Conscience articles from June 2007

Conscience archives from June 2007

Editors note.(Editorial)
June 22, 2007... THE LATINO POPULATION IS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE IN THE U.S., and not just because of the immigration issue. Latinos are a fast-expanding demographic and are playing an increasingly important role in all areas of life: cultural, social and...

The sexual abuse scandal.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2007... MANY HAVE INITIALLY assumed, incorrectly, that the sexual abuse of boys by priests is a "gay" phenomenon. I am glad that Colin Toibin ("At St. Peter's," Spring 2007) is questioning this belief. However, his claim that the years of priests...

The return of limbo?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2007... NUALA O'FAOLAIN IS TO BE commended for bringing to light the fact that Dr. Diarmuid Martin, Catholic archbishop of Dublin, has finally given birth to the quintessential straw man ("Did You Hear the One about the Irish Bishops and the Embryos?"...

Safe haven laws.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2007... CAROL SANGER PROVIDES some good reasons why safe haven laws are not relevant to most of the women who commit infanticide, arguments supported by the laws' low effectiveness rates ("Infant Safe Haven Laws: Legislating the Culture of Life,"...

Mexico City to legalize abortion; bishops outraged.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... THE MEXICO CITY Legislative Assembly voted in April to legalize abortion, after one of the most intense debates of its kind in Mexico. There was blanket coverage of the debate in the media, with a significant number of editorials appearing in...

Portuguese president signs legal abortion law.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... IN A REFERENDUM ON February 11, Portuguese voters approved a measure to allow abortions until the tenth week of pregnancy. While turnout was too low to make the result binding, the government immediately stepped in and passed a law to approve...

Amnesty International U.K. votes to support some abortion rights.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... IN MARCH, MEMBERS OF THE United Kingdom branch of Amnesty International voted at their annual conference in Edinburgh to include access to safe, legal abortion in the list of rights that Amnesty supports and advocates for globally. The vote is...

U.S. bishops admonish Catholic theologian.(The Church and Abortion)(Daniel C. Maguire)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... THE UNITED STATES bishops' Committee on Doctrine has offered a "public correction" to Catholic theologian Daniel C. Maguire, who teaches religious ethics at Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee. The correction stems from two...

Stop press.(IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES)(woman wins abortion case)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... Stop Press: The courts in Ireland were again involved in an abortion legal case after a government official sought a court order to prevent a woman with an anencephalic fetus, with no chance of survival outside the womb, from traveling to the...

Polish government rejects total ban.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... DESPITE INTENSE PRESSURE from conservative Catholic organizations and continued campaigning by the Catholic hierarchy, the Polish government decided against incorporating a total ban on abortion into the Polish constitution. The fundamentalist...

Australian government gives $34 million to Catholic counselors.(The Church and Abortion)(Centacare)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT has announced a plan to give US$34 million to Centacare, a health and welfare charity run by the Catholic hierarchy to provide counseling to women considering abortion. The move may lead to a similar debate as...

U.S. Catholic opinion on abortion shifting.(The Church and Abortion)
June 22, 2007... RESULTS OF AN ABC NEWS/ Washington Post poll showed the consolidation of the prochoice position among the U.S. public. A significant majority of Americans said abortion should be available and legal, albeit to varying degrees. Catholics...

UNFPA calls on hierarchy to change stance.(The Church and Contraception)(United Nations Fund for Population Activities)
June 22, 2007... THE UNITED NATIONS Population Fund in the Philippines called on the Catholic hierarchy to reconsider its stance against contraception after the findings of a poll showed that almost all Filipinos disagreed with the ban. The Pulse Asia...

Divergent policies on emergency contraception.(The Church and Contraception)
June 22, 2007... THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY in Australia has stated that women going to Catholic hospitals after being raped may not be referred to sexual assault units that supply emergency contraception (EC). In response, a Melbourne doctor, Sally Cockburn,...

Brazilian government stands firm on condoms.(The Church and Condoms)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... IN THE MONTHS RUNNING up to the pope's first visit to Latin America, the Brazilian government and the Catholic hierarchy have exchanged angry words over the government's condom policy. Brazil has long been held up as having an excellent record...

