Politics
Friday February 18, 2005
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Print- UN Passes Declaration to Ban All Forms of Human Cloning
- Kansas Abortion Clinic Sends Another Woman to Hospital Weeks After Reported Death
- Vatican to Discuss Medical Issues Such as “Does a right to health at all costs exist?”
- Judge drops ‘Hate Crimes’ Charge against ‘Philly 5’ for Preaching at Gay Festival
- Bone Marrow Stem Cells Can Create Customized Skin Grafts
- Newfoundland Premier Speaks Out in Favour of Gay “Marriage”
- Doctors Say Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Will Give False Impression Gay Sex is Safe
- Canadian Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ News Briefs
- “Abortion Kills Kids” T-shirts to be Worn on U.S. National Pro-Life T- shirt Day – April 26
- UN Backs Away from Demanding Paraguay Institute Abortion
- South Dakota Legislature Passes Bill making Abortion a Felony should Supreme Court Overturn Roe v. Wade
- U.S. Catholic Bishops Abuse Audit Released: $840 Million Paid Out since 1950
- LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes
UN Passes Declaration to Ban All Forms of Human Cloning
TODAY'S HEADLINES
UNITED NATIONS, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United Nations has called on Member States to adopt urgent legislation outlawing all cloning practices "as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life." The declaration, introduced by Honduras, also calls on countries to "prevent the exploitation of women." Cloning requires harvesting eggs from women.
The decision ends three years of deadlock caused by countries seeking approval for cloning research. The United Kingdom, Belgium and Singapore led the opposition for a total ban, insisting that a ban only apply to letting a cloned human live while allowing cloned embryos to be used for research which would kill them. The declaration represents the international community uniting in condemning all human cloning as exploitative and unethical.
At the insistence of delegates from developing countries who feared their women were being turned into "egg farms," the declaration calls on Member States to introduce measures to prevent the exploitation of women. Delegates expressed concern that poor women would be targeted to extract the vast numbers of eggs that would be needed, inevitably inflicting painful, dangerous and invasive procedures on vulnerable women.
Included is a proposal calling for wealthier nations to direct attention and funding to pressing medical issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It also condemns all applications of any genetic engineering techniques which threaten human dignity.
This declaration represents a significant step forward in advancing respect for human life. Previously, some countries have blocked moves to ban all cloning with claims that stem cells from cloned embryos will treat various maladies (so-called "therapeutic cloning"). Yet not a single person has ever been helped by these stem cells, while ethical adult stem cells are providing miraculous treatments for numerous conditions, including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's Disease, cancer, heart failure and blindness, doing what cloning supporters can only promise.
The declaration has the same immediate effect as if the committee endorsed a convention in that it sets an international standard. It sends a clear signal to countries that encourage the practice, such as the United Kingdom in particular where two "licenses" for research cloning have been issued. The first is currently subject to a legal challenge on the basis that the cloning "license" is unlawful and unnecessary. It is due to be heard in the High Court shortly. Cloning opponents welcomed the UN's resolution and look forward to Member States fulfilling their international obligations.
Details of exploitation which would arise from cloning may be obtained from http://www.cloninginformation.org
More information on the UK lawsuit due to be heard in the UK High Court may obtained from http://www.lawcf.org.
jhw
Back to TopKansas Abortion Clinic Sends Another Woman to Hospital Weeks After Reported Death
WICHITA, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An ambulance carrying a patient of Women's Health Care Services (WHCS), the infamous late-term abortion mill owned by George Tiller, arrived silently and without fanfare at the Wesley Medical Center Emergency Room at 11:21 a.m. today, just five weeks after one of Tiller's patients reportedly died after a similar trip. Operation Rescue staffers photographed the scene as emergency workers unloaded a woman completely shrouded in a blanket. The woman's body was strapped to the gurney at the ankles, hips and shoulders.
Witnesses detected no movement from the woman nor did they observe the usual IV bags and other medical paraphernalia that is commonly seen attached to 
women who have been transported to the Emergency Room from WHCS, an unlicensed and unregulated facility classified as a "doctor's office" where dangerous second and third trimester abortions are performed, according to Operation Rescue. LifeSiteNews.com has also reported that provincial governments in Canada have sent Canadian women to Tiller’s Kansas clinic for late-term abortions.
