News

By Hilary White

ROME, December 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life Catholics around the world are responding with outrage that the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome (the “Angelicum”), one of the premier Catholic institutions of higher education, has invited Cherie Blair, the pro-abortion wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to speak at a conference on women’s rights on December 12th. But at least some readers, upon contacting the Angelicum, have reported being told that the university can find no evidence of Mrs. Blair’s pro-abortion or other anti-life and anti-family positions.

Readers are taking action, writing to the university and forwarding the article, “Pro-Abortion Cherie Blair to Speak at Prominent Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome” published Tuesday. Typical of the responses received by LifeSiteNews.com was one today from a former student of the Angelicum living in Rome, who said, “I’ve forwarded your article to 60 or so contacts in my email book with instructions to forward further, and email the addresses listed. Thanks for the article.”

LifeSiteNews.com has been informed that the Angelicum since Tuesday has received “over 200 communications” on the issue, but that the university does not intend to cancel her appearance.

Anthony Ozimic, political secretary for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), commented, “The Angelicum, and all those in positions of responsibility in the Church, need to realise that Mrs. Blair is a highly experienced, professional political operator.

“Mrs. Blair has never been reported as saying anything upholding Catholic teaching on abortion or on any other pro-life issue. Her failure to defend Catholic pro-life teaching is explained by her strong, personal endorsement of the pro-abortion organisations IPPF, FPA, Human Rights Watch and the CEDAW (United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) committee.”

“She has said explicitly on a number of occasions that she rejects Catholic teaching on sexual morals,” Ozimic continued.

CEDAW is one of the most prominent vehicles for what SPUC has called “one of the most radical pro-abortion campaigns ever.”

In her career as a “human rights” activist and political mover, Cherie Blair has publicly patronised pro-abortion and international population control organisations such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Family Planning Association (FPA), one of Britain’s leading abortion organisations and she has publicly repudiated the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception.

In addition to IPPF and the FPA, Mrs. Blair has strongly endorsed CEDAW, specifically mentioning the Convention’s affirmation of women’s so-called “reproductive rights,” which is accepted as a euphemism for abortion on demand and sterilisation.

The committee which implements the Convention holds regular meetings with delegates from signatory countries demanding the implementation of the full range of legal abortion and contraceptive programmes, regardless of the laws of the country or the will of their people. The CEDAW committee has demanded that countries such as Poland, Malta, Fiji, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, Syria, Sierra Leone, and many others, drop all legal protections for the unborn and restrictions on artificial contraception. Most recently, the CEDAW committee issued a report calling upon the UK government to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland.

Ozimic pointed out that there are many other experts on women’s rights whom the Angelicum could invite instead, “who are totally pro-life and pro-family.”“Controversy about, and opposition to, Mrs Blair’s invitation will continue to grow,” he warned.

On her website, Mrs. Blair writes, “(CEDAW) is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family relations.”

In her recently published autobiography, “Speaking for Myself,” she infamously admitted that at least one of her children was conceived when she had “forgotten her contraceptive equipment” when on holiday. In May this year, Mrs. Blair, describing herself as a “good Catholic girl,” told an interviewer on GMTV that the “ability to control their fertility” had changed women’s lives.

She said, “People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception. But it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the [autobiography] is about how women’s lives have changed.

“One of the reasons women’s lives have changed is that they have been able to control their fertility. It is an important issue.”

At the annual Labour party conference in September 2005, Mrs. Blair celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Family Planning Association (FPA), the UK branch of IPPF, who published a photo of her helping to cut a special birthday cake. She also participated in a condom give-away to promote “safe sex.”

In 2005, Mrs. Blair contributed an essay to the  book “Why I am still a Catholic,” a collection of essays from notorious dissenters from Catholic teaching, including unrepentant active homosexuals. In this essay, she wrote, “Of course, like many Catholics in this country, I have doubts about some of the positions taken by the Church as an institution – for example, on contraception or the role of women. But I am not one of those who believes that the only response is to walk away because you have a different viewpoint. I have been taught that you should stay and try to change things.”

In the ten years of her husband’s tenure as Prime Minister, Tony Blair implemented a legal and social revolution that made Britain a world leader in abortion, destructive research on embryonic human beings and human cloning. His government eagerly implemented every demand of the aggressively anti-Christian homosexualist movement. In the ten years, regarded by pro-life Britons as among the most disastrous of the country’s history, Cherie Blair made not one public objection to this programme based on her alleged Catholic faith.

Read Cherie Blair’s endorsement of CEDAW:
https://www.cherieblair.org/women/2008/09/the-convention-on-the-eliminat.html

Appearance of Cherie Blair at the FPA 75th Anniversary
https://www.fpa.org.uk/about/history/detail.cfm?contentid=820

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  No Comment from Bishops as Cherie, wife of Former PM Blair, Touts Catholicism While Extolling Contraception
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052104.html

To express concerns:

Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski
  Congregation for Catholic Education
  Palazzo della Congregazioni,
  Piazza Pio XII, 3
  00193 Roma, Italia
  Phone: 06.69.88.41.67
  Fax: 06.69.88.41.72

Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas
  Social Sciences Faculty
  Largo Angelicum,
  1 – 00184
  Roma, Italia
  Phone: +39-066702402
  Fax +39-066702417
[email protected]

To contact conference organisers

in English:
  Sr. Helen Alford op,
[email protected],
  tel: 06 67 02 353,
  fax 06 67 02 417

in Italiano:
  Dr. Girolamo Rossi,
  335 6956196