Business as usual in The Tablet last week - claiming that abortion is just 'Catholic' issue and that therefore Catholics should not let it get in the way when they decide what political policies to support (er, right!). This is a central tenat of the implicitly or explicitly pro-abortion dissident network of 'Catholic' organisations which feed off the Church and neutralise her public teaching. On this occasion The Tablet was addressing not a UK issue but an American one, so Archbishop Chaput pf Denver has posted a reply. (H-t Damian Thompson) In part:
Last week a British Catholic journal, in an editorial titled “US bishops must back Obama,” claimed that America’s bishops “have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue - making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion - rather than the more general principle of the common good.”
It went on to say that if US Catholic leaders would get over their parochial preoccupations, “they could play a central role in salvaging Mr Obama’s health-care programme.”
The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don’t need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized US Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a “specifically Catholic issue,” and the editors know it. And fourth, the growing misuse of Catholic “common ground” and “common good” language in the current health-care debate can only stem from one of two sources: ignorance or cynicism.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Archbishop Chaput responds to The Tablet
Monday, May 04, 2009
Pro Abortion L'Osservatore Romano article uncorrected
However, since the March 15th publication of the article, provocatively titled, 'On the side of the Brazilian girl,' by Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), nothing has been heard from the Vatican or Fisichella himself.
Archbishop Fisichella prompted widespread outrage when he attacked as 'hasty' the decision by Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife to announce that those who had procured the abortion of twins for a nine year-old rape victim had incurred an automatic penalty of excommunication. Fisichella wrote that the decision to 'help stop the pregnancy,' was a 'difficult' one 'for doctors and for the moral law.'
On Thursday, April 30, LSN was informed that Monsignor José Geraldo Caiuby Crescenti, a noted canonist, former judicial vicar of the archdiocese of Anapolis in Brazil and close friend of Archbishop Sobrinho, had confirmed that to date, no response has come to the archdiocese from Archbishop Fisichella or any official of the Vatican.
LSN has been shown dozens of letters and petitions sent to Rome by prominent academics, physicians, and pro-life advocates from sixteen countries asking Archbishop Fisichella and various Vatican congregations for a correction or clarification.
The article, and the silence following it from Pope Benedict's curia, has raised fears among some in the worldwide pro-life community that key members of the Vatican hierarchy are silently moving away from the Church's historically robust condemnation of abortion and defence of the absolute sacredness of human life.
In an open letter published by LifeSiteNews.com, highly respected philosopher Professor Joseph Seifert, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that the article has led to a 'deep crisis' in the PAV, and 'more importantly, of the public perception of Church teaching on abortion.' (See letter: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09050107.html )
Professor Seifert, rector and professor of philosophy at the International Academy of Philosophy of Liechtenstein, writes that because of this article, and its support by the pope's official media spokesman, Fr. Frederico Lombardi SJ, 'countless persons' throughout the world now attribute to the PAV and by extension to the Pope himself, 'a propagation of a new moral doctrine diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Church'.
Although Msgr. Fisichella wrote in his article that 'procured abortion has always been condemned by the moral law as an intrinsically evil act, and this teaching remains unchanged to our day,' at its end, he praised those who had 'allowed [the girl] to live' by killing her two children. He concluded by stating that those who were involved in the abortion did not 'deserve' excommunication.
In a statement of clarification, the archdiocese responded to Fisichella's accusations, saying that the local Church had come to the child's aid in many ways, both spiritual and material, and that Fisichella had perpetrated a serious injustice against his 'brother in the episcopate' by failing to contact Archbishop Sobrinho or find out what had happened directly from anyone involved.
Calling Fisichella's article 'a direct affront to the defense of the life of three children carried out energetically by Dom Jose Cardoso Sobrinho' the authors of the Recife diocese's statement said Fisichella had spoken 'about something he did not know, and what is worse, without even doing the work of speaking previously with his brother in the episcopate...'
The secular press and the pro-abortion lobby responded promptly to the article, with headlines and hundreds of articles and editorials claiming that Fisichella is hinting at a softening of the Church's position on abortion. The Associated Press announced, 'Vatican prelate defends abortion for 9-year-old.' The Washington Post said, 'Vatican Official Defends Child's Abortion.'