Departing from routine, Tiller employee Edna Roach, driving a minivan registered to Tiller, sped past the emergency room parking lot where she normally arrives, and parked instead at the hospital's main entrance, according to Operation Rescue. Roach transported a passenger in the minivan who may have been another Tiller employee, late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who was scheduled for duty at WHCS according to a calendar posted to Tiller's website. There was no sign of Tiller.
About an hour later, Operation Rescue staffer Adam McArthur was escorted by two men from the Sedgwick County Emergency Communications Office after Director Diane Gage denied his Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request for the 911 audio file and CAD transcript.
"We are aware that these are public records," said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. "It is against the law to hide these public records and not release them when legal request has been made, as Adam did. These records are not part of any criminal investigation and do not contain the name of the patient. Why risk breaking the law by refusing to release them unless there is something to hide? Operation Rescue will file a civil suit against the county to obtain those records, if necessary. The truth must come out about the numbers of women injured and killed by George Tiller and his cohorts, so that other women do not suffer the same tragic fate."
"We don't know if this woman is alive or dead," said witness Cheryl Sullenger. "Again, for the second time in five weeks, we demand the suspension of Tiller and Carhart's licenses pending investigation. How many more women must be injured or even die before something is done to safeguard women from the Butchers of Bleckley?"
Vatican to Discuss Medical Issues Such as “Does a right to health at all costs exist?”
ROME, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life is meeting in Rome next week and will assess the growing problems in medical ethics with terms like ‘quality of life’ and ‘health’. Calling the emphasis in wealthy countries on health at all costs a “religion of health,” Vatican theologians said that some moral limits on the pursuit of health ought to be considered.
Rev. Maurizio Faggioni, a theologian and morality expert on the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life said, “The medicine of desires, egged on by the health care market, increases the request for pharmaceutical and medical-surgical services, soaks up public resources beyond all reasonableness.”
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, said at a Vatican press conference, the meeting of the Academy will address the question, “Does a right to health at all costs exist? Or is it rather a right to treatment?” He said, “What exactly is meant by ‘quality of life,’ is not yet clear to the public and perhaps not even to politicians themselves.”
He said that a very different meaning to these kinds of terms has progressively emerged in which the normal course of ethics is inverted, where “the quality of life becomes absolute and the sacredness of life becomes relative.” Bishop Sgreccia said, “It is affirmed that where an acceptable level of quality of life does not exist, life loses its value and does not merit being lived.” This inversion of priorities has created an ethical environment where euthanasia is considered a good or even a right.
The progress of this ethical confusion started with the push for legalized abortion. In the US, former President Clinton vetoed the ban on partial birth abortion twice, on the grounds that the bill did not include a clause which would allow the grisly form of infanticide for the ‘health’ of the mother.
The term ‘health’ is part of the abortion lobby’s arsenal of euphemisms to create social and legal permission for abortion on demand. A threat to a woman’s ‘health’ is interpreted as anything that makes her uncomfortable, be it the loss of a boyfriend, job advancement or social reputation.
“Medicine has become impossible to manage because it can’t fulfill the desires” of consumers for perfect health, said Sgreccia.
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Judge drops ‘Hate Crimes’ Charge against ‘Philly 5’ for Preaching at Gay Festival
Cases show how ‘hate crime’ laws can easily be abused by overzealous liberal authorities
PHILADELPHIA, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Philadelphia judge dismissed all criminal charges Thursday against four Christians who were arrested after walking a public street and quoting the Bible during Outfest, a celebration of homosexual behavior, on October 10 of last year.
Judge Pamela Dembe of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas dismissed the charges, saying that she found no basis whatsoever for any of them. Dembe said that the First Amendment protects unpopular speech as much as popular speech and is the controlling issue in this case.
“We are one of the very few countries that protects unpopular speech,” Dembe said, according to a WorldNetDaily report. “And that means that Nazis can March in Skokie, Illinois ... That means that the Ku Klux Klan can march where they wish to. We cannot stifle speech because we don't want to hear it, or we don't want to hear it now.”
Four adults and one juvenile were arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges of ethnic intimidation, riot, criminal conspiracy, reckless endangerment, possessing an instrument of crime, highway obstruction, failure to disperse, and disorderly conduct. Today’s decision applies only to the four adults, but charges against the juvenile are expected to be dropped Friday.
“The judge saw this case for what it is,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Joe Infranco, who defended the four men. “This was the right response to an outrageous abuse of power to silence speech that some people didn’t like.”
