THE NEWSJOURNAL OF CATHOLIC OPINION

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013

Playing Hardball against Women’s Rights The Holy See at the UN JOANNE OMANG

Keeping it All in the Family Europe’s Antichoice Movement NEIL DATTA

Fatwas are Opinions MARIEME HELIE LUCAS

At the Back of the Bus Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Women DAHLIA LITHWICK

ALSO: Book reviews by Bennett Elliott, Roger Ingham, Henk Baars and Eileen Moran

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Executive Editor Jon O’Brien Editor David J. Nolan ELIGION IS NOT THE BARRIER TO PROGRESS AT THE UNITED NATIONS [email protected] or in parliaments around the world. Religious extremism, on the Contributing Editor Sara Morello other hand, is. Religious extremism ignores the moderate views of Editorial Adviser most religious people and those with no religion, and it has the Rosemary Radford Ruether potential to do serious damage to the health and well-being of Editorial Associate anybody in its path. Kim Puchir RMany religious people work for the greater good. Religious extremists, Design And Production however, have an immoderate, uncompromising approach to politics and, given Letterforms Typography & Graphic Design the chance, they would deny basic rights and require fundamental changes to Design Consultants the way most people want to live. Point Five, NY In this issue of Conscience, we examine how religious extremists seek to shape

Conscience is published by Catholics for Choice. the world to their worldview. ISSN 0740-6835 Earlier this year at the United Nations-sponsored Commission on the Status of Women, the Holy See used its elevated status to try to derail a declaration condemning violence against women. This opposition to women’s rights is business as usual for the Holy See at the UN. Noted journalist Joanne Omang examines the history of the Holy See and considers what might be in store under Pope Francis. We then move to Europe, where Neil Datta has done significant research into the activities of various members of the European antichoice lobby. Catholics for Choice shapes and advances sexual He illustrates how the attempts to organize a coherent and effective opposition and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women’s well-being and to reproductive health services are still at the birthing stage, despite having respect and affirm the capacity of women and men impressive resources at their disposal. to make moral decisions about their lives. We are very fortunate to be able to draw on the expertise of Marieme Helie

President Lucas, a leading advocate with the organization Women Living Under Muslim Jon O’Brien Laws, who explains what fatwas are, and more importantly, what they are not. Executive Vice President She discusses the role the media has played in popularizing misunderstandings Sara Morello about fatwas, thereby strengthening fundamentalists’ agendas while down- Board Of Directors playing other Muslim points of view. Susan Wysocki, PhD, BSN, NP, Chair Finally, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, currently working in Israel, examines the Sheila Briggs, MA Neil Corkery worrying influence of ultra-Orthodox Jews on the lives of women, as in both Daniel A. Dombrowski, PhD Israel and the US, they are seeking to curtail women’s rights. Does the religious Susan Farrell, PhD freedom of ultra-Orthodox communities trump women’s right to ride at the Janet Gallagher, JD John Lesch, JD front of the bus? Anthony Padovano, MA, PhD, STD As always, our letters page is open for your comments. Denise Shannon Rosemary Radford Ruether, PhD, Emerita

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VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

“…it has been common practice for right-wing clerics to try and enforce antiwomen cultural practices by bringing in the sanction of Islam.”

—MARIEME HELIE LUCAS, p28

DEPARTMENTS

1 Editor’s Note 43 Left Foot Forward: Advancing Sexual 4 Letters Rights in Britain 7 40 Years of Roe Stephen Brooke’s REP. BRENDAN F. BOYLE Sexual Politics: Sexuality, Family Planning and the 8 In Catholic Circles British Left from the 17 Cory L. Richards 1880s to the Present Day In Memoriam ROGER INGHAM 41 Unintentional Erotica 46 To Restore Eden: and Intentional The Paradox of Repression: Church Reform Church, State and Sex Christopher M. Bellitto Eric Berkowitz’s and David Zachariah Sex and Punishment: Flanagin, editors Four Thousand Years of Reassessing Reform— Judging Desire A Historical BENNETT ELLIOTT Investigation into Church Renewal Conscience offers in-depth, cutting-edge coverage HENK BAARS of vital contemporary issues, including reproductive rights, sexuality and gender, feminism, the religious right, church and state issues and US politics. Our readership includes national and international opinion leaders and policymakers, members of the press and leaders in the fields of theology, ethics and women’s studies.

