It’s common knowledge that the Philippines have long been dominated by foreign powers. The Spanish, then the Americans, then the dictators the U.S. propped up (Ferdinand Marcos and his ridiculous first lady Imelda, who squandered tens if not hundreds of thousand dollars on shoe blitzes in New York City). America did this because we needed our big military bases back in the Vietnam days.

Then there was Cardinal Sin (couldn’t have made that one up) who told his vast flock that God wanted them to make as many babies as possible. Every time I saw images of children picking through landfills I thought of him.

And now, despite the Catholic Bishops’ conference warning that “contraception corrupts the soul”, the Philippine Congress approved contraceptive legislation that would make birth control available to all in the Philippines.

Another prominent clergyman with an equally oxymoronic name, Archbishop Socrates Villegas condemned the congressional approval, saying it “would corrupt the minds of children and invoke divine wrath”.

The poverty, overpopulation, and resulting misery in the Philippines is staggering. Praise be to the congress for taking such bold action against the entrenched dominance of the Catholic church.