In the Philippines, there have been repeated attempts since 1998 to pass the "Reproductive Health Bill" (RH Bill") that, in its various similar incarnations through successive Congresses, has sought to introduce the aggressive promotion of contraception and of liberal sex education as part of State policy, with no real exemptions for Catholic believers and institutions. The bill failed to pass due to the opposition of the Church and -- more importantly -- the opposition of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010), who for all her faults professed to be a devout Catholic. However, the accession of a new President who openly supports the RH Bill, the overwhelming support for it by the media and the new political establishment, the sudden rise of an unusually vicious form of anticlericalism in certain sectors of Filipino society and the general weakness and apathy of the Church in the Philippines mean that the Bill, after 12 years, is nearer than ever before to being passed.
(Those who want to know more about the bill and the Filipino Catholic resistance against it can read my blog on the matter: The Catholic Position on the RH Bill. The text of the bill can be found here. An article that gives an excellent overview of the bill and explores its legal implications can be found here.)
In response to this, the SSPX launched a rosary crusade on October 31, 2010, the Feast of Christ the King. DICI's article on this event, and the promotional video for the rosary crusade, can be found here. The SSPX Rosary Crusade seeks to collect 1 million rosaries between October 31, 2010 and January 16, 2011, third Sunday of January, which is marked in the Philippines as the Feast of the Sto. Nino (the Holy Child).
Amazingly, the SSPX Rosary Crusade has garnered the support of Archbishop Paciano Aniceto (head of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines) and of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu. Both of them have appeared in promotional videos for the Rosary Crusade with priests of the SSPX. (Cardinal Vidal video; Abp.Aniceto video). Other videos promoting the Rosary Crusade against the RH Bill can be found in the Youtube site of the SSPX in Metro Manila.
Pray that the Philippines will not fall into the deadly trap of this bill!
Addendum (25/11/10): The Prayer Crusade is all the more necessary now that the Pope's words -- and the even worse interventions of Fr. Lombardi -- are causing immense damage to the pro-life movement in the Philippines. The media and members of Congress and the Presidential Palace itself are using the Pope's statement to aggressively push for condom use and artificial contraception, with little attention being paid to the pro-lifers' attempts at clarifying matters.
