Posted on 06/30/2006 7:35:59 AM PDT by mware
Scientists who carry out embryonic stem cell research and politicians who pass laws permitting the practice will be excommunicated, the Vatican said yesterday.
"Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion. It is the same thing," said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
"Excommunication will be applied to the women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos [and to the] politicians that approve the law," he said in an interview with Famiglia Christiana, an official Vatican magazine.
Excommunication forbids Catholics from receiving communion, assisting in any Church duties, and sometimes from having a Church burial.
But the threat was shrugged off yesterday by Italy's leading expert on cloning, Prof Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies in Cremona, who was the first scientist to clone a horse.
Prof Galli likened the Vatican to the Taliban and added: "I can bear excommunication. I was raised as a Catholic, I share Catholic values, but I am able to make my own judgment on some issues and I do not need to be told by the Church what to do or to think.
"I will be, together with Elena Cattaneo [a scientist working in the University of Milan] the first to be affected by the excommunication and then there are two other labs that I know using imported embryonic stem cells."
The research is opposed by the Catholic Church because it involves destroying embryos. This occurs at the point when they consist of about 100 to 200 cells and the so-called inner cell mass is removed. These stem cells can grow indefinitely and turn into any of the body's 200 cell types.
Scientists believe research making use of the cells could eventually yield treatments for a range of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's.
The Vatican's tough stance on the issue came as the Pope prepared to visit Valencia for the fifth annual world conference on the Catholic family. Spain passed a law permitting embryonic stem cell research two years ago to the dismay of the Church.
An Italian senator, Paola Binetti, a member of Opus Dei and a prominent campaigner for Catholic rights, also spoke against the Church's line.
"I am upset and stunned," she said. "It is a mistake to give out the idea that God is angry with Man because he is not in agreement with him."
Cardinal Trujillo said it was not just Spain which had "thrown out the fundamental laws of nature" but also Belgium, Holland, the Scandinavian countries and France. He did not mention Britain, which is at the forefront of embryonic stem cell research.Belgium's divided State.
If it doesn't fly with any American bishops they too should be excommunicated.
I have some disagreements with Catholic theology (chiefly, the praying to saints and the belief that protestants are not actually part of the body of Christ) but I'm glad to see that they are standing up for what's right. Whatever disagreements I may have with them, the RCC almost always takes the right stand and does so publicly without apology. We need more of that in this world.
Sure wish they (American Bishops) would say the same thing to politicians who support abortion.
Not loving and compassionate enough for them, much less inclusive and tolerant and diverse and so on. Better to "enter into dialog" with the wayward politicos . . . and be sure to let them get in a few photo ops receiving communion from the hand of the papal legate. Great for the campaign lit, you know.
Wow you sound like Mahoney or McCarrick just then.
Well done! Speaking the truth to power is precisely where the Vatican needs to be. Excellent news. Now if only some of these ghouls would listen.
Except that, you know, the Vatican doesn't currently KILL people who disagree with them.
and added: "I can bear excommunication. I was raised as a Catholic, I share Catholic values, but I am able to make my own judgment on some issues and I do not need to be told by the Church what to do or to think."
This poor guy sounds like he hasn't been Catholic for a very long time.
I can image a practicing Catholic that says he could bear excommunication.
sorry that should have read, I CAN'T iimage a Catholic saying he could bear excommunication.
How could they???? Giving minority people the truth about how RACIST abortion and birth control are would mean,[OH GOD] giving minorities the right to decide...OH MY GOD HOW WOULD AMERICA SURVIVE THAT???????The liberals only want whats best for america ..[And that includes all the liberal catholics]
What does the term "speaking truth to power" actually mean? Sounds like a Jesse Jackson slogan.
Why don't they start with pedophile priests and the priests who break American laws by harboring illegals? Or do them all at the same time?
Clarification, not criticism:
(1) Catholics don't pray to saints, they ask saints to pray for them.
This is precisely the same thing Protestants do when they ask other believers to pray for them, only Protestants do not believe it is correct to ask believers who are not physically alive to pray for them. Catholics believe it is correct to ask anyone who is alive in Christ, whether physically alive or not, to pray for them.
(2) Catholics do believe that validly baptized Protestants are incorporated into the Body of Christ. When a validly baptized Protestant converts to Catholicism, the Church does not baptize them because the Church considers them to have already been baptized into Christ.
I hope these are useful observations.
They are already in the process of rooting out and eliminating pedophiles.
I find it interesting that you find "harboring illegals" (which no Catholic priest actually does) to be a higher priority than the murder of innocent children.
I can verify this observation. I crossed the Tiber some time ago, and my Methodist baptism was accepted as being part of the Body of Christ.
Ping
If "Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion. It is the same thing" like he claiims then why isn't the Church making the same threat against politicians who support abortion?
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