| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Lainey |
Posted - January 29 2003 : 02:39:01 AM
Adele~
Without jumping into discussion I want to first post a couple of articles reflecting upon the Humanae Vitae Encyclical, hoping they will be read with some reflection & contemplation, the very things missed by critics, as the encyclical goes far beyond the single issue of artificial contraception. I'm not so much interested in debating it as I am in explaining it.
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JUSTICE FOR PAUL VI
Humanae Vitae, Banner of Freedom for Women Subjugated by Machismo
VATICAN CITY, JUL 29 (ZENIT) - When Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae on July 25, 1968, he received a great deal of criticism. Today, however, thirty years later, the world is recognizing more and more the prophetic value of that encyclical.
The Commission that Pope John XXIII had formed during the Second Vatican Council to study the problems of population, the family, and birth, which gave its final report to Paul VI, had voted in favor of permitting the use of artificial birth control medicines. Paul VI, however, valiantly chose to support the minority opinion of that Commission, upholding the traditional teaching of the Church. This set off a wave of attacks from critics and secularists, even from some ecclesiastical circles.
In large part, the world was deaf to the message of Humanae Vitae when it was published. However, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper, "The prophetic value of that encyclical, which has formed a true and authentic turning point in the history of the Church, appears more and more evident." The article continues by noting that "the reactions of secularist groups, and to a certain extent, some ecclesiastical circles, to Humanae Vitae stemmed from a superficial and forcedly hostile reading of the document."
To better understand the importance of this encyclical, ZENIT has collected recent commentaries from various authorities on the subject, published this past week in commemoration of the encyclical's 30th anniversary.
Truth is not Decided by Majority Vote
In the introduction to his book A Creed for Living, dedicated to Humanae Vitae, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger writes: "Rarely has a text from the recent history of the Magisterium become so much a sign of contradiction as has Humanae Vitae, which Paul VI wrote after a profoundly difficult decision of conscience."
"Two fundamental objections are lodged against the text, one methodological and the other attacking the content," explains the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "From the point of view of procedure, critics stress that the Pope had decided against the majority of the ad hoc study commission, and thus claim that it rests on rather unstable ground. From the point of view of content, they accuse the encyclical of mixing biology and ethics."
"The problem of the relation between the majority of the commission and the definitive decision of the Pope touches on fundamental questions. Here we must consider questions such as: When is a majority truly representative? Who should be the representatives? How should their representation be carried out? We can say the following in this respect: a commission that gives an opinion about the doctrine of the Church should never represent the majority of dominant opinions, but rather the interior existence of the faith. The truth is not decided by majority; faced with a question of truth, democratic principles end. In the Church, on the other hand, present society never stands alone. In her, the dead are not dead, because the Church goes beyond the confines of the present time as the Communion of Saints. The past is not past, and the future is already present for precisely this reason. In other words, in the Church, you can never have the majority against the Saints, against the great witnesses of the faith that characterize all of history. They always belong to the present, and their voice cannot be put in the minority. For Paul VI, t |
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| Lainey |
Posted - February 18 2003 : 03:14:48 AM
BANGLADESH NEEDS DEVELOPMENT NOT BIRTH CONTROL
Dacca Meeting of Development Experts
DACCA, JUL 16 (ZENIT).- At a meeting in Dacca of 150 experts, politicians and heads of NGOs to analyze current policies of international bodies in regard to Bangladesh, the conclusion was that the country "needs development, not birth control."
U.S. missionary, Fr. Richard Timm, secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Conference of Bishops of Bangladesh, said that many Western countries, conditioned as they are by radical feminist organizations, have reduced the problems of the Third World (especially at the 1974 Bucharest Conference on Population) to the sexual and reproductive rights of women.
This line of thinking was also very evident at the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development. Fr. Timm said that thanks to Vatican protests, the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women revised previous positions and placed greater emphasis on the development of poor countries than on population control.
"The evidence reveals that the rapid development of all classes of people and the spread of education, especially among women, reduces the fertility rate almost automatically," the American priest said.
Quoting Indian economist and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, Fr. Timm stressed that the attempt to impose family planning in the Third World "produces negative effects on people's well being and limits their liberty."
Among the numerous speakers at the meeting was Abdul Barkat, professor of economics at the University of Dacca. Professor Barkat pointed out that one of the greatest obstacles to the development of Bangladesh is the persistent discrimination against women from the moment of their birth. "A boy is regarded as a good, but a girl as a weight," the professor said.