Significantly, Fisichella's article was highly praised by France Kissling, the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice, an abortion lobby group that presents itself as Catholic and attempts to pressure the Catholic Church to abandon its teachings on life and family.
In a widely published essay, Kissling called Fisichella's article 'an amazing shift in the Vatican's strategy of no dissent from its position that direct abortion is never permitted.' She said it was a 'modest deviation' that 'opens the door for Catholics who follow church teachings on reproduction to discuss the possibility that there are some cases officially acknowledged where individuals can choose abortion and have a calm conscience.'
Taking a similar interpretation to that of Ms. Kissling, pro-life leaders reacted with shock. Letters of protest are known to have been received by Archbishop Fisichella, and circulated to several Vatican dicasteries, from Italy, Spain, England, Canada, the US, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatamala, El Salvador, Venzuela, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina and Belgium.
Adding to the unease is the fear that the article has recieved the highest possible sanction from the hierarchy of the Church. It is common knowledge that articles intended for L'Osservatore Romano are vetted first by the Vatican's Secretariat of State, the highest office under the papacy. Vatican watcher and respected journalist Sandro Magister said that given the prominence of the article's author and its content, it 'was certainly among the most carefully scrutinized and authorized by the Vatican Secretariat of State.'
Moreover, rumours have circulated in Rome that the article had also been approved by an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church's doctrinal watchdog.
During the 26-year papacy of John Paul II, pro-life people had relied heavily on the unswerving defence and frequent expositions on the Church's teaching on the sanctity of life both from the pope himself and from various high-level Vatican officials. Key Vatican posts, such as the congregations on doctrine and the family, were held by well-known and outspoken defenders of Catholic teaching.
Prominent among these was the Pontifical Academy of Life which, under the guidance of the now-retired Bishop Elio Sgreccia, was described as a 'bastion and guiding light' to the pro-life movement around the world.
One prominent pro-life advocate, who asked not to be named, told LifeSiteNews.com that the shock of this incident, compounded and intensified by the Vatican's complete silence, is a sign of a significant shift against the pro-life movement at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
He said that pro-life people around the world are asking why this undermining of Catholic teaching has gone uncorrected and why this attack on a 'brother bishop' has been un-answered?
'At this stage,' he said, 'we need a clarification or a retraction by Archbishop Fisichella, a press release from the Holy See Press Office or even a clear re-statement of the Church's unchanging teaching from the [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] CDF.'
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Petition Notre Dame
Action: please sign the petition. It now has 156,000 names.
From SPUC: Mr Barack Obama, labelled by Congressman Christopher Smith as the abortion
president, is to visit a Catholic university. He will give an address and receive an honorary degree from Notre Dame University, Indiana, which has received many complaints. [LifeSiteNews, 23 March] Rev John Jenkins, university president, defended the decision and said he hoped to engage with Mr Obama on life issues. [Catholic News Agency on EWTN, 24 March] Rt Rev John D'Arcy, the local bishop, will boycott the event and has asked the institution to reconsider. [LifeSiteNews, 24 March] More than 110,000 signatures have been added to an online petition against the visit.
[LifeSiteNews, 24 March]
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Day of Prayer & Fasting for Life
Action: please participate in this.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Good Counsel Network event
Please support this if you can.
From CFNews: Good Counsel Network : Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the Good Counsel Network Chapel, Marylebone, London,
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ash Wednesday: fast to end abortion
Action: we heartily endorse this, from the Good Counsel Network.
Via email: Following on from last years National Days of Prayer & Fasting for Life, the Good Counsel Network will continue to promote these Days each month. Would you
therefore please pass the details onto friends or family via e-mail.
On Ash Wednesday 25th February please pray and fast for the end of abortion and
euthanasia.
With over 600 abortions each day in England & Wales please remember that Christ
said, This kind (of demon) can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.(Gospel of Mark 9:29). Your prayer and fasting is urgently needed.
For information on the day of Prayer and Fasting contact:
The Good Counsel Network on 020 7723 1740
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Faith and Euthanasia
Comment: 'Care not Killing' welcomes a letter in The Times pointing out that 'faith' is not the only or the main reason against legalised euthanasia. Lord Joffe claims that it is, perhaps with a view to the argument that opponents are trying to impose their religious commitments on everyone else, certainly in order to ignore the reasoned arguments against his position.
