Wednesday, July 18, 2018


Fifty Years Ago

My mother, Elsa, passed into eternity on May 28, 1968, two or three weeks after her last PAL-flight home from Manila, which happened to be the very same flight that carried the “pilgrim image” of Our Lady of Fatima to visit Pala
wan. May is the month especially dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (observed by making pilgrimages and floral offerings to Marian shrines) and I am convinced that the Mother of God—who is also our Mother, since baptized Christians are “members” of Christ—was very much with my mom in her last days of suffering (from a long-drawn battle with cancer), and there to welcome her home at the moment of death. Of course, I continue to pray for the eternal happiness of all our beloved dead, and ask the pious reader to do so, too. The love involved in remembering will never be a waste.
1968 was also my father‟s first year in office as Governor of Palawan, having been elected in the November 1967 elections. I also started my formal schooling in 1968, as a Grade One pupil in the class of Mrs. Irene Cadiz at Puerto Princesa Pilot Elementary School. Going beyond the personal, 1968 was also the year of the “Tet Offensive” that, arguably, tipped the balance of the Vietnam War in favor of the North Vietnamese (and Viet Cong guerrillas) against the South and its ally, the United States. 1968 also saw the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4), and Robert F. Kennedy (June 5). But even more important—because of its implications for everyone‟s eternal happiness—1968 is the year of the issuance of the Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) by Pope Paul VI.
Humanae Vitae made it clear—for the first time, offficially and from the highest authority of the Church on earth—that “contraceptive sex” is immoral. Here are some excerpts from the Encyclical:
“11. The sexual activity, in which husband and wife are intimately and chastely united with one another, through which human life is transmitted, is... „noble and worthy.‟ It does not, moreover, cease to be legitimate even when, for reasons independent of their will, it is foreseen to be infertile...The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life.
“12. This particular doctrine...is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS FROM OUT OF THE CAVE v.d.m. socrates
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and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.” (Italics mine)
The Encyclical goes on to proscribe as immoral “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means” (HV, No 14).
Obviously, there is much more in the Encyclical, which anticipates and actually responds to possible objections. I therefore recommend downloading Humanae Vitae—Google search will immediately produce the official Vatican link—and reading it thoughtfully. Whether or not one agrees with the teaching, it would be a good exercise in truth-seeking; and of course, could spell the difference for someone‟s eternal destiny.
Humanae Vitae was issued by Pope Paul VI on July 25, 1968, Feast of St. James the Apostle (James “the Greater”, the brother of John). James and John are the sons of Zebedee whom our Lord nicknamed Boanerges (“sons of thunder”), perhaps for impetuously wanting to rain down fire on a Samaritan town that refused to welcome our Lord. These two are also famous for wanting to sit closest to our Lord in His Kingdom, and for daring to say, Possumus!, “We can!”, to the conditions set by our Lord. I imagine that Pope Paul VI felt he was being somewhat impetuous (in a good, if uneasy, sense)—and audacious—in giving the world Humanae Vitae.
Our so-called RH Law (RA 10345) is, sadly, a direct repudiation of the doctrine of Humanae Vitae. Congress may never go back, but the debate will continue in the consciences of many; and Humanae Vitae will remain the best resource for a clear understanding of the immorality of contraceptive sex. Nor is it too late for the RH Law supporters to be converted.
Pope Paul VI died in 1978 and was beatified in 2014. His canonization is expected sometime later this year. He was the first Pope ever to visit the Philippines—where an attempt was made on his life! While in Manila, he ordained a number of priests, including two from Palawan: Fathers Jesus De los Reyes (now a Monsignor), and Jose Garduce (now deceased). At the same Mass at the Luneta, two kids from Palawan were among those privileged to receive Holy Communion from the Pope: one was Mon-Mon, son of then Congressman Monching Mitra; and the other was my younger sibling, Nancy. But that was already in 1970, the beginning of a more tumultuous decade for our country. Today, my heart goes back to 1968. (16.VII.2018)