Society must listen to bishops speaking up for disability rights

This week Catholic bishops in Spain and Australia have spoken up strongly against the elimination of disabled from society through eugenic practices. In Spain, the bishops noted that under Spanish law, health was defined as:

"'physical, mental and social well-being'. If such well-being is considered to be threatened by he who is going to be born, he can be treated like an obstacle to quality of life, whose elimination therefore is taken to be lawful"

In Australia, Bishop Peter Elliott, head of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, said that the warped practise of eugenics is rising from its Nazi tomb in Australia. He said that unborn children are being sought and destroyed in the womb because they have Down's Syndrome, dwarfism or other conditions. The bishop said that he was bound as a pastor to help people form their consciences and not to be silent.

And in Poland, as I blogged on Thursday, the bishops last month issued a strong statement against IVF, which among thing said that:

"IVF is a younger sister to eugenics - an allegedly medical procedure - recalling the worst connotations of a not-so-distant history. The IVF procedure presupposes 'selection' of embryos, which means killing them. It's about eliminating the weaker human embryos, diagnosed as defective, which is the 'selective eugenics' often condemned by Pope John Paul II and other authorities."

Our society is thirsty - without even knowing it - for the consistency, clarity and guidance of these bishops' words. Recent decades have seen a society develop which is both less and more cruel than in previous generations. France has even awarded its highest honour to a disabled woman who opposes euthanasia. Maryannick Pavageau, (pictured, above) who recovered from locked-in syndrome after a stroke, was awarded the Legion of Honour for her many years of campaigning for the rights of the disabled. Some improved rights for disabled adults have been developed at the same time as ever more precise techniques for detecting disabled unborn children with the sole purpose of killing them. More and more bishops and priests must use their unique position as moral spokesman to correct this contradictory, lethal mindset, and to do so in words which confront the reality of the evil of which they are speaking.

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Durham debate exposes stale pro-abortion lobby

Last month Anthony Ozimic (pictured second from right) SPUC's communications manager, debated at the Durham Union Society against the motion "This House believes abortion is a fundamental human right". Joining him was Jamie Bogle (pictured far right), chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain and a long-standing collaborator with SPUC. On SPUC's website you can read the speeches from Anthony and Jamie. You can also watch a video of a six-minute extract from Anthony's speech below.



Speaking in favour of the motion were Dr Jane Mann (pictured far left), the founder of the UK's first dedicated medical "service" concentrating on abortion, and Alison Peters (second from left), the head of Marie Stopes's Bristol centre. The result was very close. The first voice vote taken at the end of the debate was too close for the chairman to call, so she had to call for another one, which was also very close but which she judged to be in favour of the motion.

Anthony tells me that the pro-abortion speakers had nothing new to say. Dr Mann wheeled out the old pro-abortion chestnuts:

• unborn children are merely "potential human beings" - when in fact unborn children are full human beings with potential. Jamie Bogle easily disposed of her argument and cogently laid out the evidence for the humanity of unborn children. Dr Mann later contradicted herself by admitting that unborn children were human lives.
• legal abortion is necessary to save women from illegal abortion - when in fact legal abortion is not safe, and the pro-abortion lobby has a track-record of massively exaggerating statistics related to illegal abortion
• equal rights for women - when in fact the pioneers of equal rights for women were opposed to abortion because they believed abortion was contrary to women's dignity.

Mrs Peters had very little to say, basing her argument on her own experience (which included an abortion) and on abortion as a necessary back-up for a free sex life and in case of contraceptive failure.

The narrowness of the vote and the staleness of the pro-abortion speakers' arguments is a sign that the pro-life case has real power to make inroads into the culture of death.

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Polish bishops defend embryonic children by opposing IVF

The legalisation of IVF is one of, if not the, most important political issue in Poland right now. The Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, is currently debating several bills with different proposals simultaneously. According to the Warsaw Voice newspaper, last week five of the six original bills passed at first reading and have been sent to parliamentary committees. The bill that was rejected was authored by Teresa Wargocka of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. However, one of the bills which has survived, authored by Boleslaw Piecha, also of PiS, proposes a wide (but not complete) prohibition of IVF. Of the other bills, a more permissive one authored by Jaroslaw Gowin of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) party would allow IVF whilst aiming to ban the freezing of embryos and to limit state-funded IVF to married couples only. Another bill, authored by Malgorzata Kidawa-Błonska (PO) and favoured by prime minister Donald Tusk (PO), would see IVF funded by the state. A bill favoured by the left-wing SLD party would allow IVF for homosexual couples.

Back in December 2008, some of our pro-life colleagues in Poland had expressed concern that the Polish Catholic bishops' conference were reported as supporting the compromise proposals of Mr Gowin, rather than a complete ban on IVF. However, last month the bishops' conference issued a strong statement against IVF, and we therefore hope that the bishops will support a complete ban on IVF and stand firm in their opposition to compromise legislation. The bishop's statement is below in full (translated by Magdalena Ozimic, wife of Anthony, SPUC's communications manager):

To Mr Bronislaw Komorowski, President of the Republic of Poland, Warsaw, 18 October 2010

Dear Mr President,

Since Parliament is again deliberating matters of the legal regulation of IVF, we raise our voice to ensure that the serious moral arguments and respect for the position of people who regard the defence of the right to life of every human as the primary moral principle, are not overlooked. We would like to warn against adopting laws allowing legal arrangements which are irreconcilable both with objective scientific ideas about the beginning of human biological life, as well as with unequivocal moral indications, coming from the Decalogue and the Gospel, and which the Church reminds us about.

1. The in-vitro method incurs huge human costs, which are related to it. For one child to be born, death occurs in every case, at various stages of the medical procedure, of many human beings. Even more embryos are subjected to freezing. Science and faith underline, that from the moment of conception, we are dealing with a human being, a human person in the embryonic phase.

2. The effects of the procedure of IVF on children conceived in this way are still not fully examined. More and more studies are showing that the effect of this procedure is lower immunity, prematurity, low birth weight, complications, and more frequent incidence of various genetic diseases. Therefore this method is simply dangerous for children conceived with its aid.

