Recent Catholic News

WASHINGTON, February 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Thursday afternoon, February 27, on two radically differing approaches to the practice of human cloning.  The House will debate the human cloning issue for about three hours.  The House will consider first the Greenwood Substitute, proposed by Congressman Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.).  This bill would allow the mass cloning of human embryos for biomedical research, while attempting to prohibit the use of any such embryo to “initiate a pregnancy” in a human womb.  If the Greenwood Substitute is defeated, the House will then vote on the Weldon-Stupak Human […]

Report details activist judges' attempt to remodel Canadian values

VATICAN, February 26, 2003 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) – In a highly favourable review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, the official Vatican newspaper has said that the work carries “echoes of the Gospel.”  L’Osservatore Romano remarked that Tolkien’s creative work—now being made available on film—has an “enchantment with which it seduces us, and helps to highlight a significance deeper than what is immediately apparent.” The fantasy world of Tolkien’s work is “like a projection of the real world, where men are agitated by passions, driven by sentiments, slaves to egoism, but open to values of friendship, loyalty, generosity, love—stronger than the […]

Case illustrates bizarre consequences of IVF

MANILA, February 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Roman Catholic bishop of Legazpi, 200 miles southeast of Manila, says it would be more in keeping with the significance of the publicly celebrated Sacrament of Matrimony if brides who are visibly pregnant are married in private instead.  Pregnancy outside marriage is “a counter-symbol to the purity, chastity and beauty of the bride of Christ, the Church,” Bishop Jose Sorra explained, adding that his guidance is necessary to protect church marriages from ridicule. One bride went into labour during the wedding mass and had to be taken to hospital, he said, adding: “A […]

UTAH HOUSE PASSES PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN AND DEFUNDING ACT In back to back bills Monday and Tuesday the Utah House passed pro-life measures outlawing partial birth abortion and restricting public funding for abortion.  http://www.sltrib.com/2003/feb/02252003/utah/32663.asp http://www.sltrib.com/2003/feb/02262003/utah/32998.asp   WEST VIRGINIA SENATE APPROVES INFORMED CONSENT BILL   http://www.wvgazette.com/news/News/2003022423/  NEW MEXICO SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BILL http://santafenewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7142923&BRD=2144&PAG=461&dept_id=461625&rfi=8

CRISIS MAGAZINE RESPONDS TO MICHAEL ROSE’S CRITICISM OF CRISIS MAGAZINE Some of the details in Michael Rose’s book, Goodbye Good men, about the U.S. clergy sex-abuse scandals have generated controversy among faithful Catholic leaders. This is the latest, detailed installment in the saga.  http://www.crisismagazine.com/march2003/feature2.htm

WASHINGTON, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an eight-year-old Indiana state law that includes the country’s most rigorous requirements for abortion, including –  mandatory face-to-face counselling about the risks –  with pictures of what the unborn baby looks like at the appropriate number of weeks –  a mandatory 18-hour waiting period before an abortion can be carried out.  Abortion clinics in the state had appealed to the court on grounds that in-person counselling was “an outrageous law that leaves many women without access to abortions, or certainly places a heavy burden, an undue burden, on […]

TORONTO, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A small group of professors and researchers from various Canadian universities are attempting to influence parliament to allow human cloning. The researchers claim that their aim is to use human cloning for research purposes only. Similar U.S. legislative proposals have been dubbed “clone and kill bills” since such cloning always involves the killing of cloned embryos. The group has written an editorial in the Parliament Hill newspaper The Hill Times hoping to influence politicians to support human cloning. The list of professors includes: Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, University […]

MANAGUA, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The top education official for the Managua Archdiocese has told the press that all those who participated in forcing the nine-year-old girl who was pregnant to have an abortion have excommunicated themselves.  Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, said that the parents, the medical staff, and the feminist group, Network of Women Against Violence, which urged the abortion, “are excommunicated ‘ipso facto’.”  During his sermon on Sunday, Nicaraguan Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo warned that the abortion clinic staff were “putting themselves at the service of death” in killing the child.  The Church had offered to care […]