Activism Change

Bishops Support Papal Decision

Question:

 CASE OF ABORTION CONSULTATION CENTERS RESOLVED  German Bishops Support Papal Decision  WUERZBURG, JUN 23 (ZENIT).- The German Bishops have responded to John  Paul II’s letter, in which he requested them to take measures to avoid  any kind of ambiguity in the certificates granted by the Catholic  consultation centers for crisis pregnancies. Up to now, these  certificates have allowed women the possibility of decriminalized  abortion in established health institutions.  The document that the Catholic consultation centers will grant, after  meeting with the mothers in difficulty, will contain the statement:  "This certificate cannot be used for carrying out decriminalized  abortions."

And now everyone is confused about the meaning of this.  The Catholic Bishops’ spokesman, Bishop Lehmann, says that the certificates can still be used to get an abortion, because all that’s required is that the woman has proof that she heard the counseling.  In other words, according to the bishops, abortions will continue as normal: "The sentence satisfies a demand from Pope John Paul II, who had written to the German bishops demanding they stop granting what the Vatican had described as ‘permission slips’ for abortions. "Such certificates clash with the church’s strict opposition to abortion, the pope said. "It was unclear, though, what impact the additional sentence would have. Lehmann noted the certificate would still meet all legal requirements for proceeding with an abortion – documenting the woman’s name and the time and place of the counseling received." But… "Renate Schmidt, deputy party chairwoman of the governing Social Democrats, said the added clause would invalidate the certificates and accused the bishops of a "trick that burdens women in need." "The president of a medical association representing gynecologists, Guenter Kindermann, declared his members would not accept the Catholic certificates for fear of facing prosecution." That is exactly what the bishops didn’t want–because if women know that they can’t go through the church counseling and still have an abortion if they want one, then why would they go through the church counseling–unless they’re fairly sure that they don’t want an abortion to begin with?  And also state funding will be cut off from the Church counseling centers if the revision of the certificates has any legal standing. In other words, the bishops are in the strange position now of claiming that "can’t be used for an abortion" line on the certificates is meaningless–because they are afraid that women won’t come to the Church counseling centers if the certificates aren’t valid and they will lose their financial support.  But the Pope *did* want it to be the case that the certificate couldn’t be used to obtain an abortion. Basically, nothing is settled.  

Response:

UNFPA HEAD ATTEMPTS TO DIVIDE MUSLIMS FROM CHRISTIANS AT CAIRO+5 * Senior UN diplomatic sources report that Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), pressured the heads of six Muslim delegations into a late-night meeting during the final Cairo+5 prepcom at the end of March. * In an apparent effort to split delegates and NGOs along religious lines, Sadik is said to have charged the Muslim diplomats with working closely with the Vatican delegation and Christian NGOs. Apparently Sadik had grown alarmed at the increased lobbying presence of Christian NGOs, and suspected ongoing communication between them and Muslim delegations. Sadik

Filed under: Lobbying

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