2 CONSCIENCE VOLUME XXXIV—NO. 2 2013

FEATURES 48 Finding Shelter 18 Playing Hardball against Women’s Rights Outside the Big Tent: The Holy See at the UN Catholic Reform JOANNE OMANG Movements 22 Keeping it All in the Family Kathleen Kautzer’s Europe’s Antichoice Movement The Underground Church: Nonviolent NEIL DATTA Resistance to the 28 Fatwas are Opinions Vatican Empire MARIEME HELIE LUCAS EILEEN MORAN 33 At the Back of the Bus 44 Bookshelf Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Women DAHLIA LITHWICK 50 Reports Worth Reading 36 Meet Some Religious Extremists 52 Postscript CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE Back Cover 39 GISA: Global Interfaith Index: When Extremism & Secular Alliance Becomes Law

COVER: © ISTOCKPHOTO/GREGORY OLSEN, 2008

ABOVE: A RADICAL RUSSIAN ORTHODOX BELIEVER (R) THROWS AN EGG AT GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PROTESTING A PROPOSED LAW THAT WOULD BAN HOMOSEXUAL “PROPAGANDA.” © REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV, 2013

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 3 LETTERS

about: preventing abortions, between 150,000–900,000 or punishing women who immigrants living in Spain Closer to Home: have them. have been left uninsured. ALISON MCCULLOCH, PH.D. The new policy endangers Improving Abortion Tauranga, New Zealand the poorest of the poor and is entirely inequitable Access for the Women Spain’s Health Reform because women’s healthcare and Immigrant Women’s options are determined by in New Zealand Reproductive Health the area in which she lives IN “TRYING TO TURN BACK and the instructions issued the Clock on Abortion by her local department of EW ZEALAND ISN’T A passed), that the main Rights in Spain” (Vol. XXXIV, health. These women are particularly reli- factors determining the No. 1), María R. Sahuquillo also at the mercy of the law gious—or Catholic— content of abortion law mentioned the threat to concerning conscientious Ncountry, but as Margaret outside the Communist abortion access posed by objection, which protects Sparrow suggested in her countries were “the strength Spain’s current administra- providers who do not want article “Creaking at the of the Roman Catholic tion. Some women in the to perform a service but not Seams” (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1), political lobby and the emer- country have already lost those whose conscience the Catholic church plays an gence of an educated and access to reproductive health- would have them perform a outsize role in ensuring that politically articulate care. One consequence of the service not covered by the abortion in New Zealand women’s lobby.” Though health system reform imple- prevailing rules. The health remains governed by crim- other denominations have mented by Ana Mato, Spain’s law includes penalties for inal statute, as well as in grown more conservative on Minister of Health, Social those who provide care campaigning against abortion since the ’70s, the Services and Equality, has outside of the current stat- improving the services we battle over the new abortion been the denial of public utes, and given today’s do have. service in Invercargill, healthcare to undocumented economic uncertainty, many This role is nothing new. described in Sparrow’s immigrants. As a result of the providers sympathetic to In researching my own book article, shows that his anal- reform, among this popula- patients’ plights are loath to about the recent history of ysis still holds a lot of truth. tion only pregnant women place their jobs at risk. abortion politics in New What was most distressing and those facing a health If a woman seeks an abor- Zealand (Fighting to Choose: about the particular struggle emergency are now eligible tion, she has two options. The Abortion Rights Struggle in Sparrow wrote about—the to receive free healthcare. The first, for those with the New Zealand), I found the establishment of an abortion In all other circumstances, necessary financial Catholic church was perhaps service in the southern city undocumented immigrants resources, is to seek treat- the key player in New of Invercargill—was that must pay the government for ment at a private clinic, Zealand’s failure to liberalize this once-a-week clinic has the services provided or visit where the cost of the proce- its laws in the 1960s and ’70s nothing to do with changing a private clinic. dure ranges from 350 to 600 when countries like the US, the law to ease legal access; it Furthermore, no female euros, depending on the the UK and parts of Australia is simply providing a service undocumented immigrant phase of gestation, the type were doing so. Then, around closer to home so women no will be able to prevent an of anesthesia used and 15 percent of New Zealanders longer have to make a three- unwanted pregnancy, at least whether it is a medical or considered themselves Cath- hour car trip (each way) to a not at the reduced cost surgical abortion. Out of olic; today it’s just under hospital in Dunedin. enjoyed by those covered desperation, some women 13 percent. It’s unlikely this will have under the public health seek out dangerous methods In that research, I came much impact on the number system, who have access to such as pills that are distrib- across an interesting quote of abortions in the region, contraceptives such as birth uted illegally via the from a professor of but it will make the process control pills and the IUD. If Internet, demonstrating psychology at a local univer- less stressful for the women these women are denied the what the World Health sity, who observed in 1977 involved (well, except for ability to obtain a prescrip- Organization has repeatedly (when our current law was their having to pass by the tion, they will not be able to stated: restricting access to weekly picketers). Which fully realize their rights. free termination of preg- Letters may be edited for makes one wonder just The Spanish NGO Médicos nancy is harmful to women. clarity and length. what the campaign was all del Mundo has estimated that Luckily, there remains

