Conscience articles from June 2006

Conscience archives from June 2006

Editor's note.
June 22, 2006... FOR THIS ISSUE, WE WERE DELIGHTED TO COLLABORATE with the Global Fund for Women in planning and writing a series of articles on the current state of and future for the global women's movement. The recent elections of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as...

The Vatican and homosexuality.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2006... THE STATEMENT BY the Vatican on homosexual seminarians and priests confirms the hierarchy's underlying absolute certitude that just about all sex is sinful and the sex drive, leading inevitably to sin, has only one barely tolerable function,...

Reproductive and sexual rights.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2006... ROS PETCHESKY ASKS FOR A "trial separation" of sexual health and rights and reproductive health and rights. She wants this separation "to give us time and space to do the hard work of analyzing their differences as well as their...

Giving women room to exhale.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2006... JENNIFER BAUMGARDNER wrote (Autumn 2005) that women's abortion experiences must be attended to, respected and supported-"heard"--by those who promote reproductive health and abortion rights. She's right; this is crucial. However, her...

Contraceptive insurance coverage for Catholics.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2006... I AM A BORN AND RAISED Catholic and I have been diagnosed with endometriosis. Without certain forms of contraception I am in debilitating pain and my condition will become worse and require me to have more surgeries than I will already have to...

Catholic laity and religious on poverty.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2006... SISTER DOROTHY PAGOSA'S article in the Winter 2005-2006 issue reminds us of the faithful tradition of Catholic religious and the laity's resolute efforts to provide services and advocacy for those made poor in society. Besides all that Dorothy...

The church and contraception: Filipino bishops launch vicious campaign against family planning bill.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)
June 22, 2006... A LENGTHY REPORT in the Manila Standard exposed the bishops' new hard-line "shock-and-awe" policy to ensure that Catholic Filipinos do not use family planning. The policy was introduced to oppose a family planning and reproductive health care...

The church and abortion: report shows Mexico not following its own laws on abortion.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)(Brief article)
June 22, 2006... A REPORT BY THE NGO Human Rights Watch shows how Mexican officials actively prevent women who are pregnant after a rape from having an abortion. While abortion is generally illegal in Mexico, all state criminal codes allow women who have...

The church and homosexuality: Catholic charities' board members resign over gay adoption policy.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)(Brief article)
June 22, 2006... EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE board of Catholic Charities of Boston have decided to resign rather than support the Catholic social service agency's policy of prohibiting gay couples from adopting children. Seven signed a statement saying that the...

The church and state: Slovak government falls over concordat with the Vatican.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)(Brief article)
June 22, 2006... THE GOVERNMENT OF Slovakia collapsed after Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda decided to withdraw his party's support for a treaty with the Vatican. Elections have been brought forward several months to June. The ruling coalition split over the...

Come again?(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)
June 22, 2006... "The Church is finding a sympathy for its views in a new quarter, among those who want a holistic approach, wanting to work with rather than against the body, and also fear for the environment and the impact of artificial hormones contaminating...

The sexual abuse scandal.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)
June 22, 2006... * Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, of the Archdiocese of Detroit, has announced his support for legislation that would loosen the statute of limitations on filing sexual abuse law-suits against members of the clergy. The hierarchy has vehemently...

End notes: Opus Dei seeks 'R' rating for Da Vinci Code.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)(Brief article)
June 22, 2006... THE ULTRACONSERVATIVE Catholic organization Opus Dei has called for the forthcoming film version of Dan Brown's fictional novel, "The Da Vinci Code," to be given an adult rating. The book, a bestseller worldwide, proposes a theory that Jesus...

Nothing short of a revolution: reflections on the global women's movement.
June 22, 2006... IN TOGO, WEST AFRICA, A WOMEN'S legal rights group mobilizes widows to claim inheritance rights and demand pension payments from the government. A few years ago, they were living in penury, denied their rights to inherit their husbands' land,...

Rolling the dice with women's lives: accomplishments and challenges in the battle over reproductive health in Latin America.
June 22, 2006... THE MAIN ISSUES CONCERNING reproductive fights in Brazil and in other Latin American countries are, as elsewhere, defined in the political field and involve many different actors and institutions. They involve key democratic and rights-based...

