BIRTH CONTROL 'DAD' GETS CATHOLIC DREAM WEDDING,
AND COMMUNION TOO!
TALISAY,
BATANGAS, AUGUST 4, 2008 (STAR) By Joanne Rae Ramirez – In the end,
Quezon City First District Councilor Joseph Juico got his dream wedding — to
Trisha Chua, in a fairytale chapel overlooking Taal Lake, and in solemn Catholic
ceremonies officiated by a bishop, no less.
And Joseph, a proponent of an ordinance that supports artificial birth control methods, and Trisha, received communion, too.
He was allegedly threatened earlier by a Catholic Church diocese that he would be denied communion because of his stand on artificial birth control. The Catholic Church is against artificial birth control methods and the government supports its stand.
But at Saturday’s wedding, held at the scenic Madre de Dios Chapel at the Tagaytay Highlands, there were no recriminations, fears or threats.
Bishop Socrates Villegas, who officiated at the wedding along with Father Jimmy Giron, told the bride, who was wearing a lace gown designed by Patrice Ramos-Diaz, “Let me assure you that you are marrying a good husband, and a good son.”
In vows she composed herself, Trisha, the daughter of Clarence and Lani Chua, told Joseph, “I take you to be my husband, my partner in life, the father of our children and my one true love. I will share in your dreams, and support you as you strive to achieve your goals.”
“The wedding was an affirmation of what was good about the couple and the Church they continue to believe in,” observed a guest. “All’s well that ends well.”
Asked by The STAR after the wedding how he felt, Joseph, with a mixture of joy and relief, beamed, “Great!” Joseph is the son of a devoutly Catholic couple, STAR sports columnist Philip Juico and his wife Margarita Penson, the appointments secretary of former President Corazon Aquino.
Educated at La Salle, a Catholic school run by the Christian Brothers, he drew the ire of certain sectors of the church for his bold stand on reproductive health.
Neither Villegas nor Giron spoke on the controversy that swirled around the nuptials. After he pronounced the couple man and wife, Villegas trained his counsel instead on the way the couple were going to raise their future children. “Let me remind you that good children are not raised in La Salle,” he quipped, “but in the home.” Joseph and Trisha reportedly plan to have only two children.
“Joseph was born a Catholic, practices his Catholic faith and will remain a Catholic. He will, as always, be at the service of the Church and the people and remain respectful of the Church and its leaders, notwithstanding what is clearly an honest difference of opinion between him and some Church personalities,” Joseph’s father Philip, a dean at La Salle, told the STAR earlier.
The Juicos also clarified that “there was no threat to deny him (Joseph) the sacrament of marriage,” contrary to the claim of Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin.
“My son said that he is acting out of moral conviction and wishes that all those who share his and Garin’s views, sponsor of a similar measure in the House of Representatives, remain steadfast and maintain their moral courage to move forward,” the older Juico stressed.
Juico, who served as agrarian reform secretary of former president Aquino, said the Cubao diocese, through Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, made known its intention to deny his son communion in August 2007.
“No Catholic Church leader in the diocese of Cubao threatened to deny the sacrament of marriage to Joseph should he get married in the said diocese,” Juico clarified.
“What was emphatically said was that the church in Cubao would deny Joseph communion. Joseph concluded that if he were to get married anywhere in the Cubao diocese, he could not receive communion even if he so badly wanted to during his own wedding,” he added.
This was the reason why the young councilor “decided just to have the wedding ceremonies outside of the jurisdiction of Bishop Ongtioco of the Cubao diocese.”
But Fr. Aris Sison, spokesman for the Diocese of Cubao, denied the allegations.
“It is not true that we denied Councilor Juico any sacrament, we did not deny him communion, much more we did not deny him the sacrament of marriage,” he said.
Those who stood as principal sponsors at Joseph and Trisha’s wedding were: Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Jorge Araneta, Napoleon Nazareno, William Tieng, Benjamin Espiritu, Paul Chuatico, Dr. Gerard Salgado, Dr. Noel Chua, Trinidad Kalaw, Victoria Vergel de Dios, Pia Sy, Martita Reyes, Stella Yusay, Mercedes Prieto, Corazon Trebol and Cynthia Juico.