“What took place here was a government crackdown on disfavored speech,” Infranco continued. “The Outfest participants staged a national coming-out day on a public street using public funds, and then they tried to say it’s a private event. That didn’t make any sense, and neither did the actions of the police who arrested our clients.”
The three felonies grew out of Pennsylvania's Ethnic Intimidation Law, which adds penalties to criminal acts if authorities determine that a “hate crime” has been committed.
“When Pennsylvania lawmakers added ‘sexual orientation’ to the law in 2003, pro-family leaders warned that it could be used against Christians to suppress freedom of speech, religion and assembly,” said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America’s Culture & Family Institute in a release. “Their fears came to life last October, when prosecutors threw the book at a group of Christians from Repent America who were peacefully sharing the Gospel in a public area. Now, we hope lawmakers will take a second look and pass a bill removing that portion of the hate crimes act.”
“…These cases show how ‘hate crime’ laws can easily be abused by overzealous liberal authorities,” Knight emphasized.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Prayer and Scripture Reading During Gay Celebration Could Cost Christians 47 Years in Prison
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/dec/04121704.html
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Bone Marrow Stem Cells Can Create Customized Skin Grafts
WASHINGTON, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The uses of adult stem cells seem to know no boundaries. In recent months, LifeSiteNews.com has reported on new discoveries for treating maladies as diverse as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and blindness. Now it is being shown that adult stem cells taken from bone marrow can be used to create perfectly matched skin grafts for surgery following burns or other disfiguring accidents or even breast cancer.
Scientists at University of Illinois in Chicago have told a conference that they have stimulated stem cells from a human donor to develop into the fatty tissue of the skin. Jeremy Mao, professor of tissue engineering, said that female cancer patients undergoing a mastectomy may have their breast replacements grown from their own cells for reconstructive surgery.
In experiments with mice, skin replacement pieces were grown and could be guided to grow into desired shapes. “After four weeks we found the implant was indeed generating adipose tissue from stem cells, and that its shape and dimensions were well retained,” Professor Mao said.
Mao said that a great advantage is that since the grafts are made from the patient’s own cells, there is no danger of immune system rejection.
“The technique is also applicable for other soft tissue, facial tissue such as the lips and so on. The great thing about the stem cell-derived implant is that its shape and dimensions were retained,” he told the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
In related stem cell news, a group of lobbyists are in Washington to persuade legislators to earmark more funds for bone marrow transplant research and the wider use of adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood. The lobbyists hope to reinstate national bone marrow registry program, that was cancelled some months ago.
Unlike chemotherapy, said Jeffrey Chell, chief executive officer of the National Marrow Donor Program, “transplantation is curative because it not only replaces the cells your body is missing, but these new donor cells actually seek out remaining cancer cells and kill them.”
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Newfoundland Premier Speaks Out in Favour of Gay “Marriage”
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld., February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Newfoundland’s Conservative Premier, Danny Williams, spoke out in favour of same-sex “marriage” Thursday, arguing that it is a fundamental “human right.”
Williams, who claims he “championed social justice” while practicing law for 30 years said, “From a personal perspective, I actually support gay marriages,” in an interview reported by the Canadian Press.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper meanwhile, during debate of the bill in the federal House Wednesday, said, “Same-sex marriage is not a human right.”
Williams claims Harper is suppressing Conservative MP’s liberty to express their personal views on the subject.
“The problem occurs when there's an attempt to basically influence other people or exert your own influence and your own opinion on others in your party and not give them the right to choose and the right to express their opinions freely,” Williams claimed.
Prime Minister Paul Martin has told his Liberal cabinet, meanwhile, to toe the line on same-sex “marriage.” In addition, Liberal party whip Karen Redman has strongly urged back-bench Liberal MPs who oppose same-sex “marriage” legislation to “take a walk” during the vote, according to London Liberal MP Pat O’Brien.
Read Thursday’s LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Canadian Parliament Gay ‘Marriage’ Debate Begins – “Same-Sex Marriage is Not a Human Right”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021701.html
"Take a Walk" during Gay "Marriage" Vote, Liberal Whip Tells MPs Opposed to Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05020305.html
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Doctors Say Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Will Give False Impression Gay Sex is Safe
Normalization Will Lead to Major Added Burden on Health Care
OTTAWA, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The looming legalization of same-sex marriage has pushed several doctors to begin speaking out on the harmful medical consequences of homosexual sex. In addition to the group of physicians who presented their findings to Parliament in a referenced brief last week (see LifeSiteNews.com coverage http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021709.html ), two other doctors have approached LifeSiteNews.com to submit evidence but requested anonymity based on fear of retribution from homosexual activists.
