Catholic Fire

If elected president, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says she would sign an executive order rescinding President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Destroying human life, yet she is trying to pass herself off as a Christian? What happened to the commandment "Thou shalt not kill"? ************* If Hillary Clinton wins the US presidency , Bill Clinton will be given the job of repairing America's damaged international reputation, the former president .... What about his reputation?

London, Sep. 4, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A British regulatory body will apparently give approval to the creation of "hybrid" embryos including human and animal material. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has concluded a 3-month study of the issue, issuing a report that says most members of the public are "at ease" with the prospects of research that would combine human genetic material and animal eggs. In May, under pressure from research scientists, the British government backed away from a preliminary plan to outlaw the creation of hybrid embryos. Calling for "an evaluation of a number of different viewpoints," health minister Caroline Flint sought more opinions on the question. [More] What a sad commentary! The public is "at ease" with this???!!! How sickening! I would hope that someone in the UK is taking action on this to prevent the destruction of human life. I will be praying.

There is nothing "brave" or beautiful about the biotechnised world we are entering, says one of America's best-known bioethicists. This is a commencement speech made by Dr Leon Kass at St John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland, earlier this year. Dr Kass, a physician and philosopher, was the chairman of the President's Council for Bioethics from 2002 to 2005. He teaches at the University of Chicago. Here is an excerpt: "The greatest moral challenges headed our way do not in fact come from hate-filled fanatics threatening death and destruction. They come rather from well meaning scientists and technologists offering life, pleasure, and enhancement. They are the by-products of modernity’s noble and humanitarian quest to conquer nature for the relief of man’s estate. They are, in a word, the challenges of bioethics, challenges to our humanity arising from burgeoning new technological powers to intervene in the bodies and minds of human beings. " This is an ...

Carron Morrow's Story by Chuck Colson An event planner named Carron Morrow says she had two choices when it came to treating a serious heart condition: Sign liability papers for an unusual new treatment—or drop dead. Not surprisingly, she chose to sign the papers—and became another stem-cell miracle. An adult stem-cell miracle, that is. Carron, a 58-year-old Alabama mother, was in bad shape last year after suffering four heart attacks. The right side of her heart was functioning at less than 50 percent. Carron needed a new heart—but 100,000 people were ahead of her on the transplant list. By fall, she told CitizenLink, “I couldn’t walk 20 feet without being on somebody’s arm.” Her church rallied round her in prayer. Meanwhile, Carron’s nurse was researching adult stem-cell therapies and discovered a groundbreaking study at the Texas Heart Institute. Researchers agreed to include Carron in the study, which included surgery not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In October...

The KC Star is, in my view, the most biased newspaper in the country in its reporting on the ESCR/human cloning controversy. For example, when the political decision was made by promoters of human cloning research in MO to rename embryonic stem cells "early" stem cells, the paper made the shift without missing a beat. And it continually pimps the Stowers Institute line that unless Missouri whole-heartedly supports its desire to engage in human cloning research, why scientists will refuse to work for Stowers and the biotechnology industry will leave the state--never mind that most biotech is not controversial and doesn't involve cloning or embryonic stem cells. Well, the paper has done it again in this whining editorial about how the "uncertainty" caused by continued resistance in MO to human cloning research is making life tough for Stowers. Read more from Wesley J. Smith at Secondhand Smoke. *** As part of a research project on stem cell research and politics,...

"Science is a gift of God to all of us, and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure... And that is embryonic stem cell research." Read the LifeNews story here.

They certainly don't look like twins, but they do seem to resemble one another in their pro-death statements. "Fake Catholics" is the term that best describes them, as they are phonies. True Catholics practice their beliefs. Politicians use double-talk, a language which most people with average intelligence and a conscience can decipher. Here are some examples: Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic , but that does not interfere with my decision-making because I know that stem-cell research, the way we are doing it in California ... is the right way to go and will save, very quickly down the line, lives and cure a lot of these illnesses." Translation: Technically, I like to call myself Catholic, but I refuse to obey the Church on life issues. I support the destruction of human life and will continue to support harmful and unsuccessful research using your tax money to do it. It really doesn't matter how many people are used as...

In Part I , I summarized the basics of stem cell research and cloning, discussed the moral implications of embryonic stem cell research, and the politics involved. Here in Kansas, our bishops, in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus, have been working very hard to educate the public - especially Catholics - about stem cell research. A new short documentary commissioned and released by the four Catholic bishops of Kansas entitled “The Science of Stem Cells: Finding Cures and Protecting Life” figures to play a key role in educating the public about what is involved. View it here. You can read A Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of Kansas - full text to learn more. In this post, I would like to share some of the miraculous results scientists and physicians have obtained through adult stem cell research. First, let's review the definition of an adult stem cell. An adult stem cell is a differentiated stem cell obtained from adult tissue, blood from the umbilical cord, and ...

WASHINGTON, April 9 / Christian Newswire / -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, issued a statement today on the upcoming U.S. Senate vote this week on the public funding of embryonic stem cell research. "All of the successful advancements in stem cell research have come from using stem cells whose derivation did not require the destruction of lives," said Fr. Pavone. "A vote for S. 5 is not only a vote for killing human beings in the name of research; it's a vote for wasting money. Congress should invest the funds in research that will do moral and practical good." Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org . Please contact your U.S. senators and urge them to oppose S. 5, the bill to force taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. You can reach any senator at 202-224-3121 or find specific contact informat...

“We are not against science or providing cures,” Naumann said at the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas headquarters March 22. “There is a long history of the church helping the sick. We can do these things with the science of medicine without crossing moral boundaries." Naumann made the announcement to support House bills 2255 and 2098. HB 2298 would define human cloning and HB 2255 would prohibit state funding for embryonic stem cell research. The bishops do not oppose adult stem cell research but say embryonic stem cell research crosses a moral line. “What does this do to our humanity?” Naumann asked. “We all came from human embryos and if someone had taken stem cells from us, we wouldn't be here. ”Some sources suggest a new embryo holds potential to become human life, but has not matured to that point.“ I am against embryonic research because it destroys a human life in the process,” Sister Sue Miller, community director of Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, said. “Our l...

It’s on the lips and in the thoughts of most Kansans these days. Our parish adult education guest speaker Catholic Dave Gittrich , the President of Kansans for Life, gave us a basic introduction on stem cell research this past week, which I will briefly summarize in simple terms here, with the help of my notes from that talk, along with some of American Life League’s definitions, and excerpts from A Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of Kansas . The Basics What is a stem cell? Stem cells are unspecialized cells. One of the fundamental properties of a stem cell is that it does not have any tissue-specific structures that allow it to perform specialized functions. For example, a stem cell cannot work with its neighbors to pump blood through the body like a heart cell. Stem cells are very simple, primitive human cells. However, when stem cells divide, they can form a variety of more specialized cells. When unspecialized stem cells give rise to specialized cells, the process is called diff...