UNFPA CONTINUES SUPPORT FOR CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY
"Gentler" Program Uses Economic Pressure to Force Compliance
BEIJING, JUL 16 (ZENIT).- Despite overwhelming evidence of massive human rights violations stretching back two decades -- and in violation of its own charter -- the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has quietly embarked an initiative to restore a total of $50 million in US taxpayer dollars to assist China's so-called "family planning program."
The program, which will be carried out in 32 Chinese counties, is being billed as an effort to replace direct coercion with the more subtle forms of pressure that the UNFPA commonly employs to stop Third World families from having children, according to a report by the Population Research Institute.
Beijing has signed off on the four-year experiment. In the delicate phrasing of Kerstin Trone, UNFPA program director, "The Government of China is keen to move away from its administrative approach to family planning to an integrated, client-centered reproductive health approach."
Nafis Sadik, as Executive Director of the UNFPA, has let it be known that the Chinese government has agreed to suspend the one-child policy in the 32 counties during the four-year experiment. In her words, "In the project counties, couples will be allowed to have as many children as they want, whenever they want, without requiring birth permits or being subject to quotas." The Chinese government and UNFPA have repeatedly denied the use of birth quotas and permits in the past. Targets and quotas were banned by the Cairo population conference because they always lead to abuses.
However, this "freedom" is far from complete. The Chinese government has retained the right to use economic pressure to encourage compliance. Sadik: "[T]hey may still be subject to a 'social compensation fee' if they decide to have more children that [sic] recommended by the policy."
In the other 2000 counties, the current policy will remain in force. Parents, on pain of abortion, must obtain birth permits for children prior to conceiving them. Mobile abortion vans roll up and down rural roads, snuffing out th |
| Lainey |
Posted - February 12 2003 : 10:30:38 AM
Why Is India Short 40 Million Women?
U.N. Population Fund Maintains a Curious Silence
NEW YORK, FEB. 15, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Concern over sex selective abortion in India and other Asian countries is rising again. Exact data are hard to come by, but a Financial Times analysis published Feb. 8 spoke of a national shortfall of around 40 million women in India. The use of ultrasound tests to find out the sex of unborn children is now routine, the article said, and in some villages the sex ratio is 6 or even 7 boys born for every 3 girls.
Recent meetings gathering leaders of all faiths condemned the practice of female feticide, but their declarations attracted little coverage in the local press, the Financial Times said.
Hindu culture along with feudal and caste traditions are held to blame for a good part of the preference for boys. Many observers also note that the elimination of girls is carried out to avoid paying dowries, though the data might not support that view, at least in some cases.
The Financial Times quoted an Indian government report of the mid-1990s showing that the selective elimination of girls is not due to educational or economic factors. In fact, in two states, Punjab and Haryana, the number of girls has declined even as incomes have risen. Large disparities in sex ratios of children also exist in the poorer northern regions of India.
According to a study published in December's issue of Population and Development Review, provisional estimates from the 2001 Indian census reveal a sex ratio for children under 7 of 107.8 males for every 100 females. The male surplus is a marked increase on the 1991 census, which showed a level of 105.8 males. There are large regional differences, with the ratio exceeding 110 males per 100 females in 10 of India's 26 states.
Using ultrasound to find out the sex of fetuses is increasingly common, despite a government ban. According to the Population and Development Review article, up until recently there has been little domestic opposition to female feticide, even among women's groups. Feminists are divided on the issue, caught between their support for a women's "right" to abortion and their opposition to eliminating females.
The disequilibrium in sex ratios is creating serious problems for young men looking for brides. The shortage of wives is also being felt in China, where sex-selective abortion is common. The London Times reported Dec. 7 that tens of thousands of Vietnamese women are being kidnapped and sold to Chinese men each year, due to the at-home shortage.
In large parts of China there are up to 20% more boys than girls, leading to Chinese men now paying up to $4,000 for kidnapped Vietnamese women, the Times reported. In recent years 33,000 kidnapped Vietnamese women have managed to escape from China, but an unknown multiple of that figure are still trapped, the newspaper said.
Selective vision
The issue of missing girls is well known -- in recent months both the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune published lengthy articles on the matter. Readers of the latest "State of the World Population" report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), however, will search in vain for an analysis of the issue.
The 2002 report, published in December, centers on how family planning can help developing countries and women. An entire chapter is devoted to "Women and Gender Inequality," but no mention is made of how family planning has led to the deaths of millions of girls in the most populous nations.
In fact, the UNFPA report takes a very selective view of population matters. The report urges an increase in family planning funding so as to reduce poverty in developing nations.
The relationship between population and economic growth, however, is complicated. Economic experts differ on whether merely reducing the number of children will lead to higher growth. One of the sources the UNFPA report relied upon is the 2001 collection o |
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