The Catholic Bishop of Auchi, Most Rev. Gabriel Dunia reiterated the position in Abuja at a press conference on maternal mortality organised by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN).
Mr. Dunia, who is also the Chairman of
the Health Committee of the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN),
said that the position of the church
was unambiguously against the use
of artificial methods. The cleric said that government and other
stakeholders should desist from
deviating from the main issues and
concentrate more on educating
Nigerians on adopting natural family
planning methods. He said that the church and other
social agents of change should focus
attention and resources on
behavioural change among members
of the society. According to the
cleric, Nigerians love children as precious gifts from God, the same
way women should be encouraged to
bear children whenever they wish to. "The Catholic Bishops' Conference of
Nigeria and the catholic faithful
strongly oppose the diversion of
attention and resources away from
the main causes of maternal
mortality to the purchase and distribution of contraceptives.
"Rather, we propose adequate
investments in the area of education,
primary healthcare and the
mainstreaming of natural family
planning education and services to enable Nigerians realise their fertility
or child spacing intentions,'' he said
Mr. Dunia called on government to
redirect the sums budgeted for
purchase of contraceptives to the
educating more Nigerians on the adoption of natural family planning
methods. He said that the church was not in
support of overpopulating the
country, but that it was in the
forefront of promoting responsible
parenthood. Mr. Dunia said that
promoting the concept of responsible parenthood in the
country had no adverse effect on
the population and it would better
serve the cause of humanity and that
of God. According to the clergyman, it is the
belief of the Catholic Church that
population health is best realised
through openness and respect for
the cherished values of the people. In
his remark, the Auxiliary Bishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Anslem Umoren said
that the church was in support of a
situation where pregnant women
would be nurtured till birth. He said that the church would not in
any guise give its support to
proponents of artificial birth
control methods such as abortion
and use of contraceptives. Mr.
Umoren called on governments at all levels to channel more funds to
educating the masses and to provide
quality health facilities in the rural
areas to help check the increase in
maternal mortality. He said that the
church had never believed in the use of artificial means of birth control in
Nigeria. The event was attended by
some medical experts and some
clergies in the church.
www.m.naij.com/news/17360.html

Afternoon,

So what's the issue?