Conscience articles from March 2005

Conscience archives from March 2005

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 22, 2005... THIS ISSUE OF CONSCIENCE TURNS ITS EYES TOWARDS EUROPE, FROM where great things are expected in 2005 and beyond, especially by those who see the potential for an expanding European Union to act as a powerful counterpoint to current US policies...

The church and state: Buttiglione forced to withdraw.(In Catholic Circles)(Rocco Buttiglione)
March 22, 2005... Following outrage from members of the European Parliament and a campaign by progressive groups, both religious and secular, Rocco Buttiglione, an ultraconservative Catholic with close ties to the pope, withdrew from consideration for...

Kudos.(In Catholic Circles)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter after he announced his retirement as president of the Catholic Health Association, Fr. Michael D. Place, whose salary package was worth some $750,000 annually, cited the work of Catholics for...

US bishops decline to issue guidelines on pro-choice Catholic politicians.(In Catholic Circles)
March 22, 2005... The US Conference of Catholic Bishops held its fall general meeting in Washington, DC, during November. The meeting, which generally discusses administrative matters, finished a day early. However, in the time they did spend together, the...

The church and condoms: Catholic aid group supports condom use.(In Catholic Circles)
March 22, 2005... In an article written for the Tablet, a UK-based Catholic weekly, the HIV Corporate Strategist for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Ann Smith, elucidated a nuanced approach to condom-use that is at odds with the church hierarchy's...

Catholic health care: new federal employees health plan does not cover reproductive services.(In Catholic Circles)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Federal employees in Illinois have been offered a Catholic-run health insurance plan that does not cover abortion, contraceptives or fertility treatment--the first of its kind to be offered to federal workers. The introduction of the plan is...

The church and abortion: US bishops support new antiabortion law.(In Catholic Circles)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has strongly approved the new Federal Refusal Clause that will allow doctors, medical personnel, hospitals, insurers and health maintenance organizations to refuse to provide abortions, without any...

Come again?(In Catholic Circles)(cases)
March 22, 2005... "This lawsuit is the height of hypocrisy.... It is frankly not surprising that a group like NFPHRA [the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association] would rush to court. When abortion activists rail in the democratic arena, as...

The Diocese of Orange in Southern California has settled its case with 90 victims of clergy sexual abuse in what is reportedly the largest payout since the scandal broke.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * The Diocese of Orange in Southern California has settled its case with 90 victims of clergy sexual abuse in what is reportedly the largest payout since the scandal broke. The diocese will pay the victims some $100 million, far more than the...

The Diocese of Spokane in Washington State has become the third in the US to file for bankruptcy protection.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * The Diocese of Spokane in Washington State has become the third in the US to file for bankruptcy protection. Facing claims of more than $77 million, the diocese filed for Chapter II bankruptcy which means that a court will decide what assets...

A grand jury indicted Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, the retired bishop of Springfield, Mass., on charges of child rape related to cases that occurred in the 1970s.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * A grand jury indicted Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, the retired bishop of Springfield, Mass., on charges of child rape related to cases that occurred in the 1970s. However, due to statutes of limitations (which had a six-year limit at the time),...

Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York, will testify in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by the Rev. John Castaldo, who is accused of abuse during the early 1990s.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York, will testify in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by the Rev. John Castaldo, who is accused of abuse during the early 1990s. Cardinal Egan had transferred the accused to another parish,...

Pope John Paul II named Bishop Klaus Kueng, who investigated the child pornography scandal in Austria where 40,000 pornographic images were found on seminary computers, to replace Bishop Kurt Krenn, who resigned over the case.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * Pope John Paul II named Bishop Klaus Kueng, who investigated the child pornography scandal in Austria where 40,000 pornographic images were found on seminary computers, to replace Bishop Kurt Krenn, who resigned over the case. Kueng is a...

The president of the USCCB appointed a new chairman and five new members to the National Review Board, the USCCB-sponsored group of laypeople charged with monitoring the hierarchy's response to the sexual abuse crisis.(News Roundup)(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * The president of the USCCB appointed a new chairman and five new members to the National Review Board, the USCCB-sponsored group of laypeople charged with monitoring the hierarchy's response to the sexual abuse crisis. Nicholas P. Cafardi,...

New referendum on abortion in Portugal?(News Update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... The surprise resignation of the government in Portugal in late November may open the way for yet another referendum on abortion. An election will take place in February, almost 18 months before schedule. The ruling Social Democrats (PSD) had...

In Ireland, the Vatican has defrocked two Catholic priests in the Diocese of Ferns who had been convicted of sexually abusing children.(News Roundup)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... * In Ireland, the Vatican has defrocked two Catholic priests in the Diocese of Ferns who had been convicted of sexually abusing children. While a spokesman refused to identify, the men, only two priests from that diocese have been convicted of...

Religious leaders address human rights abuse in China.(End Notes)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Leaders of more than 40 major religious and family planning organizations from around the world submitted a letter to China's President Hu Jintao to register concern about alleged human rights violations against Ms. Mao Hengfeng and to call for...