While it might seem ungracious for our non-religious allies against euthanasia to wish to repudiate our religious motivation, Catholics can understand this point better than many non-Catholic Christians. Euthanasia is an offense against Natural Law. It is not a matter of ritual obligations, revelation, faith, or the life of grace. It is a matter of the obligations we have to each other as human beings, obligations which can be grasped by all men of good will on the basis of natural reason alone. The fact that many non-Christians have been so corrupted by modern currents of thought that they shut their eyes to these obligations does not change the point. Catholics, and the Church, in arguing as they do, are defending not faith but reason.
From Care not Killing: In a robust letter to the Times, Lord Carlile QC has taken issue with Lord Joffe’s recent accusations that religious leaders are largely responsible for the opposition to assisted suicide. Carlile asserted, This is not about religion or autonomy or medicine: it is about public safety, legal certainty and the protection by the law of the vulnerable.’ Lord Joffe has meanwhile threatened to bring his assisted dying bill back in to the House of Lords.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
BBC demonises pro-lifers
Action: complaints, please, about 'Hunter'. You can see the relevant material on the internet here. Pro-lifers are portrayed an violent fanatics, kidnapping and killing children. As John Smeaton quotes one SPUC activist, 'They would never dare portray other groups in this way'. Catholics and Pro-Lifers are fair game.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
HFEA challenged for illegal actions
Update: the case against the HFEA has been thrown out: see here.
Briefing (09/09/08)
From CFNews: On the 8th of April 2008, the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) and Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) filed papers seeking judicial review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (HFEA) decision to grant licences to Newcastle University and King's College London to use animal-human hybrids.
The legal challenge is on two grounds. First, CLC and CORE are arguing that the HFEA acted beyond its powers when it granted the licences because the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 does not permit licenses for the creation of animal human hybrids. Secondly, the 1990 HFE Act provides that licences cannot be granted unless the HFEA is satisfied that the research is necessary or desirable for one of a number of specified purposes and the HFEA is satisfied that any proposed use of embryos is necessary for the purposes of the research.
The CLC and CORE are arguing that the proposed techniques are unnecessary and undesirable as a result of technical advances and that the proposed techniques do not work and raise new scientific problems which will make the research meaningless.
There is no legal internal process either in the 1990 Act or in the new Bill for interested persons to object to or appeal against the grant of a license and ask for reconsideration. In view of this lack of public accountability, the only way of challenging the HFEA's decisions is by way of judicial review.
The CLC and CORE have to be granted leave to proceed to a judicial review hearing. They are also applying for a protected costs order so that the court can decide whether to impose a limit on costs paid to the HFEA, if the challenge is unsuccessful. Please pray. [Christian Legal Centre]
Friday, December 12, 2008
Prayer for life
Action: please join in prayer to end abortion. The Good Counsel Network is showing how it is done: they have a chapel of their own and have Masses said regularly for their counsellors and the mothers and babies they are trying to help.
See John Smeaton for more.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Good Counsel Network carols
Local action: please support these if you can.
From CFNews: The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel is organising carol singing in London Tube Stations, where we can also take up a collection, on several days during December.
Every year The Good Counsel Network helps to save the lives of hundreds of unborn babies. The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel is a charity which supports this work and can only continue this work through fundraising events like this.
If you can sing or if you just wish to help with the collecting please reply(indicating whether you are a singer or collector) with your
availability for any of the following dates:
1st December at Oxford Circus
3rd December at Piccadilly Circus
16th December at Paddington(tube)
22nd December at Bond Street.
We will be there from 12 noon until 8pm so if you can come and help with some time it would be very much appreciated. [info@goodcounselnetwork.freeserve.co.uk]
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Pro-lifers to be classed as hate-preachers
Briefing: another consequence of trying to deal with militant Islam while trying to seem 'even handed'. While there is a lunatic fringe of violence in the pro-life movemnet in the United States, this legislation could catch a much wider group of people.
