SPUC is saving lives in Tanzania

I have just received the message below from my pro-life colleague, Scott Fischbach, the executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life:

"I am in the middle of a four-country visit to East Africa and just finished up a 3 day conference in Dar Es Salaam.  At our conference there was one set of fetal models as seen below, sent by SPUC years ago.  The lady who brought them told me many lives have been saved by women looking at them.  Notice the box is a real mess after all these years, but the models are pristine.  SPUC is saving lives in Tanzania -- good on ya!   Scott".

Yes Scott! As you say, the box (photograph from Scott, above) is a mess. If you're reading this post, please send me the lady's address  and we'll send her a new set with our compliments*.

MCCL is a US pro-life group which, in my experience, has often been in the vanguard of important developments in the pro-life movement. I learned a great deal from them for SPUC's work when I visited their offices over 25 years ago.

Scott is now leading a pro-life speaking tour in Africa which, MCCL notes "is under siege from pro-abortion forces from all corners of the world". He and his team are meeting African leaders to discuss what can be done to resist the "enormous pressure on African countries to abandon the protections they have in place for the unborn and their mothers" - not least pressures from the US Obama administration which is committing to promoting legalized abortion on demand in every country of the world; and pressures from the UK, where David Cameron and his government have made the promotion of abortion a fundamental plank of the government's overseas development policy.

And congratulations are due to the Fischbach family. Michelle, Scott's wife, has just assumed the presidency of the Minnesota Senate.

*"How You Began", produced by the SPUC educational research trust, is an anatomically accurate teaching aid that allows students to see, feel and touch the unborn child. It comprises five extremely realistic models designed and manufactured under the expert guidance of a team of leading foetal authorities including obstetricians and gynaecologists, pathologists and other experts in anatomy and embryology. In the classroom, the models are an ideal teaching aid for use at all Key stages. The models can be used in GPs' surgeries and ante-natal classes to enable pregnant women to understand what physical changes are taking place. They are also ideal for use in teaching embryology, obstetrics and gynaecology, and anatomy. They can be ordered here.

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Pope Benedict makes major new statements defending families against (bishop-backed) sex ed

Pope Benedict has today published a new document, Verbum Domini ("The Word of the Lord"), an "apostolic exhortation" on the importance of Sacred Scripture. Pope Benedict has used this major document to underline the prior right of parents to educate their children (my emphases in bold):

85. ... Fidelity to God’s word leads us to point out that nowadays this institution [marriage] is in many ways under attack from the current mentality[,] the rise of ways of thinking which trivialize the human body ... The great mystery of marriage is the source of the essential responsibility of parents towards their children. Part of authentic parenthood is to pass on and bear witness to the meaning of life in Christ: through their fidelity and the unity of family life, spouses are the first to proclaim God’s word to their children.

On Monday, Pope Benedict told the Italian bishops' conference:

“The moral sphere has been confined to the subjective field...In order to invert this tendency, a generic call to values is not enough ... [Y]our decision to remind everyone who cares about the city of man and the welfare of new generations of their education responsibilities seems particularly appropriate. This vital alliance can only start with a renewed closeness to families, recognising and supporting their primary role in education. It is in families that the face of a people is forged".

And yesterday, Pope Benedict recalled his visit to Spain last weekend (where he made a series of strong pro-life/pro-family statements):

"I prayed intensely for families, the vital cells and the hope of society and of the Church ... My thoughts also went to the young, ... that they may discover the beauty, value and commitment of marriage in which a man and a woman form a family which generously accepts life and accompanies it from conception until natural end. Everything done to support marriage and the family, to help people in need, everything that serves to enhance man's greatness and his inviolable dignity, also helps to perfect society".

The statements are yet further major indications from the summit of the Catholic Church that the Catholic bishops of England and Wales' policy of co-operating with the government in the provision of access to abortion to children in Catholic schools seriously deviates from Catholic teaching. Today I've been helping host in Preston, Lancs. one of SPUC's Clergy Information Days. A retired Catholic headteacher there said to me that such a government policy is evil. Nothing is more evil than the corruption of children.

Thank God the Holy Father is praying intensely for us. In the circumstances, we need such prayers.

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Holy See at the UN stands up for mothers and their children

Peter Smith who, along with Pat Buckley represents SPUC at the United Nations (UN), has sent me the following encouraging report from New York:

"On the morning of 9 November, at the plenary meeting of the 3rd Committee of the UN General Assembly, Fr Philip Bene, representing the Holy See, gave the following Explanation of Position on the resolution to 'Support efforts to end obstetric fistula':

'On the adoption of this resolution, my delegation affirms its support of maternal and emergency obstetric care, skilled attendants at birth, and prenatal and postnatal care. Respecting the dignity of women is key to overcoming the problem of obstetric fistula and this entails addressing poverty and providing health care for them.

However, terms like “sexual and reproductive health”, which appear in the resolution, when misconstrued as constituting a right to abortion, do not help women. For this reason, my delegation once again reaffirms the reservations it has made in reference to this and other similar terms, that they do not create any abortion rights, and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, promotion or funding of abortion.

Finally, attempts to prevent obstetric fistula by pushing to developing countries reproductive health commodities does nothing for the overall wellbeing of women, for they treat women not as persons who must be respected and cared for but as objects of agendas of aid giving countries. Instead, what is needed is an approach which takes into account the overall wellbeing of women which necessarily includes sufficient health care for them.'

