Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

The New Schism

Home to 65 percent of the world's Catholics, Latin America is increasingly at odds with church doctrine -- especially over abortion. The appointment of ultraconservative Joseph Ratzinger as pope offers little to close the rift.

By Kelly Hearn, AlterNet. Posted April 21, 2005.

Clamoring for attention from a world distracted by war and terrorism, Latin Americans were hoping for a pope from their region where, by some accounts, 65 percent of the world's Catholics live.

It is also where anti-choice laws cause millions of unsafe, illegal abortions each year and where a popular repudiation of the church's stance on abortion and birth control is taking place.

That may spell headaches for the Vatican as Latin American leaders face secular pressures to soften abortion laws. But any hopes that a new pope might have tilted the church's stance on abortion was shot down with the election Tuesday of ultraconservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.

Ratzinger in 2004 ordered bishops to refuse communion to politicians who support abortion rights, including presidential candidate John Kerry. In a letter that was obtained by the Italian magazine L'Espresso, Ratzinger wrote that abortion supporters "would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion."

If recent past is prologue, the new pope's unyielding stance is likely to set him at odds against Latin American politicians.

In Argentina, for example, Bishop Antonio Baseotto suggested in March that a high Argentine government official should be subjected to the biblical punishment of being "cast into the sea" for suggesting abortion be legalized. In response, Argentina's president, Nestor Kirchner, refused to recognize the bishop, prompting the Vatican to make the odd and unexplained charge that Buenos Aires was restricting religious freedom. [F6 note -- see also http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6106370 (thanks Chris)]

The issue, while mollifed slightly in recent days, challenged relations between Buenos Aires and Rome and reopened the abortion debate here, which recently has been energized by activists and organizations making public appeals for legalization. Recently, dozens of pro-choice supporters ran ads in major Argentine papers calling for legalization of abortion.

And in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic nation, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has come under fire from the church for proposals to lighten restrictions on abortion.

In an interview published in early April, Rio de Janeiro Cardinal Eusebio Scheid took shots at the left-leaning president, saying "a real Catholic cannot be in favor of abortion." Lula has defended his faith in media interviews while refusing to back down from his government's stances. Pope John Paul II himself fell at odds with Lula's government and many Brazilians on issues such as contraception, abortion and Marxist liberation theology.

Watching Public Opinion

What do everyday Catholics in Latin America think?

A recent survey of Catholics in three countries, Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia, shows large swaths of Latin Americans do not agree with traditional doctrine.

The survey, conducted for Catholics for a Free Choice, a Washington-based advocacy group, found that significant numbers of Catholics in Colombia, Mexico and Bolivia believe abortion should be allowed in some or all circumstances. The report found that:

-- Eighty-one percent of Mexican Catholics opposed excommunicating a woman who has had an abortion (the current Catholic doctrine). While more conservative in their views, 74 percent of Bolivian Catholics and 67 percent of Colombian Catholics think a woman should be allowed to remain in the church after an abortion.

-- Of Catholic populations in Mexico, Bolivia and Columbia, 60 percent of Mexicans, 56 percent of Bolivians and 49 percent of Colombians believe that abortions should be allowed in some or all circumstances.

-- Sixty-two percent of Bolivian Catholics, 55 percent of Mexican Catholics, and 48 percent of Colombian Catholics believe the decision to have an abortion lies not with the church but with the couple.

Perhaps most notably, the study showed that Catholics surveyed do not depend on church opinion when voting, further highlighting the disconnect between doctrine and political reality. Only 19 percent of Mexican Catholics, for example, said their priest would sway their votes. In Colombia, only 22 percent said their religious leaders' opinion mattered to them and in Bolivia only 30 percent felt the same.

Similar trends apply to reproductive rights, according to the study. Ninety one percent of Catholics in Colombia and Mexico and 79 percent of Catholics in Bolivia believe that couples should have access to contraception, including condoms and birth control pills. Of those groups, high numbers believe public hospitals and health clinics should provide reproductive services for free: 96 percent of Mexican Catholics, 91 percent of Colombian and Bolivian Catholics.

"These studies clearly demonstrate the attitude of many Catholics regarding the church's role of reproductive rights and politics are moving to a more progressive stance, even though the Vatican refuses to accept this shift," the study states. "Throughout this report it is clear that the beliefs of Catholics in Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico, more often than not, take a different direction that those of church officials. When and if the Vatican ever decides to acknowledge this point, it will see that Catholics all over the world have already moved in this direction."

How will global Catholicism contend with what appears to be a mass repudiation of essential points of doctrine among Latin America's vast Catholic population?

While observers say more Latin American priests on the ground seem less willing to excommunicate a woman for having an abortion, social researchers like Mariana Romero of the Buenos Aires-based Center for the Study of State and Society say the church is very unlikely to change its essential doctrine, despite secular pressures and a softening of abortion laws throughout Latin America.