The doctors noted that they are concerned for individuals practicing dangerous homosexual sex practices but also for society in that the normalization of such sex practices through same sex ‘marriage’ legislation will result in a major added burden on health care.
“Legalization of same sex marriage by the government would give the false message that homosexual sex practices, such as anal intercourse, as long as ‘practiced safely’, are not endangering the health of the partners,” said Dr. C.
Providing rather explicit details which she felt the public must be aware of, she explained, “Anal intercourse causes abrasions of the relatively fragile rectal wall, especially in the receptive partner. The penetration of E.coli, always present in the stool, and other bacteria, viruses and parasites penetrate through such lesions into the deeper body tissues. This leads to the suppression of the immune system of such individuals even if there is no exposure to HIV. The immune suppression increases the risk to develop certain cancers, opportunistic infections, to which otherwise one would be resistant, and other health problems including the risk of premature death.”
Information on the health risks of gay sex is available from the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA). A survey by members of the GLMA released in August 2002 listed the main health problems affecting homosexual men. According to Christopher E. Harris, MD, GLMA President and Vincent M.B. Silenzio, MD, MPH, there are increased health risks for homosexual men.
The most common health problems in homosexual men are:
1. Increased incidence of infectious diseases
- HIV/AIDS*
- syphilis
- gonorrhea
- chlamydia
- pubic lice
- hepatitis A
- hepatitis B
- hepatitis C
- anal papilloma
2. Increased incidence of cancer especially
- colon/rectal
- prostate
- testicular
3. Increased incidence of eating disorders
- bulimia
- anorexia nervosa
- obesity
4. Increased incidences of other psychological problems
- anxiety
- depression
- suicide
5. Increased incidence of addiction problems especially
- tobacco
- alcohol
- street drugs
- amyl nitrates (poppers)
See also
Physician Says Science of Medical Consequences of Homosexual Behaviour is Being Trumped by Political Agenda
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/sep/03092008.html
The Negative Health Effects of Homosexuality
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS01B1
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Canadian Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ News Briefs
* Cardinal Ouellet of Quebec Says “We are very concerned, very concerned with the future”
In an interview with Catholic News Service Cardinal Marc Ouellet said same-sex marriage discards the basic fact "that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and their union is marriage." He warned that the state is advocating something that is contrary to the natural order of things, and in doing so its leaders are falling into "subjectivism" and "everything becomes arbitrary and you have no foundations for civil rights or civil marriage." "If the words can be twisted in this way” he said, “so religious freedom, too, or any other thing can be twisted in any way according to the arbitrary power of pressure groups". “It will put religious freedom under attack in the very near future," he said.
"If they bring me to the court because I am teaching against homosexuality as part of the doctrine of the Catholic Church, I will be accused of homophobia," he said. "Those things are very serious, and it's on the way…”
Ottawa Citizen Newspaper Comes Out in Favour of Same-Sex ‘Marriage’.
An editorial in the paper Friday says: “And although the Citizen's editorial board, like many Canadians, is divided on the issue, we believe that gays and lesbians should have the legal right to marry in Canada, provided religious freedoms not to perform same-sex marriages are protected.”
* Cotler Insists Conservative Amendment Requires Notwithstanding Clause
Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler is still insisting that Opposition Leader Stephen Harper’s amendment to the legislation requires use of the notwithstanding clause, despite the fact that Harper during his response to the legislation clearly demonstrated that that is not the case.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/02/17/same-sex-debate050217.html
* defendMARRIAGE Fundraiser in B.C.
defendMARRIAGE has scheduled another fundraiser, this time in Abbottsford, BC on March 2 at 6:30PM at the Ramada Inn, 36035 N. Parallel Road. Guest speaker is Conservative MP Randy White.
* defendMARRIAGE Newspaper ad Campaign
The organization placed a full page ad in the Feb. 16 National Post and has another one scheduled for tomorrow in the same paper. The ad, with a large paper of an fist showing Paul Martin says “It seems Paul Martin’s definition of a free vote is to vote his way or he will free you from the Cabinet”. The ad lists three promises by Martin and then lists items showing the falseness of his problems. Finally, the ad concludes with “It appears Paul Martin does not respect the religious convictions of his own friends in Cabinet… Is it reasonable to expect that he will protect the religious freedoms of ordinary Canadians?”