3. IVF is a younger sister to eugenics - an allegedly medical procedure - recalling the worst connotations of a not-so-distant history. The IVF procedure presupposes 'selection' of embryos, which means killing them. It's about eliminating the weaker human embryos, diagnosed as defective, which is the 'selective eugenics' often condemned by Pope John Paul II and other authorities.

4. Incalculable are also the social consequences that can result from the spread of the IVF method. A child conceived that way may have three mothers: genetic (donor of the genetic material), biological (the one who gave birth), and social (the one who will bring up the child). Fatherhood in case of IVF is even more difficult to determine. So-called "donors of genetic material" are sometimes anonymous, but known are also cases where they are made responsible for paying maintenance for the child conceived with their genetic material. The separation of procreation from the marital act always brings harmful social consequences, and is especially detrimental to children coming into the world as a result of actions by third parties. Legal legitimacy of the IVF procedure results in an inevitable redefinition of fatherhood, motherhood and marital fidelity. It also introduces confusion in family relationships and contributes to undermining the foundations of social life.

5. At the same time, there is an urgent need for programmes aimed at preventing infertility, whose causes are known and determined by conscious human activity, and for the treatment of infertility, which the IVF technology is not. People using it remain infertile and ill.

6. Sympathising with families' suffering because of lack of offspring, we praise all those who, despite personal drama, keep faith with the rules of Christian ethics and who are open to welcoming children through adoption.

We hope that the arguments presented here will become a subject for reflection and will encourage towards objectivity those to whom the nation has given respect and trust at this present stage in Polish history.

+ Jozef Michalik, President of the Polish Episcopal Conference
Kazimierz Gorny, President of the Council for the Family of the Polish Episcopal Conference
+ Henryk Hoser, President of the Expert Group for Bioethical Matters of the Polish Episcopal Conference

Cc. 
Marshal of the Sejm
Marshal of the Senate
Prime Minister
President of the Parliamentary Clubs
President of the Parliamentary Health Commission
President of the Parliamentary Commission on Social Policy and Family

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SPUC Northern Ireland defends the unborn against flawed abortion guidance

SPUC Northern Ireland has published its submission on the abortion guidance issued by the department of health in Northern Ireland. You can read the submission in full on the SPUC website. Liam Gibson, SPUC NI's development officer, has sent me the following resumé of the current situation and SPUC NI's submission:

"The consultation on the latest proposed guidance on abortion law and clinical practice in Northern Ireland finished on Friday 22 October. This consultation was a result of SPUC’s legal victory last year when the High Court ordered the withdrawal of the health department’s original guidance. SPUC’s success was a serious setback for both the department of health and the abortion advocates who had hoped to use guidelines to undermine Northern Ireland’s abortion law in the same way the euthanasia lobby undermined the law on assisted suicide. The original guidance had the potential to make abortion more readily available in the province and would have forced pro-life doctors to facilitate abortion by referral. SPUC therefore had no choice but to seek a judicial review.

The High Court singled out flaws in two crucial areas, counselling and conscientious objection. The importance of these issues is underlined by the fact that the problems in these sections meant the entire guidance had to be withdrawn. Despite this, however, the health officials were so determined to press ahead with the guidance that it was quickly reissued without the sections on counselling and conscientious objection. It was only after SPUC was granted permission to begin a second court action, that the health department finally withdrew the entire document and called the consultation process which has just ended.

The new proposals contain many of the problems of the original guidance. For example:

• the need for specialised counselling for women traumatised byabortion is ignored
• there are no proposals for comprehensive monitoring procedures to ensure doctors comply with the law
• it lacks a forthright rejection of eugenic abortion
• it misinterprets statements on conscientious objection from the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

But the most serious difficulty with the new version of the guidance is that it has failed to take on board the criticisms of the High Court regarding conscientious objection. Section 4.2 describes the circumstances where “a practitioner or other healthcare professional may not refuse to participate in a termination procedure”. It describes these circumstances as including “where the life of the woman is in danger”. The High Court ruled that the same statement in the original guidance failed to make sufficiently clear whether such circumstances would include a threat to life on mental health grounds. Remarkably this passage still appears in the reissued guidance.

Pro-life efforts to date have resulted in gradual improvements but the overall tone of the guidance still reflects a broadly permissive interpretation of abortion law in Northern Ireland. Ultimately, the ministers in the Executive will have to give their approval to the guidance before it can be published. Until then the pro-life movement must continue to call on politicians to ensure the final version of the guidance establishes highest possible levels of protection for children, their mothers and members of the medical profession."

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It's right to be scandalised by bishops' disobedience to the Magisterium, says Archbishop Burke

My address to Campaign Life Coalition's international pro-life conference, last week, drew much inspiration from Archbishop Raymond Burke's speech in Rome last month to the World Prayer Congress for Life. You can read what I said in full on the SPUC website. (I am pictured with fellow speakers, right, at the Ottawa conference.)

Archbishop Burke explained that a fundamental supposition of his presentation was "the essential relationship of the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family". He said:

“The attack on the innocent and defenceless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act ... The so-called ‘contraceptive mentality’ is essentially anti-life. Many forms of so-called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy, at its beginning, a life which has already been conceived.”

In my Ottawa address, I echoed the archbishop's view on contraception and also his observation that the pro-life struggle is "full of hope". However, I made the point that we are full of hope in a world dominated, or even persecuted by the culture of death - and that the situation was made even worse by church leaders who appear to have imbibed the spirit of the age. I said:

"Tragically, in Britain, induced abortion and birth control drugs and devices are provided to children at school, including Catholic schools, under the age of 16 without parental knowledge or consent. This is happening with the co-operation of the Catholic authorities.

"Britain is witnessing the fulfilment of the prophetic message of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's historic encyclical which celebrated its 40th anniversary two years ago. Speaking about the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative aspects of sexual intercourse he wrote: 'Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone.' When Pope Paul VI wrote these words, he was referring to governments imposing birth control practices on whole societies. His words apply, tragically, with terrifying consequences for our families, to Catholic bishops in England and Wales, who co-operate with the British government policy of imposing birth control practices on families like mine."

