President Bush gets some Catholic schooling

Social justice news
August 2001

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President Bush gets some Catholic schooling
In a July 23 meeting at the Vatican following the recent G-8 conference of western leaders in Genoa, Italy, President George W. Bush was advised of the Catholic church's concerns regarding globalization and stem cell research by Pope John Paul II. The pope called for a process of globalization that did not exacerbate existing divisions between the world's richest and poorest people, reminded the president of America's special role in global leadership, and urged Bush to reject medical research on human embryos. He said the United States had a moral responsibility to reject actions that "devalue and violate human life."

In a statement afterwards, the pope said an "area in which political and moral choices have the gravest consequences for the future of civilisation concerns the most fundamental of human rights, the right to life itself.

"Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils such as euthanasia, infanticide and, most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process.

The pope told Bush, "A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death.

"In defending the right to life, in law and through a vibrant culture of life, America can show the world the path to a truly humane future, in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology."

The pontiff's remarks touched on Bush's pending decision whether to permit federal funds for potentially breakthrough medical research on stem cells from human embryos. The church is staunchly opposed to such studies because they involve the destruction of so-called surplus embryos discarded by fertility clinics. Recently scientists at a private research institution have admitted to creating human embryos for use in stem cell

Bush did not immediately respond to the stem cell question but later at a press conference, the president said; "He's sent a consistent word throughout the Church, and throughout society, that we ought to take into account the preciousness of life."

John Paul II and Bush met for about 30 minutes behind closed doors at the papal summer residence Castel Gandolfo in the foothills south of Rome. "A global world is essentially a world of solidarity," the pope later said, reading from a prepared statement. "From this point of view, America, because of her many resources, cultural traditions and religious values, has a special responsibility."

In commenting on globalization, the pope repeated previously stated concerns with an economic process that can elevate purely economic matters above the needs and experiences of human beings. He said, "In recent days, the world's attention has been focused on the process of globalization which has so greatly accelerated in the past decade, and which you and other leaders of the industrialized nations have discussed in Genoa. While appreciating the opportunities for economic growth and material prosperity which this process offers, the Church cannot but express profound concern that our world continues to be divided, no longer by the former political and military blocs, but by a tragic fault line between those who can benefit from these opportunities and those who seem cut off from them.

"The revolution of freedom of which I spoke at the United Nations in 1995 must now be completed by a revolution of opportunity, in which all the world's peoples actively contribute to economic prosperity and share in its fruits. This requires leadership by those nations whose religious and cultural traditions should make them most attentive to the moral dimension of the issues involved.

"Respect for human dignity and belief in the equal dignity of all the members of the human family demand policies aimed at enabling all peoples to have access to the means required to improve their lives, including the technological means and skills needed for development. Respect for nature by everyone, a policy of openness to immigrants, the cancellation or significant reduction of the debt of poorer nations, the promotion of peace through dialogue and negotiation, the primacy of the rule of law: these are the priorities which the leaders of the developed nations cannot disregard."

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