“Abortion Kills Kids” T-shirts to be Worn on U.S. National Pro-Life T- shirt Day – April 26
WASHINGTON, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On April 26, thousands of young people across the United States will participate in American Life League's National Pro-life T-shirt Day by wearing shirts with pro-life messages to their high schools, colleges and everywhere they travel that day. This third annual event gives America's pro-life youth the chance to publicly express support for the sanctity of every human being's life -- from conception until natural death.
"This is a day when the youth can speak out against the holocaust of abortion, which has taken the lives of one-third of their generation," said Erik Whittington, director of American Life League's youth outreach. "This event truly does save the lives of preborn children, and it also helps spare their mothers from the tragedy of abortion."
In order to make this year's event the most successful yet, American Life League has introduced a web site dedicated to ALL's National Pro-life T-shirt Day. The comprehensive new site, which can be viewed at http://www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com , gives some history and information about the event, as well as a place to purchase official T-shirts.
Over the past several years, the free speech rights of pro-life Americans have often been suppressed. Especially in public schools, pro-life students have been threatened with detention, suspension or expulsion for wearing shirts carrying pro-life expressions.
The Thomas More Law Center has offered its assistance in a number of these instances in which overzealous school administrators infringed upon students' free speech rights. "We want to assure all students participating in this year's T-shirt day that their rights will not be overlooked," said Whittington.
Jhw
UN Backs Away from Demanding Paraguay Institute Abortion
ASUNCIÓN, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In January, LifeSiteNews.com reported that United Nations overseers were targeting Paraguay next on the list of Catholic countries who refuse to legalize abortion.
The feminist-controlled UN organization, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), issued a press release in which they outlined the kind of pressure placed by CEDAW as a matter of course against many Christian countries that have laws or constitution clauses against abortion and IVF.
News reports in Paraguay publicized the routine pressuring of delegates from Paraguay and other pro-life countries by UN officials. Now the local UN office in Asunción has responded to local outrage by issuing a statement downplaying the UN’s tactics.
The statement said, “The Committee is only making suggestions and recommendations based on the analysis of reports and data provided the membership States, with the idea of carrying out the goals of the Convention.”
CEDAW’s customary pressure tactic is to emphasize typical pro-abortion propaganda that illegal abortion causes women to die “by the thousands from illegal back-alley” abortions. The obvious solution to this problem, claims CEDAW’s abortion promoters is to legalize abortion.
Silvia Pimentel, the committee vice-chair from Brazil said in the January press release, “Complying with the Convention meant the Government must address maternal mortality and clandestine abortions. Did the government (of Paraguay) have concrete strategies to comply with the Committee’s previous recommendations?”
Paraguay’s Health Minister, Julio Cesar Velazquez, said that the recommendations would be examined but that the ‘no to abortion’ policy is the starting point for Paraguay’s relations with the UN. “As Minister, my position is pro-life. I believe that killing people will not solve the problem of over-population,” he said.
The CEDAW enforcement procedure is to call delegates to sit in front of the committee and demand an accounting by these sovereign nations in their compliance with the UN’s anti-family programme. That countries are not required to participate in this regular grilling is not widely known. Any sovereign state has complete freedom to opt out of the UN’s agreements. But the inquisitions continue, with Malta, Samoa, Paraguay, St. Kitts, Andorra and Costa Rica numbered among recent targets.
Read CEDAW’s January 14th media release:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/wom1477.doc.htm
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South Dakota Legislature Passes Bill making Abortion a Felony should Supreme Court Overturn Roe v. Wade
PIERRE, February 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Anticipating a US Supreme Court challenge, the South Dakota House overwhelmingly passed a measure Tuesday making the committing of an abortion a crime, should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill passed by a margin of 54-16.
Republican Rep. Joel Dykstra, lead sponsor of the bill, said, “We can stand clearly with those who can’t stand for themselves,” by having a measure in place that would automatically kick in if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, according to an aberdeennews.com report.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected attempts to introduce exceptions into the bill for the health of a woman, or for victims of rape or incest. An attempt to introduce a so-called health exception failed 45-25.