I went on to cite Archbishop Burke's speech in Rome again, especially his reflections on lack of episcopal obedience to the magisterium of the Catholic church, particularly on morals relating to the sanctity of human life. The archbishop said:

“A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life.”

I quoted the good Archbishop because, I observed, the pro-life movement in Canada and around the world receives much of its support from Catholics. I said that the failure of Catholic bishops to teach their flocks on matters relating to the fundamental right to life was directly responsible for great confusion and, consequently, for the failure of the overwhelming majority of Catholics, both clerical and lay, to provide truly effective resistance to the greatest legalized slaughter of human beings in the history of the world. Countless millions of unborn children were being killed each year and the policy of very many Catholic bishops was contributing hugely to this deplorable situation.

Archbishop Burke went on to say in his historic Rome speech:

“Catechesis is a most fundamental responsibility which the Bishop exercises on behalf of the good of the faithful entrusted to his care, ultimately, of their eternal salvation ... Pope John Paul II declared ‘It is therefore the duty of every Bishop to give real priority in his particular Church to active and effective catechesis. He must demonstrate his personal concern through direct interventions aimed at promoting and preserving an authentic passion for catechesis’”.

Archbishop Burke continued:

“Obedience to the Magisterium is a virtue and is attained through obedience. When the shepherds of the flock are obedient to the Magisterium, entrusted to their exercise, then the members of the flock grow in obedience and proceed, with Christ, along the way of salvation. If the shepherd is not obedient, the flock easily gives way to confusion and error. The shepherd must be especially attentive to the assaults of Satan who knows that, if he can strike the shepherd, the work of scattering the flock will be made easy. (cf. Zec 13.7)”

Relating Archbishop Burke's observations to the situation in Britain and elsewhere, I said in Ottawa:

"I affirm that my own archbishop, the archbishop of Westminster, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, was not being obedient to the magisterium when he said on BBC television that he did not know if the Catholic Church would eventually sanction gay unions*. I affirm that Archbishop Nichols and the Catholic bishops of England and Wales are not being obedient to the magisterium in their co-operation with the British government policy of providing children at Catholic schools with access to abortion. I affirm that Archbishop Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation is not being obedient to the magisterium when he stands by the original wording of his article in L’Osservatore Romano last year which implied that there are difficult situations in which doctors enjoy scope for the autonomous exercise of conscience in deciding whether to carry out a direct abortion. These are far from isolated examples. I hear in country after country throughout Europe about the disobedience of bishops to the magisterium and everyone knows that the flocks are well and truly scattered, not least on abortion, IVF, human embryo research, euthanasia and issues relating to homosexuality."

I told our Canadian pro-life friends that Archbishop Burke went on to empower Catholics and all people of good will to speak out publicly about the scandal of Catholics “who claim to be practising their faith but who refuse to apply the truth of the faith in the exercise of politics, medicine, business and other human endeavours...” He said:

“One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church ... What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

“Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church’s unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities.” 

So, encouraged by Archbishop Burke, I urged the pro-life movement in Canada, as well as pro-lifersthroughout the world, in the words of Archbishop Burke, “to experience scandal at public action of Catholics which are gravely contrary to the moral law” and “speaking the truth with love” to build unity within the church on the moral law.

I commended, in particular the great charity demonstrated by the team which runs and supports LifeSiteNews.com, the Canadian pro-life news agency and one of the pro-life movement’s greatest gifts to the modern world - not least in their important exposure of the international development work undertaken by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) through their Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP). LifeSiteNews.com's investigations found CCODP funding nuimerous groups advocating for abortion and contraception throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa, each group receiving tens of thousands of dollars from CCODP.

* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. 

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Safe at School challenges pill-for-13-year-olds pilot scheme

Safe at School has challenged a pilot scheme launched on the Isle of Wight through which pharmacies will supply hormonal birth control pills to teenagers without prescription.

Antonia Tully of Safe at School and a mother of four teenage children, told the media this morning:

"This is a sad and misguided move. It's sad because it is sexualising young teenagers and priming them for premature sex. It's misguided because over the last 10 years more than £200 million of taxpayers' money been spent on initiatives like this in England and Wales and have failed to have any benefit. Many more teenagers now have sexually-transmitted diseases, and registered abortions have continued at the same high level. The number of teenage births have declined slightly, but nowhere near the 50% target. This result suggests that schemes like this encourage illegal under-age sex, and expose more young people to risk."

"Schemes like this make all teenagers vulnerable to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitte diseases. Teenagers need parenting, not pills. We need a new approach to the problem of teenage pregnancies, an approach that gets parents involved in this area of their children's lives. This means scrapping schemes which give under-age children contraceptives without their parents knowing anything about it and encourage abuse. I'd like to see programmes which promote self-esteem for teenagers - they deserve better than free contraceptives."

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The greatest achievement of the pro-life movement is that it exists!

In Ottawa, I welcomed delegates on behalf of International Right to Life Federation (IRLF) which was co-sponsoring (in a purely honorary way) Campaign Life Coalition's Congress. I was standing in for our IRLF president Dr Jack Willke (who arrived after the opening ceremony). I said:

The fact that the pro-life movement exists is far more important than any successes we may have enjoyed at the national or international level. Such successes are important – whether they are legislative successes, successes in the courts, or successes enjoyed by a pro-life counselling group or by pro-lifers giving witness outside an abortion clinic.

All such successes, of course, may result in human lives being saved and so their value is immeasurable.

However, what’s most important is that our pro-life movement is well-established and that it’s growing in many countries throughout the world. What’s most important is that our pro-life movement is passing on our expertise in pro-life work to the next generation; what’s most important is that we are passing on to the next generation our knowledge of the truth about the absolute sanctity of human life from conception to natural death and about how respect for human life is rooted in the unchanging truth about human sexuality, about marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman, and about the inalienable rights of parents and of the family.

