Communication, Not Excommunication

Like many Catholics, I am delighted by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III’s decision to take a firm stand on the issue of reproductive health. I am not happy with President Aquino’s tacit support of what I consider to be a flawed piece of legislation. However, I am happy, in keeping with best traditions of the Church concerning the intrinsic relationship between faith and joy, that President Aquino’s declaration has forced us to confront the necessary creative tension between the rich tradition of the Church and the demands of contemporary Philippine society. To address the needs of our people, we must move from considering matters concerning excommunication to communication.


In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell makes a compelling case for the cultivation of man’s adaptive unconscious: the ability to make correct, complex judgments almost instantaneously. It is useful, Gladwell reasons, to think of the human mind as a sophisticated supercomputer that quickly and quietly processes enormous amounts of essential data. Instead of being aware of an almost endless list of tasks that have to be done, our adaptive unconscious frees us from even having to consider this task list. Psychologist Timothy D. Wilson concurs:


“The mind operates most efficiently by relegating a good deal of high-level, sophisticated thinking to the unconscious, just as a modern jetliner is able to fly on automatic pilot with little or no input from the human, ‘conscious’ pilot. The adaptive unconscious does an excellent job of sizing up the world, warning people of danger, setting goals, and initiating action in a sophisticated and efficient manner”.


Because we can make good decisions in the blink of an eye, we can live as human beings, and not just “human doings”.


People are encouraged to cultivate both conscious and unconscious modes of thinking. We shift from one mode of thinking to the other depending on the situation. Some situations call for swift action. Other situations call for deliberation. Regardless of one’s position on the reproductive health issue, the respectful disagreement between the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the President of the Republic of the Philippines demands not only deliberation but also discussion.


One of the biggest myths surrounding communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Has any substantial discussion taken place between the CBCP and President Aquino? Other than statements which have, sadly, been taken out of context by adherents on both sides of the reproductive health debate, there has been no discussion between the CBCP and President Aquino.


Also, it would behoove both the Church and the Executive Office to keep in mind that the purpose of communication is not to belabor a point, but to cultivate understanding. To insist that President Aquino represents all Filipinos and not just Catholics is as fruitless as to insist that the CBCP has the duty to express its views on what it perceives to be moral issues. Both are correct. To subject these pronouncements to a level of scrutiny best applied to exegetical commentary is ridiculous.


The adaptive unconscious of the Filipino people, which both the Church and State have played a big role in cultivating, has identified reproductive health as an important social, economic, and moral issue that must be addressed. Both the CBCP and President Aquino have to disengage the automatic pilot and work together for a solution.