U.K. Church loses battle over discrimination.(The Church and Homosexuality)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... AFTER A LENGTHY AND often bitter row, the British government decided against allowing Catholic adoption agencies to opt out of anti-discrimination laws that require them to consider suitable gay couples when looking at options for children...

Donohue inhabits a lonely planet.(Come again?)(Bill Donohue )(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... "What no one wants to talk about is the 11 percent of priests whose allegations against them could not be proven or were proven false. What is being done for these men? What outreach program have they benefited from? This is the scandal that...

Married lesbian couple excommunicated.(The Church and Homosexuality)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... A LESBIAN COUPLE IN Wyoming have been denied communion over their recent marriage in Canada. They subsequently wrote a letter to a local legislator, who opposed a bill that would deny recognition to such marriages, that was read out on the...

Unitarians banned from parish buildings.(The Church and Homosexuality)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... A UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST congregation has been banned from a New Jersey Catholic campus because it invited a gay rights advocate to address a service about his work with HeartStrong, an organization that provides support to lesbian, gay,...

Genoan Bishop outrages Italians.(The Church and Homosexuality)(ANGELO Bagnasco)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... ARCHBISHOP ANGELO Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, sparked controversy when he said granting rights to same-sex couples was the same as supporting incest and pedophilia. According to the Italian daily La Repubblica,...

Oscar Wilde redeemed?(The Church and Homosexuality)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... THE TIMES OF LONDON reports that the Vatican may have decided to forgive Oscar Wilde, whom it previously regarded as a dissolute and disgraceful homosexual. Many of his witticisms have been included in a new collection of Christian maxims by...

Judge rules Vatican employees may face trial in the U.S.; Bush grants immunity to U.N. Representatives.(The Church and State)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... A FEDERAL JUDGE IN Kentucky has ruled that a lawsuit against the Vatican may proceed, despite a law that exempts foreign governments from actions taken in U.S. courts. The judge ruled that representatives of states cited in cases involving harm...

2006 Audit released.(Sex Abuse Update)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... A STUDY BY THE CENTER FOR Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., that was published along with the U.S. bishops' own 2006 audit on compliance with child protection policies has shown that new cases of...

Bishop decries German pronatalist policies.(End Notes)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... THE BISHOP OF AUGSBURG, Walter Mixa, has denounced a proposed policy that would make it easier for German women to have more children, claiming that expanding access to day care would do little more than turn women into "birthing machines."...

Australian Church imposes eulogy limits.(End Notes)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... CARDINAL GEORGE PELL HAS imposed a five-minute limit on eulogies at funeral masses and banned any references to sex or drinking. The new guidelines include the following: "On not a few occasions, inappropriate remarks glossing over the...

Priests who are fathers "deserve a second chance".(End Notes)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... ACCORDING TO A STORY IN Colombia's El Tiempo, celibacy is the rule for priests--but only up to a point. The Code of Canon Law is clear about priests who have ongoing relationships with or choose to live with women: They must resign. After Fr....

Monaghan bites off more than he can chew.(Come Again?)(Tom Monaghan)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., "said he was asked to a private meeting this morning with chancellor Tom Monaghan. At the meeting, Fessio said he was asked to resign his position with the school, clear his office and leave campus by the end of the...

"Macho men and passive women": debunking myths about the sexualities of Latinos.
June 22, 2007... Any investigation into the many factors that shape Latinos' sexualities presents significant problems. For a start, the pan-ethnic or supra-ethnic label of Latino itself can obscure the tremendous diversity found within the population. Latinos...

Decoding the Latino vote.
June 22, 2007... WHEN 40 PERCENT OF Latino voters chose President George W. Bush in 2004, headlines trumpeted the unprecedented Latino support for Republicans. But in 2006, just 30 percent of an estimated 6 million Latino votes cast went to Republicans--and...

51% Latinas and teen pregnancy.
June 22, 2007... THE PROGRESS THE NATION has made in reducing teen pregnancy has been breath-taking. The teen pregnancy rate in the United States has declined 36 percent since 1990, and the teen birth rate has plummeted by one-third since 1991. Even more...

