Politics
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Friday March 3, 2006
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Print- Mississippi Abortion Ban Bill Passes House; Moves to Senate for Approval
- Lone Canadian Bishop Responds to Priests’ Dissent: “Forget About it”
- National Post Article Criticizes Harper for Avoiding Abortion Issue
- Florida Town to Ban Abortion, Contraception, Pornography
- Canadian Bishops Conference Website Cited for Problems with Fidelity
- Mother Forgives Priest Son’s Turkish Murderer
- Massachusetts Bishop Refuses to Present Award to Pro-Abortion Honoree
Mississippi Abortion Ban Bill Passes House; Moves to Senate for Approval
Bill altered to include exceptions for rape, incest
TODAY'S HEADLINES
By Terry Vanderheyden
JACKSON, Mississippi, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill to ban abortion passed Thursday by a 94-25 margin in Mississippi’s House, but only after a heated debate had significantly altered the proposal of an outright ban to include exceptions for rape and incest. Senate Bill 2922 now heads back to the Senate for approval of the changes.
The original Senate bill mandated that women view an ultrasound or listen to the heartbeat of their unborn baby before undergoing an abortion. A House Public Health and Human Services Committee later amended the bill to outlaw all abortions, with the exception of when a mother’s life was in danger. Gov. Haley Barbour said Wednesday he would likely sign that bill into law, although he favored the rape and incest exceptions.
Democratic Rep. Erik Fleming was responsible for the amendment that now would allow abortions to be committed in the case of rape and incest. “Regardless of the amount of counseling that may be available, I think it’s an unfair burden,” he claimed, according to a Clarion Ledger report.
House members Deryk Parker (D) and Joey Fillingane (R) argued unsuccessfully against the rape and incest exceptions. “Life begins at conception,” Parker emphasized. “God does not make mistakes.” Fillingane added, “The product of that union is not criminal.”
Pro-Life Mississippi President Terri Herring said she was happy the bill was passed, but disappointed with the rape and incest exceptions. “We were disappointed that the rape and incest exceptions were added,” she said. “I think it’s our responsibility to have a pure Pro-Life message that has to be you don’t kill a child for the crime of his father.”
South Dakota passed a similar bill banning abortions last week, with no exception for rape or incest. It is now before Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, who has said he will probably sign it into law.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Mississippi Close to Banning Abortions—Governor Likely to Sign Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030203.html
New Book Smashes Rape Exception for Abortion Idea
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/00052502.html
Rape & Incest Victims Call for Congressional Hearings on Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062409.html
Back to TopLone Canadian Bishop Responds to Priests’ Dissent: “Forget About it”
by Hilary White
LONGUEUIL March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Reactions from the hierarchy of the Canadian Catholic Church to the letter signed by a group of dissident priests have been far from resounding. Only one bishop has made any public statement and that was only to say that the letter, which attacked the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, was inconsequential.
Louis Dicaire, bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, spoke to the press saying the letter was “not an earthquake.”
Canadian Catholic priests have frequently spoken out in the press against their Church’s teaching and the faithful have been left to presume agreement on the part of a stoically silent episcopate.
Bishop Dicaire told Le Journal de Montreal that he was irritated with the priests but not because of their denial of the Catholic Faith, but because of the indiscretion of going public. Dicaire said the discussion should have been kept within the Church.
“They're exercising their right to public expression.” He added, “although one could question whether it's the best way to advance the debate.”
For Catholics who believe and adhere to what the Catholic Church teaches, however, there is no “debate.” The Catholic teaching on both homosexuality and the meaning and purpose of marriage has been expounded since the first century.
The culture of secrecy and silence among Catholic bishops has led to disastrous consequences in the countries where the widespread abuse of boys and adolescents by homosexual priests has become public knowledge. Bishops in the US and elsewhere are finding themselves in court having to defend their decision to “keep the discussion within the Church” when they refused to defrock abusers and turn them over to police. Many dioceses, most notably Boston, are now closing or “consolidating” parishes to pay for massive abuse settlements. Some US dioceses are struggling to save Church assets from bankruptcy proceedings.