Chilean court rejects Opus Dei claim.(End Notes)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... A case brought by the ultraconservative group Opus Dei in Chile against the Opus Gay newspaper was rejected by a court which ruled that it would be "difficult to see how the public could be exposed to mistakes or confusions" between the two....

In search of power and privilege: Papal struggles to retain power require far more accommodations with modernity than many are willing to admit.
March 22, 2005... AMERICANS WHO WATCHED THE president's trip to Europe last June may recall dimly the highly publicized meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. For a campaign battling to win the Catholic vote, it was a photo-op made in heaven. The Bush...

God and government: while many see Europe as a secular haven, the reality is a very different picture.
March 22, 2005... THE VATICAN IS TRAUMATIZED. The power it has taken for granted in Europe for centuries is suddenly slipping away from it at an alarming rate. Several recent events have caused alarm in Rome that Christian influence on the continent is under...

Must we really make the case for abortion rights all over again?
March 22, 2005... MANY OF US IN EUROPE watched the elections for president of the United States with great dread and foreboding--not only for the US but for the world in general and particularly the Middle East. However, our dread and foreboding did not come...

Italy: fertile ground for reform.
March 22, 2005... ITALIANS SEEKING FERTILITY TREATMENT HAVE BEEN thrown into confusion by the Medically Assisted Reproduction Law passed in March 2004. This law contradicts Italy's laws on abortion and has made Italy appear out of step with most European...

Sex, lies and Lithuania: a misinformation campaign by antichoice advocates threatens common sense health reforms.
March 22, 2005... LITHUANIA IS IN THE MIDDLE OF a debate over sexual education and the availability of legal abortion. Conservative groups, some funded by the US-based ultraconservative Catholic group Human Life International, have misrepresented every...

Overseas development challenges in 2005: a pivotal year for European support for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
March 22, 2005... 2004 WAS A YEAR OF MIXED blessings for the sexual and reproductive health world. It was the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and a series of national and regional civil society meetings took...

The ban that kills: the Vatican's allegations about condoms deny scientific fact and cost some people their lives.
March 22, 2005... THE MOST RECENT STATISTICS ON THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS make it more urgent than ever for the institutional church to reconsider its stance on condoms. While there are some positive signs of movement beyond the walls of the Vatican, a recent paper...

An uncivilized discourse: the fixation on abortion by conservative Catholics and the church hierarchy during the 2004 US presidential elections was a disservice to the whole electorate.
March 22, 2005... ON NOVEMBER 2, 2004, Catholics in the United States went to the polls and, having chosen the winner of the popular vote in every election since 1972, continued their streak of picking the next president. Fifty-two percent of the "Catholic vote"...

The good old boys of the religious left: what's a feminist of faith supposed to do?(Opinion)
March 22, 2005... EXIT POLL RESULTS INDICATING that 22 percent of voters ranked moral values as the most important factor in their support for a presidential candidate have occupied more than their fair share of media attention. While the religious right has...

"Vera Drake" and the wake-up call of history.(Culture)(Movie Review)
March 22, 2005... "A YOUNGER GENERATION OF WOMEN... BELIEVES WIRE coat hangers belong to the distant, sepia-toned past of history books and the latest Mike Leigh film." --Katie Roiphe, Guardian (UK), November 5, 2004 WHY HAS THERE BEEN NO ideological...

Reframing social justice, feminism and abortion: isn't it time we combated the bishops' opposition to reproductive rights on our terms?
March 22, 2005... I BECAME A FEMINIST BECAUSE or Roman Catholic social justice teachings. Born and raised Catholic, I found feminism totally compatible with what I had learned from my parents and my church. As reaffirmed in Cardinal Ratzinger's latest "Letter to...

Sex trafficking is not "sex work".(Opinion)
March 22, 2005... Jennifer Block's article on sex trafficking in the Summer/Autumn, 2004 issue of Conscience, "Why the Faith Trade Is Interested in the Sex Trade," caused considerable controversy. Janice G. Raymond, of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women...

A challenge to change.(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities Isabel Apawo Phiri (ed) (Cluster Publications, 2003, 290pp) 187 505 3425, SAR90 The Church in an HIV+ World: A Practical Handbook Daniela Gennrich (ed) (Cluster Publications, 2004, 190pp) 0 620...

Bookshelf.(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact George J. Marlin & Michael Barone (St. Augustine's Press, 2004, 420pp) While written from a conservative standpoint, this is a useful overview of how Catholic voters...

Is it so hard to be humble?(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... One Electorate Under God? A Dialogue on Religion & American Politics EJ Dionne Jr., Jean Bethke Elshtain and Kayla M. Drogosz (eds) (Brookings Institution Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2004, 239pp) 0 8157 1643 5, $17.95 ...

Postscript.
March 22, 2005... "By singularly obsessing over abortion, the church runs the risk of becoming just one more special-interest group, the NRA of the soul." --A salutary warning to the bishops about the dangers of becoming like the anti-gun-control National...