NYT/AP: Vatican Issues Sweeping Condemnations (on "family" issues)

Vatican Issues Sweeping Condemnations
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 6, 2006

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican issued a sweeping condemnation Tuesday of contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional family has never been so threatened as in today's world.

The document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.

However, the document did not mention an ongoing debate within the Vatican on whether the Roman Catholic Church could permit condoms to battle AIDS in a particular circumstance -- when one partner in a marriage has the virus.

It reaffirmed the famous 1968 encyclical ''Humanae Vitae'' that stated the Vatican's opposition to contraception. Since then, it said, couples ''have been limiting themselves to one, or maximum two children.''

''Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today's culture,'' said the 57-page document (which) also condemned in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and the use of embryos....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Vatican-Contraception.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

ever happened to the family of man? To the Christian believe that all of us are the children of God?

When the church allows it's priests and nuns to marry and have families, then they can preach about
procreation.

And molesting children doesn't count!!!

Fuck you, John Ratzinger.

about their grandiose fantasies and allow people who have children and get diseases to their doctors for advice on such matters.

A blanket condemnation of enormously popular and effective practices is not at all helpful.

They have nothing to add to the discussion except to tell everyone else how to live.

So glad I realized years ago how pointless they have become.

Once again the Vatican seeks to show how behind the times they are.

What they are afraid of is not that the family will not survive, it most certainly will, but that everyone will start to see them as cartoon characters, caricatures of clergy stuck in a bygone era, unwilling and unable to change, and lamenting their previous glory when the faithful followed them in droves.

Sorry guys, we have grown up, and become adults. We don't need you anymore.

I wonder what Christianity would have looked like had the Gnostics won the theological wars.

learning to kill and torture so well. After all, religion, and Christianity in particular, has been our most effective means of population control.

The gnostics were far more spiritual than our modern versions of the monotheistic religions, which concentrate exclusively on dogma and contol.

When the crusaders left, the church (Vatican) decided to keep the power by propagating as rapidly as possible. They are still at it!
When christianity in any form, for any self edifying purpose, gives strength to the catholic bigotry, they too are in self destruct.
One great lesson here is that Islam is not growing by providing any more humane type of religion, but by just being there for a void.
There is always a vacuum in humanity when "good" is used wrongly and "bad" takes on the appearance of right, or only maybe better.

Did the ex-Nazi and the scion of Nazi supporters colloborate on their announcements? Inquiring minds want to know.

was coming months ago and Jr. jumped in front of him with his announcement- does look very coordinated.

There's been a lot of speculation whether the Vatican would come out against that, too.

Seems they have. Emphatically.

She knew this Pope was no good at all.

Here's hoping that this makes a few more people give up and leave the church!

I am mystified by this alleged threat. How does allowing loving couples to marry threaten other couples who are married? Are gays trying to prevent hetero marriages? I didn't get the memo.

And may I suggest that defining life as beginning at conception is arbitrary. One could make the argument that life begins at first breath.

that excoriated that little bit of fluff fiction, "The DaVinci Code," because it suggested JESUS HAD CHILDREN?????



Okay, where's the "head exploding" smiley?

:nuke:

That'll do. . . .


Tansy Gold,

The Catholic Church actually thinks it holds some sort of moral high ground in the world? As soon as they stop shuffling child molesters around and hiding their assets from the lawsuits brought about by the people they've abused, maybe people might stop to listen.

TlalocW

And I say -- oh shut the fuck up and put on pants.

(note this is sarcasm --and not an insult to cross dressers. I always find it ironic that a church dominated by men -- telling women what to do -- men who have never been married. And they wear dresses.)

fit with their narrow bigoted hateful view of things.

And trying to influence elections.

GET RID OF THE TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR THESE PANDERING HATEFUL MEDIEVAL LUDDITES!

Church lucrative and that the money incentive will eventually produce enough internal corruption to cause the Roman Catholic Church to collapse?

choices I have ever made.

Eggs Benedict needs to clean the child molesters out of his church.

When he does, then I'll listen to him.

MMMMMM

:D

Too bad the pope hasn't noticed that this planet is overpopulated. :eyes:

auswitz - same hate - same church - same criminals - why does this not surprize me? They are so disconected from how they cause hate in the world

But who am I?

Is anybody listening to these old guys anymore?

Note: I think Jesus was a nifty guy. But the Church? Feh.

They got some 'splainin' to do.

On reproduction: "I don't want to be told how to live my life by a bunch of celebate old men."
On confession: "What I do in my life is between me and God; it is none of their damned business."
...guess that is why she was a Methodist...


I'm with Grandma on this stuff.

Do a little research and you will see it is true. How many times did reporters ask Bush for his stanch of Birth Control? This isn't just about abortion. Who did he appoint to the SCOTUS? Go on the "christian" family organization sites (Concerned Women, Family Research Council, etc). These organizations are the Republicans base. Read how they blast feminism, college women/working women, childless/few children marriages, etc., etc.

They are taking a page out of the Third Reich's handbook and replacing it with Religion. Just the means to an end.

I want to know why this Pope and his stooges advocate an HIV positive man NOT use a condom with his wife.

In other words, the WANT the wife to die from HIV, too

Yet Eggs Benedict had the gall to go to Auschwitz and bullshit the whole world about the Holocaust, while he condones another holocaust in Africa, Asia and South America.

By his opposition to condoms, ol Eggs is proving to the whole world that Old Nazis never die, they just become Pope. I bet his pal Mengele is happy with Eggs!

sealing it shut, then would there have been no resurrection?

'threatened' by modern culture...ha what a crock of shit. Traditional everything is threatened by contemporary society, been going on forever and won't ever stop. What would the Church know about families, they won't allow anyone 'serving' to have one! Is the Pope married or have kids? No. So what do they know?

Because they were threatening traditional culture?

thought you'd be interested to know that there are married members of the Catholic clergy. Married men can become "deacons" - allowed to officiate at weddings, baptisms, and funerals and preach and assist at mass. Also, there are married Catholic priests - not many, and limited to Protestant ministers who convert - but they do exist.

Very few Catholics I know take any of these pronouncements from the Vatican seriously. There are wingnuts out there, but there are also a lot of good progressive Catholics who trust their own consciences to be their ultimate moral guide.

How can the Pope make a benediction on sex, when no one takes the core tenants seriously!? It is like divorce, something very forbidden but rarely talked about. Hypocrisy of hypocrisies!

Hey, Papa Nazi, go fondle an altar boy and get outta my bedroom!

Looks like they finally made it to the 1960's.

With all the hidden pedophile and secret societies, even the
members of the church are turning their back on the
hiarchy of the church.

Thank you Leonardo Di Vinci.