Echoing that point, Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, an Argentine archbishop and the chancellor of the The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, says the church will face new realities and may shift on certain issues. But it will remain unmoved on some fronts.

"The church," he said in a recent interview published in El Clarin, a leading Argentine newspaper, "is never going to accept abortion."

Kelly Hearn is a former UPI staff writer who lives in Washington D.C. and Latin America. His work has appeared in several U.S. publications and web sites including the Christian Science Monitor, The American Prospect and High Country News.

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COMMENTS

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author and agitator of church and state
Posted by: eileen_flmng on Apr 21, 2005 6:33 AM

Jesus confronted the temple authorities with the fact that those in power heaped on The Law but refused to lighten the burden of the poor, oppressed, marginalized, outcasts and diseased. Jesus was always moved by pity/compassion to help. The teachers of The Law were addicted to power, control and the status quo. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years.
What is moral about forcing a mother to birth a child she cannot feed and must watch die of hunger? What is moral about determining who and how one should love another? What is moral about bishops and cardinals who allowed the abuse of children to continue and covered it up?
As an ex-Roman and compassionate Christian, my heart breaks at the corruption within all church institutions and that the tradition has become an idol.
To read more, click on www.olivetreesfoundation.org
download the FREE novel Keep Hope Alive and take comfort that the God of the living, continues to speak to any open vessel and "the times they are a changin."

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Cardinals take one step closer to extinction
Posted by: danidono on Apr 21, 2005 6:59 AM

Thee are times when the light of simple reality ultimately overcomes the deepest conviction. While the Cardinals may be committed to the notion that they alone can comprehend the mysteries and destinies of women's bodies, the elegant truth that women now understand that they are the mistresses and interpreters of their own bodies. The Cardinals are left with a handful of incantations and increasingly meaningless threats of excommunication, seemingly unaware that the power of a curse lies within the heart of the one being cursed. There may be a great period of mayhem, and undoubtably a monstrous amount of money thrown at the world in an attempt to keep it flat and manageable. Unfortunately, for the Cardinals and this unfortunate place-holder of a Pope, they are attempting to use powers that evaporate daily as women come to understand their own real power to control their lives and the lives of their children. The Cardinals are right to fear birth control, the true issue at the heart of the abortion "debate." Healthy women in control of their own bodies make lousy theological slaves. The truth is out, it's alive and well in the world. The Vatican "soldiers of dust" will still have victorious battles for the amount of money they will bring to this effort is mind-boggling. Despite that financial advantage, the war for the health and well-being of women in already over because women all around the world are coming to know the truth. We are not theological conundrums or mystical creatures, but rather something much better. We are simply human and free to participate in the fruits of human labor - medicine, education and science. No amount of incense, pomp, gold thread and politicial influence can erase that knowledge.

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The New Schism
Posted by: Johanna Moren on Apr 21, 2005 7:01 AM

This article is typical of all the interviews on the T.V. about the Pope's election. It didn't matter if the interviewer was interviewing a Bishop, Cardinal, Priest or an expert. The only things they wanted to talk about were; birth control, contraception, abortion and women in the church. Sorry I forgot one...married priests.
Now, if you look at this list,if this is what they want (whoever they are) The Pope might as well put up a FOR SALE sign on the VATICAN and retire.
I never heard one interview, where they talked about the teaching of Christ.....if we were following the teaching of Christ they wouldn't need contraception or abortion.
These, two laws, they say, are needed in the poor countries; why? Could it be, because they ask for bread and we give them contraception and abortion. Oh, and the greatest gift of all "Globalisation."
Something about this whole argument doesn't make sense.
Johanna Moren

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ABORTION IS WRONG-YOU SHALL NOT KILL !!!!!!
Posted by: WONDERWALEYE on Apr 21, 2005 7:28 AM

We don't make babies, GOD does. We only go thru the reproductive actions given by God!!! When the day comes that man can design and make a babie outside the womb then maybe they have a right to distroy, but I don't think that day will ever come!!! Folks forget that God has a handle on things!! The BIBLE says: SOME FOLKS DIE YOUNG BUT HAVE A FULL LIFE!!! It is very hard for folks to understand GOD'S WAYS. The BIBLE also says: WHEN YOU WHERE YOUNG, YOU THOUGHT ONE WAY AND WHEN YOU GET OLDER YOU THINK DIFFERENTLY, AND SO SHALL IT BE WHEN YOU GO TO HIS KINGDOM!!! You either accept GOD'S ways or you go your own way. If you light a candle [JESUS] and place it in the the center of the room and you take four folks and put them against each wall, you shall find that each person will have to walk in a different direction to get to the light[JESUS] From where your standing their is only one way that points to the light.[JESUS] All the other ways are almost infinent except for just ONE!!!! Does the cry for abortion come from man or GOD??? MAY THE LOVE OF JESUS BE WITH YOU!!!! [this has two meanings]

