Bishops' Spokeswoman Criticizes New Guttmacher Study Calling For Global Promotion of Abortion
“Some say the new Guttmacher study shows that legalizing abortions makes them ‘safe;’ but the study's methodology is flawed. The authors start out by simply defining ‘safe’ abortions as ‘those that meet legal requirements' in countries with permissive laws,” said Ms. McQuade. “But by this unusual definition, legal abortions are 'safe' even if they kill women as well as their unborn children. The authors then say that illegal abortions are ‘harmful’ – even when women experience no medical complications – because women have to violate the law. This is a closed semantic circle into which no fact about real-life women can intrude.”
“An accompanying Lancet editorial says the worldwide abortion situation has been worsened by the United States’ Mexico City policy. But the study says that total worldwide abortions substantially decreased from 1995 (when the policy was not in effect) to 2003 (after it was reinstated),” Ms. McQuade continued.
“Lost in the authors’ ideological fog is the fact that abortion always kills; legal or illegal, it sometimes also kills women, especially when they are poor and have a terrible health care system. Promoting more abortions will not change this. Rather than pitting women and their children against each other, we need to stand in solidarity with both and focus on improving the quality of global health care,” Ms. McQuade said.
San Francisco Archbishop giving Communion to 'nuns' overblown
"This incident has been blown way out of proportion," he told Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper.
Reaction has run the gamut from some who insist the "sisters" had set out to embarrass the church and the archbishop to others who felt the unannounced visitors who videotaped the Mass were more of an intrusion than the costumed men.
In a column written for the Oct. 19 issue of the archdiocesan newspaper but made public Oct. 11, Archbishop Niederauer apologized for giving Communion to "two strangely dressed persons," but said he did not realize they were members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that has "long made a practice of mocking the Catholic Church."
He said he had never met members of the group that describes itself as "a leading-edge order of queer nuns" and "did not recognize who these people were when they approached me."
"I did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb," he added.
Among those in the media who reacted to the situation was Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, who said on his Oct. 14 broadcast that the men were "gay militants in bizarre dress" whose intent was to mock the Mass and Archbishop Niederauer.
Editor Phil Lawler of Catholic World News, an Internet news site, aimed his criticism at the archbishop. "They were not celebrants but demonstrators, and the archbishop should have known better when he visited Most Holy Redeemer," he wrote.
"Their attendance was intended to shock regular Massgoers and call attention to themselves," wrote Deacon Keith A. Fournier, editor-in-chief for Catholic Online, another Internet news portal.
"They intentionally came forward and placed themselves in the Communion line in order to receive the most holy Eucharist, the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ," he wrote.
"When a Catholic receives this sacrament, he or she attests to being in the full Communion of the Catholic Church," Deacon Fournier added.
In an interview, retired Father John Malloy, former pastor at SS. Peter and Paul Parish in San Francisco, asked what the church is going to do about allowing members of the group to take part in Communion.
"You can't keep people out of church but you can keep people away from the Eucharist and you can advise them and talk to them," he said.
The two members of the group who received Communion from the archbishop did not respond to e-mail requests from Catholic San Francisco to be interviewed.
But in a commentary posted on the group's Web site, "Sister Edith Myflesh," described as the "current abbess of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, said: "We are dismayed that a moment of genuine Communion during sacred worship is being twisted for political gain by the forces of hatred and dissension."
"The service was an opportunity to welcome the new archbishop of San Francisco," the commentary said. "While at Mass the sisters joined other parishioners in respectful and sincere worship."
Father Meriwether told Catholic San Francisco that parishioners have told him it did not appear the two "sisters" "were trying to grandstand at all." Parishioners were, however, "upset by the people roaming around filming and taking pictures," he said.
Members of the Most Holy Redeemer community stressed that the Oct. 7 Mass was prayerful and that the two "sisters" were respectful. People who were there said the "sisters" knelt in a back pew after receiving Communion.
To David Differding, co-chair of the parish liturgy council and master of ceremonies at the Oct. 7 liturgy, the critics "can't get over the fact that God created gay people. That's my impression. They want to put up every roadblock they can."
Jesuit Father Donal Godfrey, one of the Mass concelebrants, said the way the two men were dressed was "disrespectful to religious sisters," but he said he felt "it probably wasn't their intention (to offend.) They knelt in all the right places. They stood in all the right places. Except for the way they were dressed, they weren't doing anything disrespectful."