During the past month - in pro-life conferences in Rome, Glasgow and Ottawa - I have certainly seen living evidence of "expertise in pro-life work" passing on to the next generation - with older statesmen and stateswomen of the pro-life movement sharing the platform with young, and some very young people, who are poised to become significant leaders in their own right.

One of the speaking stars in Ottawa has been Lia Mills, who's 14 (pictured right). As part of a school assignment for the 7th-grade, she chose to write a speech on abortion. In spite of being strongly encouraged not to pursue the topic, and threatened with disqualification on a number of occasions, she pressed on. The YouTube video of her speech has been viewed almost 1,000,000 times by people from around the world. Since then, Lia has worked on several other YouTube videos with the goal of helping educate people on the issue of abortion. She is the spokesperson for Teen Defenders, an organization whose goal is to help connect with youth on the abortion issue.

How fantastic it is that Lia Mills has been able to share the platform here in Ottawa with Dr Jack and Barbara Willke whose Handbook on Abortion was first published in 1971 and is now in its 7th edition. Jack and Barbara are 62 years married, they have 6 children, 22 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Other significant publications include: Abortion and Slavery, History Repeats and Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia, Past & Present and they have co-authored six other books on human sexuality which have been translated into 30 languages. Jack and Barbara are currently working on a history of the pro-life movement in which they have been actively involved as leaders at the federal and state level from the beginning. They have lectured (to date!) in 87 countries.

Jack and Barbara are pictured above at the Congress with Reverend Johnny Hunter, the president of Life Education and Research Network (LEARN), the largest African-American pro-life organization in the US, who inspired delegates with a stunning speech during last night's banquet. Under Reverend Hunter's leadership, the African-American community in the US has become aware of the devastating effects of abortion on their racial group - and he refers to himself as the pastor to the unborn.


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Tough archbishop participates in international pro-life conference in Ottawa

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the archbishop of Ottawa, joined us at the international Congress and celebrated Mass for Catholic delegates this morning.

Archbishop Prendergast is known in Canada for his no-nonsense stand regarding giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians. In an interview with Lifesite news he said: “The Church’s concern is for anyone who persists in grave sin, hoping that medicinal measures ... may draw them away from the wrong path to the truth of our faith”.

I am pictured above sharing a meal with the archbishop at the Congress, together with Kit and Fenny Tatad from the Philippines. Kit Tatad was for many years majority leader in the Philippines Senate. He addressed the congress today on the huge international attack on the Philippines constitutional protection for the unborn, led by pro-abortion Barack Obama's administration in the US. Kit and Fenny work closely with the Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Philippines in opposing the pro-abortion/contraceptive imperialism of the western world. The Philippines bishops and people are resisting these pressures with great courage. (They need our prayerful support - and they need pro-life campaigners, politicians and church leaders in the western world to expose and to denounce and oppose their governments’ pro-abortion imperialistic foreign policies towards the Philippines.)

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“I will fight abortion until the day I die” says Mother Teresa Award winner

During Campaign Life Coalition’s conference in Ottawa this weekend, Heather Stilwell, a pro-life activist, was awarded LifeCanada's annual Mother Teresa Award. She's pictured, right, receiving the award from Monica Roddis, acting president of LifeCanada, (who hails from Manchester, England!), and with Elizabeth, the youngest of Heather’s eight children.

Apart from taking on leadership roles in politics and in the pro-life movement, she became a school board trustee and was famous for her opposition to sex education, abortion and the promotion of homosexuality in schools. In 1997 Heather was involved in a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the decision to allow in Catholic elementary schools three children's books which portrayed same-sex parents.

Two years ago the Heather was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and various treatments but recently decided that the cancer had become too aggressive and she decided to stop all treatment. It was her wish that she would be able to attend the 2010 international congress in Ottawa, involving a 7 hour trip from her home in British Columbia. Receiving the award, Heather told us that she would fight abortion till she day she dies. I have rarely been so moved.


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Canadian writer and painter gives advice on spreading pro-life message

One of the most thought-provoking presentations at this weekend’s Campaign Life Coalition Conference in Ottawa Building a Global Culture of Life was from Michael O’Brien (pictured). Michael is a painter, novelist and essayist. 

Responding to an eloquent young man’s question as to how he should transmit the pro-life message to his peers, Michael O’Brien said: “Be who you are. You are already a light to the world. You are already the salt of the earth. And take the blows you receive from people who attack you or undermine you and convert those blows into a prayer for those who are striking you.” 

His paintings hang in churches, monasteries, universities, community collections and private collections in the US, Canada, England, Australia and Africa. He is the author of several books, notably a seven volume series of novels: the first volume, Father Elijah, has sold more than 40,000 copies in hard cover.  His most recent novel is Theophilus, the story of the man to whom St. Luke addressed his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.  Michael and his wife Sheila have six children.

 
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Campaign Life Coalition is led by a man of vision

My snapshot (right) expresses for me what real pro-life leadership is all about. It's Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition and my fellow vice-president of International Right to Life Federation. He's bringing in extra chairs to a congress hall overflowing with delegates.

Over 30 years ago, Jim sacrificed a successful business career to establish the pro-life struggle in Canada which he's led ever since. Apart from leading one of the world's toughest pro-life political battles with great skill and legendary good humour - unborn children in Canada have no legal protection whatsover -  Jim's vision and generosity have resulted in pro-life initiatives whose positive impact is being experienced worlwide - including Lifesite news and Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

John-Henry Westen, co-founder and first editor of Lifesite news, is pictured here on the conference platform in Ottawa with Deborah Gyapong, a TV, radio and print journalist for over 20 years. John-Henry has become one of the world’s leading pro-life witnesses. Earlier this month at the World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome he spoke powerfully about his conversion experience to life and to family values, inspired by the example of his father (who, John-Henry tells me, was, in his turn, inspired by the leadership of Jim Hughes). John-Henry’s Lifesite news articles now appear in hundreds of publications worldwide. He and Dianne, his wife, have seven children.

