Recent Catholic News

LONDON, Dec 21 (LifeSiteNews.com) – LifeSite has learned that with money from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the UK Government’s Department for International Development, International Planned Parenthood and the BBC plan to deliver sex education propaganda via radio and other media to adolescents worldwide. The project called “Sexwise” is set to launch broadcasts in Spanish and Portuguese in the summer of 2000.  With files from BBC.

OTTAWA, Dec 21 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week in the Canadian Senate, feminist senator Lucie Pépin paid tribute to the “contributions of prominent Canadian women.” Exposing the extreme feminist bias of her remarks, Pépin, mentioning about 15 women to whom “society owes a great deal,”  included three female abortion and contraception promoters, two of whom operated illegally in Canada.  “Other Canadian heroines include Elizabeth Bagshaw, Dr. Marion Powell and Dr. Lise Fortier.  Dr. Bagshaw was the director of the first birth control clinic in Canada. She directed the Ontario clinic illegally from 1932 to 1966. Dr. Powell did the same in […]

MONTPELIER, VT, Dec 21 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Vermont’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday that “the state is constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law.” While pro-family groups were thankful that the court did not order homosexual marriage, the ruling cannot be appealed to the US Supreme Court since it bases itself on Vermont’s state constitution. The courts threw the decision on whether to grant same-sex marriages back to the state legislature.  “Whether this ultimately takes the form of inclusion within the marriage laws themselves or a parallel ‘domestic-partnership’ system or […]

OTTAWA, Dec 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As LifeSite reported Friday, Fr. Tony Van Hee, a pro-life Catholic priest who has for the past ten years quietly and peacefully picketed, prayed and fasted outside the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa was harassed by gay MP Svend Robinson, a politician known for his aggressive promotion of euthanasia and homosexuality.  LifeSite interviewed Fr. Van Hee and has learned that the altercations with Robinson began November 30 and thus not in the last week as LifeSite had reported.  Among seven signs on display that day, one read “Homosexuality – objective disorder tending to deviant acts,” […]

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a move seen as a victory for pro-family forces, Exxon-Mobil made a corporate decision to end Mobil’s policy of granting “domestic partner” benefits to homosexual partners of employees as well as unmarried heterosexual ones. Several pro-family groups in the US had petitioned Mobil in March of 1998 asking them to reconsider their extension of benefits to benefits to homosexual and unmarried couples “on an equal footing with married employees.”  Commenting on the decision, Family Research Council’s Chief Spokeswoman Janet Parshall said “Think of the energy Exxon-Mobil can now channel towards delivering gas instead of […]

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Friday that the US law forbidding child pornography infringes the first amendment rights of pornographers since it includes a ban not only on child pornography but also on porn involving people who “appear” or “convey the impression” they are minors. (infobeat.com)   Catholic World News reported Sunday that a new wave of forced sterilization in Mexico has prompted calls of protest to the government by Provida, a Mexican pro-life group. Jorge Serrano Limon, president of Provida, explains that the over 200 cases of forced abortions discovered are the fruit of the government’s birth […]

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The report of the so-called “independent” inquiry into the actions of the United Nations during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda may be nothing more than a recommendation to give the UN more money, authority, military personnel and equipment.  Conducted by Ingvar Carlsson, long-time UN devotee, the inquiry recommends more political will, finances and personnel supporting the UN because “the overriding failure in the response of the United Nations before and during the genocide in Rwanda can be summarized as a lack of resources.” With this, UN president Kofi Annan was able to issue a […]

LONDON, Dec 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the latest innovation from the world of reproductive technology, a British couple is fighting for the right to create a grandchild for themselves using the sperm from their dead son.  After the death of Lance Smith, 36, last year, a fertility clinic extracted sperm from his body for the in-vitro fertilization of his girlfriend of 10 years. The woman declined the treatment so Lance’s parents, Natasha and Barry Smith, from Droitwich asked for the sperm to be released to them. Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said that the sperm could not be released […]

VANCOUVER, BC, Dec 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Friday, Jane Wagner, mother of Mary Wagner, 25, a political prisoner in Maximum Security at BC Women’s Correction centre, issued a moving letter to the press. Jane explains that her daughter’s “crime” is “offering flowers and hope on the streets of Vancouver to desperate women making desperate choices. She wanted to help women in crisis pregnancies to choose life for their babies.” “Our family will miss her on Christmas, especially my little ones,” writes Jane. “They are heart-broken and confused. They miss her terribly.” Using the imagery of the first Christmas, Jane writes that […]

The Canadian Copyright Board announced today the new levies which will be added to the cost of all blank tapes and CDs as follows: Analog Audio Cassette Tapes (40 minutes or longer): 23.3 cents per tape Analog Audio Cassette Tapes (less than 40 minutes): no levy MiniDiscs, CD-Rs Audio and CD-RWs Audio : 60.8 cents per CD/disc CD-Rs and CD-RWs : 5.2 cents per CD   Manufacturers and importers are responsible for paying the levy on each unit of leviable media that they sell in Canada. Canadians will now be paying P.S.T. (in provinces that have sales tax), G.S.T. and now this […]