Friday April 5, 2002

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TORONTO CITY WORLD YOUTH DAY CHAIR SUPPORTS HOMOSEXUAL DATING

St. Michael's College Theology Professor Speaks Against Board's Position

TORONTO, April 5, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Toronto City Councillor and City World Youth Day (WYD) Chair Joe Mihevic was a speaker at an April 3 press conference supporting a Catholic 17-year-old male student who is lobbying his school board to reverse their refusal to allow him to bring his 21 year old 'boyfriend' to the school prom. Speaking alongside gay activists, Mihevic urged the Durham Catholic School Board to grant student Marc Hall's request.

The press conference was orchestrated by openly gay MPP George Smitherman at the Queen's Park Media Studio. The Toronto Star on April 4 reported: "[Mihevic] who is also a Roman Catholic theologian, said he doesn't know of any church teaching or edict that would prevent someone from attending a dance or other event with a same-sex partner."

Mihevic is totally incorrect regarding the Catholic teaching on the matter. In a 1986 letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) explained "Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not."

The upcoming edition of Catholic Insight reports that Mihevic who calls himself 'Catholic' teaches a course on social justice at the Faculty of Theology of St. Michael's College in Toronto. Moreover, Mihevic's pro-homosexual activism is longstanding. When Toronto's Cardinal Ambrozic condemned, on behalf of the Catholic community in Ontario, the same sex marriage legislation being introduced by then-Premier Bob Rae, Mihevic objected strenuously to the cardinal's stand.

See the CDF document on homosexuality: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html

Mihevc can be reached at:
Joe Mihevc
City Hall
100 Queen Street West, Suite B35
Toronto, M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-392-0208 Fax: 416-392-7466

http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/councillors/mihevc1.htm
http://www.joemihevc.com

Subscribe to Catholic Insight:
http://www.catholicinsight.com/order.html

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DAY CHOSEN AS FOREIGN AFFAIRS CRITIC, KENNEY WITHOUT PORTFOLIO

OTTAWA, April 5, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Stephen Harper, the new Leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, announced the members of his shadow cabinet yesterday. Notably, Harper's opponents leadership opponents were given senior positions. Former leader Stockwell Day was appointed as the Senior Critic for Foreign Affairs and Dr. Grant Hill was made Deputy Leader.

Pro-lifers were saddened to learn that Jason Kenney, an MP with one of the most outstanding records on right-to-life issues is no longer Finance Critic and is without a portfolio. Information to date is that Kenney had requested this arrangement.

In related news, Harper has agreed to meet with Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark to discuss halting conservative vote splitting by running only one small-c conservative candidate in 301 ridings across the country.

See the full list newly assigned Alliance shadow cabinet posts and the coverage by the National Post:
http://www.canadianalliance.ca/hotissues/viewby/index.cfm?DoID=1464&category=
4&department=24&readarticle=1
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020405/550601.html

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SCIENTISTS CLAIM WOMAN EIGHT WEEKS PREGNANT WITH CLONED BABY

Dr Severino Antinori, the well known Italian in vitro fertilization specialist involved in the controversial human cloning project has announced that a woman taking part in the project is eight weeks pregnant. "Our project is at a very advanced stage. One woman among the thousands of infertile couples in the programme is eight weeks pregnant," he said to reporters.

Dr Antinori, a director of an Infertility unit at the International Centre for the Study of Physiopathology of Human Reproduction in Rome, refused to reveal the identity of the woman or even her country. He did admit the project is well advanced. "We have nearly 5,000 infertile couples in this project now," he said.

Interestingly he used the press attention to put in a plug for "therapeutic cloning" noting that he works in that field as well.

See related coverage:
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=46275

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REFORM PARTY FOUNDER COMES OUT AGAINST EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

Preston Manning Reverses Previous Support for Some Embryonic Research

TORONTO, April 5, 2002 (LSN.ca) - In an piece published in today's Globe and Mail, Reform Party founder and former Alliance MP Preston Manning came out against embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Manning has considered this issue for many years as a member of the standing committee on health that reviewed draft of this legislation.