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Be Free
Posted by: pcushnie on Apr 21, 2005 7:55 AM

The mind twists and contorts itself trying to reconcile evil and a loving god. Endless apologies are made to account for the contradictions between a supposedly omni-everything deity and the reality of life on Earth, a deity that is at once all-powerful, yet never held accountable. Its nature is malleable, shaped by expediency. It is unknowable in one moment, then imbued with human characteristics in the next. Omnipotent, it still has wants and makes plans. And if “everything serves God’s plan,” then everything must be good, even the most heinous crime. Omniscient, it is still credited with granting us free will. The “word of god,” the bible, is wide open to interpretation.
Philosophers philosophize. Theologians apologize. Gotta get this square peg into this round hole, dammit! Make it fit!
But wait. A better way exists; a way to do away with the contradictions and conundrums; the sophistry and specious arguments; the pious frauds. Clear your mind. Uncomplicate life.
How?
Throw out the gods, the popes, the priests, the holy books and relics. Assign them to the “trash heap of history.” Wake up to the fact that the supernatural is never an answer, only a complication. Tsunamis and earthquakes are the result of plate tectonics. Period. Nothing else is needed to understand them. Right behavior does not require the dictates of a god. We are each responsible to our fellow humans and accept that responsibility if we want to lead good, productive lives.
God is a lie.
Religion is a fraud.
Atheism is the celebration of reason and humanity; the debunking of myth, superstition, and magical thinking.
Embrace it.

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Troubleshooter
Posted by: Troubleshooter on Apr 21, 2005 9:23 AM

Ok, look, I'm a non-theist, so I'm not defending the policies themselves, but if you join the club, you play by the rules.

The rules are very simple. Pick a hole, marry it, stick to it. And make sure it's of the appropriate type as defined in the rule book.

If you don't like the rules, don't join the club, you knew the rules before you joined.

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No biblical basis for anti-abortion stand of Church
Posted by: aldo on Apr 21, 2005 10:38 AM

The Bible is silent on abortion specifically.
The current stance is an application of the 'precautionary principle': since it is unknow when 'the soul is infused into the body', it is assumed to have happened upon conception. Which, incidentally, makes God the greatest abortionist of all, as over 50% of all conceptions don't implant; and limbo (another medieval invention) the most crowded place in after-life.
It might just be, however, that God wanted us to be responsible and defend our choice when we come to see Him. He reserves the judgement.
Maybe the greatest sinners are those who want to take God's place and judge on earth.
aldo

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excommunication???
Posted by: elmysterio on Apr 21, 2005 12:42 PM

Hmmm... That's probably one of the most wrong-headed things I've ever heard... Whatever happened to "HATE the sin, LOVE the sinner"??? That's what Jesus taught. What gives anybody the right to excommunicate someone??? God loves ALL his people... whether they meet the church's moral code or not... All God asks is this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself"... simple. Easy. In fact, God made it idiot proof, considering a great many of my christian brothers and sisters are idiots... but you know what? I love them anyways.

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Another "conservative" who conserves nothing but his own power
Posted by: Neilio on Apr 21, 2005 1:11 PM

A new pope was selected. Woo-Hoo. Am I supposed to expect anything from this guy? What does a Pope do apart from being the most famous PR guy in the world?

Does the Pope affect your daily life? I know what he is supposed to represent. But I expect nothing from him. The Pope's job, apparently, is to make sure that nothing changes. Al all costs.
The pride of the Catholic church is such that even to acknowledge that there are problems would undermine their supposed power. To say they were wrong about anything, or to look a the current state of the world and say "this is what the Catholic church can do to help", would not even be entertained as a thought. To admit you're wrong, or admit that things need to change, to them, is like admitting you're wrong about everything.

Case in point: The Catholic law against birth control. I'm not talking abortion, but preventative birth control.
As far as I know, birth control as we know it is a modern invention. There weren't condoms when the bible was written. And there certainly wasn't AIDS. The reason they have the rule is simply that they want as many Catholics as possible. Thats why two generations ago in my family they were having 15-20 kids per family.
But now in the face of the AIDS crisis in Africa, they stand to lose millions of Catholics because all that stands in between them and AIDS is a thin piece of rubber. If the Pope were truly concerened about saving lives, he could do something about it. But he won't. The message is sent loud and clear. Despite all the talk about "culture of life" and all that, the Vatican would watch the world burn before they change.

The reason this Pope was chosen was precisely that he will fight tooth and nail to maintian the status quo.

How long can the church last staying the same in an ever-changing world?

Shut up.
Say your prayers.
Don't ask questions.
Or go to Hell.

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© 2005 Independent Media Institute.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/21826/ (emphasis added)