Catholic Leadership Taking a Stand

This feature highlights recent developments in the efforts by Catholic leadership to effect change, encourage moral and faith based living, and take a stand for the good of the faith and the people of God.  If you have a link that you would like to recommend to our list, please send it to our webmaster as listed at the bottom of this page.

• Bishop Burke on the Dignity of Human Life and Civic Responsibility LA CROSSE, Wisconsin, JAN. 10, 2004 (Zenit.org)
  Bishop Burke's "has taken a stand against Catholic politicians who support abortion and euthanasia, has issued a pastoral letter on the duty of every one of the faithful to promote the culture of life in politics."  He has also "released a decree that local Catholic politicians who support abortion or euthanasia may not receive Communion in the diocese until they publicly denounce their positions."
  FOLLOW-UP: E-mails Back Bishop Burke's Ban
   
• Ethics and the Search for Christian Unity, Includes a statement on Abortion and another on Human Rights.  Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, 1-7-2004
   
• Cloning
  • Practical Obstacles to "Therapeutic" Cloning, Pro-Life, 1-14-2004
    "The idea of cloning human embryos for biomedical research (called by some 'therapeutic cloning'), besides posing very grave moral problems, has become increasingly questionable on purely scientific grounds. Sample quotes from scientific [are] sources."  Issued by Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
     
  • Current State Laws on Human Cloning, Pro-Life, 1-12-2003
     
  • Human Cloning and Embryo Research: No Road to Biotechnology Growth, Pro-Life, 1-14-2004
     
• Bishops' Office Files Comments with FDA Against Over-The-Counter "Emergency Contraception"  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has urged the Food and Drug administration to reject a proposal to switch the status of emergency contraceptives from prescription to over-the-counter.
   
• Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Committee Chairman Issues Statement on Signing of Partial-Birth Abortion Ban  President George W. Bush today signed into law the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The Chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Charles Chaput, issued the following statement on this historic event.
   
• Cardinal Keeler Urges Congress to Prevent Marketing of Human Beings  In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other congressional leaders, Cardinal William Keeler has urged inclusion of the Weldon amendment to prevent the patenting of human organisms in the omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2004.
   
• HUMANAE VITAE: The Cure for the Anti-Life Virus
  Bishop Victor Galeone at the Florida Respect Life Conference in Miami October 25, 2003

Archives/2004/200401/taking_a_stand.htm