PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST POPE BENEDICT XVI

[DemBones DemBones]

(This reminds me of a parody: "SOME OUTRAGED THAT NEW POPE IS CATHOLIC.")


4-May-2005 -- Catholic News Agency

PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST POPE BENEDICT XVI


New York, May. 04, 2005 ( CNA ) Planned Parenthood has launched a campaign to motivate all of its members and supporters, nominal Catholics and non-Catholics, to send letters to the editor, requesting that Pope Benedict XVI reconsider his “backward views” and change his opinion on sexual morality.

Pope Benedict XVI must be encouraged to “reconsider his dangerously outdated stances on birth control, abortion and sexuality in order to help move the Catholic Church into the 21st century,” reads a memo issued by campaign manager Eve Fox.

“The new Pope's positions on these crucial issues pose a terrible danger to the health of millions of women and girls around the world and undermines efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS,” Fox wrote.

<snip>

Prior to being elected Pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger “told Catholics in the U.S. it would be a sin to vote for pro-choice candidates like John Kerry, and urged bishops to deny Kerry Communion. He has also led the Catholic Church's campaign against same-sex marriage and other rights for same-sex couples, including the right to adopt children,” wrote Fox.

**************************************************************************************

Too bad Fox isn't telling the whole story: that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger also specifically told US Catholic bishops to clarify to Catholics in the US that it was permissible to vote for a pro-abortion candidate if the other candidate was likely to cause greater evils, and that it was only a sin for a Catholic to vote for a candidate that supports abortion if that support for abortion was the sole reason the Catholic voted for him.

My archbishop immediately sent out a letter reiterating what Cardinal Ratzinger had said, despite the fact that the archbishop had been one of those publicly discussing denying Communion to Catholic politicians who voted to allow abortion, fund abortion, etc. He stopped talking about denying Communion, too, and retired this spring.


EDIT: Here's the URL http://tinyurl.com/ctdms

[Princess Turandot]

1. Why the shouting caps?..

Planned Parenthood is an organization committed to the reproductive rights of women. It's a free country: they can rally their membership to do what they think is right. It will be a waste of time of course, and they might have been wiser to exclude abortion from the list. However they characterized the Ratzinger letter, the problem with the letter was that the MSM didn't cover it and in truth, Ratzinger added the 'balancing of the equities' point in a somewhat begrudging way, IMO.

The Church's view on sex and birth control that prevents fertilization does not stand on solid theological grounds IMO. The current views are fairly young in the life of the church, and in terms of birth control, were almost reversed by Paul VI, I believe.
They have a better argument on abortion since a rational person cannot deny that what is being aborted is an embryonic homo sapien, although I do not believe that the embryos which are aborted are cognitively aware and don't see them as being a human being yet. I know the Church's view on when 'human life' begins; I just don't believe it. (And anyway, I'm pro-legal abortion more because I believe there are greater ills than having an abortion, such as forcing a 12 year old child to bear a child, whether it happened via her hormones or someone else's abuse.)

However, one thing I do not understand about the discussion of the Church's view on all of the above is why it is believed to have such great influence in the non-Catholic world, where issues such a bulging populations and transmissions of AIDS are now the hot spots. A substantial percentage of Catholics do not follow those teachings. I don't quite believe that were the Pope to bless the use of condoms today, that more men would start using them, or that the US would fund the purchase and distribution of them. While I may not agree with the Church's views in this area, I just don't get why they are viewed as the primary influence of this on the world stage.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Did you click the link? The headline was simply cut and pasted from

the story, as I always do.

You're quite right that if the Pope were to give his blessing to condom use, the use of condoms would not be likely to increase significantly nor would the US fund the purchase and distribution of them. In essence, the Church is being scapegoated for everything that pisses off the Planned Parenthood leadership.

[Matilda]

3. In third-world countries the words of the Pope

have a much greater influence than in western societies where people
are better educated. From what I have read, health workers in
African countries devastated by AIDS think that the Vatican's
prohibition of condoms has made the task of teaching safe sex much
more difficult. I think it's quite bizarre to endorse life-
threatening sex rather than protect life by the use of condoms.

While I personally am pro-choice, I think it's too much to expect
the Vatican to endorse abortion in any way at this stage. But I
do believe that birth control needs to be accepted, and fast. The
prohibition is largely ignored in western countries anyway, and is
only observed in poorer communities where people can least afford to
have huge families. I believe the Church should be more concerned
with quality of life, not quantity.

[Princess Turandot]

4. But there are only 20 million or so Catholics in Africa..

I believe. I don't see muslims worrying about what the Catholic Church says.I completely disagree with the Vatican's stance on condoms, but I honestly don't believe it to be the main reason why Africans don't use condoms. The US 'don't talk abt family planning or we won't fund you' executive order has, but Bush wouldn't change that if 12 Popes asked him too. How many people in Africa even hear news about the Catholic Church? If you are talking abt Nigeria, which I believe is the one country with a large number of Catholics, then the health care workers might have a point. I just don't get the rest of it. Why don't they demand that all of the local mullahs in predominantly Muslim countries issue orders for men to use condoms?

South America is substantially Catholic and I recently read a UN report which said that 70% of the women there use birth control, 60% of which would be described as more modern forms.

[Matilda]

5. I only know what I read, I'm not there on the ground,

but here are some links to news items that as far as I know, do not
have a particular bias one way or the other:

http://www.thebestjams.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1465326.stm

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/recent/public_policy/120303_e.html

http://www.studentbmj.com/issues/05/05/news/182.php

http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050420161512.buh33ooe.html

Nobody could pretend that the Church alone is responsible for the
spread of AIDS - the ignorance, wilful or otherwise of many African
leaders plays a very large part, and of course there are other
outside influences, such as the Bush Administration's blackmail
tactics. But the Church does have influence, and it could help,
but it isn't.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. A problem with condoms in Africa is that

heat damages latex. So does age. I've read that many condoms available in Africa are damaged by heat or age before they're bought. Other problems are African people economizing by re-using condoms several times, and African people not being properly educated in the use of condoms (as we all know, an improperly used condom may be no better than none at all.)

A MASSIVE educational effort combined with MASSIVE distribution of free condoms MIGHT slow AIDS transmission in Africa. But that ASSUMES that men can be convinced to use condoms every time they have sex. That's not happening anywhere in the world, AFAIK, so why should Africa be an exception?

In THAT sense, and because the condoms available may be damaged or used improperly, the African priests who tell their flocks that condoms won't prevent AIDS (but abstinence will) MIGHT be doing the best thing for their people.

Despite its obvious drawbacks, abstinence IS the one way to protect against all sexually-transmitted diseases and against pregnancy.


(P.S. I'm not shouting here when I use caps, it's just much faster than using HTML to bold words.)

[TankLV]

7. GOOD! It's about time!

Now if only Catholics would join them!

[DemBones DemBones]

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and follow them.