This medical condition was eradicated in developed countries some 80 years ago. When women have obstructed labour, without proper medical care, their bodies can be damaged and they are then incontinent. These poor women, who smell as a result of the condition, are then treated as social outcasts. Obstetric fistula is easily reparable with surgery.

This excellent "explanation of position" from the Holy See is just the start of our hopes for Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the Holy See's new Nuncio to UN headquarters in New York. If you would like to encourage Archbishop Chullikatt for the excellent statement on this subject, please e-mail him at office@holyseemission.org "

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Euthanasia advocates don't look past the suffering to see the person, says disabled leader

Euthanasia victim Terri Schiavo

Alison Davis, the co-ordinator of No Less Human, a group within SPUC defending the right to life of the disabled, wrote a very powerful letter published recently in The Herald. Do read her letter in full on The Herald website, but I leave you with some key quotes, which speak for themselves:

• "Mary Warnock [JS: the pro-euthanasia philosopher] makes a fundamental mistake when she suggests that so long as a bill legalising euthanasia/assisted suicide has sufficient “safeguards”, sick and disabled people need not worry that they will be first in the line of candidates for the lethal dose."
• "Would the Warnocks of this world agree to add a waiting time – 10 or 20 years – to any bill they draw up, in case of a change of mind? Because human beings are fallible, because life can be good even with great pain, because nobody knows when doctors’ prognoses will be wrong, it is sheer folly to legalise assisted suicide for one group of people because they suffer in certain ways, while spending large amounts of money on “suicide prevention programmes” to prevent the suicides of others who suffer in a different way."
• "Mary Warnock’s mistake is that she seems unable to look past the suffering to see the person, a sad affliction indeed."

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Pope leads the way for bishops with pro-life/pro-family catechesis in Spain

Pope Benedict XVI, visiting Spain this past weekend, made a series of strong statements on pro-life and pro-family issues, which I list below. His statements were clearly aimed at the Spanish government and parliament, which in recent years have passed legislation extending abortion and creating homosexual* rights. Pope Benedict's prophetic message in Spain is the very same catechesis extolled by Cardinal-elect Raymond Burke in his historic address last month to the World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome:

“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’”.

Pope Benedict in Spain:

Welcome ceremony, Saturday:

"Like the Servant of God John Paul II, who from Compostela exhorted the old Continent to give a new impulse to its Christian roots, I too wish to encourage Spain and Europe to build their present and to project their future on the basis of the authentic truth about man, on the basis of the freedom which respects this truth and never harms it, and on the basis of justice for all, beginning with the poorest and the most defenceless."

Mass at Santiago de Compostela, Saturday:

"Allow me here to point out the glory of man, and to indicate the threats to his dignity resulting from the privation of his essential values and richness, and the marginalization and death visited upon the weakest and the poorest. One cannot worship God without taking care of his sons and daughters"

Mass at the Sagrada Familia, Saturday:

"[T]here also need to be moral advances, such as in care, protection and assistance to families, inasmuch as the generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end. Only where love and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure. For this reason the Church advocates adequate economic and social means so that women may find in the home and at work their full development, that men and women who contract marriage and form a family receive decisive support from the state, that life of children may be defended as sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception, that the reality of birth be given due respect and receive juridical, social and legislative support. For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the family."

Angelus, Sunday:

"Today I had the great joy of dedicating this church to him who, being the Son of the Most High, emptied himself and became man, and who, under the watchful care of Joseph and Mary, in the silence of the home of Nazareth, taught us without words of the dignity and the primordial value of marriage and the family, the hope of humanity, in which life finds its welcome from conception to natural death."

Visit to special education school, Sunday:

"In recent decades, remarkable advances in medicine have greatly contributed to the care of those in greatest need, advances which have been accompanied by a growing conviction of the importance of dedicated and humane treatment for the positive outcome of the healing process. Therefore, it is indispensable that new technological developments in the field of medicine never be to the detriment of respect for human life and dignity, so that those who suffer physical illnesses or handicaps can always receive that love and attention required to make them feel valued as persons in their concrete needs.
...
I always remember in my prayers those who are dedicated to helping the suffering, and those who work tirelessly so that the handicapped can take their rightful place in society and not be marginalized because of their limitations."

* 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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Young people's knowledge gap is golden opportunity for pro-life education

Last month The Mail on Sunday reported on a survey of childless Britons aged 18 to 25 on the subject of children. According to the report, of those surveyed:

• one in five think an umbilical cord is a musical note, and that pregnancy lasts for 12 months
• around one in ten thinks that a placenta is a vegetable; a caesarean section is a religious cult; drinking tea or coffee will influence the colour of an unborn child’s hair; and eating red meat raises the likelihood of giving birth to a boy.
• more than half would expect a baby to be walking and talking within the first year

Such lack of  knowledge is a gap which the pro-life movement can fill. SPUC speakers often report positive experiences after being invited to speak in a school, such as genuine interest in the issues from pupils and a warm welcome by teachers. Pupils are particularly intrigued by SPUC's set of anatomically-correct foetal models.

It is also vital for scientifically accurate information about unborn children to be imparted to pupils so that they can spot pro-abortion misinformation. In this country, the pro-abortion lobby - with the active assistance of the Catholic Education Service (CES) of England and Wales, an agency of the Catholic bishops' conference -  is working to entrench itself in schools through sex and relationships education (SRE). We must hope that the recently-elected coalition government will not force schools to teach SRE and will not resurrect the previous government's plan to impose an anti-life/anti-family curriculum upon our children and grandchildren.


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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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