Seeking solutions: the campaign for reproductive justice for Latinas in California.
June 22, 2007... ACCORDING TO THE 2000 United States Census, Latinos, at almost 11 million, compose 32 percent of California's population. Among the Latino population, 51 percent are male and 49 percent are female. Latinas are relatively young, with a median...

Prevention, not prohibition, is the way forward.(OPINION)(Essay)
June 22, 2007... ABORTION HAS BEEN AT THE EYE OF A TERRIBLE STORM in recent years. Clinic bombings, Supreme Court decisions, shootings, violent protests and venomous rhetoric have not brought the country any closer to a resolution. Both sides in the debate have...

Latinizing American Christianity: pluralism, Pentecostalism and the future of American Catholicism.(Report)
June 22, 2007... The findings in this essay are based on the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life research project, directed and managed by Virgilio Elizondo of the University of Notre Dame, Jesse Miranda of Vanguard University and Gaston Espinosa of...

Abortion in Poland: a new human rights ruling.
June 22, 2007... ON MARCH 20, 2007, THE Fourth Section of the European Court of Human Rights, made up of seven judges, gave judgment in Tysiac v Poland. It upheld the applicant's complaint. She suffers from severe myopia, but was unable to obtain a lawful...

The campaign to decriminalize abortion in Portugal: a report from the front line.(OPINION)
June 22, 2007... ON FEBRUARY II, PORTUGAL said "enough is enough" to those who have long opposed women's rights and voted to decriminalize abortion, permitting it on request until the moth week of pregnancy in state-regulated facilities. In the referendum, 59...

The Brussels Declaration.(OPINION)
June 22, 2007... MORE THAN 80 MEMBERS of the European Parliament and hundreds of individuals including European politicians, community leaders, academics and Nobel Prize winners have endorsed the Brussels Declaration on Dignity, Equality and Freedom, a document...

"Hope to see you soon": Oscar-nominated documentary reveals yet more horrors in the sexual abuse scandal.(Deliver Us from Evil)(Movie review)
June 22, 2007... Deliver Us from Evil Lionsgate, 2006, $27.98 THE SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL in the Catholic church has a never-ending ability to shock and horrify. Amy Berg's Deliver Us from Evil reveals details that are unnerving--even for those who have been...

Hold the front page: White House plays politics.(Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction David Kuo (Free Press, 2006, 283 pp) 0743287126, $25.00 DAVID KUO'S TEMPTING FAITH enjoyed instant fame last October when it was released in time to influence the midterm elections....

Bookshelf.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... America's Battle for God: A European Christian Looks at Civil Religion Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007, 203pp) Muller-Fahrenholz, a theologian of German descent, examines the course that the United States has...

For the good of the Church.(Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian Charles E. Curran (Georgetown University Press, 2006, 280 pp) 1589010876, $26.95 CHARLES CURRAN IS PERHAPS the leading moral theologian in the Catholic tradition in the world today. He has...

Fr. John: the White House's Catholic.(The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege )(Book review)
June 22, 2007... The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege Damon Linker (Doubleday, 2006, 272pp) 0385516479, $26.00 MOST WRITING ABOUT theocracy-trending conservatives tends to focus on such well-known figures as (the late) Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson,...

A provocative voice with a vision.(The A Word--Abortion: Real Women, Tough Choices, Personal Freedom )(Book review)
June 22, 2007... The A Word--Abortion: Real Women, Tough Choices, Personal Freedom Mary Ann Sorrentino (Gadd Books, 2006, 224pp) 0977405338, $17.50 THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS continue to support keeping abortion legal, and one in three U.S. women will have...

Postscript.
June 22, 2007... "This is a dialogue. But it is a dialogue in the Roman sense--I talk, you listen." --Cardinal Edward Egan of New York explaining his management style. (1) "The Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist." ...

The Latino National Survey: key results from the nation's largest survey of Latinos.
June 22, 2007... THE LATINO NATIONAL SURVEY (LNS) was a major national telephone survey of 8,600 Latino residents of the United States, seeking a broad understanding of the qualitative nature of Latino political and social life in America. All Latinos, not just...