"I thought it was disrespectful for somebody to go to another church with the intention of filming it," he added, "without asking the pastor permission to do that and, second, with the intention of using that in a hostile way, without having a conversation first with the pastor. On the face of it, they were out to get the archbishop."
Asked about reaction he had received, Archbishop Niederauer expressed concern about the impact of Web logs, or blogs.
"The blogosphere is a kind of dangerous, endless recess in a global schoolyard," he said, "where the bullies with the biggest bullhorns can shout whatever they want."
Pope appoints 18 new cardinals, including Mumbai Archbishop Gracias
Vatican City, Oct.18,2007 (CINS/AsiaNews) – The Catholic Church will have 18 new cardinal “electors” on November 24. Benedict XVI announced yesterday that an ordinary public consistory will take place on that day. The new cardinals include seven from the curia and 11 from the great cities of the world. An Asian is among them: Indian Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay (Mumbay). In addition to the “electors,” cardinals who are not yet 80-years-old and eligible to vote in conclaves, the Pope will also elevate to the cardinal’s dignity a few other eminent figures in the Catholic Church like Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq.
The new cardinals from the curia are from Italy: Angelo Comastri, archpriest in Saint Peter’s Basilica and vicar for Vatican City; Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Governorate of Vatican City; Raffaele Farina, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church; from Argentina: Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; from Germany: Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum; and from Poland: Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. From the United States, there is a former member of the curia, John P. Foley, currently grand master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher and a former president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
In addition to Mgr Gracias, residential bishops, i.e. head of large dioceses, include Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa (Italy) and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference; Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, of Valencia (Spain); Seán Baptist Brady, of Armagh (Ireland), Lluís Martínez Sistach, of Barcelona (Spain), André Vingt-Trois, of Paris (France), Théodore-Adrien Sarr, of Dakar (Senegal), Francisco Robles Ortega, of Monterrey (Mexico), Daniel N. DiNardo, of Galveston-Houston (United States), Odilio Pedro Scherer, of São Paulo (Brazil), and John Njue, of Nairobi (Kenya).
The Pope said that with the new appointments he intends to exceed by one the limit of 120 “electors” set by Paul VI and confirmed by John Paul II. He further said that he wants “to raise to the Cardinal 's dignity three venerated prelates and two meritorious ecclesiastics for their commitment to serve the Church.” Besides Patriarch Delly, they are Giovanni Coppa, former apostolic nuncio; Estanislao Esteban Karlic, archbishop emeritus of Paraná (Argentina), Urbano Navarrete, a former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University; and Umberto Betti, also a former rector of the Pontifical Lateran University.
“It was also my desire to have among them Ignacy Jeó, the old meritorious bishop of Koszalin- Ko?obrzeg in Poland, but he suddenly passed away yesterday,” Benedict XVI said. “To him go our prayers of suffrage.”
Before announcing the consistory, the Pope talked about Saint Eusebius, the 4th century bishop of Vercelli, to the 30,000 people present at the general audience. To them he launched an appeal “to multiply the efforts to eliminate the causes of poverty and the tragic consequences that follow.”
Too many populations, he said, “still live in conditions of extreme poverty. The gap between rich and poor has become more blatant and disquieting, even in economically advanced nations.”
Benedict XVI slammed “this worrisome situation” which “touches humanity’s conscience since the conditions in which such a large number of people live offend the dignity of human beings and consequently compromise the world community’s authentic and harmonious progress.”
Archbishop Raymond Burke: I would deny Communion to Giuliani
St. Louis, USA, Oct.14,2007 (CINS/Catholic Herald) - A senior American bishop has told Rudi Giuliani, the Catholic presidential candidate, that he would refuse him Communion because of the politician’s public support for abortion.
Archbishop Raymond Burke of St Louis, who courted controversy in the run up to the 2004 elections by threatening to bar Democrat contender John Kerry, another Catholic, from the Eucharist because of his pro-choice views, said that he would apply the same rule to the Republican frontrunner Mr Giuliani.
“If any politician approached me and he’d been admonished not to present himself, I’d not give it,” said Archbishop Burke. “To me, you have to be certain a person realises he is persisting in a serious public sin.”