Despite high-profile cases in Newfoundland and Cornwall Ontario, many Canadian Church insiders agree that the worst of the scandals has yet to be exposed in Canada, largely because of the closed nature of the Canadian episcopate which is mainly of Quebec origin. Historically, the Quebec Church was a political and social power unto itself.
Even now, with the lowest Church attendance in the country, dozens of closed or closing convents, seminaries and schools, Bishop Dicaire’s comments have confirmed what many family advocates have long said, that the Quebec bishops are maintaining their old-boys club traditions.
The Edmonton-based paper, the Western Catholic Reporter, reports that the CCCB and Quebec Bishops’ Conference refused to comment on the priests’ letter, but that a spokesman for the Quebec bishops directed inquiries to Dicaire’s comments.
Canon Lawyer Peter Vere suggested that the situation with the Canadian Church is so dire that complaining directly to the bishops themselves is less fruitful that contacting Rome directly.
Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Quebec Priests Bash Church on Homosexuality - Real Problem is the Bishops
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022706.html
To send respectful communications:
The Apostolic Nuncio to Canada:
Archbishop Luigi Ventura
724 Manor Avenue
Ottawa, ON.
Canada
KIM OE3
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Mail or fax (most effective):
Cardinal William Levada
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy
Fax: 06.69.88.34.09
To email the CDF:
Cardinal William Levada
E-mail:
National Post Article Criticizes Harper for Avoiding Abortion Issue
By Gudrun Schultz
TORONTO, Ontario, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The National Post published an editorial yesterday saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper should address the issue of Canada’s abortion policy.
Mr. Harper told Macleans this week that he has “no intention of getting into the abortion issue.” In an interview during his election campaign he declined to discuss the issue, saying his position on abortion was “complex” and that he didn’t fall into “any of the neat polar extremes” on the issue.
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, writing for the Post, said PM Harper’s refusal to open up the question of abortion minimizes an issue that the majority of Canadians care strongly about.
“It is implausible that his views on abortion are so "complex" as to be beyond explanation,” Fr. de Souza wrote. “More likely, he means by "complex" that he belongs to the 52% of Canadians who, polls tell us, want "some restrictions." It is also likely that he finds the whole subject too controversial and distasteful. But a prime ministerial weak stomach is not an excuse for bad public policy.”
Fr. de Souza applauded the Calgary Herald for taking a stand, in an editorial last week, against Canada’s unrestricted abortion laws. The Herald said Canada stands alone among western nations in failing to place any limits on abortion access, and said it was time new laws were put in place to offer some protection to the unborn.
The prominent Canadian priest columnist also pointed out the media’s role in shutting down debate on abortion by labeling abortion opponents as “intolerably extreme.”
“I support policies that would ensure that all Canadians, including those unborn, are protected in law and welcomed in life. In a democracy, we are entitled to have arguments about that, but heretofore that position has been declared as intolerably extreme—while the opposite extreme has been declared moderate. That's not a debate; it's a ruthlessly effective propaganda exercise.”
“The media has been largely responsible for this classification, and the move of the Herald toward moderation and balance is welcome indeed. Other major newspapers should follow suit, not only for the cause of life, but for the health of our democracy, in which public policy debates should actually mirror the actual shape of public opinion.”
Mr. Harper's failure to address the issue is “de facto support” for continuing open access to abortion, Fr. de Souza said.
“[Mr. Harper’s] position on abortion invites only two conclusions, neither of them flattering. Either he supports abortion on demand, but thinks there is political gain in dissembling; or he simply thinks the whole matter not important enough to do something about. The latter conclusion should offend both sides of the abortion debate.”
To read the full National Post editorial:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=85b694e7...
To read LifeSiteNews coverage of the Calgary Herald’s editorial:
Calgary Herald: It’s Time for Canada to Place Gestational Limits on Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022801.html
Florida Town to Ban Abortion, Contraception, Pornography
By Terry Vanderheyden
NAPLES, Florida, March 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposed town to be built in southwest Florida will ban abortion and contraception, said its developer and visionary, Thomas S. Monaghan.