“If we open the door to a fuzzy line called health, I would argue that the purpose of the bill would be compromised,” Dykstra argued. The bill would outlaw all abortions with the exception of if a woman’s life were in danger.
A related measure attempting to allow an exception for rape or incest was voted down 46-24. Republican Rep. Elizabeth Kraus likened aborting the child conceived through rape with raping the woman again.
“The welfare of the mother and the child are never at odds, even in sexual assault cases,” Kraus said. “In a sexual rape, a woman is robbed of her purity,” she added. “In this medical rape, she is robbed of her maternity.”
House GOP leader, Republican Rep. Larry Rhoden, concurred with Kraus: “Does that make that life any less precious . . . regardless of how it came about?”
The new law must still meet Senate approval. Anyone convicted of committing an abortion would be subject to a two-year jail term. Women who procure the abortions would not face charges.
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U.S. Catholic Bishops Abuse Audit Released: $840 Million Paid Out since 1950
WASHINGTON, DC, February 18, 2005 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - The US bishops' conference on Friday released the results of its second yearly audit of sex-abuse prevention policies in American dioceses. The report said that 1,092 new claims were filed against clergy in 2004 and that more than $840 million had been paid out so far in legal settlements since 1950.
The report said most of the alleged incidents reported last year were decades old and nearly three-quarters of the accused priests or deacons were deceased, laicized, or removed from public ministry before the claims were made.
Last year's report revealed that 4,392 priests had been accused of molesting minors in 10,667 cases between 1950 and 2002. Both reports said most of the alleged victims were boys ages 10 to 14.
Kathleen McChesney, who heads the conference's Office of Child and Youth Protection, said the large figures show that the scandal is not history. "The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over," McChesney said. "What is over is the denial that this problem exists."
The audit of 195 US dioceses found that nearly all were complying with the charter on child protection approved by the conference in 2002. The auditors were from a private firm that sent out teams mainly of former FBI agents across the country.
Victim groups decried the report's optimistic outlook that found most of the claims reported in 2004 to be decades old. David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said it often takes decades for victims to come forward. "There always has been and always will be years, perhaps decades, until victims realize they've been hurt and find the strength and courage to speak out," Clohessy said. "To suggest otherwise is at best premature and at worst reckless."
Asked on what steps the bishops' conference had taken so that bishops could hold one another accountable, Bishop William Skylstad, president of the conference, said it was a "complex issue" and that only the pope can discipline bishops. On the charge that some bishops continue to keep priests accused of abuse in ministry, he said, "I can't second-guess the individual decisions of bishops."
LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes
Liberal MP Wappel says Canadian same-sex bill marriage bill "discriminatory, a sham, and a hoax"
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T...
Lynne Cheney: "I don't support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage"
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/18/133724.shtml
Rove: Conservatism America's Dominant Creed
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/2/17/151448.shtml
B.C. polygamists vow to protect children from sexual exploitation
http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=9c7d54bc-5523-4f2f-8aa3-bc1e882163d...
'The Simpsons' Dives Into Gay Controversy
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Entertainment/story?id=513522&page=1
Canadian pro-life groups watch with interest as U.S. peers snap up $30,000 machines
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e65211d4-d06a-4072...
Canada could soon becoming first country in world with a majority of (feminist) women on its Supreme Court
http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/national/story.html?id=ab2b6e4c...
Famous Players movie theatres same-sex advertisements contract finishes
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050219/SAMESEX1...
Bill Maher: Christians have neurological disorder
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42906
Americans Tuning out Hollywood Awards
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147987,00.html
Whistleblower Arlington priest faces Church judges
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050217-114811-6642r.htm
The Trouble With 'Values'
http://www.catholic.org/featured/reality.php?ID=1809
"Christ" Removed from Traditional Canadian House of Commons Prayer
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=6aeeb20b-e8ae-4b1...
Bush Administration Fights Pornographers
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obscenity...
Spain: Lawsuit filed against priest for denying communion to gay activist
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=3136
Study Links depression among young people with strained relationships with parents
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050216/d050216a.htm
Rehnquist to Miss High Court's Opening
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_go_su_co/rehnquist_ca...
Karl Rove Tells Major Conservative Convention Bush Promotes the Culture of Life
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147960,00.html
Ralph Reed to Run For Georgia Lt. Governor
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147951,00.html
New Papal Book on His Life Compares Abortion to the Holocaust
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147975,00.html
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