DREADPUBLISHING: Stem Cell Controversy, George Pell NSW, Barry Hickey WA - The Record
[UPDATE] Black plants with silicon leaves? Earthworms engineered to extract common metals from clay? Vast forests of liquid fuel-producing trees? Freeman Dyson in the New York Review of Books on our brave (and beautiful) new world.
[UPDATE] UK Bishops say 'let chimeras live'.
[UPDATE] Anthony Succar: suffering individuals reject the use of offensive medical techniques.
:: Update ::
DREADNOUGHT's article on embryonic stem cell research, George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop Barry Hickey, religion, commitment and debate with be published this week in Western Australia's The Record newspaper. It is posted in full below for the benefit of NSW, Victorian, US, EU, etc. DREADNOUGHTERS.
:: FEATURE - ‘The Lukewarm and These Firebrands’ ::
By John Heard
After a week where Cardinal Pell intervened in the NSW stem cell debate, injecting a potent dose of moral clarity into an emotive Parliamentary vote, and Archbishop Hickey made it clear to Western Australians that human life is precious no matter how few cells one owns or how tiny the life at stake, Catholic teaching is front and centre in Australian life.
This is a remarkable development. If there was ever any question, who can seriously doubt now that the Catholic Church in Australia is committed to human life?
What is more, these events came as the media discovered that Sydney Catholic school principals would be required to publicly affirm Catholic teaching on faith and morals.
It is right to say then that the Catholic commitment to evangelisation just stepped up a notch.
That this needed to happen in Australia was obvious from the number of otherwise careful, generally committed Catholic politicians, teachers and others who felt (and still apparently feel) that it is okay to sign on to Catholicism in some personal regard, but fine to either trash or ignore Catholic teaching when one operates in other, usually more public capacities.
The man who comes to such a juncture and choses against Christ, who ignores or protests the humane teaching of the Church on issues as important as life and death fails to bear proper witness to his faith.
The woman who enjoys the social or community aspects of Catholic life, but who refuses to abide by the teachings that life is nourished by and in turn must sustain, fails to live a life worthy of her baptism.
Catholic leaders like Pell and Hickey who dare to state as much should therefore be commended, not lampooned.
For too long, too many Catholic politicians – even very eminent ones like John F Kennedy and Rudy Giuliani in the United States, not to mention Steve Bracks in Victoria and Morris Iemma in NSW – have behaved as though their commitment to Christ is a dirty secret, something that cannot be considered binding when they steer debate or vote on issues central to human life.
This position is untenable. A Christian must subordinate his entire life to God, and God is a jealous master.
That is why Cardinal Pell’s comments about ‘consequences in the life of the Church’ and Archbishop Hickey’s warnings about fitness for reception of communion are compassionate, rather than heavy-handed, and timely, rather than out of date. Our bishops swear to teach and uphold the Catholic faith that comes to us from the Apostles.
They are right to ask Catholic politicians to honour the same.
The Church has always taught – in season and out - against abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell testing (including somatic cell nuclear transfer techniques that create and then destroy human beings) and indeed anything else that contravenes God’s law.
What is more, the Church has continually set out her case so that even non-believers can understand the arguments or parse the logic. Catholic ethicists, theologians and thinkers have worked and continue to work at the very edge of science and reason to ensure that the case against the culture of death is made out rationally, humanely and with intellectual rigour.
Thus, the Catholic Church cannot even be called anti-science or anti progress, as it has been recently.
Indeed, St John’s College at the University of Sydney recently endowed a $350 million medical research institute. Such works contribute significantly to the battle to alleviate human suffering, but not at the expense of a reliance on embryonic stem cell work or “any other procedures involving the termination or the artificial creation of human life". Similarly, two large grants from the Archdiocese of Sydney support vital adult stem cell research at leading medical institutes.
These initiatives should come as no surprise. Such cutting edge compassion is a key element of the Church’s mission and she will never give it up.
Nor will she allow herself to be pushed out of the way so that a purely instrumental or consequential view of the human person comes to dominate the otherwise noble field of health science and human medicine.
This is especially the case when it is clear that the pressure Church leaders and ordinary Christians exert can shift the debate onto more humane grounds. In some marvellous cases, this pressure, particularly when it is allied to careful political and social interventions, can encourage otherwise hostile scientists and researchers to pursue more humane, increasingly non-controversial methods.
Indeed, almost as soon at the NSW lower house had made its historic and shameful vote against human life, researchers in the United States and Japan announced they had succeeded in coaxing mouse cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, opening up a third, promising field of research that sidesteps the assault on human life entirely.
The message for WA and other jurisdictions then is this: go steady.
Ignore the emotional hype and focus on the scientific and ethical facts. Why vote against life when the most offensive techniques are increasingly irrelevant to the advancement of stem cell research?
Catholic politicians and teachers in Catholic schools must be men and women who care about the faith and about life and they must ensure that their public witness aligns with their personal convictions and private commitments. Personal and public courage can alter even the most fraught debate and convert the world to hope.
As Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Hickey demonstrated, that is the path to true social justice.
:: The Upshot ::
It is a lesson that, starting in Catholic schools in Sydney, will be increasingly emphasised and it is a charge that must be honoured by Catholic politicians everywhere.
:: Resources ::
- Archdiocese of Sydney Life Office on Embryonic Stem Cell Research;
- 'Stem Cell Research & The Catholic Church' from American Catholic; and
- DREADNOUGHT on Stem Cells (Including a Loose Paraphrase of Catholic Teaching).
[UPDATE] UK Bishops say 'let chimeras live'.