Monaghan, the founder of America’s second-largest pizza chain, Domino’s Pizza, said his proposed town will not allow abortion. Pharmacies there would also not sell the so-called birth-control pill or condoms, and television stations will not carry pornography.
The town, situated on 5,000 acres 30 miles east of Naples is called Ave Maria – also the name of a University founded by Monaghan, currently half way through a full transfer to Naples from it founding location in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The town, which had its official ground-breaking last week, is being constructed around a massive cathedral with a 100-foot spire and a 65-foot crucifix. The plan is to have 11,000 homes ready for occupation by next year.
Monaghan told Newsweek magazine Monday, “I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don’t want to be on the sidelines.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has already begun to plan their attack against the venture. “It is completely naive to think this first attempt [to restrict access to contraception] will be their last,” said ACLU executive director Howard Simon. “If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Florida, are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely into the future,” he added, according to an AP report. Newsweek said Planned Parenthood is also keeping an eye on the project.
Naples Community Hospital said it plans to operate a university clinic in the new town, but did not promise to completely restrict contraceptive prescriptions. Hospital spokesman Edgardo Tenreiro said it is unlikely they would prescribe them for students, but for the general public, probably. “For the general public, the answer is probably yes, but not definitely yes,” he said.
Canadian Bishops Conference Website Cited for Problems with Fidelity
by Hilary White
OTTAWA, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com/CatholicCulture.org) – A US-based website that assesses other Catholic, pro-life and family sites has rated the website of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) with a “Caution” on fidelity to the teaching of the Church on marriage and homosexuality.
CatholicCulture.org lists the CCCB’s website strengths: its “usability” is “excellent” and “Resources” are “good”. However, the CCCB’s fidelity to the Church gets a “Caution.” “The CCCB's document on the Church's teaching on homosexuality misstates what the actual teachings are.”
A link on CatholicCulture.org compares a 1997 CCCB document that purported to give the Church’s teaching on homosexuality with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The CCCB document says that the Church does not concern itself with the disorder itself but only with the nature of the acts. The CCCB statement says, “To have a tendency or inclination does not involve the moral order. It is neither morally good nor morally wrong… Therefore when the Church speaks about homosexuality as an ‘objective disorder’, it is speaking not of the tendency but of genital acts between people of the same sex.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 2358, however, reads, “This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of (those who experience it) a trial.”
The second citation on CatholicCulture.org shows the CCCB misrepresents the Church’s teaching on marriage. It says, “The CCCB, while working to protect marriage itself, has condoned other forms of same-sex ‘unions’.”
The site gives three examples; all appear to show the CCCB endorses giving some kind of legal or social legitimacy to homosexual unions while carefully skirting an unequivocal commitment to the Church’s teaching.
One 2003 letter reads, “Since the very beginnings of this debate, we have acknowledged there is a desire to give formal protection to other forms of adult personal relationships which also involve commitment, mutual care, and emotional and financial interdependence. We remain convinced solutions can be found without proceeding to a radical redefinition of marriage.”
The site quotes a letter from March 2005, titled, “Does marriage have to be redefined in Canada?” that says, “The issue here is not preventing same-sex partners from being together…It is important to recognize and protect the rights of same-sex partners.”
Whereas the Catholic Church, through the office of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), teaches, “Moral conscience requires that, in every occasion, Christians give witness to the whole moral truth.”
The CDF gives several suggestions to accomplish this including, “unmasking the way in which such tolerance might be exploited or used in the service of ideology; stating clearly the immoral nature of these unions; reminding the government of the need to contain the phenomenon.”
Read the documents cited:
MARRIAGE IN THE PRESENT DAY
http://www.cccb.ca/Files/marriagemessage.html
Does Marriage Have to be Redefined in Canada?
http://ocvf.cccb.ca/Files/Flashes-Marriage.html
Brief on Bill C-38,
http://www.cccb.ca/Files/CCCBBrief_BillC-38.html
CatholicCulture.org:
http://catholiculture.org/sites/site_view.cfm?recnum=2554
To express your concerns
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
2500 Don Reid Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1H 2J2
Canada
(613) 241-9461
(613) 241-9048 (fax)
Mother Forgives Priest Son’s Turkish Murderer
By Terry Vanderheyden
ROME, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The mother of a priest slain in Turkey has said publicly that she forgives the man who murdered her son.