The archbishop was asked if he would extend the same restrictions to politicians who supported the death penalty or unjust war. “It’s a little more complicated in that case,” he replied.
Mr Giuliani appeared unfazed by the archbishop’s remarks. “I’m not running for religious office,” he told reporters last week.
“I’m not going to debate the opinion of an archbishop of the Catholic Church or an official of the Protestant Church or a rabbi,” Mr Giuliani said.
“That’s an interpretation of religion. They’re entitled to their interpretation of religion.”
In another interview, the presidential contender said: “Archbishops have a right to their opinion, you know. There’s freedom of religion in this country. There’s no established religion, and archbishops have a right to their opinion. Everybody has a right to their opinion.”
Archbishop Burke has said that priests are morally obliged to refuse Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights despite the clear teaching of the Church.
Earlier this year the archbishop wrote an article for a Church law journal on the subject of barring politicians from the Eucharist.
America’s bishops are divided on the issue. Some say that the individual should decide whether he or she can in good conscience receive Communion.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to discuss the question again at meetings next month. Archbishop Burke said that his recent article did not represent the views of his conference, merely his own interpretation of Canon Law.
A number of other presidential hopefuls hold pro-choice views, though Mr Giuliani is the only Catholic among the leading candidates.
Mr Giuliani, former Mayor of New York, sometimes refers to his Catholic upbringing in his bid to become president, but he declines to say whether he is a practising Catholic.
In August the former mayor of New York was asked if he was a “traditional, practising Roman Catholic.” He replied: “My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests.”
Last week Mr Giuliani, who wanted to be a Catholic priest when he was younger, told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he had “very, very strong views on religion”.
He said: “I’m guided very, very often about ‘Don’t judge others, lest you be judged.’ So [religion] is a very, very important part of my life,” he said. “But I think in a democracy and in a government like ours, my religion is my way of looking at God, and other people have other ways of doing it, and some people don’t believe in God. I think that’s unfortunate. I think their life would be a lot fuller if they did, but they have that right.”
After the 2004 presidential election it emerged that an unprecedented number of Catholics had voted for the Republican President George W Bush in recognition of his strong stand against abortion.
Some electoral analysts suggested that President Bush’s appeal to Catholic voters was the key to his electoral success.
Archbishop Niederauer apologizes for giving Communion to “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” at San Francisco Parish
San Francisco, U.S.A, Oct 14, 2007 (CINS/CNA).- In a column to appear on Sunday, October 19 on "Catholic San Francisco," Archbishop George H. Niederauer apologizes for giving communion to two members of the militant anti-Catholic homosexual group "Sister of Perpetual Indulgence".
The Archbishop of San Francisco says in his column that "a recent event that greatly concerns me needs some additional explanation -- and with it an apology."
"On Sunday, October 7, 2007, I celebrated Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Parish here in San Francisco, during my first visit there. The congregation was devout and the liturgy was celebrated with reverence. I noticed no demonstration, no protest, no disruption of the Eucharist."
"At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Communion. As I recall one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland. I did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb."
"Afterward -the Archbishop explains- it was made clear to me that these two people were members of the organization "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," who have long made a practice of mocking the Catholic Church in general and religious women in particular."
"Only last year -he writes, - I instructed the Administrator of Most Holy Redeemer Parish to cancel the group's use of the hall on the parish grounds, once I became aware of it."
"In the year and a half since I arrived in San Francisco, there have been several instances of offensive attacks on Catholic faith and devotional life. Only two weeks ago Catholic San Francisco carried my remarks condemning the derisive use of the image of the Last Supper on a poster printed by another local group."
"Although I had often seen photographs of members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, I had never encountered them in person until October 7th. I did not recognize who these people were when they approached me."
"After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular organization and that giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake."
"I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so," Archbishop Niederauer writes.
"Someone who dresses in a mock religious habit to attend Mass does so to make a point. If people dress in a manner clearly intended to mock what we hold sacred, they place themselves in an objective situation in which it is not appropriate for them to receive Holy Communion, much less for a minister of the Church to give the Sacrament to them."
"Therefore I conclude that the presence of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the Mass on October 7th was intended as a provocative gesture. In that moment I failed to recognize it as such, and for that, as I have said, I must apologize," the Archbishop concludes.
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