Conscience articles from June 2005

Conscience archives from June 2005

Editor's note.(Editorial)
June 22, 2005... FOR YEARS, CONSCIENCE HAS COVERED RIGHT-WING religious groups and socially conservative Catholics who are active in the political process in ways we thought disrespectful of the pluralism and secularism that are required in the public square....

Is There Life after Roe?(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2005... I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I was skeptical when I first started reading "Is There Life after Roe? How to Think about the Fetus" (Winter 2004/5). As a woman who not only advocates for the right to choose, but also who has personally made the difficult...

The Vatican and condoms.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2005... WE KNOW MANY OF OUR youth are having sex and will have sex in the future. To teach abstinence without including education on the need for a condom and how to use a condom will lead to more HIV and STD infections. Around the world the use of...

Reaching overseas.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2005... I BELONG TO AN ORGANIZAtion called Mujer tenia que ser (It has to be a woman), promoting women's rights in Venezuela. We are starting a new publication with the same name and our next issue will be about violence and abortion. Your magazine has...

Abortion in Europe.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2005... CATHERINE FORDE'S ARTICLE (Spring 2005) was timely, coming just after the European Union welcomed ten new members. Indeed, with the expansion of the EU, abortion may well become just as divisive an issue in Europe as it has been in the US. We...

Conservative Catholic groups contravene US tax laws.(LETTERS)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... Conservative Catholic groups, as expected, sought to play a significant role in the 2004 US elections. In several instances, these groups violated both the letter and the spirit of the law governing tax-exempt entities, whereby organizations...

More bishops favor condom use.(The Church and Condoms)
June 22, 2005... A NUMBER OF BISHOPS and senior clerics have spoken out in support of the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, revealing how divided the hierarchy is on this matter. While there has never been an infallible statement on the ban,...

Prochoice campaign in Brazil gathers steam.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... SEVERAL RECENT EVENTS IN Brazil suggest that the prochoice campaign to legalize abortion may be gaining momentum. At the launch of a two-year campaign to legalize abortion in Brazil, in January, government minister Matilde Ribeiro declared,...

Portuguese government announces abortion referendum.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... THE GOVERNMENT IN PORtugal will hold a referendum on abortion in 2006, asking the question, "Do you approve that an abortion, carried out during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, with the woman's consent and in an authorized medical facility, no...

Bishop censured in abortion row.(The Church and Abortion)(Bishop Antonio Juan Baseotto)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... THE ARGENTINEAN GOVERNment has initiated a conflict with the Vatican by dismissing the Catholic bishop to the military. Bishop Antonio Juan Baseotto had suggested that Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia should be "thrown into the sea with a...

The Philippines rejects US extremism.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... THE AUTHOR OF A GOVERNment-sponsored reproductive health bill has called for the expulsion from the country of US antichoice operative Brian Clowes from Human Life International (HLI). Albay Representative Edcel Lagman called Clowes, a former...

UK cardinal urges, then withdraws support for conservatives.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... CARDINAL CORMAC MURPHY O'Connor, leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, entered the election campaign in the UK when he urged Catholic voters to consider election candidates' positions on abortion before deciding how to vote. Abortion...

Vatican praises woman who died to avoid abortion.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... FOLLOWING THE CANONIZAtion in 2004 of Gianna Beretta Molla, who died of cancer in 1962 after refusing to have an abortion to allow for treatment that might have saved her life, the Vatican has praised another woman who died in similar...

Bishops support denial of legal services.(The Church and State)
June 22, 2005... THREE CATHOLIC ORGANIZAtions have lobbied the US Senate, urging it to uphold legislation that places extreme limitations on the right of conscience of women seeking safe and legal abortion services. The legislation, approved last December,...

Vatican uses claim to statehood in bid to avoid another sex abuse lawsuit.(The Church and State)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... A REPORT FROM THE NAtional Catholic Reporter's John L. Allen Jr. disclosed that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano appealed to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "intervene in a US lawsuit naming the Holy See as a...

The Irish government has released a report.(Sexual Abuse Update)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... The Irish government has released a report estimating that the final cost of the settlement for clergy abuse victims in Ireland may be more than $1 billion, with the vast majority (85%) coming from the government itself.

A report on clergy sexual abuse in the Philippines, prepared by Catholics for a Free Choice and two local NGOS, Likhaan ng mga Kababaihan and the Child Justice League, has been submitted to the United Nations, the Holy See and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.(Sexual Abuse Update)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... A report on clergy sexual abuse in the Philippines, prepared by Catholics for a Free Choice and two local NGOS, Likhaan ng mga Kababaihan and the Child Justice League, has been submitted to the United Nations, the Holy See and the Catholic...

A survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, an organization commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has revealed that more than 600 diocesan priests and deacons were accused in 2004 of sexually abusing minors (with the majority of cases occurring during the 1970s).(Sexual Abuse Update)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... A survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, an organization commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has revealed that more than 600 diocesan priests and deacons were accused in 2004 of...

New antiabortion community founded.(The Catholic Right)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... FATHER FRANK A. PAVONE, director of the antiabortion group, Priests for Life, has announced the formation of a religious community that focuses solely on "life issues." The men-only group, Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, will be based in...