4 CONSCIENCE one other legal option, seen as decision-makers, cally illustrates the grave congregants as they make according to the Asociación free moral agents and equal psychological and physical their own decisions about de Clínicas Acreditadas para la images of God. harm that is done when their health, their family Interrupción Voluntaria del According to a 2012 women are effectively size, contraception and Embarazo (ACAI—Associa- Newsweek interview with denied their right to make sexual relationships. tion of Accredited Clinics Catholic Melinda Gates, their own decisions about No woman should be for the Voluntary Interrup- 100,000 women annually their reproductive health. coerced by her religious tion of Pregnancy): obtain die in childbirth after unin- Her story is a vivid leaders into childbearing, or an insurance card as a preg- tended pregnancies and reminder that too many be denied essential medical nant woman and then 600,000 babies born as a women are still being spiri- services because of the faith choose to terminate the result of unintended preg- tually violated by those who, of her provider or medical pregnancy. According to nancies die in the first instead, should be offering institution. No one. It’s ACAI, even in cases in which month of life. Sadly, there comfort and support. past time to make this reli- immigrants are reluctant to are too many women in the Although as a Unitarian gious teaching. enter into the state’s files Global South whose health minister I am ordained in a REV. DEBRA W. HAFFNER due to fear of being and well-being are threat- recognized tradition that President, Religious Institute, Inc. deported, there are doctors ened by the church’s callous supports family planning Westport, Connecticut who are willing to treat teaching banning contra- (among more than a dozen them equally and at no cost. ception. How can a church others), I recognize that Reforming Ireland’s FILOMENA RUGGIERO that claims to be prolife many Roman Catholic Abortion Laws Federación de Planificación promote a teaching that clergy feel they must Step by Step Familiar Estatal causes such suffering, death continue to toe the Vatican THE IRISH GOVERNMENT IS Madrid, Spain and destruction? Catholics line on contraception. Yet drafting legislation to allow must, therefore, get surely Catholic teachings abortion in cases of risk to a Contraception Should involved in feeding the also mean that priests can woman’s life. In the 1992 X Be a Non-Issue hungry as well as providing uphold their commitment to case, the Supreme Court JEANNE DE SOCIO’S ARTICLE condoms and contraceptives individual freedom of made clear the need for legis- (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1) on her to save lives. I believe that conscience and allow a lation to establish when inhumane treatment by the Christ’s love fills our hearts woman or a couple the room doctors can terminate preg- hierarchy was a heart- with compassion and our to intentionally create nancies to save the lives of wrenching testimonial from minds with knowledge and healthy families. Surely women and girls. The court someone living the illogical wisdom to act for justice. priests, too, have the ability ruled in X that, because the ban on birth control. Her BRIDGET MARY MEEHAN to compassionately and wording of the Irish Consti- story illustrates the insanity Association of Roman Catholic competently address the tution gives the fetus equal of the hierarchy’s stance on Womenpriests (ARCWP) individual needs of their rights to life as the pregnant contraception, which has Sarasota, Florida put millions of women’s lives at risk throughout the Denying Women’s Let us know what you think. world for decades. It also Autonomy portrays an institutional MY HEART BROKE AS I READ church more interested in Jeanne DeSocio’s article, Send in your man-made rules than “The Lesser of Two Evils” compassionate pastoral care. (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1). Ms. Letter to the Editor Women’s lives and health DeSocio was told by her were put at risk by insti- priest and bishop that she and receive a free copy of tuting this policy, rather was not to use contraception Catholics for Choice’s than affirming that, at the despite her physical and end of the day, conscience emotional complications “In Good Conscience.” must always be our guide. If from prior pregnancies, and women were priests and/or then she was denied a bishops, contraception hysterectomy for uterine PLEASE E-MAIL LETTERS TO: would not only be a non- tumors in a Catholic issue, but women would be hospital. Her story dramati- [email protected]