Deborah Gyapong belongs to the traditional Anglican communion and she now reports on religion and politics principally for Roman Catholic and evangelical newspapers. In 2005, the manuscript for her suspense novel The Defilers won the Best New Canadian Christian Fiction Award. The prize included publication. The Defilers was released in May 2006.

Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and Susan, his wife, have six children. Alex has just returned from a speaking tour of Australia - and he's pictured (right) at the Ottawa conference where, with Peter Ryan, a moral theologian, he addressed us on euthanasia. The goal of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is to help in building around the world well-informed, broad-based, groups in order to establish an effective social barrier to euthanasia and assisted suicide.


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Pope Benedict puts abortion at centre of Brazilian presidential election campaign

Pope Benedict could not have been more blunt about abortion, euthanasia, and the forthcoming presidential election in Brazil, according to Dr Talmir Rodriguez, a member of Brazil's federal parliament. He is chairman of the Brazil parliament's (over 200-strong) pro-life group of elected representatives.

Talmir (pictured here across the breakfast table!) and I met this morning during Canada's Campaign Life Coalition Congress in Ottawa at which we are speaking this weekend. We were discussing the Pope's address yesterday to Brazil's national conference of bishops (its north east region). The bishops were in Rome for their 5-yearly "ad limina" visit. Talmir told me:

"The Pope told the bishops that Brazilians must not vote for a clearly pro-abortion candidate to be Brazil's president, a candidate who belongs to a party, officially known to be pro-abortion, indeed a party which will not accept politicians who refuse to vote for abortion".

Pope Benedict said:

"First, the duty of direct action to ensure a just ordering of society falls to the lay faithful who, as free and responsible citizens, strive to contribute to the just configuration of social life, while respecting legitimate autonomy and natural moral law.

"Your duty as bishops, together with your clergy, is indirect because you must contribute to the purification of reason, and to the moral awakening of the forces necessary to build a just and fraternal society. Nonetheless, when required by the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls, pastors have the binding duty to emit moral judgments, even on political themes.

"When forming these judgements, pastors must bear in mind the absolute value of those ... precepts which make it morally unacceptable to chose a particular action which is intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity. This decision cannot be justified by the merit of some specific goal, intention, consequence or circumstance, thus it would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defence of the right to life from conception to natural end. When it comes to defending the weakest, who is more defenceless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or comatose state?

"When political projects openly or covertly contemplate the depenalisation of abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal (which is truly democratic when it recognises and protects the dignity of all human beings) is betrayed at its very foundations. For this reason, dear brothers in the episcopate, when defending life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, rejecting all compromise and ambiguity which would conform us to the mentality of this world."

In order to understand the significance of Pope Benedict's comments, we should bear in mind recently reported developments in the Brazilian presidential election campaign:

Dilma Rousseff, the Brazil Workers' party presidential candidate, had described herself as personally opposed to abortion. This prompted Archbishop Aldo Pagotto of Paraiba to accuse Brazil’s Workers' Party of 'misinformation and manipulation of consciences'.

Catholic News Agency reported:

"In a video released Oct. 11, the archbishop said the party’s actions on behalf of its candidate ... are aimed at 'deceiving voters' into believing that she does not favour any legalization of abortion in the country. However, in an internet video produced in 2007, she is shown arguing that, 'Today in Brazil, it is absurd that abortion has not yet been legalized’.

"The archbishop charged that since the 1990s the Workers' Party has been in league with international organizations that have financed the expansion of contraception and abortion in Brazil.

“'Ever since it rose to power, the Workers' Party agenda has been the complete legalization of abortion in Brazil', he said."

Whatever the outcome of the presidential election - and I'm told it's not looking good - these are exactly the kind of interventions the world needs from religious leaders. The last four decades have seen the greatest slaughter of human beings in the history of the world by abortion, abortifacient birth control, human embryo experimentation and, increasingly by euthanasia. Countless millions of human beings are being killed each year in defiance of international agreements which uphold the right to life for all members of the human family. The Pope's remarks to the Brazilian bishops have universal application:

" ...it would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defence of the right to life from conception to natural end."

Pope Benedict rightly recognizes the role of the lay faithful to work for the just ordering of society - but it falls to church leaders to provide "moral awakening". Let's pray that Pope Benedict has the strength, through such leadership, to turn the current strong tide of episcopal acquiescence to pro-abortion, anti-parents governments, especially in Britain.

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Jack Valero of Catholic Voices sells the pass again on Catholic Church teaching on condoms

Yesterday Jack Valero, speaking on behalf of Catholic Voices, was interviewed by the BBC World Service about the distribution of condoms by a Catholic church (pictured) in Lucerne, Switzerland (see full transcript below). He was interviewed alongside Mr Florian Flohr, a spokesman for the Lucerne church. Interestingly, the presenter said:

"We actually invited the Vatican to come on the programme and speak about this. They told us there was no need to, because the Catholic Church's view on this issue is already known."

Last week Mr Valero affirmed that he:

"totally support[s] the Magisterium of the Church as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all the relevant encyclicals (Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, etc)"

Yet yesterday Mr Valero again let down the pro-life/pro-family movement by once more misrepresenting and short-selling Catholic Church teaching on condoms. Mr Valero again made the false claim that "the Church is not against condoms", and again was silent on the primary reason why the Catholic Church is against condoms. The primary reason why the Catholic Church is against condoms is because condoms' use, by closing the marital act to the transmission of life, separates the procreative and unitive dimensions of sexual intercourse, contrary to the crystal-clear teaching of Humanae Vitae that:

"[E]ach and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life." (Humanae Vitae, 11)

Mr Valero merely described the Lucerne church's condom distribution as "a mistake". In this Mr Valero repeated his same woefully inadequate description of April's disgusting Foreign Office memo as just a bad joke. There is a world of difference in explaining things and in explaining away things.

