Spanish Doctors Alarmed by Government Abortion Proposal
August 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
By Anna Arco —Spanish doctors have leapt to the defence of freedom of conscience not to be involved in procuring abortions after a senior minister suggested that refusing to perform an abortion might constitute civil disobedience.The General Council of Doctors Colleges (OMC) in Spain last week insisted that conscientious objection must be an option after the Spanish minister Francisco Caamaño suggested that refusing to perform an abortion would amount to a crime.
It said that under the radical new abortion legislation that is being fiercely debated in the Spanish parliament doctors might lose the reject to object to performing an abortion. Doctors urgently called for a clause protecting conscience to be included in the law.
In a statement issued on Monday they said: “Conscientious objection for medical reasons can hardly be considered civil disobedience.”
Stressing that the only protections for conscience in the existing law dealt with cases relating to the media and the military, the OMC called for “the urgent need for the new abortion law to include during its time in parliament conscientious objection of medical personnel who intervene directly in them, just as it is in almost all countries which have de-penalised abortion.
“In these countries, conscientious objection has become recognised as a specific right, with clauses which prevent discrimination against those physicians who for whatever reasons of conscience refuse to participate in the abortive practices, especially if, as stands in our future law of abortion, it will pass from being a de-penalised crime in certain situations and become a ‘right’; the ‘right of a woman to abort’.”
They said that the right to conscientious objection was “a universal criterion of the medical profession”.
They said that conflicts arise when the defence of certain principles come against the rights that have been legally established. For that reason it is important, the doctors argued, “for the freedom of conscience to be legally recognised in the general medicine, not just in the context of abortion – guaranteeing the juridical safety of all including the foetus in the case of abortion”.
The statement came after Spain’s justice minister said on Spanish television last week that refusing to perform abortions would be punished.
Speaking in an interview last week Mr Caamaño said he did not believe there were more rights to conscientious objection than those expressly established by the constitution or by the legislator in the general courts.
He said: “Personal ideas cannot excuse us from complying the law because, if not, we would arrive in many subjects, in this and many others, to civil disobedience… where there is no law which allows it, I am with the supreme tribunal and its ruling on education for citizens. Conscientious objection does not fit.”
Spain is in the throes of a fierce national debate over further liberalisation of the country’s abortion laws.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government has been at odds with the Church since its election in 2004 over issues such as easing Spain’s divorce laws and pushing same-sex marriage. Its plans to make abortions easier have launched by far the most heated debate. Under the proposed legislation women could freely obtain abortions within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Girls as young as 16 could have abortions without requiring parental consent. Women could abort at up to 22 weeks in the case of congenital disorder under the new law, and continue to abort after that if the pregnancy places them in mortal danger.
The Spanish bishops roundly condemned the legislation in July, saying that it was a “serious danger for the common good”. They said: “To include abortion in health policy always gravely compromises the medical profession which is distorted when it is placed at the service of death.”
(source)
Spanish Doctors Alarmed by Government Abortion Proposal
August 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
By Anna Arco —Spanish doctors have leapt to the defence of freedom of conscience not to be involved in procuring abortions after a senior minister suggested that refusing to perform an abortion might constitute civil disobedience.The General Council of Doctors Colleges (OMC) in Spain last week insisted that conscientious objection must be an option after the Spanish minister Francisco Caamaño suggested that refusing to perform an abortion would amount to a crime.
It said that under the radical new abortion legislation that is being fiercely debated in the Spanish parliament doctors might lose the reject to object to performing an abortion. Doctors urgently called for a clause protecting conscience to be included in the law.
In a statement issued on Monday they said: “Conscientious objection for medical reasons can hardly be considered civil disobedience.”
Stressing that the only protections for conscience in the existing law dealt with cases relating to the media and the military, the OMC called for “the urgent need for the new abortion law to include during its time in parliament conscientious objection of medical personnel who intervene directly in them, just as it is in almost all countries which have de-penalised abortion.
“In these countries, conscientious objection has become recognised as a specific right, with clauses which prevent discrimination against those physicians who for whatever reasons of conscience refuse to participate in the abortive practices, especially if, as stands in our future law of abortion, it will pass from being a de-penalised crime in certain situations and be
come a ‘right’; the ‘right of a woman to abort’.”They said that the right to conscientious objection was “a universal criterion of the medical profession”.