From CFNews: Pro-life activists could be included among the 'hate preachers' who would be barred from entry into Great Britain under new rules proposed by home secretary Jacqui Smith. The rules, introducing as a step to combat terrorism, would exclude anyone 'engaged in fostering, encouraging or spreading extremism and hatred.' The rules introduced by Smith would cover anyone whose views are deemed 'extremist,' potentially including outspoken opponents of legal abortion or same-sex marriage. [CWNews]
Friday, October 17, 2008
Crosses for Life march in London
Action: please support this if you can.
From CFNews: Join the united forces are British pro-life groups in defending our unborn brothers and sisters, for an end to the killing of 547 children daily in our country, and to uphold the sanctity of life. Saturday the 18th October, starting at 13:00 from Westminster Cathedral, walking across Lambeth bridge and re-crossing the river at Westminster bridge where there will be a short mourning ceremony, we will then proceed to say a short prayer outside the Houses of Parliament, and end at Westminster Abbey. 1000 Crosses for Life is a joint initiative of European Voice for the Unborn. An event in communion with all the British pro-life groups: Euro will Pro-Life, Family Life International UK, SPUC, Good Counsel Network, Helpers of God's Precious Infants, Christian Concern for Our Nation, Catholic Medical Association, Choose Life, Christian Medical Fellowship, Catholic Bishops Conference, the Linacre entre, Doctors Who Respect Human Life, Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life, Maranatha. Tel 0208 857 9950. Email support@europrolifeuk.org and europrolifeuk@flioneline.org 1490.42
Friday, October 03, 2008
Euthanasia case in the courts
Briefing.
From SPUC: SPUC is taking part in an English high court hearing of a case whichpresents a threat to vulnerable people and could undermine the law againstassisted suicide. Mrs Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), wantsto know whether her husband would be prosecuted if he took her abroad to commit suicide. Mrs Mary Corrigan, an SPUC supporter who has MS, said: "MSis a terrible disease, and major depression and suicide are more commonamong MS people than most other groups. It is important that the courtgets the full picture of what this case could lead to, which is why SPUCis intervening." Mrs Purdy is backed by Dignity in Dying, thepro-euthanasia group, and is considering going to Dignitas in Zurich,Switzerland, to kill herself if her condition worsens. [SPUC and Guardian,2 October] Dignitas claims that more than 100 British people have committedsuicide there since it opened 10 years ago. Our source says that 650British people are registered with the organisation and that its totaldeath toll is 870. Switzerland legalised assisted suicide in 1941. [Times,2 October]
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Pro-Life petition to the UN
Action: please sign the petition and pass it on!
From C-Fam: Dear Friend,
The UN will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this December 10th. To celebrate this occasion, radical pro-abortion groups intend to present the UN General Assembly with petitions calling for a universal right to abortion. The largest, richest and most powerful pro-abortion groups are even now planning their attack on the unborn at the General Assembly.
Campaigns are being waged right now by International Planned Parenthood Federation and Maire Stopes International, the two groups responsible for more abortions than any other groups in the world. Both are beloved of the powers that be at the UN; and their efforts to promote an international right to abortion are welcomed by many UN Member States, perhaps most of the UN bureaucracy, and powerful US foundations that give millions to promote abortion at the UN and around the world.
We must stop them this December.
I am writing to ask you to sign a petition calling on UN Members States to interpret the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as protecting the unborn child from abortion. Did you know that the Universal Declaration calls for a right to life? Did you know that UN committees now interpret that as a right to abortion? We can stop them.
Please go HERE to sign the petition which we will present at the UN on December 10th, the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the very least we must match what the pro-abortion advocates will present to the UN that day! They will present thousands and thousands of names. WE MUST MATCH THEM!
Please send this email to all of your family and friends. Our goal is to present 50,000 names to the General Assembly. We need your help right now to block the pro-aborts from making huge progress for abortion at the UN.
We are going to run this campaign for the next six weeks. There is plenty of time to get this petition to everyone in your address book and all around the world. This is an international right. Please help us now.
