Recently added articles from Conscience:
Editor's note.
Dec 22, 2008; ... THIS ISSUE OF CONSCIENCE FOCUSES ON THE ETHICS of development aid, specifically as it relates to sexual and reproductive health and rights. For the past eight years, development aid funded by the United States government has had a distinctively conservative imprint, with funds for ...
The Catholic league.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 22, 2008; ... I WAS DELIGHTED TO READ "Neither Religious nor Civil" (Conscience, Summer/Autumn 2008) since it noted that the Catholic League has practiced the "art of media manipulation" to put forth its agenda. Recently, Bill Donohue manipulated Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor at the New York Times, into ...
Abortion and the State.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 22, 2008; ... THE DECISION BY AN American Catholic, candidate or voter, to support or oppose the criminalization of abortion is a political choice. When voting, the issue is not whether abortion is right or wrong; the question is whether the State should criminalize the conduct. A country ...
Representative Flockhart.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 22, 2008; ... IT WAS SO REFRESHING TO hear from Representative Eileen Flockhart about her experiences with her bishop. ("A Voice from the Front Line," Summer-Autumn 2008) It is disgraceful, though perhaps unsurprising, that a few bishops feel that they should expend their energies in this direction. ...
Bishop would die for an end to abortion.(The Church and Abortion)(Robert Hermann)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... AT THE FALL ASSEMBLY of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Robert Hermann, current administrator of the St. Louis Diocese, stated, "I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion." Following ...
Uruguayan Congress supports abortion rights, President issues veto.(The Church and Abortion)(Tabare Vasquez)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... URUGUAYAN PRESIDENT Tabare Vasquez vetoed a decision by the Uruguayan Congress to give women the right to abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortions had been legal in cases of rape or if a pregnant woman's life was endangered by a pregnancy. The legislation had extended ...
Brazilian women denounced for accessing clandestine abortions.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... OVER 1,000 WOMEN AND their partners were publicly denounced for having abortions at a 20-year-old family planning clinic in the state of Mato Grosso Do Sul, Brazil. Additionally, authorities released the names of over 10,000 women who sought out the clinic's services since 2000. ...
Bolivian advocates hail abortion ruling.(The Church and Abortion)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... LAST FALL, HISTORY WAS made in Bolivia as the Bolivian Supreme Court ordered all lower court judges to implement Article 266 of the Penal Code which permits the right to abortion in cases of rape, incest and when a woman's life or health is in danger. Bolivia's current Penal ...
Guttmacher report finds US abortion rate at 30-year low.(The Church and Abortion)(Guttmacher Institute)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... ACCORDING TO "TRENDS in the Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortion, 1974 to 2004," a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, the rate of abortion in the United States is at its lowest level since 1974. The report notes that the rate of abortion peaked in 1980 with 39 abortions per ...
Bishops fail to sway voters in 2008 election.(The Church and State)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... IN THE LEAD UP TO THE 2008 US election, nearly 70 bishops issued statements which sought to sway the minds of Catholic voters. A number of these statements overtly denounced prochoice candidates in what may be a violation of the church's tax-exempt status. Bishop Robert Finn of ...
Tom Kerwin.(The Church and State)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008; ... Longtime church reform activist, Tom Kerwin, passed away in November. A founding member of Catholics for the Spirit of Vatican II, his passion for all aspects of church reform from women's ordination to reproductive rights was steadfast. An interview with Tom printed in the Denver Post ...
Come again?(The Church and State)(Catholic Church's take on same-sex marriage and birth control)
Dec 22, 2008 ... "The passage of Proposition 8 in the state of California does not diminish in any way the importance of you, our homosexual brothers and sisters in the church. Nor does it lessen your personal dignity and value as full members of the body of Christ." --The Los Angeles bishops ...
Bishops renounce priests for denying communion to Obama supporters.(The Church and State)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... JUST AFTER THE ELECTION, Father Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, SC, told his parishioners, "Persons [who voted for a prochoice candidate] should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat ...
Burke interferes with US politics even from afar.(The Church and State)(Raymond Burke)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... LAST JUNE, ARCHBISHOP Raymond Burke was promoted from his position at the Diocese of St. Louis to be the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome. While still in the United States, Burke was a controversial and conservative figure. In 2004, Burke led the charge to deny the Eucharist to ...
Vatican decries assisted reproductive technology.(The Church and Bioethics)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... ON DECEMBER 10, THE Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released its much anticipated document Dignitas Personae, a Vatican instruction on bioethics. In the controversial document, the Vatican denounced innovative practices which work to combat infertility and disease such ...
Study finds majority of Catholic students support abortion, contraceptives.(The Church and Contraception)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... A RECENT STUDY CONDUCTED by QEV Analytics discovered that a majority of students at Catholic colleges and universities disagree with the position of the church hierarchy on sexual and reproductive health. Of those surveyed, 60 percent disagreed that premarital sex is a sin; 60 percent ...
Austrian Bishop blames other Bishops for promoting Conscience.(The Church and Contraception)(Cardinal Schonborn)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CARDINAL SCHONBORN, Austria's oldest member of the clergy, has condemned his predecessors for not speaking out against birth control. After the publication of the encyclical Humanae Vitae which denounced contraceptive use, many bishops conferences reminded ...
Caritas hospitals refuse emergency contraception for rape victims.(The Church and Contraception)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... ACCORDING TO STATE LAW passed in 2005, hospitals in Massachusetts are required to provide emergency contraception to victims of rape. In a recent survey conducted by NARAL ProChoice Massachusetts, a researcher posed as a rape crisis counselor and called 70 hospital emergency rooms to see ...
Radio ads take on myths about condoms in Catholic and Latino communities.(The Church and Contraception)(National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... ON DECEMBER I, THE National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and Catholics for Choice joined forces to launch the first-ever Condoms4Life radio ads. The two Spanish-language ads addressed myths about condom use in Catholic and Latino communities and highlighted the importance of ...
Vatican declares opposition to gay rights.(The Church and Homosexuality)(Brief article)
Dec 22, 2008 ... ON THE EVE OF THE 60TH anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Holy See announced its opposition to a declaration highlighting the rights of gay men and women. The declaration, which was proposed by France on behalf of the European Union, denounces discrimination ...