Fr. Andrea Santoro was killed February 5 while kneeling and praying in his Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, a city of 200,000 situated on the Black Sea. His killer, 16-year-old high school student Ouzhan Akdin, yelled “Allahu akbar” or “Allah is great” after firing two rounds from a nine millimetre handgun into Fr. Santoro’s back.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, said during Fr. Santoro’s funeral that he planned to open the priest’s cause for canonization. The cardinal also said, “With all her heart the mother of Father Andrea forgives the person who armed himself to kill her son, and she feels great pain for him because he, too, is a son of the one God who is love.”
Fr. Santoro was a diocesan priest of Rome who had requested to work as a missionary in Turkey, which he had done for six years. Deal Hudson described Fr. Santoro as “a man deeply committed to fostering understanding between the east and west, as well as peace among religions,” according to his e-mail column, The Window. “He also served the poor and was notably active in the fight against sex trafficking of Christian women, a practice common in the region,” he added.
“Television cameras recording the funeral panned to where the mother of the slain priest sat and showed her nodding at the Cardinal’s words,” Hudson added. “A member of the Curia told me that it was an extremely powerful moment of forgiveness, one which deeply touched all who saw it on Italian television.”
Speaking to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the boy’s father Hikmet Akdin, 58, said that he had heard of Mrs. Santoro’s forgiveness. “I know, and ever since I heard those words I have a desire in my heart. I want to save enough money to go to Italy and kiss that woman’s hands as a sign of gratitude. Please tell her how much I appreciate her goodness, which has touched me. I want to embrace her. She’s a courageous woman, and I’m sure is an excellent mother. I’ll kiss her hands, if it’s the last act of my life.”
A volunteer in Turkey who knew Fr. Santoro remembered the last thing Fr. Santoro told him and a group of priests while on retreat not long before his death. “I live among these people so that Jesus can live among them through me. As it was at the time of Jesus, silence, humility, the simple life, acts of faith, miracles of charity, clear and defenceless witness, and the conscious offering of one’s life can rehabilitate the Middle East. I am convinced that in the end there are no two ways, only one way that leads to light through darkness, to life through the bitterness of death. Only by offering one’s flesh is salvation possible. The evil that stalks the world must be borne and pain must be shared till the end in one’s own flesh as Jesus did.”
See AsiaNews coverage:
A volunteer in Turkey remembers Fr Andrea Santoro
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5317
Nuncio in Ankara: Fr Andrea Santoro, a martyr for the third millennium
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5303
A moved Pope commemorates the sacrifice of Fr Andrea Santoro
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5333
Read Deal Hudson’s “Love Where There Could Have Been Hate”:
http://morleyinstitute.org/12all/p_v.php?mi=45&nl=6&ei=ff
Massachusetts Bishop Refuses to Present Award to Pro-Abortion Honoree
By Gudrun Schultz
HOLYOKE, Massachusetts, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, of Springfield Diocese, has said he will not present an award for distinguished achievement to a recipient who is pro-abortion.
In long-standing tradition, Bishop McDonnell presents an annual award, on behalf of the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee, to honor someone of Irish descent for distinguished achievement.
This year, the John F. Kennedy Award will be presented to a recipient who is pro-abortion, and the Bishop has expressed his objection.
Thomas J. Ridge was selected by the Committee to receive the award on the basis of his work as the first chief of homeland security. Mr. Ridge, who served six years as governor of Pennsylvania, became chief of homeland security in 2001, and served as the first secretary of homeland security when it became a Cabinet position in 2003.
Bishop McDonnell learned of Mr. Ridge’s selection for the award after the announcement was made in January, said Mark E. Dupont, spokesman for the Springfield Diocese.
"The bishop is aware he is pro-abortion and he has expressed his thoughts on the matter to the appropriate channels in the parade committee," Dupont said to the Republican.
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