Pope gives Obama booklet on bioethics

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held talks with Pope Benedict on Friday and the pontiff gave him a booklet explaining Vatican opposition to practices such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, which Obama supports.

Obama told the pope Washington wanted strong relations with the Vatican.

Obama and Benedict held private talks for about 40 minutes in the pope's private frescoed study in the Vatican's apostolic palace and the president briefed him on the G8 summit which ended hours earlier in the central Italian city of L'Aquila.

The pope gave Obama, who last March lifted restrictions of federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, a copy of a recent Vatican document on bio-ethics in which the Holy See explains it opposition to such practices.

"Dignitas Personae" (dignity of a person) condemns artificial fertilization and other techniques used by many couples and also says human cloning, "designer babies" and embryonic stem-cell research were immoral.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_2_MOLT/idUSTRE5693XC20090710

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Obama should have given The Pope a pamphlet on

child diddling and how it traumatizes young minds!

[Democrats_win]

2. The pope must have run out of Bibles.

The Bible would have been a much more appropriate gift.

[kenfrequed]

3. Sooo...

The pope, whose ideology has resulted in impoverishment, disease, and starvation, is giving Obama advice on bioethics?

What about the "ethics" of campaigning agaisnt planned parenthood that would allow people to rationally only have as many children as they can reasonably feed?

What about the "ethics" of denying people the use of contraceptives to prevent unneeded pregnancy?

What about the "ethics" in denying the use of condoms that would no doubt reduce the number of Aids infections (as well as any number of other diseases that are passed on by body fluids?

I think he should leave biology to the scientists and Ethics to the ethical. I think Pope Ratzy the Nazi can go to that uncomfortably warm, smokey, and pitch-forky place his religion uses to scare people into belief.

[get the red out]

15. Ratzy the Nazi

Very good! I will use that one. :toast:

[Coventina]

4. Question to those derecommending this thread:

Are you derecommending because you don't want people reading this topic?
Or is it because you disapprove of the Pope's and/or Obama's actions?

I'm just curious about the motivation for derecommending this story. Should I not have posted it?

[JonLP24]

5. I just recommended because it was below 0

However I find myself struggling with this question myself. Do I recommend because I agree or disagree with the story or do I think it is important to see. I usually go with the latter but I 95% of the time I don't hit the unrecommend button and only hit recommend if it is important to see.

Side note: I'm tired of seeing the word unrecommend come up when I use spell check.

[pattmarty]

8. The fucking "pope" is irrelevant in todays world. Is that enough.................

to "derecommend"? Exactly what the fuck kind of word is "derecommending"??? If you want to know my "bonafides" for criticism on this, I was bought up "catholic" sent to a "catholic" grade school and had to fight with my father NOT to send me to an ALL BOYS "catholic" high school. ALL religion blows, the "catholic" church just "blows" more. Go peddle your crap at Readers Digest.

[JonLP24]

9. Oh testy

Derecommend is as good enough as a word as unrecommend because they both aren't words.

[Coventina]

10. Excuse me, but what did I ever do to you? Just what is your deal?

Sorry I typed "derecommend" instead of "unrecommend."

I didn't realize that was an error worthy of foul-mouthed abuse.

[pattmarty]

14. Oh, excuse for my "foul-mouthed" response. Now, may I ask what...........

..........exactly is so "cool" about the pope giving Obama some bullshit (oh, shit, sorry) pamphlet on "ethics"? The fucking Catholic church HAS NO ETHICS.

[Coventina]

16. Where did I say it was cool? I merely posted that it happened

with no comment.

I support stem cell research and a woman's right to choose and the use of birth control.

What is it exactly that you have against me?

[JonLP24]

19. I just saw your Philippines volcano thread

It does seem the poster does have something against you. :rofl:

on edit: I'm not laughing at you, Coventina. I'm laughing at the poster's apparent rage over whatever you post.

[pattmarty]

22. Wrong, again!!! Believe it or not, I don't look at the posters "nom de plume"...........

........before I post. The post on the volcano at rest in LATEST BREAKING NEWS was NOT latest breaking news, sorry. Now, it it was a volcanic eruption, then YES.

[JonLP24]

26. Did you read the article?

It said restive, not rest. Restive means restless, uneasy, etc. The article mention that it is rumbling and emitting steam and that is noteworthy considering prior history of that volcano.

Besides I had no idea you were the self-appointed czar of what is LBN and even if you are right and it isn't LBN it doesn't excuse you to be uncivil.

[Coventina]

35. I'm really scratching my head over all this.

I don't recall ever encountering this poster before, so I don't know what made him attack me like this all of a sudden.

:shrug:

Thanks for the support, and the verification that I didn't do anything to deserve this.

[pattmarty]

20. Ok, I got a little "overexcited". But, if you are for a womans right and...........

........stem cell rsrch, why post that crap? Religion is not the ONLY reason the world is in the shitter, but it's right up there. My belief is that the time is ripe to throw off the yoke of religion for ALL peoples. Just look at ALL the bullshit that Islam is causing now.

[Coventina]

34. I posted it because it involves our president. I feel it is important

to know who he is meeting with, and what he discusses with them.

It's part of being an informed electorate and all that.

Once again, if you don't like what I post, feel free to hit "alert."

[Lone_Star_Dem]

23. It was a bad headline by Reuters which has since been changed

The "gift" of the book was in response to President Obama standing up for a woman's right to choose and human embryonic stem cell research.