Mr Valero's approach was entirely consequentialist, focusing on the effectiveness of Catholic campaigns against promiscuity and ineffectiveness of condom distribution campaigns respectively in reducing the spread of HIV. Even on that point Mr Valero misrepresented Catholic teaching, by claiming that the Church preaches both chastity ("abstinence before marriage, fidelity within marriage") and limiting promiscuity ("delaying sexual activity and reducing the number of partners"). The delay of sexual activity and reduction in partners is no different to what IPPF, FPA, Marie Stopes etc say is the benefit from their sex education programmes. So it is entirely unsurprising that the Lucerne church spokesman responded:

"Yes, I agree with my colleague [Mr Valero] that the main thing is not the condom ... We preach the same thing, the ABC rule, A is abstinence, B is be faithful, [C is use a condom if you can't abstain or be faithful]" [my emphases] 

Mr Valero was conspicuously silent on Mr Flohr's repeated claims that condom use is an open question for Catholics and that conscience and pluralism are more important than church authority. Mr Valero ignored a golden opportunity to uphold Catholic teaching on condom use, conspicuously failing to follow up the presenter's question to Mr Flohr that distributing condoms "flout(s) papal doctrine". Mr Valero also flatly spurned another golden opportunity when he was asked directly:

"Is this church breaking away from Rome?"

Mr Valero's reply:

"No, I don't think so, but on the other hand I don't think that in Switzerland we need condoms to fight AIDS. AIDS in Switzerland is under control."

Jack Valero has said that Catholic Voices' tactic in dealing with questions from the media is "re-framing". It seems that his idea of "re-framing" is actually to leave Catholic Church teaching out of the frame when it's convenient to do so.

"Swiss Catholic church hands out condoms in HIV/Aids campaign", BBC World Service, 28 October 2010, SPUC transcript:

Florian Flohr: "I think that we have to give a sign to the people that we are open to speak about all problems, and without taboos about this question of AIDS. It was not a question of distributing condoms as flyers for a pizza service but was always part of a discussion, and a good part of this action, I think."

Presenter to Flohr: "Well that's a very interesting point - how are you actually distributing these condoms? Is it on church territory, or are you out and about in the community with this?"

Flohr: "No. We had two parts of this action. The one part was an exposition on a truck in a place in front of the main station of Lucerne, and we were also at this truck, nearby, and we discussed with the people, with the young people about AIDS in Switzerland. There were very good talks. There was a 65-year-old woman who came to me and asked me for four condoms, and I was a little astonished, and she said: "They are not for me, but I have four grandsons, and I want to discuss with them about AIDS, and that's a very good sign to discuss with them."

Presenter to Flohr: "But nonetheless, this does flout papal doctrine, doesn't it? Have you been in contact with the Vatican? Did you ask them about this before you decided it, or have they been in touch with you?"

Flohr: "No, we decided the action, reflecting on the affair of AIDS, and looking at many statements of bishops around the world, the sentence that 'you can't speak about AIDS without speaking of condoms' of our bishop[s?] of Germany. So I think there is no one doctrine in the Catholic Church but there is a big discussion for years already, and we are part of this discussion."

Presenter: "We actually invited the Vatican to come on the programme and speak about this. They told us there was no need to, because the Catholic Church's view on this issue is already known. But let's bring in Jack Valero, who is press officer for Opus Dei, and a member of Catholic Voices, which is an organisation which provides the media with comment on major issues such as this. Jack Valero, what do you make of this decision by this Swiss church?"

Jack Valero: "Well, I'm not there, but from here, it's looks to me like it's a mistake. The Catholic Church has an approach about AIDS in Africa which works, which is based on behaviour change and education, and I think that's the emphasis. There are many agencies and governments distributing condoms in Africa. They have been doing so for 25 years and they haven't seemed to have worked; the pandemic continues. Behaviour change has been the one thing which has worked."

Presenter to Valero: "Many people would disagree with you on that, they would say that condom use and its free access has been the main thing that has worked."

Valero: "OK. If you take the statements by Edward Green of Harvard, who is one of the experts on AIDS, and he's in favour of using condoms but he thinks that condom campaigns haven't worked, the more condoms you've thrown [at the problem], the worse it has become. The Catholic Church has a different approach - it says, we preach behaviour change, fidelity, abstinence before marriage, fidelity in marriage, and even we preach delaying sexual activity and reducing the number of partners. These definitely work in saving lives, which is what we're all interested in. We have this approach because of this view which we have that sex is for marriage. We're not against condoms - we're against promiscuity, we're against sexual violence, against rape, prostitution; these are the things we're working against, these are the things that if we manage to control, then AIDS will end. The Catholic Church is doing very good work there, and I think that condoms, it completely misses the point of what the Church does."

Presenter: "Let's bring Florian back in on that again."

Flohr: "Yes, I agree with my colleague [Mr Valero] that the main thing is not the condom. We didn't preach to use condom and don't think about it. We preach the same thing, the ABC rule, A is abstinence, B is be faithful, but there are many situations and many people who can't live this, and for them, condoms is one possibility, not a miracle possibility, not the best one, but it is one, and we want to give this thing here because many people do think that the Catholic Church doesn't allow condoms, and I think that that's not true, and we want to say that we're open, discuss with us and discuss with each other because that's the most important."

Presenter to Flohr: "Florian Flohr, what do you think about local Catholic churches having more freedom to make these decisions about using condoms or talking to their parishioners about it, you know, churches in Africa for example where this is a real concern for lots of parishioners. Should local people, local priests have more say about whether or not to talk about condoms?"

Flohr: "I think that there are so many bishops who say this, that not speaking about condoms is unethical, that it's allowed for priests to do this, and it's not the affair of giving condoms, hundreds of condoms, but to make the people think about their behaviour, their sexuality, their responsibility, but not excluding the condom, and that's our message, I think the freedom is there."

Presenter: "Move away then from the church's hierarchy, from the hierarchical structure, from central control, a move away from that, you advocate?"

Flohr: "We think that in many questions, pluralism within the Church is good, is OK, because in this question there is no dogma. There are some preachers of the Pope, but there are also other bishops who say other things. So it's good that there is a discussion without being enemies but to demonstrate different points of view."

Presenter to Flohr: "What about the use of condoms for other reasons, not just for HIV/AIDS but for family planning for example?"