[UPDATE] Anthony Succar: suffering individuals reject the use of offensive medical techniques.
:: Update ::
DREADNOUGHT's article on embryonic stem cell research, George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop Barry Hickey, religion, commitment and debate with be published this week in Western Australia's The Record newspaper. It is posted in full below for the benefit of NSW, Victorian, US, EU, etc. DREADNOUGHTERS.
:: FEATURE - ‘The Lukewarm and These Firebrands’ ::
By John Heard
"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, 'I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,' and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” - Revelation 3:15-17While George Cardinal Pell in Sydney and Perth’s Archbishop Hickey did not spit, their message last week was clear: Catholics cannot persist in some sort of schizophrenia wherein we say yes to Christ now and then no to Him whenever the demands of the secular world - money, political ambition or otherwise - force us to take a stand.
After a week where Cardinal Pell intervened in the NSW stem cell debate, injecting a potent dose of moral clarity into an emotive Parliamentary vote, and Archbishop Hickey made it clear to Western Australians that human life is precious no matter how few cells one owns or how tiny the life at stake, Catholic teaching is front and centre in Australian life.
This is a remarkable development. If there was ever any question, who can seriously doubt now that the Catholic Church in Australia is committed to human life?
What is more, these events came as the media discovered that Sydney Catholic school principals would be required to publicly affirm Catholic teaching on faith and morals.
It is right to say then that the Catholic commitment to evangelisation just stepped up a notch.
That this needed to happen in Australia was obvious from the number of otherwise careful, generally committed Catholic politicians, teachers and others who felt (and still apparently feel) that it is okay to sign on to Catholicism in some personal regard, but fine to either trash or ignore Catholic teaching when one operates in other, usually more public capacities.
The man who comes to such a juncture and choses against Christ, who ignores or protests the humane teaching of the Church on issues as important as life and death fails to bear proper witness to his faith.
The woman who enjoys the social or community aspects of Catholic life, but who refuses to abide by the teachings that life is nourished by and in turn must sustain, fails to live a life worthy of her baptism.
Catholic leaders like Pell and Hickey who dare to state as much should therefore be commended, not lampooned.
For too long, too many Catholic politicians – even very eminent ones like John F Kennedy and Rudy Giuliani in the United States, not to mention Steve Bracks in Victoria and Morris Iemma in NSW – have behaved as though their commitment to Christ is a dirty secret, something that cannot be considered binding when they steer debate or vote on issues central to human life.
This position is untenable. A Christian must subordinate his entire life to God, and God is a jealous master.
That is why Cardinal Pell’s comments about ‘consequences in the life of the Church’ and Archbishop Hickey’s warnings about fitness for reception of communion are compassionate, rather than heavy-handed, and timely, rather than out of date. Our bishops swear to teach and uphold the Catholic faith that comes to us from the Apostles.
They are right to ask Catholic politicians to honour the same.
The Church has always taught – in season and out - against abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell testing (including somatic cell nuclear transfer techniques that create and then destroy human beings) and indeed anything else that contravenes God’s law.
What is more, the Church has continually set out her case so that even non-believers can understand the arguments or parse the logic. Catholic ethicists, theologians and thinkers have worked and continue to work at the very edge of science and reason to ensure that the case against the culture of death is made out rationally, humanely and with intellectual rigour.
Thus, the Catholic Church cannot even be called anti-science or anti progress, as it has been recently.
Indeed, St John’s College at the University of Sydney recently endowed a $350 million medical research institute. Such works contribute significantly to the battle to alleviate human suffering, but not at the expense of a reliance on embryonic stem cell work or “any other procedures involving the termination or the artificial creation of human life". Similarly, two large grants from the Archdiocese of Sydney support vital adult stem cell research at leading medical institutes.
These initiatives should come as no surprise. Such cutting edge compassion is a key element of the Church’s mission and she will never give it up.
Nor will she allow herself to be pushed out of the way so that a purely instrumental or consequential view of the human person comes to dominate the otherwise noble field of health science and human medicine.
This is especially the case when it is clear that the pressure Church leaders and ordinary Christians exert can shift the debate onto more humane grounds. In some marvellous cases, this pressure, particularly when it is allied to careful political and social interventions, can encourage otherwise hostile scientists and researchers to pursue more humane, increasingly non-controversial methods.
Indeed, almost as soon at the NSW lower house had made its historic and shameful vote against human life, researchers in the United States and Japan announced they had succeeded in coaxing mouse cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, opening up a third, promising field of research that sidesteps the assault on human life entirely.
The message for WA and other jurisdictions then is this: go steady.
Ignore the emotional hype and focus on the scientific and ethical facts. Why vote against life when the most offensive techniques are increasingly irrelevant to the advancement of stem cell research?
Catholic politicians and teachers in Catholic schools must be men and women who care about the faith and about life and they must ensure that their public witness aligns with their personal convictions and private commitments. Personal and public courage can alter even the most fraught debate and convert the world to hope.
As Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Hickey demonstrated, that is the path to true social justice.
:: The Upshot ::
It is a lesson that, starting in Catholic schools in Sydney, will be increasingly emphasised and it is a charge that must be honoured by Catholic politicians everywhere.
:: Resources ::
- Archdiocese of Sydney Life Office on Embryonic Stem Cell Research;
- 'Stem Cell Research & The Catholic Church' from American Catholic; and
- DREADNOUGHT on Stem Cells (Including a Loose Paraphrase of Catholic Teaching).
by DREADNOUGHT at 12:56:00 AM
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