in this issue:
flash: SCHEIDLER WINS!
birth control: ANALYSIS / COUPON
catholic education: $3,750 LUNCH / FEDERAL CASE / PROMISCUITY
culture of death: NEW YORK
ethics: PONTIFICAL ACADEMY
human cloning: VIETNAM
imposed death: NEW BOOK
marriage: E5 MEN
population elimination: UNITED NATIONS
web news: CATHOLIC MEDICAL LETTER
reflection for prayer: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25
flash
SCHEIDLER WINS! A court battle that began in 1986 finally ended this week when the Supreme Court ruled that Joseph Scheidler was not a racketeer. Pro-abortion groups alleged Scheidler and other pro-lifers had, by their pro-life activism, violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. In an 8-1 ruling, the court said that was not the case.
(Reading: “Court rules for abortion protesters,” Associated Press, 2/26/03; Scheidler v. NOW, U.S. Supreme Court, 2/26/03; “Supreme Court ruling a major victory for all Americans,” American Life League news release, 2/26/03)
birth control
ANALYSIS: Registered nurse Jill Stanek takes a two-part look at the reasons why opposing artificial contraception is not just a “Catholic thing.” She writes, “To put it plainly, couples using contraception are expressing hostility toward the prospect of conceiving a baby. It is considered normal today to think this way. But it wasn’t always so.”
(Reading: “A Protestant analyzes contraception, Part I,” Illinois Leader, 1/29/03; “A Protestant analyzes contraception, Part II,” Illinois Leader, 2/5/03)
COUPON: Columnist Hans Zeiger notes that a coupon contained in a Valpak mailing in Washington proclaims, “FREE Birth Control for 1 Year at NEW Planned Parenthood in Puyallup.” Zeiger responds with questions he’d like to see pro-life voters direct to state lawmakers in Olympia: “Why does so much public money go to Planned Parenthood while it is making a significant annual profit? Why don’t alternative groups such as crisis pregnancy centers receive equal funding from the common purse?”
(Reading: “Picket planned profits: Taxes shouldn’t fund Planned Parenthood,” Seattle Times, 2/22/03)
catholic education
$3,750 LUNCH: As reported last week (Communique, 2/21/03), Mercy High School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, included in its fundraising auction an opportunity for two students to have lunch with Jennifer Granholm, the state’s pro-abortion Catholic governor. Some 80-100 pro-lifers protested outside during the auction.
(Reading: “Granholm item nets $3,750 at auction,” Detroit Free Press, 2/24/03)
FEDERAL CASE: Michele Curay-Cramer, the teacher fired by Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, after her name appeared in a Planned Parenthood newspaper ad (see Communique, 1/31/03) is complaining to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “The school is not going to change its mind,” said Ursuline’s attorney.
(Reading: “Fired Ursuline teacher files federal discrimination complaint,” Wilmington [Delaware] News-Journal, 2/25/03)
PROMISCUITY: The Cardinal Newman Society notes “no justification” for a medical project at the Jesuit-run St. Louis University. As part of the study, researchers are recruiting promiscuous participants “agreeing to repeatedly perform acts that are considered seriously immoral.” According to a Cardinal Newman Society news release, a school spokesman defended the research as “an important public health initiative ? in the best tradition of a Catholic, Jesuit university.”
(Reading: “St. Louis U. study recruits promiscuous women, encourages contraceptive use,” Cardinal Newman Society news release, 2/24/03)
culture of death
NEW YORK: From the proposed SB1634: “Every keeper of a hotel or motel or inn shall ? sell or offer for sale to registered guests ? devices designed to prevent conception or venereal infection during sexual intercourse.”
(Reading: “Condoms at every N.Y. hotel? Pols have it covered,” New York Post, 2/20/03; SB1634, New York State Assembly)
ethics
PONTIFICAL ACADEMY: Pope John Paul II told members of his pro-life advisory panel that “the Church respects and supports scientific research when it pursues an authentically humanistic orientation, fleeing from every form of exploitation or destruction of the human being and keeping itself free from the slavery of political and economic interests.”
(Reading: “Goals, method, means of research must respect human dignity,” Vatican Information Service, 2/24/03)
human cloning
VIETNAM: The government of this Communist nation has outlawed human cloning, including so-called “therapeutic” cloning. Surrogate motherhood is outlawed under a new ruling, but forms of in vitro fertilization remain legal.
(Reading: “Vietnam bans cloning, surrogate motherhood,” Catholic World News, 2/19/03)
imposed death
NEW BOOK: The Journal of the American Medical Association reviews “The Case Against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care,” edited by Kathleen Foley and Herbert Hendin. The reviewer notes “the amount of attention being paid to euthanasia and PAS [physician-assisted suicide] has certainly declined dramatically.”
(Reading: “Assisted suicide,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1/8/03, pp. 234-235)
marriage
E5 MEN: Citing Ephesians 5 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” the creators of this new web site are focused on husbands praying and fasting for their wives, and vice versa.
population elimination
UNITED NATIONS: World population projections have been revised downward. The U.N. now says there will be 8.9 billion people on the planet in 2050. The previous estimate was 9.3 billion. The adjustment was made because of rising AIDS deaths — and lower fertility rates. Still, the U.N. finds it necessary to “warn” that the lower projection will be reached only if people have access to family planning. Otherwise, the population could zoom to 12.8 billion.
(Reading: “U.N. reduces global population estimate,” Associated Press, 2/26/03)
web news
CATHOLIC MEDICAL LETTER: This newsletter offers “sound medical data and facts on the controversial medical issues that you use can use in your ministry against the culture of death.”
reflection for prayer
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25: While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.