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 5 LETTERS

woman, a woman could only Greater Clarity on Savita change, a more liberal abor- region with some of the qualify for a legal abortion Case, Ireland’s Abortion tion law would not most restrictive abortion where the pregnancy posed a Law be possible. laws in the world—there is real and substantial risk to BRENDAN O’NEILL’S “BEYOND Prochoice groups have hope. Building on hard-won her life. It has taken 21 years Savita” (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1) is sprung up all over Ireland victories in Mexico and and a further case brought to right in saying that this is over the last few months. Colombia, in 2012 we saw the European Court of the moment in which Even the most traditionally progress in Uruguay, Brazil Human Rights (ECHR) to Ireland’s abortion law could conservative rural areas of and Argentina. produce legislation clarifying change. Her death has galva- Kerry, Mayo and Donegal These victories are part when legal abortions may be nized the prochoice majority now have active prochoice of a changing political tide carried out. The ECHR ruled to demand—not only legisla- groups. This means a refer- in Latin America, yet we in 2010 that the Irish state is tion to allow lifesaving abor- endum campaign in 2013 must not forget the efforts obliged to provide effective tions, but changes in the law would be very different to of countless women in the and accessible procedures to that would also take account the one 30 years ago when region who work under the establish a woman’s right to of the thousands of Irish the constitution was radar to run safe abortion an abortion. At last, we will abortions that happen every amended. hotlines and provide safe now see such a framework year in England. GORETTI HORGAN abortions, particularly in put in place to safeguard Antiabortionists have tried Alliance for Choice countries like Chile and women’s lives. to smear Kitty Holland, the Ireland Venezuela. In November 2012 we Irish Times journalist who Like so many women learned the true cost of broke the story, as having Abortion Laws before them, they endanger legislative inaction with the “muddled” the facts. Brendan in Latin America: their lives providing infor- tragic death of Savita should know better than to Some Progress, mation, referrals and safe Halappanavar after she was believe them. She did say that But More to Be Done services that should be an denied an abortion. That Savita’s husband, Praveen, IN RECENT WEEKS, THE integral part of health case illustrates why doctors may have “muddled” some of world met “Beatriz,” a systems everywhere. Simi- require clear instructions as the details about the point at 22-year-old who could have larly, women risk their lives to when the performance of which Savita was given pain- faced death because of El to seek the services they necessary procedures, killers, but there is no ques- Salvador’s stringent abortion need, want and deserve— including abortion, may be tion that the Halappanavars laws. Only last year, a similar and for doing so, more than carried out to save the lives asked for, and were refused, a case in the Dominican 600 women have been of pregnant women. Ireland life-saving abortion. Republic resulted in the imprisoned in El Salvador is in urgent need of this The details in Holland’s death of a pregnant teenager since 1998 under charges of clarity because the current initial report were fully who was forced to forgo life- “aggravated murder.” state of our law is placing confirmed at the inquest saving chemotherapy Beyond being a blatant women’s lives at risk. Once held in Galway in April. The because of the country’s violation of women’s rights, we have legislated for the inquest heard expert rigid laws. these restrictions cost most urgent cases, as a evidence to the effect that Both cases—and many governments billions of prochoice politician I “the law killed Savita.” more that go unreported— dollars each year, costs that believe that we should then Shortly afterwards, the speak to the degree that the could easily be averted in examine how to make more government published an world still devalues women these uncertain economic fundamental changes in outline of the “Protection of and girls. They also speak to times. Until the right of all Ireland’s abortion law. It Life During Pregnancy the consequences of allowing women to make decisions would require a constitu- Bill,” which is so restrictive ideology to trump public about their bodies is upheld, tional amendment to ensure that doctors say it may not health, consequences that we will continue to fight on that the needs of the thou- prevent another death result in the needless deaths behalf of women like sands of Irish women who like Savita’s. of more than 1,000 women Beatriz and the countless access abortion in England Prochoice activists annually in Latin America others who are denied this every year on grounds other continue to push for a new and the Caribbean, as well as basic and necessary health than risk to life may be met. referendum to remove the hospitalization and injury service. IVANA BACIK Article 40.3.3, the anti-abor- of at least another million. VICENTE DÍAZ SÁNCHEZ Senate of Ireland tion amendment, from the Yet even in Latin America Deputy Director Dublin Constitution. Without this and the Caribbean—a IPPF/WHR New York, NY