Flohr: "There we think that people are informed that condoms is not the most certain thing in this area and they also have to discuss this. I think the most important [thing] in the Catholic Church is the personal consciousness [conscience] and not what any priest or so said. Every person has to have his or her own opinion and listen to his own consciousness [conscience]

Presenter to Valero: "We're short of time. Is this church breaking away from Rome?"

Valero: "No, I don't think so, but on the other hand I don't think that in Switzerland we need condoms to fight AIDS. AIDS in Switzerland is under control. In Africa I'm sure that all the priests there look after every person who has AIDS there very well and gives them good advice. But I do think, and that it is the case that, in the main, the Catholic Church's message - which is not against condoms, which is against promiscuity, it's about behaviour change - is very helpful. There is no need. There's lots and lots of agencies and governments pushing condoms, there's no need for us to push them, we have our own message which works, and I'm sure that the priests in Africa do that very well."

END

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Vigil for the unborn outside Parliament marks Abortion Act anniversary

I am delighted to have been sent a report about yesterday's vigil for the unborn in London - to my temporary desk in a hotel room in Ottawa where I'm speaking at Campaign Life Coalition's annual Congress.

Dr Peter Saunders, the widely respected campaign director of Care Not Killing and chief executive officer of the Christian Medical Fellowship, is seen in the picture, above, addressing the Stop Think Choose Life Campaign Vigil outside Parliament yesterday.  It was an initiative of Christian Concern led by Andrea Williams. Peter drew attention to the 1967 Abortion Act and to the continuing legalized violence against unborn human lives and the dignity of mothers and fathers.


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Pro-life leaders' family spans four generations

I've just arrived in Ottawa to join pro-life colleagues at an international pro-life conference entitled Building a global culture of life.

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) is organizing the conference which is co-sponsored by LifeCanada, International Right to Life Federation (of which I have the honour to be joint vice-president with Jim Hughes, CLC president) and LifeSite news.

The star speakers this weekend are, indubitably, Dr Jack and Barbara Willke who are pictured above at the Cincinnatti Right to Life Banquet which took place last Thursday. The picure reflects four generations of the Willke family: Jack and Barbara, Bob and Marie (Jack's and Barbara's daughter) Meyers, Steve (Bob and Marie's son) and Gina Meyers. The great granddaughter (Steve's and Gina's daughter) is Julia. Jack and Barbara have six children and 22 grandchildren (and one great grandchild).They are speaking on Saturday on the history of the pro-life movement.

Jack is the president of both International Right to Life Federation and Life Issues Institute.

Jack and Barbara Willke not only head a family spanning four generations. They are also authors of their fourth generation book, video, PowerPoint and slide set, Abortion, Questions and Answers: Why Can’t We Love Them Both. These succeeded the seven editions of their classic books, beginning with Handbook on Abortion in 1971, being the most widely read books in the world presenting the scientific case for the unborn. These have been published in 21 languages worldwide. He has also written Abortion and Slavery, History Repeats, and Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia, Past & Present. Dr. and Mrs. Willke are the authors of six other books in the field of human sexuality. Their works have been translated into 32 languages.

Let me know if you are interested in receiving a list of their publications.

I am most grateful to Brad Mattes, executive director and co-founder of Life Issues Institute, for sending me the picture-story above!

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Good news from Europe about protecting women and children from population control

CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education) has sent us the following good news:

"As every year, CARE helped promote an amendment to the European Commission's annual budget this week to prevent any funding going to family planning programmes in which coercion or compulsion is used. We are pleased to be able to report that an amendment to this effect (last passed in 2007, but rejected in 2008 & 2009) was adopted by a healthy majority of 372 to 279, with 21 abstentions. You can see which British MEPs supported the amendment here. Please consider writing to thank one or all of the MEPs in your region.

In addition, amendments to the 2011 budget were passed. These call for European funds - which support human rights campaigners in other countries - to be made available for combating forced abortion, sterilisation and even infanticide, which are used for example in China to enforce state family planning policies."

This good news from the European Parliament follows the good news earlier this month from another European institution, the Council of Europe. The council's parliamentary assembly rejected strongly a proposed crack down on medical staff who refuse to be complicit in abortion and other anti-life practices. Prior to that vote, SPUC had written to its supporters and contacts in the member-states of the Council of Europe.

These pro-life victories in the European institutions show that intelligent, organised and uncompromisingly pro-life lobbying is effective in protecting unborn children, their mothers and other vulnerable individuals.


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Support SPUC by ordering from our popular range of Christmas gifts

SPUC has a popular range of Christmas cards, Christmas gifts and other merchandise for sale online in our webshop Order early to avoid disappointment (for Christmas delivery order by 30 November):

• 30 quality Christmas cards for only £5.90
• affordable prices - many frozen from last year
• a range of Advent calendars and Christmas card holders
• pro-life badges and stickers - great stocking fillers!
• educational books, video and learning aids
• pro-life t-shirt
• all purchases covered by our money-back guarantee

You can also order by telephone on (020) 7091 7091 between 10am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

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Please support pro-life vigil at Parliament tomorrow Wed 27 Oct

SPUC has just received news of a vigil (see poster pictured) to be held outside Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday 27 October) marking the 43rd anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act 1967. The vigil is being organised by the Choose Life campaign, an initiative of Christian Concern led by Andrea Williams. The vigil will be held between 12pm and 1pm at Old Palace Yard, immediately opposite Parliament. Following the vigil, a service of lament and repentence will be held between 1.15pm and 1.50pm at the Emmanual Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 3DW.

I regret that I will not able to attend as I will be travelling to Canada to speak at the International Pro-Life Conference. I will, of course, be at the vigil in spirit and I encourage SPUC supporters to support the vigil.

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Greg Pope's appointment to Catholic Education Service conflicts with Pope Benedict's teaching

Pope Benedict told the new Ecuadorean ambassador to the Holy See last Friday that "the public authorities must guarantee [that the law] helps parents, ... to educate their children according to their own religious convictions and ethical criteria ... ".

