Statement in Support to the Reproductive Health Bill
We, the Bishops of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, gathered to continue our study on the House Bill No. 4244 known as the Reproductive Health Bill, reiterate our teachings in the Pastoral Statement “Sex, Marriage and Child-bearing” issued on January 12, 1993:
“The duty of government and of parents is to ensure the full physical, mental and emotional, and spiritual development of children to the realization of their potentials and a quality of life that reflects their dignity as created in God’s image."
“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.’ (John 1.5)
The Iglesia Filipina Independiente joins the Diocese of Kidapawan in prayers for justice for the killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio. Fr. Tentorio’s death has brought an irreplaceable loss not only to the Catholic Church but to family of Philippine Churches as well. We share the pain brought by his death and express our indignation over the injustice committed against a priest of God
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace.” (Romans 14:19)
Peacemaking is at the core of the mission of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. We firmly believe that God’s call to peace is a call for justice. So, therefore, there can be no peace when there is no justice, and that there can never be justice if there is no peace.
‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at a proper time we will reap a harvest.” (Galatians 6.9)
Our historical heritage, Pro Deo et Patria, is our birthright as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. The wellspring from where we draw our spirituality and theology, it offers us the reason to come together and celebrate God’s presence and power in our journey in history. The past and present experience of living-out our birthright has strengthened our collective life, work and witness and sustained us in pursuing God’s mandate of mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ among our people.
“The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” (Psalm 37.29)
Hacienda Luisita speaks about the problem of landlordism in the Philippines. It demonstrates the unresolved contradiction between private ownership of land and agrarian reform. It is an affront to social justice in its very essence for, on the one end, one family owns a monopoly of thousands of hectares of rich agricultural and industrial land while, on the other end, thousands of families of poor farm workers who till these land unjustly suffer in unimaginable poverty.
Today, as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente commemorates the first anniversary of the extrajudicial killing of Brother Benjamin Bayles, a lay minister of our Church who was slain a year ago, and in the spirit of the Executive Commission’s strong resolve to share its part in decisively addressing the ever-worsening human rights violations in the Philippines, we formally form the National Task Force Bayles.
