c. 1999 Religion News Service
Religious groups react to passage of teen abortion bill
(UNDATED)(RNS) Religious groups cheered and condemned the House of Representatives’ approval of a bill that aims to restrict the transportation of minors to other states to seek an abortion.
The Child Custody Protection Act passed Wednesday (June 30) by a vote of 270-159 after several hours of debate.
The bill makes it illegal for a person other than a parent, guardian or legal custodian to take a pregnant girl younger than 18 to another state for an abortion if such an act would violate parental involvement laws in the child’s home state. More than 30 states have such laws.
The vote fell short of a two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto. The Senate has yet to act on the measure, but the White House has threatened to veto it.
Still, an official of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the House’s passage of the act, which calls for a maximum penalty of a year in prison and $100,000 in fines.”This is legislation that protects parents, protects their teen-age daughters, and protects the integrity of state laws,”said Gail Quinn, executive director of the NCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.”It is common sense legislation which all should support.” The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism criticized the vote.”This act is an unacceptable infringement on reproductive rights of women in this country and compromises the safety of American teen-agers,”said Mark J. Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.”While parental involvement is always our first choice for pregnant teen-agers, the House’s imposition of these rules fails to take into account the complexities of modern families and, especially, the dangers that some children face within their own families.” Critics like Pelavin voiced concern that girls who fear telling their parents of a pregnancy would be more likely to undergo an abortion alone or seek an unsafe abortion.
Groups representing conservative Christians also praised the passage of the act.
The Family Research Council says the act supports the role of parents.”No one should be able to usurp parents’ responsibility and right to care for their children’s physical and emotional well-being,”said Janet Parshall, the council’s chief spokeswoman.”Parents really do know what’s in the best interests of their children.” Randy Tate, the Christian Coalition’s senior vice president for government relations, agreed.”Allowing anyone to avoid prosecution by slipping across state lines with a minor child to get an abortion is not freedom of choice. It’s abduction and child abuse,”said Tate.”It’s simply unconscionable that parents be denied involvement with their children during such a traumatic time.”
Experts urge Congress to maintain embryo research ban
(RNS) More than 90 religious, legal and medical experts have signed a statement urging Congress to maintain its current ban on federally funded research of human embryos.
The statement,”On Human Embryos and Stem Cell Research: An Appeal for Legally and Ethically Responsible Science and Public Policy,”was released Thursday (July 1). It comes at a time when a White House advisory commission on bioethics is considering recommending that scientists receiving federal funding be allowed to derive embryonic stem cells for research as well as do research on cells derived by others.”Our careful consideration of these issues leads to the conclusion that human stem cell research requiring the destruction of human embryos is objectionable on legal, ethical, and scientific grounds,”reads the statement.
The signers not only seek the maintenance of the congressional ban on such research but also encourage Congress to approve federal funds for the development of alternative treatments that do not require destruction of human embryos.”If anything is to be gained from the cruel atrocities committed against human beings in the last century and a half, it is the lesson that the utilitarian devaluation of one group of human beings for the alleged benefit of others is a price we simply cannot afford to pay,”the statement concludes.
Signatories include Nigel Cameron, advisory board chairman, The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity; Dr. Frank Young, former commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Samuel B. Casey, executive director, Christian Legal Society; Richard Doerflinger, associate director of policy development, National Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Rev. John Neuhaus, president, Institute on Religion and Public Life; and R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
These experts’ concerns center around the treatment of stem cells, which are cells from which all the different kinds of human body tissue originate. Scientists believe that healthy stem cells can be used to restore lost or reduced function in a patient because many diseases result from the dysfunction or death of a single type of cell, the statement says.
Citing human rights principles, the statement says current laws governing research on human embryos”prevent treating people as things _ as mere means to obtaining knowledge or benefits for others.” The signers also argue the research is unethical.”The prospect of government-sponsored experiments to manipulate and destroy human embryos should make us all lie awake at night,”they argue.”While we acknowledge that the desire to heal people is certainly a laudable goal and understand that many have invested their lives in realizing this goal, we also recognize that we are simply not free to pursue good ends via unethical means.” The statement also cites alternative research, including some involving adult stem cells, that the signers believe precludes the need for stem cells to be obtained by destroying human embryos.
Vatican to look at life, work of reformer Hus
(RNS) The Vatican will take a close look this December at the life and works of Jan Hus, a 15th century Czech priest who was burned as a heretic and is considered a forerunner of the Protestant reformation, the Czech Bishops Conference said Thursday (July 1).
A three-day symposium, to be held at Lateran University in Rome, will culminate six years of research by a commission of Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars in the Czech Republic, the conference said.
The review comes as part of a sweeping effort by the Catholic church to review historical abuses in the Inquisition and other events in its past.