6 CONSCIENCE LETTERSOPINION

same is true for the Nether- It is quite obvious that lands, the country with the Roe v. Wade is settled law. 40 Years of Roe second lowest abortion rate. The law is 40 years old and By Rep. Brendan F. Boyle Like Germany, abortion is has repeatedly been reaf- legal in the Netherlands. firmed by subsequent Also like Germany, support Supreme Court decisions, for pregnant women and even by a court on which families with young chil- seven of the nine members dren in the Netherlands were Republican appointees. ORTY YEARS AGO, THE US women’s health. In coun- is extensive. Furthermore, recent polling Supreme Court legal- tries where abortion is By contrast, in the United shows more than 60 percent ized abortion in its illegal, women suffer signif- States we offer very little of the American people FRoe v. Wade decision. In the icantly higher mortality support for pregnant women oppose overturning Roe. decades since, abortion has rates from clearly been the most abortion. controversial and emotional Women in public policy debate. these coun- Much of the public debate tries still have on abortion has been a abortions; rights-based argument, but they just do this has obscured what so in under- should be an important ground and factor in this debate. What often unsani- would criminalizing abor- tary condi - tion look like? Would crimi- tions, putting nalizing abortion actually their own lives work? Would it eliminate or and health at

even reduce abortions? risk. This 2013 For these answers, we can should alarm look at other countries and anyone of their experience with abor- any camp. tion. What we find is rather Remarkably, astounding (at least it was to of the five me). According to statistics countries with compiled by the United the lowest Nations, in countries where abortion WIKIMEDIA © COMMONS/SMALLBONES, “Contemplation of Justice” sculpture at the front steps of the US Supreme Court Building abortion is illegal, the rate of rates, four of abortion is roughly the same them are coun- as in those countries where tries where abortion is legal. and even fewer resources for Rather than prolonging a it is legal. That’s right— So if it’s not the law that women with infant children. highly divisive debate on banning abortions did not dictates a lower abortion Why don’t we have the same abortion’s legality, isn’t it make them go away. It didn’t rate, then what does? support system in the US time to instead refocus the even reduce their numbers. Looking at these countries that has been proven to debate on those things that While there is no differ- that have succeeded in reduce abortion? Because have been proven to work: ence in the abortion rate reducing abortions can be despite how much Republi- providing support for regardless of a country’s instructive. cans like to boast about pregnant women and young abortion laws, there is a Germany is the country their “strong commitment families? This is an area difference when it comes to with the lowest abortion rate to life,” in the end they are where people of good on the planet. In Germany unwilling to fund programs conscience on both sides they actually offer support proven to work. It is finally could come together and BRENDAN F. BOYLE is a for pregnant women and for time to expose the hypoc- support an agenda that is Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of families once the child is risy of “prolife” Republicans truly both prowomen Representatives. born. (Imagine that.) The on this issue. and profamily. n

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 7 LETTERSIN CATHOLIC CIRCLES