Come again?(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)
June 22, 2005... "Ave Maria College is an academic institution that pledges faithfulness to the teachings of the Church [and] is known for academic rigor and faithfulness to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.... As an institution committed to Catholic...

Opus Dei gains cabinet post, parish in the UK.(The Catholic Right)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... THE ULTRACONSERVATIVE Catholic sect, Opus Dei, was in the headlines in the UK, and for reasons that had nothing to do with The Da Vinci Code. First, it was given its own parish by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor who said that Father Gerard...

Vatican issues new annulment handbook.(End Notes)
June 22, 2005... THE VATICAN HAS UPDATED the 1936 handbook on annulments. Speaking at the launch, Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, echoed the wider concern among the hierarchy, saying some people see annulments as...

Mixed messages on The Da Vinci Code.(End Notes)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE, archbishop of Genoa and former deputy head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Doctrine of the Faith, has urged Catholics to avoid reading or even buying Dan Brown's fictional novel, The Da Vinci Code,...

NBC's "Meet the Press": unfair, unbalanced.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2005... ON APRIL 10, CATHOLICS FOR A FREE CHOICE HELD A demonstration to call attention to the blatant exclusion of women of faith--right and left--on the critical issue of religion and politics from NBC's flagship news program, "Meet the Press." ...

The paths not taken: Pope John Paul II chose not to engage all catholics, and leaves a tragic legacy of missed opportunities that damaged the church.(OPINION)
June 22, 2005... THE DEATH OF FRIENDS, FAMILY and larger-than-life public persons is a time of great reflection--on the past, on our own lives and on the future. I am sure many people have found in the illness, suffering and death of Pope John Paul II a rich...

In search of the holy grail: why the democrats are finding God.
June 22, 2005... STUNG BY DEFEAT UPON DEFEAT at the polls, Democrats in Washington are turning to God. More precisely, they are talking about God. And morality. Which is what they think people want to hear. Following the November 2004 election, Democrats...

The politics of Jim Wallis: Jim Wallis substitutes ideological hubris for reasoned political discourse.
June 22, 2005... LIKE MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES, I waited with anticipation for Jim Wallis' new book God's Politics. Having been steeped in his work for a number of years, I wanted to see what new insights Wallis might offer in this era of religio-political...

Why Kerry lost.(John Kerry)
June 22, 2005... THE COFFEE WAS STILL GROWing cold at Kerry campaign headquarters when conservatives and media commentators alike began proclaiming that President George W. Bush's electoral victory was due to the president's successful courtship of religious...

"God Talk" and the Democratic Party.(ROUNDTABLE)(Panel Discussion)
June 22, 2005... In the wake of John Kerry's defeat in last November's presidential election, and further losses in both the House and Senate, considerable attention was paid to exit poll results placing "moral values" as the number one interest of a plurality...

A marriage proposal: with gay marriage now on the agenda, it may be time to consider the institution of marriage itself.
June 22, 2005... THE BEST PROOF THAT THE religious right is in charge in the United States lies in the movement for same-sex marriage. Of course the Right opposes it, but by setting up marriage as the main lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/ queer (LCBTQ) agenda...

An inconceivable argument: does a law ensuring equal access to prescription drugs mean that the catholic hierarchy will become morally complicit in "immoral acts"?
June 22, 2005... EARLY 40 YEARS AFTER THE US Supreme Court's Griswold v. Connecticut decision legalized birth control for married couples, a New York appellate court in a predominantly Catholic upstate county was confronted in February with arguments from an...

The right to choose: orthodoxy may be the big winner in the furor over the selection of commencement speakers at catholic universities in the United States.
June 22, 2005... AS THE TIME FOR COMmencement draws near, many colleges and universities are busy selecting their speakers. At a growing number of Catholic institutions in the US, the annual event has become fraught with nervous tension, as a small but vocal...

The struggle for justice.(book by Beverly Wildung Harrison )(Book Review)
June 22, 2005... Justice in the Making: Feminist Social Ethics Beverly Wildung Harrison (Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, 252pp) 0-664-22774-0; $24.95 JUSTICE IN THE MAKING IS A RETrospective collection of essays and reviews by Beverly Wildung Harrison,...

Virtue is in the middle.(book by David F. Kelly)(Book Review)
June 22, 2005... Contemporary Catholic Health Care Ethics David F. Kelly (Georgetown University Press, 2004, 336pp) 1-58901-030-2 $32.50 CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC Health Care Ethics combines David F. Kelly's academic work in moral theology with his years of...

Whose morality will triumph?(Book Review)
June 22, 2005... Catholics and Contraception, an American History Leslie Woodcock Tentler (Cornell University Press, 2004, 335PP) 0-8014-4003-3, $29.95 THE IMAGE WITH WHICH POPE John Paul II left us, of an ailing man blessing a large and devout crowd from...

Bookshelf.
June 22, 2005... An Angel Directs the Storm : Apocalyptic Religion and American Empire Michael Northcott (IB Tauris, 2004, 220pp) A passionate, in-depth investigation into the religiosity of American neoconservatism, suggesting that a literal reading...

Postscript.
June 22, 2005... "Faithful Catholics may not be concerned with this issue because Dorothy Stang dedicated herself to economic and political issues outside the concerns of the Church. Our concerns, which you call 'culture of life,' are about the importance of...