Imagine the look on their faces when we slam down 50,000 names! Be a part of that.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Google backs down on blocking pro-life ads
Briefing. Life ebay and Youtube, Google has to be constantly harried to stop the viscerally intolerant liberalism of its staff effecting its policies. It blocked adverts for pro-life groups linked to the word 'abortion'. Threat of legal action has led to a change of heart. As a result of the court action and other representations made to Google in recent months, Google has reviewed its AdWords policy to enable The Christian Institute and other religious associations to place ads on the subject of abortion in a factual and campaigning way. The new policy will apply world-wide with immediate effect. This is an important issue of free speech and religious liberty and we are very pleased with Google's constructive response to this matter. This is yet another success for our Legal Defence Fund. We thank God for this result and we thank you for your prayers and support.
From CFNews: Colin Hart, Director of the Christian Institute, emails: 'I am delighted to tell you that our legal proceedings against Google for blocking our abortion ad have been settled on amicable terms.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
FFM Parishes: O'Donaghue on being Catholic, 13
Another of our extracts from 'Fit for Mission? - Parishes' by Bishop O'Donaghue of Lancaster. Click on the 'label' FFM Parishes to see others. See the 'Fit for Mission?' website and download the full document. The previous title in the series, 'Fit for Mission? - Schools' is downloadable here (pdf). This generated a Facebook support group.
From section 10.7.4, p73:
I am convinced another cause of the wide-spread violence lies in the Abortion Act of 1967. For 41 years we’ve lived in a state-sponsored culture of death that has killed 5 million children, and we’re now surprised that some of the surviving children have turned out violent with no regard for the sanctity of life?
How many children know that their mothers have had an abortion? What effect will it have on them knowing that they have been deprived of a brother or sister through abortion?
If a society holds human life so cheaply is it any surprise that young people will also hold life cheaply and engage in violence?
I encourage all our schools and parishes to continue to take steps to protect our young people from cultures of death, that seek to corrupt and exploit them.
From 10.7.5, p73
At every opportunity proclaim the right to Life – the most fundamental human right that underpins authentic work for justice and peace (cf. Mission Priority of the Final Proposals of the Fit for Mission? Parish review).
Pray, Protest and Petition the institutions that promote the culture of death – Parliament, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nurses, Brooke Advisory Centres, broadcasters, the tabloids and broadsheets.
I also ask all parishes to support Catholic organisations, such as Life groups, that provide counselling, advice, support and hospitality to women considering abortions.
Also consider actively supporting the following groups promoting the Gospel of Life: The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child; Sisters of the Gospel of Life, Life and other pro-life organisations.
I ask all our parishes to support the work of Cenacolo as a way of challenging the culture of death spread by substance-abuse.
I also encourage our parishes to face the reality of suffering caused by alcohol abuse, through
promoting the work of their local Alcoholics Anonymous groups.
Friday, September 19, 2008
TUC demands more abortion
Briefing: another signal of the silencing of Catholic voices on the Left.
From Lifesitenews, via CFNews: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for the total de-restriction of abortion in Britain. At its meeting in Brighton this week, the TUC announced its belief that abortion is a 'fundamental right.'
Proposition 19 of the Congress documents says, 'Congress believes abortion should be legally available at the request of the woman and the requirement that two doctors agree to her decision should be ended.'
Further, it says, 'Congress believes the law should be modernised to allow women, not doctors, to make the abortion decision, like every other medical procedure.'
The TUC is calling for its Women's Committee to campaign and lobby in Parliament and among other union affiliates to 'defend the current legal upper limit of 24 weeks and oppose any mandatory 'cooling-off' period and compulsory counselling.'The Committee should 'work closely' with abortion groups and 'ensure' a change in law to further liberalise the abortion law and to extend the 1967 Abortion Act into Northern Ireland, a move vigorously opposed by the parliament and people of Northern Ireland. In addition, the TUC called for more and 'improved' sex education and contraception, or 'family planning', in schools. John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said that the proposals are deceitful in presenting abortion as an 'equality' issue.
'The truth is,' he wrote, 'that abortion hurts women and abortion is the antithesis of equal rights.''My worry is that promoting abortion in places of work will also promote an anti-woman, anti-motherhood, agenda in the workplace.' Smeaton says he is concerned that 'unscrupulous employers' will use the TUC policy of promoting abortion to avoid paying maternity leave. 'How convenient for employers to put their selfish business interests first under the guise of women's rights!'Very few real restrictions on abortion still exist in British law and the system as it is provides for virtually unlimited abortion on demand. The law requires that a woman obtain the approval of two doctors for abortion under 24 weeks gestation: but that approval is now a matter of form. Abortions for eugenic purposes on children suspected to have a 'serious' defect is without restriction.