In the article Manning gets to the heart of the ESCR debate asking: "Are there limits to our moral obligation to respect life? Are there limits to our moral obligation to heal? Are there any circumstances where it is morally justifiable to take life in order to save life? Are there other options -- such as focusing on adult stem cell research -- that may help us to avoid choosing between the lesser of two evils?"

In answer he says: "My own faith perspective tells me that we should not destroy life to save life -- even at the embryonic level -- and should increase our efforts to find better ways to achieve the objective of saving life."

See Manning's full article from the Globe and Mail:
http://news.globetechnology.com/servlet/GAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=globetechnology/TGAM/ NewsFullStory.html&cf=globetechnology/tech-config-neutral&slug=COPRESTON&date=20020405

See previous Interim article "Manning supporting embryonic research"
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/2001/sept/01manning.html

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NEW YORK CITY HOSPITAL INTERNS TO BE GIVEN ABORTION TRAINING

Concerns That Choice to be Excepted for Moral or Religious Reasons May be Removed

NEW YORK, April 5, 2002 (LSN.ca) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has backed a program to have obstetrics and gynecology residents in the city's public hospitals routinely trained to perform abortions rather than having the option available as an elective. Currently the program allows student to opt out for moral or religious reasons.

Pro-lifers are concerned that the exemption may soon be made unavailable. Bloomberg's action comes after lobbying from the National Abortion Rights Action League.

See related coverage:
http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0204/05/a02-457876.htm

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UN MEETINGS UNUSUALLY QUIET - NEW US DELEGATES INEXPERIENCE CREATES PROBLEMS

Campaign Life Coalition's Paul Jalsevac Back Lobbying at the UN

NEW YORK, April 5, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Developments at this week's meetings of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development have been relatively free of the major tension and controversies of previous meetings.

Campaign Life Coalition's Paul Jalsevac, a Christendom College student who was gravely injured in an auto accident last year the day before he was to leave for another UN meeting, has been lobbying at the UN meetings. Paul reports that the inexperienced new crop of US delegates made a few potentially serious errors which have been mitigated by remedial actions.

One error that still stands is a mistaken re-affirmation of the U.S. Clinton administration Beijing Conference reservations. The Canadian delegates have been their usual selves and were obviously delighted when the US errors appeared to benefit the Canadians' social radical agenda. Otherwise, the US delegates have been much appreciated for being solid on life and family issues. This has been a major reason that negative developments at the UN are coming up far less than occurred during the Clinton administration years.

Paul reports that there was a lot of tension during a debate on allowing a Tibetan NGO to enter into the UN. China was hostile to this and consequently the Tibetan group's request was defeated two to one after an unusual and heavily attended physical vote on the issue.

Next Thursday, April 11, at UN Headquarters, there will be a ceremony to mark the expected 60th ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Secretary-General will address that ceremony from Rome via video conference. The preparatory meetings on the establishment of the International Criminal Court will also begin in New York.

UN report on wrap-up of Population and Development Conference
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=3313&Cr=population&Cr1=development

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LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

PRAY FOR 7 YEAR OLD ANGELA BISSONNETTE
The 7 year old daughter of long-time Campaign Life Coalition activists, Joe and France Bissonnette of Mount Pleasant, Ontario has just been diagnosed with the very serious condition Aplastic Anemia. This is similar to leukemia but worse than leukemia. Her white blood cell count is dangerously low. Heavy chemotherapy and radiation and a bone marrow transplant are all necessary treatments for this condition. Prayers are urgently requested. Emails of support may be sent to

EARLY PUBERTY FOR GIRLS LINKED TO HORMONES IN CERTAIN SHAMPOO BRANDS
"Unbeknown to many parents, a few hair products - especially some marketed to black people - contain small amounts of hormones that could cause premature sexual development in girls."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992119

DEAF LESBIAN COUPLES SEEKING TO MANUFACTURE DEAF CHILD THROUGH IVF
http://www.frc.org/get/p02d01.cfm

NEW BOOK APPROVING OF PEDOPHILIA SPARKS OUTRAGE
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/childsex_book020405.html

CONCERNS OVER HOMESCHOOLING PROVE UNFOUNDED AS FIRST GENERATION COMES OF AGE
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49573,00.html

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR VETOES PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION RESTRICTION
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020405/ap_wo_en_ge/us_virginia_abortion_bill_1

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