the standards set in the tigation sprang from a wave Aparecida document, in of sexual abuse allegations The New Pope which Pope Benedict within the German Catholic instructed bishops in Latin church that began in 2010 America and the Caribbean with revelations of abuse in FTER A CONCLAVE OF May, Francis met partici- to deny communion to legis- church-run schools and only two days, pants in the “March for Life” lators who sup port abortion institutions and the transfer Cardinal Jorge Mario in Rome with the greeting, rights. Many bishops, such of priest known to have BergoglioA of Buenos Aires, “I invite you to keep every- as Ireland’s Archbishop abused children. Argentina, was chosen to be one’s attention alive on such Diarmuid Martin, have The original agreement the next pope. The new an important theme as spoken out against commu- made in 2011 with the Pope Francis is the first respect for human life from nion bans for fear that the Criminological Research Jesuit pope, the first Latin the moment of conception,” altar rail would “become a Institute (KFN) was that the American pontiff and also according to the UK’s Tablet. place of debate.” researchers would have full the first non-European to be The pope also mentioned the access to personnel files in chosen for the role in more One of Us initiative, a Euro- every German diocese than 1,200 years. The new pean-wide campaign that The Church dating back to 2000. But that pope has also broken ground opposes abortion and same year, the Network of with his choice of name—he embryo research, which and Abuse Catholic Priests, a group of is the first Francis, after St. Francis characterized as German Bishops Dissolve approximately 500 conserva- Francis of Assisi, reportedly “aimed at guaranteeing Agreement with Sexual tive clerics, began demand- a reflection of the former juridical protection of the Abuse Investigation ing that the conference Cardinal Bergoglio’s devo- embryo, protecting every IN EARLY JANUARY, THE withdraw from the study tion to the poor in Buenos human being from the German Bishops’ Confer- because they claimed it was Aires’ slums. moment of its existence.” ence backed out of a part- violating priests’ rights. Pope Francis has made In April, the pope wrote a nership with an independent At the time, the German statements about abortion letter to the Argentine research team charged to Bishops’ Conference sided that rest firmly upon those Assembly of Bishops examine alleged cases of with KFN, assuring that lead made by his predecessor. In instructing them to follow clergy sex abuse. The inves- investigator Christian Pfeiffer would explain the various safeguards in place to protect priests’ anonymity, just like any academic research study. By January 2013, Bishop Ackermann conveyed that the conference had lost confidence in KFN, stating, “We will have to find a new partner,” according to Reuters. KFN countered with the claim that several dio- ceses refused to share docu- . ments, some of which had 2013 been apparently destroyed, and that the bishops’ confer- ence was suddenly asserting a final veto over published reports while invoking canon law to prevent certain files from being shared. REUTERS/OSSERVATORE ROMANO, ROMANO, REUTERS/OSSERVATORE

© Pfeiffer, for his part, Pope Francis washes the foot of a prisoner at Casal del Marmo youth prison in Rome on Holy Thursday. praised Bishop Ackermann’s

8 CONSCIENCE commitment to clearing up cese of Los Angeles fought archbishop in 2011. About abuse but pointed to forces first against the release of his own actions Mahony within the church that the files, and then to redact stated that he had already “ obviously” did not want to names and identifying apologized for the decisions confront the problem, and details. After a court order, made early in his tenure. cited “censorship.” This 122 of the 128 files were sentiment was echoed by released with names. New Round of Abuse some members of the clergy The files reveal a pattern Convictions May Impact and the government. Sabine in the Los Angeles archdioc- Philadelphia Archdiocese Leutheusser-Schnarren- esan administration during IN JANUARY, A PHILADELPHIA berger, Germany’s justice the 1980s, in which Cardinal court convicted Rev. Charles minister, said that the break- Mahony, Bishop Thomas Engelhardt and Bernard down in the study process Curry and others kept Shero, a former Catholic reflected badly on the evidence of child sexual . school teacher, on several church: “It gives the impres- abuse from law enforcement 2013 counts of molesting a sion that ultimately [the and protected priests known 10-year-old boy more than Catholic bishops] did not to be abusers so they would 10 years ago, according to want everything to be inde- not be prosecuted for their the New York Times. Both pendently studied.” Fr. Klaus crimes by transferring them men had been named in a Mertes, the priest who away from California and its 2011 grand jury report that

