MANILA (UCAN) -- A priest found a fetus in a jar among the fruit in a package offered at a Mass he celebrated in Manila on July 6.

Monsignor Gerardo Santos, president of the Manila Archdiocesan and Parochial Schools Association (MAPSA), brought the cellophane-wrapped assortment of fruit and food items to his parents' house. He received it following his regular 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at Quiapo Church in downtown Manila.

In an interview with Church-run Radyo Veritas that day, he said he was at home for Sunday lunch with his parents, when someone in the house found the fetus stuffed into a "little" sandwich-spread jar, along with a rosary. The jar, wrapped in plastic, was buried under apples and bananas, he recounted.

The priest could not tell how many months old the fetus was, but saw "the hands and feet were completely developed."

He said he did not see who left the package on the table for Mass offerings. After Mass, Church workers in charge of altar preparations gave him the gift.

"I got upset" after finding the fetus, the priest admitted. "We were not able to eat our lunch, because my parents were very disturbed."

Monsignor Santos brought the fetus back to Quiapo Church, where he blessed it before asking parish staff to take it to La Loma Catholic Cemetery in Kalookan City, north of Manila, where Pro-life Philippines has "tombs for the unborn." Pro-life Philippines is a non-profit organization promoting respect and care for human life from conception to natural death.

Monsignor Santos noted the incident occurred just weeks before the 40th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae (human life), issued by Pope Paul VI on July 25, 1968.

In the radio interview, he cited the need for catechesis to stress "the dignity of human life." He said teachers should emphasize this dignity "begins at the moment of conception." Students should be taught that "a pregnant mother is carrying a human being in her womb that is precious in God's eyes," so abortion is murder and an "abominable crime."

This incident shows "we" in the Church have to stress "our pro-life stand" and must vigilantly teach followers not to hurt or kill "despite hardship," he said.

Induced abortion is illegal in the country, so there are no reliable statistics on how frequently it occurs. Women caught aborting their children face a prison sentence and professionals proven to have helped induce abortion can lose their licenses in addition to a similar prison term and fines.

Nonetheless, the Pro-life Philippines website cites statistics from the Department of Health Hospital Development Plan 1988-1992 in estimating that as far back as 1986, abortion ranked third among the top 10 causes of women's hospitalization.

In order to induce abortion, the group says, women take drugs or herbal preparations, or go to health workers or hilot, traditional practitioners or midwives who work primarily in poor communities and usually are not licensed to assist in childbirth.

Local media have filed occasional reports on fetuses being found in schools, public toilets, churches, trash cans and other places around the country.

According to a 2006 report by the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute, Philippine women who reported inducing abortions cited the economic cost of raising a child, pregnancy coming too soon after the last one, and already having enough children among their reasons. The institute based its report primarily on hospital reports and the 2004 National Survey of Women it was involved in conducting.

Women who underwent abortion reportedly came from various sectors, the majority being married, Catholic and poor, with some high-school education and some children.

About 81 percent of the country's 76.5 million people, according to 2000 census figures, are Catholics.

The Catholic Church teaches that marriage and conjugal love are "ordained toward the begetting and educating of children." It "encourages natural family planning to ensure that the procreation, nurturing and education of children might be achieved in a truly human and Christian way," the 1994 Catechism for Filipino Catholics explains. It rejects artificial contraception.

MAPSA, on its website, says its mission includes assisting its 94 member schools in students' total development "with emphasis on moral conscience and maturity in faith."

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