Articles for Month: October 2004

UNITED NATIONS, October 21, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Breaking with customary neutrality on highly contested issues, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has come out publicly in favour of human cloning for research purposes just as the General Assembly commenced two days of critical hearings on the issue. “Obviously it is an issue for the member-states to decide, but as an individual and in my personal view, I think I would go for therapeutic cloning,” Annan told reporters today.  While the partisan comment from the Secretary General came as a surprise to many, pro-life leaders on the international scene saw it […]

UNITED NATIONS, October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The European Union has earmarked $75 million US for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) undermining Washington’s on-going embargo of contributions to the UN agency.  US President George W. Bush has refused the $34 million normally given annually to UNFPA since his election to office in 2000, because of the UNFPA’s support for China’s one-child and coerced abortion policy which violate US foreign aid restrictions.  The US$75 million from the EU is in addition to US$233 million it has already contributed to the UNFPA budget.  US delegate to the UN, Sichan Siv, ignoring […]

OTTAWA, October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian Minister of Health Ujjal Dosanjh indicated in the House of Commons today that Canada would be supporting the United Nations proposal to ban all forms of human cloning.  Pro-life lobbyists at the UN remain cautious however about relying on Canadian support, remembering Canada’s similar promise and then abstention on a crucial vote on the same issue last year.  Conservative MP Rob Merrifield noted in the House today that “the government says it is opposed to human cloning but last year at the United Nations Canada abstained from a vote on the issue. This […]

Criticizes use of liberal Catholic 'seamless garment' philosophy to sideline abortion issue

WASHINGTON, October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The controversy over the Catholic lawsuit against Presidential candidate John Kerry, and the denial by Vatican personalities of having been involved in it in any way has generated confusion about Kerry’s status within the church. Apart from the question of whether or not Kerry is “automatically excommunicated”, recent authoritative Vatican statements have made clear that he is, by virtue of his support for abortion, not permitted to receive communion.  The Catholic penalty of excommunication is to be distinguished from inadmissibility to receive communion which comes with being in a state of serious sin.  The […]

October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview with the homosexual activist web-site, planetout.com, Theresa Heinz-Kerry promised that promoting acceptance of homosexuals would be a top priority for her as the new First Lady, if her husband John F. Kerry were elected US President in November.  Heinz-Kerry spoke with planetout.com’s senior political correspondent, Chris Bull, Friday. She reiterated the ideology often perpetrated by homosexual activists—that sexual orientation is never chosen and cannot be changed and that homosexual activity is therefore moral: “A lot of people, particularly those of the more fundamentalist view, think of homosexuality as a sex thing rather […]

SACRAMENTO, October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, former movie star and one who claims to be a devout Catholic, has announced his support for California’s Proposition 71, the Embryo Cloning and Stem-Cell Research Bond Act. The act would allocate $3 billion for unethical stem cell research that would allow the creation of cloned human beings for experimental research. Schwarzenegger, in supporting the Proposition, is acting against strongly emphasized Catholic teaching on the stem cell research and against Republican Party policies that focus on ethical and far more productive adult stem cell research. Proposition 71 would also […]

ST. LOUIS, October 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Another advance has been made in fertility treatment that would allow infertile women to conceive naturally. Stephanie Yarber, 25, has received a transplant of her twin sister’s ovarian tissue and has conceived a child. Doctors at St Luke’s Hospital in St Louis, Missouri, think this may be a first where a tissue match was found from an identical twin. Melanie Morgan who has three children, donated her ovaries after her sister spent over US $10,000 on unsuccessful fertility treatments. Stephanie had been unable to conceive previously because of early-onset menopause at the age […]

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 20 (Culture of Life Foundation/CWNews.com) – According to documents obtained by the Culture of Life Foundation, officials of the Dioceses of San Bernardino, California, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, have instructed pastors and parish administrators not to allow the distribution of “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics,” published by Catholic Answers. With two weeks remaining before election day, the dioceses’ actions are another episode in the political drama surrounding the question of the Catholic vote.  In an August 20 letter from Diocese of La Crosse attorney James G. Birnbaum to pastors and administrators, Birnbaum said the “Voter’s Guide” ought […]