It’s not every day that you see a local celebrity stage an act of civil disobedience inside the Manila Cathedral. So when Carlos Celdran, known primarily for his walking tours inside Intramuros, did just that, the whole nation took notice. The move was a reaction to the Church’s consistent efforts to kill the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

Celdran’s move was met with both good and bad reactions. Some applauded him for his bold stand while others were offended by the act, since it had disrupted a Catholic sacrament.

Whether you support or condemn Celdran’s actions, one thing is certain: it served to renew interest in the RH bill, which had previously been overshadowed by other issues such as the government’s education plan, the Quirino Grandstand massacre, and Robin and Mariel’s shotgun wedding, among others.

Regarding his stand on the RH Bill, Aquino, for one, has stated that, as of press time, he is for responsible parenthood. His spokesperson Abigail Valte clarified however, that he does not favor a specific method, and that it was not a matter of his being pro- or anti-life.

Despite Aquino’s rather blurry stance on the issue, the Philippine Constitution is clear-cut when it comes to defining the Church’s role in the government’s activities; the Philippine Catholic Church, in all its glory and might, has no right to interfere with the government’s decisions. This has been the recurring theme of various editorials by several newspapers, including The GUIDON. However it seems that to this day, this has been ignored by Church officials, in particular, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Let’s make things clear: the Church has every right to tell their members to avoid the evils of artificial birth control. It has all the liberty in the world to instruct its priests to preach this in every opportunity they might have.

As the “light of Christ in the world today”, the Church has the mission to spread what it believes is right, and this applies to the Filipino Church as well. However, the entirety of the Philippines is not the Filipino Church. While we remain to be a predominantly Catholic nation, Catholicism isn’t the sole faith that Filipinos adhere to.

We Ateneans have been taught that we discern through conscience. As Catholics, we turn to the Church and other sources for information during the discernment process; a real conscience, after all, is an informed one.  Furthermore, conscience is not something exclusive to Catholics only. Any human being who is capable of rational thought has a semblance of a conscience.

So, our dear bishops, we ask you to review your conscience. We are sure that you will continue to remain adamant on your stand against contraception. At the same time, we are sure that thousands of your educated followers will think otherwise.

We do however, ask that you respect the decisions we might make and understand that while we might share the same faith in Christ, we don’t need to be the same in every aspect.

Trust that we will not be rash in our decision making. We won’t sign an online petition just because everyone else is doing the same. Trust that we will care enough to think things through.