Conscience articles from December 2004

Conscience archives from December 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
December 22, 2004... THE ABORTION DEBATE HAS BECOME EVEN MORE furious than normal. Undoubtedly the close US presidential race has played its part, but we are not simply seeing the repetition of old arguments. There are new and welcome dimensions to the...

Sex trafficking.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 22, 2004... I WAS DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED by "Sex Trafficking: Why the Faith Trade Is Interested in the Sex Trade" by Jennifer Block in the Summer/ Autumn issue of Conscience. Three issues require correction because they are so dramatically off base: the...

The death of the nuclear family.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 22, 2004... RELIGIONISTS BOUND BY nostalgia or ideology about "traditional family values" will benefit from reading Balfour Brickner's "The Death of the Nuclear Family: Towards a New Sexual Ethic in America" (Summer/ Autumn 2004). On so many scores, the...

Murder in Juarez.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 22, 2004... THANKS CONSCIENCE FOR publishing Ana Castillo's article "Conditioned for Murder," in the last issue. I have been reading about these murders for years and this article ever so poignantly articulates what it means to be a brown woman and perhaps...

Cardinal O'Connor speaks out in support of condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention.(The Church and Condoms)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... IN A WIDE-RANGING INTERview with the Independent, a London-based daily newspaper, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has articulated his support for a more progressive position on condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. When asked about...

Catholic College confiscates newspaper containing condom column.(The Church and Condoms)(La Roche College)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... LA ROCHE COLLEGE, A Catholic university in Pittsburgh, confiscated 900 copies of the student newspaper, La Roche Courier. The newspaper contained a column by its editor, Nicole Johnson, suggesting that "condoms and other forms of contraception...

Action item.(In Catholic Circles)(Condoms4Life)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... Condoms4Life, a campaign developed by Catholics for a Free Choice, seeks to reach out to Catholics, especially young Catholics, who are at risk of transmitting or becoming infected by HIV/AIDS. The campaign provides information about Catholic...

Vatican document on feminism inspires "anger and amusement".(The Church and Women)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... A 37-PAGE VATICAN DOCUment on feminism, "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World," attracted significant media attention. The document, drafted by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine...

Europeans elect antichoice catholic as head of women's committee.(The Church and Women)(Anna Zaborska)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... A CATHOLIC MEMBER OF THE European Parliament from Slovakia has been elected president of the European Parliament's women's committee. The MEP, Anna Zaborska, has described AIDS as "God's vengeance for homosexuality" and is vehemently...

Six more women ordained.(The Church and Women)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... THE WOMEN'S ORDINATION Conference has reported that six women were ordained as priests in a service on the Danube River in Europe. Two female bishops, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger of Austria and Gisela Forster of Germany, and an "alternative"...

Environmentalists and feminists question concordat between Spain and Holy See.(The Church and State)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND feminists are calling on the Spanish socialist government to review the financial aspects of the 1979 Concordat between Spain and the Holy See. A Concordat is an official agreement made between the pope and a government to...

Three bishops join the "coalition of the few" who would deny communion to prochoice politicians.(The Church and State)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... THREE MORE BISHOPS HAVE issued a joint statement that they will deny communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights unless they recant and receive the consent of their bishop. The bishops of Atlanta, Charlotte, NC, and...

Republican Catholic outreach campaign leader resigns.(The Church and State)(Deal Hudson)
December 22, 2004... DEAL HUDSON, PUBLISHER of the conservative Catholic monthly, Crisis, and leader of President George W. Bush's outreach effort to Catholic voters, resigned from both positions after Joe Feuerherd of the National Catholic Reporter exposed a...

Come again?(In Catholic Circles)(Mary Ann Glendon)
December 22, 2004... The Tablet, a liberal Catholic weekly magazine published in the UK, recently described the Vatican's appointment of Mary Ann Glendon to be head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences as "a welcome appointment." The new post makes her, according...

Conservative groups flout laws on tax-exemption.(The Church and State)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC groups, as expected, sought to play a significant role in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election. In several instances, these groups violated both the letter and the spirit of the law governing tax-exempt entities,...

Antichoice Mexican group found with its hands in the till.(The Church and Abortion)(Pro-Vida Mexico)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... AN INVESTIGATION BY PROchoice groups in Mexico has shown that one of the nation's leading antichoice organizations, Pro-Vida Mexico, misused thousands of dollars of government funds on purchases as bizarre as thongs, bras and Mont Blanc pens....

Italy may limit access to abortion.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... ANTONIO GENTILE, A SENAtor in Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, has proposed a new law that will limit free abortions to one per woman, after which those who can pay will be charged between 2,000-3,000 euros ($2,400-$3,600). The...

Abortion legislation in Brazil?(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... IN JULY, THE BRAZILIAN government sponsored a National Conference on Women's Public Policies in Brasilia which called for reform of the penal code to make abortion legal. The call for reform comes immediately after a preliminary Supreme Court...

Vatican closes Austrian seminary at center of pornography scandal.(The Sexual Abuse Crisis)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... THE VATICAN CLOSED A seminary in the diocese of St. Poelten, Austria, which was at the center of a massive sex scandal, including the widespread use of pornography. The decision came a matter of weeks after Pope John Paul II had taken the...

The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon became the first archdiocese.(News Round Up)(for bankruptcy protection because of sexual abuse cases)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... * The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon became the first archdiocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection because of likely damage settlements in sexual abuse cases.

Fifty-two priests were accused of sexual abuse.(News Round Up)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... * Fifty-two priests were accused of sexual abuse in England and Wales during 2003 by 86 people, but so far none has been prosecuted and 50 still hold their jobs.

