!! If you read Vatican II, it does not say so! Ask them from what document of Vatican this comes from......................You'll suffer the same way as I did when I kept waiting for the photo of Red Tani and his group. By the way, I confirmed this. Miriam did not finish her Master's degree in Theology. She hasn't presented nor defended her thesis. So she does not have any right to claim that title. Probably the writer of this report just want to fool us. Wah?!]
The senator is one of the most vocal supporters of the RH bill in the Senate. Santiago, in fact, filed the first RH bill in the Senate in 1997.
The CBCP earlier called on Ateneo authorities to investigate the 159 faculty members who signed a declaration of support for the RH bill for allegedly going against Catholic dogma.
The Catholic hierarchy, the most vocal opponents of the RH bill, resists the idea of the government distributing artificial methods of contraception to poor Filipinos. Condoms and birth control pills are particularly anathema as they supposedly encourage promiscuity, especially among the young.
Ateneo president
Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin,
[the master of doublespeak!] who supports the CBCP position, wrote a letter to the Ateneo community that was posted on the university’s website, telling those “engaged in the Christian formation of our students to ensure that the Catholic position on this matter continues to be taught in our classes, as we have always done.”
Santiago said the Ateneo and the CBCP are not allowed “to downtrod the academic freedom of all intellectuals of the country…
To threaten these (faculty members that they) would be kicked out of the Catholic Church is in effect to impose sanctions on academic freedom.”
[Miriam does not realize that Catholic schools are ORDERED by Peter himself to teach only Catholic dogma. If she wants her brand of Catholicism, she can just go and build her own. Try the Iglesia ni Cristo. Bunch of wackos. Their founder a rapist!]
“
This is wrong theology because there is no dogma involved here, there is no specific dogmatic principle that has emanated from the Pope,” she reiterated.
[Wow!!! First she lectures the successor of the apostles, the bishops who most have doctorates in theology about what is right theology and then she lectures us that there is no dogmatic principle that emanated from the Pope even though Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI has been defined as a definitive statement on the issue of contraception! This woman is overflowing with pride. She sounds like the one who offered the fruit to our first parents, no?]
Only Pope Benedict XVI “can dictate” Catholic dogma “and that is only when he categorically claims that he is speaking ex cathedra in his role as Supreme Pontiff.”
[Ehhhh....the earlier Pope already......did.]
“The Pope never exercised that power with respect to reproductive health or population control or responsible parenthood so we are
all agreed among the Catholic theological community that this is not a required position,” the senator said.
[She is not even a member of the "Catholic theological community". Her community must be somewhere in Mandaluyong....Wah!]
Party-list representative Luz Ilagan (Gabriela),
[the anti-Catholic partylist founded by a Catholic-by-name-only nun] who taught at the Ateneo de Davao for four decades, said it was the Ateneo professors’ right to make a stand on an important issue.
“That they view the RH bill as a piece of legislation that will help provide much-needed maternal and infant health services to Filipinos is a laudable demonstration of compassion, social awareness and a commitment for the poor and the marginalized,” Ilagan said in a statement.
The professors, in taking a stand for the bill, were also being true to the Ateno’s mission statement of social concern by being men and women for others, she said.
[Weh? True to themselves even after the Ateneo president of doublespeak said otherwise.]
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the bill’s principal authors, said the Ateneo professors’ support for the bill does not go against Catholic dogma.
[Does he belong to the same "Catholic theological community"? Didn't know Albay has this own wacko joint?]
“[It] does not offend or reject Catholic dogma because it adheres to the hallmark of the measure on the right to informed choice,
[informed choice? in Catholic dogma?] which negates both compulsion and reward, and promotes free will which is a cardinal principle of the Church,” Lagman said in a statement.
[I guess Maryhill School of Theology wrote this version of the Catechism.]
He said academic freedom as provided for in the Constitution extends to professors of Catholic universities. The essence of such a freedom also includes searching for truth in various disciplines and revealing this, unhampered by prior restraint or reprisal from authorities.
Lagman also said that since bishops and their supporters invoke freedom of expression in opposing the reproductive health bill, the Ateneo professors should also be given the same freedom to support the measure in good conscience as Catholics.
***
All about freedom of expression and academic freedom?
Nobody talks about the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde ecclesiae which DIRECTS Catholic school to adhere to the teachings of the Church and to ensure that no contrary doctrine is taught there.
You walk into a McDonalds you expect to be served with a Big Mac if you order one, not a Pizza Hut!
You go into a Catholic school, you expect your child to be educated by and come out a better Catholic.
Not a dissident.
Not an arrogant useless politician like Edcel Lagman, whose family fought against the Marcos dictatorship and US meddling in PHL politics which ironically he supports the US-backed RH Bill.
Nor a wacko like Miriam Santiago.
Nuff said.
