Posted on 11/12/2008 2:11:08 PM PST by NYer
The Vatican has fired a warning shot over the bows of Barack Obama in response to the President-elect's intention to lift the US ban on embryonic stem cell research.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, who acts as the Vatican health minister, said that stem cells taken from human embryos and involving the destruction of the embryos "serve no purpose".
Asked whether the Vatican was concerned about reports that Mr Obama might reverse the Bush Administration's ban, the cardinal said that embryonic stem cell research had not resulted in any significant health cure so far and was "good for nothing".
Research on adult stem cells and umbliical cords had been shown to have "positive value", by contrast, although even that was not "a panacea for everything."He said the Vatican would seek clarification of the new administration's position on stem cells, and he himself was not "fully aware" what it was.
Aides to Mr Obama indicated this week that he will reverse Mr Bush's stand on stem cell research. The US Senate voted in July to remove restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, but the President vetoed the legislation the following day.
Mr Obama has supported stem cell research to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's. His views are supported by Joe Biden, the Vice-President-elect, who is a Roman Catholic.
John Podesta, who is handling the President-elect's preparations to take over in the White House on January 20, said Mr Obama wanted "all the Bush executive orders reviewed".
He added: "I think across the board, on stem cell research, on a number of areas, you see the Bush administration even today moving aggressively to do things that I think are probably not in the interest of the country."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The Vatican has not received the memo that this guy is a higher power than their guy.
That's good enough for me.
They hate the Church even more than they hate Hussein the Abortionist.
However, there is nothing that says that these attitudes cannot be reversed. Already the younger people are in some number more traditional. It may take a generation, but I believe things can be changed for the better.
The Church will last until Christ returns. The USA, like all temporal powers, will eventually fall. Whether that is soon or hundreds of years from now only God knows.
As a life-long Catholic who has regularly attended mass, I can say that I’ve never heard a consistent, anti-abortion message. Just this year the priest said to vote for Prop 4 and 8, but after that ‘it was up to your conscience.’ Thus, greenlighting a vote for 0bama.
If the bishops had been doing their jobs for the last 40 years, we wouldn’t have had a generation of Catholic voters thinking it was okay to vote for someone like Obama.
Biden is a Roman Catholic in name only. Obama is as evil as Biden is stupid. There is NO sanctity of life with those two, and I feel pretty sure that they're eventually going to want to euthanize the elderly and the sick. God will deal with both of them, but until then, perhaps they could use some stem cells to grow Obama a heart, and Biden a brain.
I agree with you. I also think that applies to Christian preachers/pastors too. I'm still in shock at how many of them encouraged their congregation to vote for Obama because he's black. They have shoved Christ out of the most important presidential race in history, and because of that, we have an ungodly socialist in the White House.
That’s it. “L’Osservatore Romano” is off the Obama plane...
Fortunately, our parish priests have made it clear that voting for pro-aborts is morally reprehensible. I’m sorry to hear that yours are failing at their jobs. But to say that the Pope has turned a blind eye to abortion in order to bring in more cash is astounding. I can’t believe a fellow Catholic would say such a thing.
Exactly. Well said. Better results, and non-embryonic stem cells are easier to get, with fat cells as one source alone. Respected schools such as Pitt and Stanford and Univ of Hawaii (ironically) have yielded hopeful and successful results.
No FEDERAL ban. There are bans in some states.
This is all about NIH dollars. Because no tangible, usable results have occurred, private investment has dried up. There is very little, if any, private funding of embryonic stem cell research. The researchers themselves have decades invested in this and aren't willing to give up. Whoever gets it to work will be a household name. After five decades, you'd think they would see the futility. Oh, wait, these are research scientists. Nevermind.
The reason that I lay part of the blame on the Vatican is that the church is controlled entirely from the top down. Therefore, the ‘buck stops there’ when it comes to assessing fault for tolerating pro-choice Catholic politicos. Without the backing of the Vatican, no American cardinal would dare take on the Kennedys for their pro-choice policies. Once the laity saw that famous Catholic politicos like Ted K. were not held to account for their apostacy, it told every other Catholic dem that they could be pro-choice and get away with it.
But it's not greed for money.
You don't understand what "conscience" means.
Whoa! The Vatican most assuredly did not let the American bishops “go wobbly on abortion in order to keep the Sunday collections coming in.” The Church has consistently condemned abortion since the first century and the last 50 years have been no exception. Perhaps you’ve heard of Humanae Vitae or Evangelium Vitae? How about the Catechism of the Catholic Church? The fact that the bishops in this country have muted their response to legalized abortion is not the Vatican’s fault.
Of course, on the other hand you stated that “with Obama winning 55% of the Catholic vote, the Vatican has no pull.” So which is it? Has the Vatican failed to speak out? Or is it pointless for the Vatican to speak out because it “has no pull?”
Your position here is logically inconsistent but it is very much consistent with anti-Catholic bigotry.
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