In recent years, British abortion providers have been criticised but not penalised for referring women over the 24 week limit to other EU countries to obtain late-term abortion on healthy children. During the debates on the government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, proposals have been put forward as amendments that will abolish these restrictions. Efforts to tighten restrictions and limit abortion have been defeated. In the same TUC document, Proposition 16 also chided the government for focusing on what it called 'traditional protections from discrimination on grounds of sex, race and age' and neglecting the 'newer equality strands' that support the homosexualist political movement's aims. The Congress calls for lobbying in support of the 'newer and more controversial strands' of 'equality' focusing on 'sexual orientation' and 'transgender status.'
With fifty-nine affiliated unions and a total of about 6.5 million members, the TUC remains a strong influence on the Labour party, which has its roots in trade unionism. The TUC was the body which initiated the Labour Representation Committee in the late 19th century which went on to become the modern Labour Party. Although there is no formal link between the TUC and the party, the major TUC affiliated unions still make up the great bulk of the British Labour Party affiliated membership.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
FFM Parishes: O'Donaghue on being Catholic, 12
Another of our extracts from 'Fit for Mission? - Parishes' by Bishop O'Donaghue of Lancaster. Click on the 'label' FFM Parishes to see others. See the 'Fit for Mission?' website and download the full document. The previous title in the series, 'Fit for Mission? - Schools' is downloadable here (pdf). This generated a Facebook support group.
From section 10.6.2, p69:
These statistics reveal the shocking depth and extent of the suffering and impoverishment of so many families and children due to the separation of the unitive and procreative nature of sexual love, and the wide-spread practice of pre-marital sexual behaviour. I am convinced that there must be profoundly damaging consequences for the family in a country were contraception and abortion are so wide-spread. No wonder so many children are suffering depression and mental illness in a country that is such a hostile environment for human life. No wonder divorce is so prevalent when family life is so often characterised by a lack of generosity or self-giving love.
From 10.7.3, p71:
What do we mean when we use the phrase ‘Culture of Death’? There is the legalised, state-sponsored culture of death, facilitated by some medical professionals, scientists, politicians and journalists. And there is the illegal, criminally facilitated culture of death that, for example, pushes drugs, trafficking in women and children for the sex industry, and facilitates degrading activities. Both the legal and illegal cultures of death reinforce and sustain each other through spreading the general darkening of conscience in society.
From 10.7.3, p72
As Bishop of Lancaster I have recently spoken out against a crime against life that the UK Government is enacting in the most degrading way – experimentation on embryonic human beings and the creation of human-animal hybrid. As I said in my Easter Vigil homily (2008):
‘The Prime Minister has made it clear that he wants Britain to be the world’s number one centre for genetic and stem cell research. He sees it as building up the hi-tech sector of British industry and contributing to economic growth. It is good to develop British industry and foster economic growth, but not through exploiting and destroying embryonic human persons’.
‘A society that seeks medical cures and economic development at the cost of human rights, human dignity and human life is ‘monstrous’. It is not the defenceless, human-animal embryo, that is ‘monstrous’; it is we ourselves who have become ‘monsters’ for allowing the exploitation of the unborn for our economic and medical gain’.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Victory for pro-life Trainee Doctor
Briefing: good news!
From CFNews: The Thomas More Legal Centre has issued a press release announcing they successfully represented a Roman Catholic Trainee Doctor, who was threatened with dismissal and was reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) because he refused to participate in abortion advice or the prescribing of the 'morning after pill'. The doctor was told that unless he changed his views he would be marked down as failed in his training to be a GP and he could also be reported to the GMC and potentially struck off the medical register. He was being pressurised to leave general practice altogether when he contacted the Thomas More Legal Centre, who advised him of his rights and drafted letters to his employers accordingly.
The GMC eventually confirmed the Centre's opinion that the doctor was acting in accordance with medical professional rules.