""Obama told the pope of his commitment to reduce the number of abortions and of his attention and respect for the positions of the Catholic Church," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters after he was briefed by the pope.

Obama supports abortion rights and says his policy is to change economic and social conditions so as to put more women in situations where they do not feel they have to have an abortion."



The article is not so bad really. It shows Obama is willing to stand up to the Pope when it comes to our Democratic core beliefs. Which is something that many here might be interested in knowing.

[Joe Chi Minh]

32. No. It's too late. Emotional diarrhoea expressed in puerile, foul-mouthed

ranting is no sign of righteous indignation. Go to a far-right site, and post there.

Well, it probably is righteous indignation, but desperately well-concealed, basically because you can't seem to make up your mind whether to grandstand as someone who can flaunt naughty words, or to wring our withers. I'm sure you've met some very good Catholic people during your, I expect, brief life.

[Posteritatis]

12. lol at people who think the United States is the whole world (nt)

[pattmarty]

18. Right. They aren't and are becoming less relevant every day.

[uppityperson]

40. well, aren't you a pleasant poster The Pope has a lot of power in the world still

Not wanting him to and being resentful of him don't make him "irrelevant" and wtf is the reason for your insults?

[kenfrequed]

28. I recommended it.

And I did so that we might all see the rank hypocritical nature of Ratzy the Nazi.

[Demeter]

6. The Pope Can You-Know-What

and has, repeatedly.

[bkozumplik]

7. HAHAAHAHAAHhahahahahahaha

oh man, classic.
I hope Obama at least left the room before 3 pointering it into a trash can. They probably purposefully didn't have a trash can in the room.
I wouldn't have been so kind. I would have asked about celibacy rules and venereal disease as well, and the churchs riches in the face of global starvation.
The pope should be wearing plain clothes and all the churches wealth should be going toward programs to help people.
This pope is especially bad, and thats saying a lot. The office of pope is an abomination to the church, always has been. always will be.

[totodeinhere]

11. He didn't put it in the trash can.

He said he would read it on his way to Ghana. And that's fine with me. What's wrong with reading about other points of view that we disagree with? We should stick to our core principles, and one of mine is a woman's right to choose, but that doesn't mean that I should close my mind and shut our other points of view.

[Posteritatis]

21. But - but - but - that's mind treason or something!

It's good seeing a head of state for a major power who's at least a little more nuanced in his thought processes than the average DUer (which, I admit, is a bar that is set with a shovel)...

[bkozumplik]

33. agreed, sort of

Its necessary to read other points of view that you dont agree with, of course. (How else can they be addressed?)
Its just that its not that new of a pamphlet and many of us have already read it, a long time ago.

It came out last september. Here it is, peruse for yourself.
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/23039.php?index=23039〈=en#SINTESI%20IN%20LINGUA%20INGLESE

I imagine if its not your church (or exchurch in my case) that you arent really interested in keeping up, but many people do.

[get the red out]

13. Bioethics from the pedophile protection service

"Dignity of a person" indeed. How about the dignity of people in Africa told not to use condoms to prevent AIDS by the Catholic fear-mongers? How about the dignity of that little girl in South America who was pregnant from rape and the Church tried to keep her from having an abortion?

[snake in the grass]

17. I like to think that this booklet...

...finds its way to the proper storage receptacle, namely the trash bin.

[Arkana]

24. "Hey, thanks, Pope Palpatine! Maybe I can wipe my ass with this

piece of anti-reproductive rights dreck."

[TommyPaine]

25. The cartoon says it all:

[mitchum]

27. Obama should have given that crossdressing nazi douchebag a copy of the Constitution

[Glorfindel]

29. The U.S. Constitution would be a great gift for Ratzy...

Just saying. O8)

[Vidar]

30. Be careful, kissing his ass, Obama. The slime rubs off.

[TheCoxwain]

31. Obama should return the favor by giving him copies of Playboy and Hustler

[onager]

36. The Vatican Secret Library already has a full collection.

To go along with Cardinal Law's Twinkage, Nuns Got Buns, Altar Boys in Bondage, Uppity Women Get Whipped, and Stiff Member of the Inquistion.

Here's another story about Pope Panzer "pressing" Obama on abortion and stem cell research:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_obama_vatican

[santamargarita]

37. Did he show our President his Hitler Youth Knife?

:argh:

[damntexdem]

38. A pamphlet on vile ethics?

Well, let them call it bio-ethics if they want.

[Dramarama]

39. put it next to Chavez' gift

[PATRICK]

41. Legitimate lobbying

and consistent. It is not just the Pope but the scientists and theologians working on bioethics that seem to have a narrow perspective based on a few issues. What about the nearly infinite plasticity of DNA
life block building that will eventually be in the control of flawed human will? Staunch conservatism is nearly as meaningless trying to pretend there is some Biblical guidance about condoms beyond the ancient world's need to procreate to survive. That approaching crisis of homo sapiens in unstoppable transition controlled perhaps by untrustworthy authoritarians as much as poorly opposed by ethical authoritarians is just going to happen, typically sloppily and with maximum disaster as is global warming.

No one on this planet seems to have their head on straight and the collective expressions mirror something beyond feckless, absurd, suicidal posing- the funeral attire we will all be buried in.

The primary goal is not particular buzz legislation or medical ethics but helping men of good will unite, empower the best to deal with the worst which is upon us like a mafia bill collector. Build, unite, enable the best. Focus on the real crises and real change because the other focus is a weapon aimed at the easy target on our backs.