Strategies of resistance: women contesting Islamist movements in the Arab world.
June 22, 2006... INDIGENOUS DEMANDS FOR political change and democratic reform are permeating the Arab world. Pictures of women climbing through voting station windows to cast their ballots in last year's Egyptian elections were widely published as were...

Disaster relief efforts of native women's organizations: the director of the Afghan Institute of Learning explains why women's groups are so vital in responding to the litany of recent disasters in Afghanistan.(Afghan Institute of Learning)
June 22, 2006... Recent disasters around the globe including mudslides, earthquakes, the tsunami, hurricanes, war, famine, and epidemic disease like AIDS have mobilized extensive response efforts. These relief efforts have multiple goals: to reach as many...

Counteracting the antichoice threat in Eastern Europe: women's groups know from bitter experience that states are too willing to pay lip service to women's equality.
June 22, 2006... SINCE THE FALL OF THE BERLIN Wall in 1989, much has changed in the landscape of women s reproductive freedom and rights in Central and Eastern Europe. However, these changes have not all been for the better. With the accession of eight Central...

Women and globalization in South East Asia: new strategies for new times.
June 22, 2006... FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS, FAST developing global economic trends and policies have negatively impacted women workers all over the world, especially in the fast-developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Globalizing trends have...

Where are the women's voices in today's antiwar movements?(ROUNDTABLE)
June 22, 2006... By Medea Benjamin When Will US Women Demand Peace? WHENEVER I TRAVEL TO INTERNATIONAL gatherings to talk about the war in Iraq, economic development and women's rights, the question I get asked most frequently is: "Where are the women...

Bridging the abortion divide.(OPINION)(statement of Catholic Democrats)
June 22, 2006... IN FEBRUARY, 55 CATHOLIC Democrats in Congress issued an unprecedented statement of principles. Never before have they worn their religion so openly on their sleeves. Unlike evangelicals, Catholics have tended to downplay their religious...

Benedict XVI's first encyclical: "God is love".(OPINION)
June 22, 2006... CATHOLICS HAVE GROWN WEARY WITH PAPAL ENCYCLICALS in recent decades. Typically they have become tedious exercises in admonitions and warnings. The hidden or overt text is to shake the finger against the modern world, against materialism,...

Women with a mission.(34 Million Friends of the Women of the World)(Book review)
June 22, 2006... 34 Million Friends of the Women of the World Jane Roberts (LadybugPress, 2005, 149pp) 1-88940934-0, $17.95 WHY IS IT THAT SOME people hear that clarion call for justice louder than others? Some see injustices and choose not to act, while...

A bright yet challenging future.(Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice)(Book review)
June 22, 2006... Undivided Rights. Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, Loretta Ross and Elena Gutierrez (South End Press, 2004, 300pp) 0896087298, $20.00 WHEN MOST AMERICANS of women's reproductive rights,...

Bookshelf.(Book review)(Brief review)
June 22, 2006... The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception Debora L. Spar (Harvard Business School Press, 2006, 320pp) This intelligent, candid and groundbreaking book will likely serve many as an introduction to...

Ruling on religion (II).(Sanctioning Religion? Politics, Law, and Faith-Based Public Services)(Book review)
June 22, 2006... Sanctioning Religion? Politics, Law, and Faith-Based Public Services Edited by David K. Ryden & Jeffrey Polet (Lynne Rienner, 2005, 235pp) 1-588263-436, $22.50 RYDEN AND POLET'S ANTHOLogy of the legal and practical ramifications of the US...

Setting the record straight on feminism in Muslim countries.(Great Ancestors: Women Asserting Rights in Muslim Contexts)(Book review)
June 22, 2006... Great Ancestors: Women Asserting Rights in Muslim Contexts Farida Shaheed with Aisha Lee-Shaheed (Women Living under Muslim Laws, 2005, 2 vols., Training Manual: 133pp; Narratives: 193pp), $15.00 (Global South); $30.00 (Global North) GREAT...

Postscript.
June 22, 2006... "The Catholic church believes we need to shock the faithful, scare them and discipline them like children so we could instill in them the teachings of the church. That is the only way to get the church's message across." --Sister Regina...