The Rev. Frantisek Holecek, a Catholic priest serving as secretary of the Hus commission, said the findings from the commission and the symposium would be sent to Pope John Paul II for a possible future statement.
Hus, a dynamic, revivalist preacher in Prague, denounced the papacy, church corruption and the sale of indulgences. He was also accused of rejecting Catholic doctrines on the priesthood and the Mass, though he denied these charges.
He was convicted by the Council of Constance in present-day Germany and executed on July 6, 1415.
Holecek said the commission has not yet completed its research, but he did say it found several violations of canon law in Hus’ heresy trial.
Protestants have long championed Hus as a reformer and martyr, and he has also been a nationalist symbol for Czechs, many of whom maintain historical grievances against the Catholic church.
Vatican denies any link to foundations linked to U.S. embezzlement case
(RNS) The Vatican denied Thursday (July 1) it is linked in any way with the case of a missing American money manager whom U.S. authorities are investigating on suspicion of embezzling more than $300 million.
A statement by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls made clear that Vatican, which was embroiled in the $2 billion collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano almost two decades ago, intends to distance itself from the new scandal.
Navarro-Valls, who flatly refused earlier this week to comment on the U.S. case, said in the statement the Vatican has no legal ties to two charitable foundations of a religious nature figuring in the investigation.”I must specify that the foundations Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation and St. Francis of Assisi Foundation have no legal Vatican status and are not inscribed in the registries of entities under Vatican jurisdiction,”the spokesman said.
Navarro-Valls said the Rev. Peter Jacobs, 73, and Monsignor Emilio Colagiovanni, 79, who were used by the money manager, Martin Frankel, to lend credibility to his operations, had nothing to do with Vatican operations.
Both priests have been quoted as saying they were duped by Frankel, who claimed he was descended from the Jewish King David and told them he wanted to give at least $50 million to the Roman Catholic Church.
Frankel of Greenwich, Conn., sought by the FBI since May, set up the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation with Jacobs as its president and used the charitable organization to try to buy several U.S. insurance companies.
Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation was established by the Archdiocese of Naples in 1967 as a cultural and charitable organization and is headed by Colagiovanni, who reportedly allowed Frankel to move funds in and out of the foundation’s Vatican bank account.
The Vatican spokesman said that Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation”has always acted completely outside the context of the Vatican, of which it is not a part.””The Holy See does not have relations with the Rev. Peter Jacobs and has not furnished nor received funds from either Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation nor St. Francis of Assisi Foundation,”Navarro-Valls said.
The spokesman also denied that St. Francis of Assisi Foundation had its own account with the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works. Navarro-Valls said the bank has no knowledge of Frankel.
French high court upholds ruling on Scientology
(RNS) France’s top court has upheld a lower court ruling that said Scientologists are free to proselytize and practice their religion. However, the Court of Cassation emphasized it was not recognizing Scientology as a religion.
The high court’s ruling came in connection with a 1997 appeals court decision that found nine Scientologists in the city of Lyon had been convicted of corruption and theft without sufficient evidence. The case stemmed from the suicide of a church member, who prosecutors said killed himself after being pressured by the church to raise additional funds for Scientology courses.
While the appeals court said the Church of Scientology _ currently classified as a”sect”in France _ should be referred to as a”religion,”the Court of Cassation emphasized Wednesday (June 30) it lacked the authority to decide whether Scientology is a legitimate religion.
As it is in many nations, Scientology is controversial in France, where a government commission has included it on a list of more than 170 religious movements and institutions it considers suspect and possibly dangerous. Many of the groups, such as Scientology, originated outside France.
The church has been fighting to be declared a religion, a designation that carries with it considerable tax benefits and would offset the commission’s action.
Despite the high court’s insistence that its ruling was limited to the case’s criminal aspects, Scientology officials at the group’s Los Angeles world headquarters issued a statement hailing the decision as a”resounding victory”marking”a new page of history”for the church in France.
Also Wednesday, Switzerland’s top court rejected a Scientology challenge to a lower court’s backing of a law designed to keep people from being”dishonestly”accosted in public. The law makes no specific mention of Scientology or religion.
The Federal Tribunal said the law, in effect in the city of Basel, Switzerland’s second largest city, did not unduly infringe on religious freedom. However, the top court also said it doubted the law could be fully enforced and public proselytizing, in principle, is permissible.
As in the French case, the church claimed”victory”in the Swiss ruling.
Quote of the day: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship coordinator Daniel Vestal
(RNS)”Let me say that by God’s grace we as a fellowship must have a forgiving spirit to those who planned and performed the takeover of the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention). Those who fired professors and presidents, changed the character of institutions and to this day falsely accuse us of all kinds of practices _ we must offer forgiveness.” Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate group that formed in 1991 in reaction to the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. He spoke June 24 at the fellowship’s General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala., and was quoted by Associated Baptist Press.
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