And the priest says, "Do you think we have time?"
So after last month's "warning shot over the bows" of President Elect Obama for intending to reverse President Bush's ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, the Vatican today released a bioethics document condemning the research altogether. (The paper also said some other downright ig'nant stuff..) The Catholic church seems to be spending quite a bit of time & effort protecting zygotes & embryos & maybe not enough time protecting children & adults?
After my initial joy at hearing the President Obama intends to lift the ban on funding, a subject near and dear to my spine, this news really nauseated me. Resisting research into the alleviation of suffering[0] as part of a doctrine to ensure that one's adherents are scared to choose the number of little people they bring into the world?[1] A doctrine to keep your numbers up? Maybe I'm cynical. But maybe they have erred...
Meanwhile, torrential rain of epic proportions is causing flooding in Rome. Four are reported dead from the flooding, and a state of emergency has been declared. In 1870's catastrophic floods, "the Church hinted the floods were God’s punishment for Italy’s crimes against its pope, who had been locked into the Vatican City after the unification of the country". So God punishes crimes with floods?
I'm just saying.
[0]Back in 2006, the head the group that proposes family-related policy for the Catholic church, Cardinal Trujillo, stated in an interview that "Excommunication
[1]The new document also reaffirms use of an IUD considered the sin of abortion, as is use of "the morning after pill" and the drug RU-486. Freezing embryos is out, and "most forms of artificial fertilization 'are to be excluded' because 'they substitute for the conjugal act ... which alone is truly worthy of responsible procreation'."
After my initial joy at hearing the President Obama intends to lift the ban on funding, a subject near and dear to my spine, this news really nauseated me. Resisting research into the alleviation of suffering[0] as part of a doctrine to ensure that one's adherents are scared to choose the number of little people they bring into the world?[1] A doctrine to keep your numbers up? Maybe I'm cynical. But maybe they have erred...
Meanwhile, torrential rain of epic proportions is causing flooding in Rome. Four are reported dead from the flooding, and a state of emergency has been declared. In 1870's catastrophic floods, "the Church hinted the floods were God’s punishment for Italy’s crimes against its pope, who had been locked into the Vatican City after the unification of the country". So God punishes crimes with floods?
I'm just saying.
[0]Back in 2006, the head the group that proposes family-related policy for the Catholic church, Cardinal Trujillo, stated in an interview that "Excommunication
[1]The new document also reaffirms use of an IUD considered the sin of abortion, as is use of "the morning after pill" and the drug RU-486. Freezing embryos is out, and "most forms of artificial fertilization 'are to be excluded' because 'they substitute for the conjugal act ... which alone is truly worthy of responsible procreation'."