They said that conflicts arise when the defence of certain principles come against the rights that have been legally established. For that reason it is important, the doctors argued, “for the freedom of conscience to be legally recognised in the general medicine, not just in the context of abortion – guaranteeing the juridical safety of all including the foetus in the case of abortion”.
The statement came after Spain’s justice minister said on Spanish television last week that refusing to perform abortions would be punished.
Speaking in an interview last week Mr Caamaño said he did not believe there were more rights to conscientious objection than those expressly established by the constitution or by the legislator in the general courts.
He said: “Personal ideas cannot excuse us from complying the law because, if not, we would arrive in many subjects, in this and many others, to civil disobedience… where there is no law which allows it, I am with the supreme tribunal and its ruling on education for citizens. Conscientious objection does not fit.”
Spain is in the throes of a fierce national debate over further liberalisation of the country’s abortion laws.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government has been at odds with the Church since its election in 2004 over issues such as easing Spain’s divorce laws and pushing same-sex marriage. Its plans to make abortions easier have launched by far the most heated debate. Under the proposed legislation women could freely obtain abortions within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Girls as young as 16 could have abortions without requiring parental consent. Women could abort at up to 22 weeks in the case of congenital disorder under the new law, and continue to abort after that if the pregnancy places them in mortal danger.
The Spanish bishops roundly condemned the legislation in July, saying that it was a “serious danger for the common good”. They said: “To include abortion in health policy always gravely compromises the medical profession which is distorted when it is placed at the service of death.”
(source)
As the economy worsens, be sure you’re laying up treasure in heaven
August 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“Then, they will say to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a strange or naked or sick or imprisoned and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me’” (Matt. 25:44-45).
As the economy worsens, be sure you're laying up treasure in heaven
August 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“Then, they will say to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a strange or naked or sick or imprisoned and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me’” (Matt. 25:44-45).
I'll be on TV tonight
August 19, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Beyond Spectacular: The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3-D
August 15, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“The heavens proclaim His righteousness; and all the peoples behold His glory” (Psalm 97.6).
Analysis: Who Was Father Maciel's Moderator?
August 14, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
As the scandal-drama surrounding the late Fr. Marcial Maciel unfolds, more and more pointed questions are rising to the surface. Former Legionary priest James Farfaglia, for example, raises a series of such pertinent questions on his blog.
New questions arose in my mind recently as I studied an online dossier of “censored” documents, which purports to include lengthy excerpts of the constitutions of the Legionaries of Christ. Father Maciel, who served as the Legion’s director general uninterruptedly for decades, mandated that the constitutions not be disclosed to the public and, therefore, few people outside the Legion have any clue what they contain (c.f., 254.2 and 417. §2 & 3).
A careful analysis of the rules which Fr. Maciel put in force yields many remarkable details, such as the fact that he exempted himself from the, now-abrogated, “private vow” in which every temporally or perpetually professed member of the order solemnly promises never to criticize other Legionaries, especially superiors.
What really caught my eye, though, was the section which mandates that a “monitor of the general director” must be appointed who will closely observe and “concern himself with the external aspects of the life of the director general, such as his dress, his diet, and his expenditures.”
(I’m pretty sure, by the way, that the whole “expenditure” thing would fall squarely into the category of Father Maciel’s now-verified, long-term habit of squandering Legionary money [i.e., benefactor donations] on frivolities such as trans-Atlantic flights on the Concorde, posh hotels, luxury cruises, succulent gourmet meals and, at least in his later years, of supplying an affluent upkeep for at least one child he fathered [it seems as though there may be others]).
According to the official description of the “moderator of the general director,” it seems clear that the duties envisioned by the Legion of Christ constitutions was not something akin to those of a confessor or spiritual director, which would concern the internal forum of the conscience and, therefore, would entail a confidential relationship with the subject (Maciel) which could not be revealed to another under pain of serious sin. Rather, the moderator called for by the Legionary constitutions could be likened to a kind of “ombudsman,” whose job it would be to help identify and correct problems with Maciel’s externally discernible lifestyle (i.e., not in the internal forum).
