|
Meeting with Lagman
My private, one-on-one, dialogue last May 13, 1995 at my CBCP Office with Congressman Edcel Lagman, was friendly, cordial and respectful. It was his secretary who called my Davao Office if he could meet with me.
Most of our conversation focused on the Church’s objections to his bill 3773 which to me are very serious. These objections, as mentioned later in the afternoon on the INQ7. net, were on “morality and spirituality.” These concerns are so serious to me that they need wider, longer, more open and respectful deliberations.
My reference to this word “deliberations” did not refer, as he was quoted by the media, to the final process leading to the passage or non-passage of the bill. To a legislature layman like me, it simply referred to more friendly and respectful discussions like ours so that the stand of the Church would be heard and understood wherever such deliberations are conducted. We never discussed the status or whereabouts of the bill in Congress.
This was the way I understood the congressman when he asked me for endorsement of “deliberations” as we ended up our dialogue.
This is what I endorsed and I assured him to quote me on it. His letter to me the next day confirmed this need of more friendly and respectful dialogues wherever it is conducted.
As a parting word seemingly assuring me of his Catholic background, he said he would categorically oppose the bills on divorce and same sex marriage.
+ FERNANDO R. CAPALLA, D.D.
Archdiocese of Davao
CBCP President
16 May 2005
|
