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Vatican vows to expel stem cell scientists from Church
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | 06/30/06 | By Malcolm Moore in Rome and Roger Highfield, Science Editor

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: stemcellresearch
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To: wideawake

"Pedophilia is perfectly moral and acceptable, therefore I do not apologize because I have done nothing wrong."

Maybe you are not aware but this idea is gaining credibility among sexual scientists and in academa circles. Just as they normalized homosexuality look for sex with children to be normalized in a few short years.It is called generational sex (sex between generations).


61 posted on 06/30/2006 12:25:25 PM PDT by conservative blonde (Conservative Blonde)
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To: mware

Not sure, but I excommunicated, I mean extricated, myself from the catholic church years ago.

As a recovering catholic, my opinion is that it is a cult.


62 posted on 06/30/2006 1:40:30 PM PDT by MonroeDNA (Mohhamed drank urine from female pigs.)
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To: USArmySpouse
Except that, you know, the Vatican doesn't currently KILL people who disagree with them.

Yeah, but they sure did.

63 posted on 06/30/2006 1:41:49 PM PDT by MonroeDNA (Mohhamed drank urine from female pigs.)
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To: NYer; All
Are you watching World Over?

Raymoond Arroyo started it off by saying he is as happy as a Bishop at an immigration rally.

64 posted on 06/30/2006 5:05:29 PM PDT by mware (Americans in armchairs doing the job of the media.)
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To: mware

Kick 'em out. They don't like they rules, they can go join some other church. The Unitarians sound like their style. Or maybe they can see if the Muslims will take them. There's no exit for Muslim apostasy, save through the sword, they should be warned.


65 posted on 06/30/2006 5:29:02 PM PDT by Kitten Festival (The thug of Caracas has got to go.)
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To: mware
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.

The cafeteria is closed, Guido.

66 posted on 06/30/2006 5:32:25 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Kitten Festival
Fr. Newhouse and Raymond had some great quips about the American Catholic Bishop and their decision to not have a universal rule regarding issues but allow each Bishop to decide their own rules.

Peggy Noonan coming up next on EWTN.

67 posted on 06/30/2006 5:33:02 PM PDT by mware (Americans in armchairs doing the job of the media.)
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To: Rytwyng

Duh, George. That why I put: correction.


68 posted on 06/30/2006 6:13:50 PM PDT by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: GOPJ

A garbage collector could read the mass, but he doesn't the charism necessary to make it anything other than bread and grapes. Of course, the priest is chosen for this charism on the supposition he will be holy, so your point is largely valid.

I believe that many unfit men headed towards the priesthood in the 1960s in the expectation that not only would sexual morals soon be abolished, but that their position gave them authority to help form the "brave new world." In this way, Satan make a huge gain on the church, corrupting so very, very many of those who would become bishops. But I cannot penetrate the mystery of why Pope Paul VI placed such men in authority.

Was he Satan's greatest triumph? (No, Satan can triumph through the foolishness and mental defect of a pope without possessing him, or rendering him fallable.) Surely, no person in history, not Luther, not Calvin, not Marcion, not Nero, not Napoleon, not Stalin, ever did so much to devestate the Catholic church as did Paul VI.


69 posted on 06/30/2006 6:45:30 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Rytwyng

Interdicts are issued against whole peoples. One might, for instance, issue an interdict against Boston. An anathema, however, may be more appropriate; essentially an anathema is similar to excommunication, but it took on a further meaning in that the anathematized was not only cut off from Communion (like Protestants), but even from Baptism (like pagans)!


70 posted on 06/30/2006 6:50:54 PM PDT by dangus
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To: mware

Flush Ted Kennedy from the Church too. Politicians that endorse abortion should NOT be allowed to call themselves Catholics.


71 posted on 06/30/2006 6:59:22 PM PDT by cyborg (then comes baby in the baby carriage)
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To: MonroeDNA
Except that, you know, the Vatican doesn't currently KILL people who disagree with them.

Yeah, but they sure did.

Hence, the word 'currently.':)

72 posted on 06/30/2006 7:20:24 PM PDT by USArmySpouse
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To: Aquinasfan

btt


73 posted on 06/30/2006 7:25:06 PM PDT by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: GOPJ

Ummm....It is Christ's Church. HIS Mystical Body. He said things like "hate the sin but love the sinner." We are all allowed to repent of our sins. Even you. We are asked to forgive not 7 times but 70 times 7 times.

Frank


74 posted on 06/30/2006 7:33:03 PM PDT by Frank Sheed (Tá brón orainn. Níl Spáinnis againn anseo.)
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To: GOPJ

Peter denied Him. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss. The rest ran. And HE chose that motley crew one by one (who were all martyred, by the way, except for John).

You have a lot to learn about the way Christ works with the human element. He was human too. He knows our weaknesses. Like I said, it is His Church.


75 posted on 06/30/2006 7:37:24 PM PDT by Frank Sheed (Tá brón orainn. Níl Spáinnis againn anseo.)
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The scientists should just leave since they don't want them. Why complain? Stop supporting the catholic church and giving them money. Encourage other family and friends to leave the catholic church. Especially the women who disagree with the church on women priests. Why do they constantly complain? Just leave the church. The church needs you more than the other way around. The Catholic church continues to lose members in almost all developed countries and is trying to get new members from the third world. Yep good luck with that LOL


76 posted on 06/30/2006 7:37:43 PM PDT by snowstorm12
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To: ClaireSolt

My name isn't George. :-0


77 posted on 06/30/2006 8:51:20 PM PDT by Rytwyng (Only a Million Minuteman March can stop the Bush Border Betrayal!)
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To: dangus
Interdicts are issued against whole peoples

Why not against whole political parties? Whole professions (ie, embryonic stem cell researchers)? Why not pronunce public televised anathemas against proabort politicians, and threaten them with civil lawsuits (ie trademark infringment) if they call themselves Catholic after that?

I'd really like to see the Catholic Church get a lot more aggressive on this stuff... maybe I'm subconsciously looking for an excuse to join it...

78 posted on 06/30/2006 8:56:03 PM PDT by Rytwyng (Only a Million Minuteman March can stop the Bush Border Betrayal!)
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To: All

Vatican vows to expel stem cell scientists from Church.

Oh, really?
Well you can always decide to go to some other church, after all it's not compulsary to be a catholic, like it used to be in the dark ages.

What bothers me is that the church seems to have a double standard. Stem cell research does not automatically mean the use of embryos, there are other ways. At the same time, though, the church endorses sending large numbers of perfectly healthy people into harms way (yes, I mean our troops) by providing the military with a good number of chaplains, knowing that a good number will not make it back. We know by now that wars are fought for a reason, and that stem cell research takes place for a reason. Why does the church fail to concede that you have to break some eggs if you want an omelette?


79 posted on 06/30/2006 9:10:01 PM PDT by Bazooka (When Tolerance met Indifference, it was love at first sight.)
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To: Bazooka

Dear Bazooka,

As stated in the article, the Catholic Church opposes EMBRYONIC stem cell research.

Research on adult stem cells is generally considered morally licit.


sitetest


80 posted on 06/30/2006 9:15:09 PM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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