I hadn’t known that the Legionary constitutions required that someone be officially appointed to monitor Father Maciel’s activities. But after checking with a few former Legionary priests and religious about this, and after their review of these documents and verification that they are indeed accurate, several intriguing new questions arise, such as:
1) Who exactly was Father Maciel’s moderator? The constitutions require that this role be fulfilled by a Legionary priest, appointed by the general chapter, who is ” a very spiritual man, with at least ten years of profession in the Congregation, who is at least forty years old, of balanced temperament, gentle and understanding of spirit, faithful and loving of the superiors, with a practical sense, and whose capacity of reserve, discretion, prudence and sensitivity are well-proven and recognized.” If this requirement was fulfilled (the term is for 12 years), there will be records of it, which the apostolic visitators to the Legion of Christ will surely want to study.
2) Did the Legion’s general chapters ever actually appoint a priest to fulfill this constitutionally mandated role as moderator of Father Maciel’s activities? If so, who was he (they), when was he appointed, and what were his findings? Presumably, the Church’s apostolic visitation process will, in due course, obtain and evaluate any documents that pertain to the issue of the monitor of the general director.
3) If the Legion did in fact observe this requirement, then how did the moderator fulfill his mandate to moderate, as the order’s regulations stipulate, “all things related to the spiritual perfection and personal obligations of the director general, dialoguing with him about these things . . . [and to] concern himself with external aspects of the life of the director general, such as his dress, his diet, and his expenditures”? What, if anything, did he report about this?
Clearly, the frauds perpetrated by Fr. Maciel against the members of his own religious order, as well as the Church, his victims, etc., involved activities that would have, should have, could have been observed — and, one would assume, reported — by a genuinely dedicated, sagacious, honest, man of probity who had been formally entrusted with the task of “moderating” the general director.
So, again, it must be asked: Was there ever such a moderator? And if so, who was he? And if no one was ever appointed to this position, why wasn’t it done?
If there was such a moderator, and if he performed his duties to observe Father Maciel’s personal life and give advice or admonishment based on what he observed, did he report what must have been an endless series of strange anomalies in the director’s travels, activities, and personal habits? If he reported them to the general chapter, why was no action ever taken?
After all, the general impression given is that everyone in the Legion — everyone — was caught completely by surprise when the scandal revelations began tumbling out. No one seems to have had even the slightest inkling of what this man was doing in his free time.
One section of the dossier I mention above, goes to the very heart of the sickness of secrecy at work here. It reads:
576. If the person chosen for this post [of moderator] exposes or criticizes aspects of the life of the director general, he should be removed from his post. In such a case, the council general, at the request of the director general, shall proceed to appoint, by deliberative vote, another to take his place, from a group of three proposed by the director general.
In other words, the Legion’s internal laws required that a moderator be appointed to watch closely over Father Maciel’s personal life — something that, if it had been carried out according to the LC constitutions, could have spared the Legion, Regnum Christi, and the Church as a whole all the Maciel-induced misery this scandal has engendered.
But those same laws stipulate that if the moderator were to “expose or criticize” any problems he might find, he would be summarily canned.
Huh? Given the Sword-of-Damocles position into which the constitutio
ns encumber the moderator, what good could he be to the order? What beneficial purpose could he serve?
This disjunction in the LC constitutons would seem to explain why the official Legionary requirement of putting such a moderator in place may simply have been ignored. But if it was not ignored, and the order’s general chapter did, in fact, appoint a priest to do what the constitutions call for, then let’s hope that the appropriate apostolic visitator will have ample opportunity to discuss this issue in detail with that man.
(Read more of my previous commentary on this issue.)
An Impossible Magic Trick
August 14, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
At first, this video clip looked kind of cheesy and lame, but it turned out to be quite amazing. I have no idea how they did this trick, but it is impressive!
Nancy Pelosi says: "I'm a fan of disruptors"
August 14, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Oh, reeeeeeally?
Nancy Pelosi says: "I’m a fan of disruptors"
August 14, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Oh, reeeeeeally?
