The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has urged television networks to stop airing condom advertisements to avoid corrupting the hearts and minds of children. The Church teaches that faithful Catholics should not use any form of birth control, including condoms, CBCP said. “These ads are corrupting the minds and hearts of our young people. And these are being shown on the prime time so the children will be able to watch these shows,” said Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Commission on Family and Life. Airing advertisements for condoms leads to greater promiscuity among young people, the priest said. “We are appealing to the concerned agency to review ads that respects the young people,” he said. Castro questions why such advertisements are allowed on television and radio despite Supreme Court’s suspension order in the implementation of the controversial Reproductive Health law. “It only shows that with or without the RH law they can do everything they want,” he said. “The mere fact that they are able to advertise things like that only goes to show that there’s no need for a law really to push their interests,” Castro said.The priest appealed to advertisement companies to produce commercials that promote social and moral values. CBCP president and Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan Socrates Villegas reiterated that the Church maintains its ground against the highly debated population control measure. “We must stand by the truth, but we must always be loving as we stand for the truth. The position [RH] does not change but the reaching out is added into it.” “We respect those who have a different opinion and more than that we reach out to them and let us be friends beyond the RH Law,” Villegas said. Villegas also cited the possibility of more disagreements and called for the things that would bridge the gap between opponents and proponents of the population control policy. “There will be many more disagreements but let us not allow our disagreements to disunite us further. Because we have enough disunity already, so let us look for the things that unite us. That is the spirit,” Villegas said.