The Springfield Diocese in Illinois has reached a settlement worth more than $7 million.(News Round Up)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... * The Springfield Diocese in Illinois has reached a settlement worth more than $7 million with 46 people who accused priests of molesting them when they were children.

Lay workers resign after Bishop imposes oath of loyalty.(End Notes)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... SIX CATHOLICS HAVE REsigned from their positions in the diocese of Baker, Ore., because they did not want to sign a letter confirming their adherence to church teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. The letter was distributed...

Is there life after Roe? How to think about the fetus?(Cover Story)
December 22, 2004... IN THE THIRTY YEARS SINCE ROE V. Wade ushered in a new paradigm in the legal understanding of the right to choose abortion, there has been little about the issue that has not been said--and said time and time again. Supporters of choice have...

Selective reduction redux.(abortion)
December 22, 2004... WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT I was pregnant with triplets, I had three options: a high risk pregnancy, a termination, or a selective reduction. My obstetrician laid-out the scenario of a high-risk pregnancy: automatic bed rest at 20 weeks, premature...

Telling the truth.(Talking About Abortion)
December 22, 2004... AT FIRST, THE NEGATIVE LETTERS IN response to Amy's interview about her decision to have a selective reduction--that is, to carry one fertilized egg to term rather than three--made me feel protective of her and skeptical of the writer who...

The choice to speak out.(Talking About Abortion)
December 22, 2004... THE CHOICE TO SPEAK PUBLICLY ABOUT one's abortion is usually a difficult one. Prochoice supporters need to acknowledge that the decision to have an abortion is usually an ambivalent one. It is a choice between a potential life and the ability...

Why must we moralize about abortion?(Talking About Abortion)
December 22, 2004... THE CONTROVERSY STIRRED BY AMY Richard's public acknowledgement that she chose to have an abortion shows how successful the antiabortion movement has been in shaping the terms of the debate in the US. Antiabortion activists, in their 30-year...

On making mistakes: whom do you trust?(Talking About Abortion)
December 22, 2004... HERE'S A BASIC TRUTH IN LIFE: MISTAKES happen. Mistakes will happen under any system, under any organization. Mistakes will happen on any issue, any question, any problem. Mistakes happen. So the question is not how can we stop mistakes...

The benefits of speaking out.(Talking About Abortion)
December 22, 2004... MORE THAN 70,000 WOMEN DIE EVERY year as the result of having an unsafe abortion. Countless more suffer needlessly and, as long as the subject of abortion remains controversial, laws will remain restrictive and societies will continue to...

The case for second trimester abortion.
December 22, 2004... DURING THIS YEAR'S SLOW news summer months, British newspapers repeatedly examined the legitimacy of the current abortion law. In particular, the time limit for abortion has been called into question--the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act...

When abortion is a crime: the reality that rhetoric ignores.
December 22, 2004... IN OCTOBER 2004, PORTUGAL'S capital, Lisbon, witnesses its first abortion trial of the 21st century. The defendant is a 17-year-old girl who faces three years in jail. She was reported to the police by a health worker at the hospital she went...

The fetus does not feel pain.(The Fetal Pain Controversy)
December 22, 2004... THE SUGGESTION OF FETAL pain rests on a false equivalence regarding the biology and psychology of the fetus, babies, children and adults. Pain is dependent upon the presence of higher cortical (brain) regions that do not develop before birth...

The fetus may feel pain from 20 weeks.(The Fetal Pain Controversy)
December 22, 2004... PAIN IS A SUBJECTIVE EXPERIence. The fetus cannot tell us what it is feeling, and there is no objective method for the direct measurement of pain. To address the question of pain in the fetus, one must use indirect evidence from a variety of...

Unfulfilled: the holy see backs off from its claim for full membership of the UN, settling for the rights already held by Palestine.
December 22, 2004... AFTER SKILLFUL LOBBYING and diplomacy, including a year and a half of publicly announcing that it was considering full membership of the United Nations, the Holy See "settled" for an increase in its rights as a Nonmember State Permanent...

Storm clouds gathering: while the number of mergers wanes, the threats from the catholic hierarchy to reproductive health care continue.
December 22, 2004... DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE number of mergers between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals has been declining, the influence of the Catholic church in seeking to limit women's access to reproductive health care has continued. The Catholic Health...

Archie Bunker, Vatican theologian.(Opinion)(Vatican statement on relations between men and women)
December 22, 2004... WHEN I READ THE VATican statement on relations between men and women, I passed through a time warp. I thought I had returned to the 1960s and Archie Bunker had been appointed theologian to the pope. In Bunkeresque mode, the Vatican's fear that...

Distortion, misrepresentation and caricature: the Vatican's letter to women is confused about scripture and feminism.(Opinion)
December 22, 2004... THE "LETTER TO THE BISHOPS of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World," released by the Vatican Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on May 31, 2004, has already drawn...

A very profound kind of life.(Book Review)
December 22, 2004... Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns Cheryl L. Reed (Berkley Books, 2004, 331pp) o 425 19511 2, $24.95 YOU MUST ADMIT THE TITLE IS A BIT LURID. BUT the book itself is not. No breathless revelations--well, perhaps the how-to of...

Bookshelf.(Bibliography)
December 22, 2004... The Abortion Rights Controversy in America: A Legal Reader NEH Hull, Williamjames Hoffer, Peter Charles Hoffer (eds) (University of North Carolina Press, 2004, 343pp) A selection of documents, predominantly culled from primary sources,...

Much-needed direction.(Book Review)
December 22, 2004... Contemporary Catholic Sexuality: What Is Taught and What Is Practiced John E. Perito (Crossroad, 2004, 192pp) ISBN: 082451968X, $22.95 IN CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC SEXUALITY, JOHN PERITO gives an excellent presentation of the reality of sexual...