I wonder if Bishop McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales (CESEW), and Oonagh Stannard, its chief executive officer, happened to mention to Pope Benedict, when he was in England, anything about Greg Pope,the new deputy-director they've appointed. (Bishop McMahon and Oonagh Stannard are pictured, above, with Jim Dobbin MP at a parliamentary reception last week. It was a reception to celebrate the year of Catholic education.)

Greg Pope is a former Member of Parliament, who, as an MP, voted against pro-life Angela Watkinson MP's Ten Minute Rule bill. This bill would have required doctors providing contraception or abortion 'services' to a child under 16 to inform his or her parent or guardian. Mr Pope's anti-life, anti-parents vote on this measure alone disqualifies him to be deputy director of the CESEW. However, Mr Pope's anti-life and anti-family record, printed out, is as long as my arm - and probably as long as your arm in addition to mine! Print out my blogpost earlier this year and check for yourself.

Not least (but not solely) in the light of Mr Pope's appointment, I have no confidence that the CESEW, an agency of the bishops' conference of England and Wales, will seek to ensure that public authorities guarantee that the law helps parents to educate their children according to their own religious convictions and ethical criteria as Pope Benedict has clearly insisted they should. Mr Pope also supported the homosexual agenda* as an MP, including voting against measures (popularly known as section 28) preventing local councils from promoting homosexuality, including the teaching in schools of the 'acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'". And he also signed a parliamentary motion calling for increased funding for international pro-abortion organizations. His appointment is a scandal which is clearly in conflict with Pope Benedict's championship of parents' prior right to educate their children.

* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

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Money more valuable than human life, says Baroness Warnock

Daniel Blackman, a researcher for SPUC, has sent me a report on last Tuesday evening's Intelligence Squared debate on assisted suicide. You can read Dan's full report on the SPUC website, but below are a few details.

The motion of the debate was ‘Assisted Suicide should be legalised: the terminally ill should have the legal right to be helped to end their lives.’ Speaking for the motion was:

• Emily Jackson, professor of law at the London School of Economics
• Baroness Mary Warnock, moral philosopher, and
• Debbie Purdy, the assisted suicide campaigner with multiple sclerosis.

Speaking against the motion was:

• Lord Alex Carlile QC, barrister
• Patrick Stone, Macmillan Reader in Palliative Medicine, St George’s University of London; and
• Lord Richard Harries, former Anglican bishop of Oxford.

The debate was chaired by Sue Lawley, journalist and broadcaster.

The debate is available for free on itunes, which means readers can also listen to the debate for themselves.

Two votes were taken, one before and one after the debate. The results were:

before

• for: 408
• against: 110
• don’t know: 117

after:

• for: 406
• against: 208
• don’t Know: 34

So a large number of the 'don’t knows' decided to vote against against assisted suicide.

Dan also reports that Baroness Warnock said that, that unlike gold and platinum, life does not have value in itself. Her claim reminds me of Psalm 134:15-17, which reads:

"The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, but they speak not: they have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths."

I found Baroness Warnock's claim - which says effectively that money is more valuable than life - truly frightening. This is the same materialistic attitude that resulted in the lives of countless millions of slaves being sacrificed in the name of profit.

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Jack Valero of Catholic Voices issues a statement about condoms

Jack Valero of Catholic Voices has sent me the following message which I am happy to publish - and to comment on:

Dear John

A priest friend has recently alerted me to the fact that some people reading your blog entry on my appearance on Sunday Morning Live in early September in which you quote me, have got the mistaken impression from it that I was advocating the use of condoms, which would create scandalous confusion. I would therefore ask you to put in your blog another entry with the paragraph below in full so that your readers are not left in error.

Regards

Jack

Jack Valero's statement is as follows:

"Some people who did not see the whole of my appearance on Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) in early September and only read what was selectively quoted on this blog may have misunderstood my views about condoms and AIDS. I would like to make it clear I totally support the Magisterium of the Church as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all the relevant encyclicals (Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, etc). Anyone who would like further clarification can easily contact me through Catholic Voices, Opus Dei, Facebook, etc."

Unfortuntately, Jack Valero's statement includes nothing which addresses the scandal caused by what he said on Sunday Morning Live in early September. Indeed it compounds that scandal by suggesting that his comments on Sunday Morning Live can be understood to be true to Catholic church teaching on the transmission of human life.

Here again is what Jack Valero said on behalf of Catholics:

Jack Valero: The Church is not against condoms the Church is against promiscuity

Julie Bindel: The Church is against condoms!

Jack Valero: The Church is against promiscuity and sex outside of marriage

Colm O'Gorman: Is the Church now supporting the use of condoms?

Jack Valero: No, the Church is against... er... promiscuity

Colm O'Gorman: In marriage? Does the Church oppose the use of condoms in marriage?

Jack Valero: Well, no, the Church is against contraception of course.

Colm O'Gorman: So it's against condoms?

Jack Valero: But, but, we're talking here about HIV, no the Church is against contraception.

Jack Valero attempts to make a distinction between the use of condoms to prevent conception and the use of condoms to prevent HIV; and attempts to claim that the Church is not against condoms on the grounds that the Church is not against the use of condoms to prevent HIV.

Yet Humanae Vitae is crystal-clear in its prohibition of any action by a couple to close the marital act to the transmission of life:

"[E]ach and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life." (Humanae Vitae, 11)

As I said at the time, Mr Valero is providing a bridgehead for other Catholics in representative positions to adopt their own dissenting interpretations, not just of Catholic teaching on the use of condoms, but on other areas of Catholic teaching on life and family.

I say this, quite openly, in the spirit described as follows by Archbishop Raymond Burke, soon to be made a cardinal, in his address to the World Prayer Congress for Life earlier this month:

" ... One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "dictatorship of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities ... "

And on Humanae Vitae and the separation of the unitive and the procreative dimensions of sexual intercourse, Archbishop Burke said:

"... A second fundamental presupposition of my presentation is the essential relationship of the respect for human life and the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family. The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union."

And elsewhere he said:

" ... A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life."

Visitors may wish to make up their own mind about the nature of Jack Valero's comments by watching Sunday Morning Live for themselves.


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