helped expose the systemic mandatory reporting RELLANDINI, REUTERS/STEFANO charged the Archdiocese of sexual abuse at one of requirements for therapists. © Philadelphia with covering Cardinal Roger Mahony at a Mass in Germany’s Catholic-run In 1986, for example, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican up many known abuse cases schools, shared his reaction Mahony corresponded with before the conclave. Because of over a period of years. to the news with the Basische an out-of-state treatment Mahony’s recently publicized According to the Philadel- involvement with clergy abuse Zeitung newspaper: “What center housing Msgr. Peter coverups, some had encouraged the phia Inquirer, the convictions disturbs is that the debate is Garcia, a priest who had cardinal not to attend, but he did go may have paved the way for a concentrated on Mr. Pfeiffer, formerly served in Los to Rome to vote in the conclave. civil suit that will lead to the the bishops’ conference and Angeles, writing, “I believe Abused by Priests (SNAP) doorstep of the archdiocese the church’s image, when in that if Monsignor Garcia said, Gomez himself once again, as did the trial reality the interests of the were to reappear here within had access to the files for that convicted Msgr. victims should be foremost.” the archdiocese we might “716 days” but had done William J. Lynn, former very well have some type of nothing for almost two clergy secretary in the Arch- Cardinal Mahony legal action filed in both the years with the information diocese of Philadelphia, in Publicly Reprimanded for criminal and civil sectors.” about abuse and those who 2012. Paul Lauricella, one of Role in Abuse Cover Up Calling the trove of covered it up. the attorneys representing ARCHBISHOP JOSE GOMEZ OF approximately 30,000 docu- Cardinal Mahony took the now-24-year-old abuse Los Angeles relieved his ments “brutal and painful Gomez to task in an open survivor known as “Billy predecessor, retired reading,” Gomez included letter posted to his blog on Doe,” said that Bishops Cardinal Roger Mahony, of along with his apology to the February 1. He wrote, Edward P. Cullen and his administrative duties in victims the announcement “Nothing in my own back- Joseph R. Cistone were “the January, right after the arch- that Mahony would no ground or education most troubling aspect of this diocese opened thousands of longer have any administra- equipped me to deal with whole case” because of their pages of church documents tive role. Some have pointed this grave problem” of sexual allegedly participating in the on sexual abuse to public out that little has changed abuse, which he claims was shredding of incriminating scrutiny. After more than for Mahony, who remains a absent even from the curric- church documents. 500 abuse victims were priest in good standing and ulum of his master’s R. Seth Williams, the awarded a record $660 may continue to celebrate program in social work. prosecutor in the cases million settlement with the the sacraments, though he Gomez, he pointed out, also against Engelhardt and archdiocese in 2007, a judge will “reduce his public did not mention any Shero, said he was “over- ordered that diocesan appearances,” according to concerns about Mahony’s joyed” with the outcome. personnel files be released to the Associated Press. As the performance at any time “[The verdict] sends a the public, but the Archdio- Survivors Network of those since Gomez took over as message to archdiocese

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 9 organizations across the country: Don’t protect pedophiles,” Williams said to the Times.

UN Committee Criticizes US Response to Clergy Abuse of Children THE UN COMMITTEE ON THE Rights of the Child expressed “deep concern” in February about the many publicized clerical sexual abuse cases in the United States, as well as the “lack of . measures … to properly 2013 investigate cases and prose- cute them,” Reuters reported. The Catholic church is not named in the document,

which only refers to “certain MOIR, REUTERS/DAVID © faith-based organizations Cardinal Keith O’Brien sits in a room in his home in Edinburgh, Scotland, shortly after his resignation under a cloud of and religious institutions,” accusations of long-term and coercive relationships with other priests. but it does use strong language to describe the British Cardinal Steps not reach the public until become known as an extent of the abuse problem, Down amidst Allegations almost two weeks after the outspoken critic of the UK’s which is “on a massive of “Inappropriate Acts” Vatican accepted his pending same-sex marriage and long-term scale with Priests resignation. legislation. amounting to sexual slavery CARDINAL KEITH O’BRIEN In mid-February—after In his resignation state- or servitude of children.” of the United Kingdom he’d tendered his resignation ment O’Brien said, “For any The committee based its resigned his post on but days before it was made failures, I apologize to all report upon a review of US February 11 because of accu- public—Cardinal O’Brien whom I have offended.” compliance with the sations that he had commit- told the BBC that he believes In May, Scotland’s Catholic Convention on the Rights of ted “inappropriate acts” with priests should be able to Herald reported that O’Brien the Child, to which the three priests and one former marry. He specifically was exiled from Scotland for United States and the Holy priest, including a long-term described allowing a priest to “several months” of penance, See are both party. The US relationship in one case, marry a woman with whom a move that was instigated is also faulted for not according to the UK’s he could raise a family, by Archbishop of Glasgow enlisting religious leaders’ Observer. The former priest although O’Brien had been Philip Tartaglia and several collaboration to fight the stated that he resigned when “too busy” to consider such other clerics who appealed to abuse problem. he heard that O’Brien had an option for himself. the Vatican after O’Brien No official US response to been named cardinal As the New York Times announced his plans to the UN report has been because it made him feel the reported, O’Brien’s stance retire within the country. recorded. Interestingly, the senior cleric “would always on homosexuality has varied Los Angeles Times reports have power over me.” through the years, starting that other allegations from The UK’s Independent off with an affirmation that The Church and the committee—these about newspaper reported that gay and lesbian teachers the number of children who Peter Kearney, a representa- should be allowed in Cath- Contraception had died in US military tive for the Scottish Catholic olic schools, but becoming Pope Should Take Graceful maneuvers overseas—were Church, announced that more conservative in recent Exit from Contraception immediately refuted by the “Cardinal O’Brien contests years with statements that Stalemate, Cardinal Says US military as “categorically these claims and is taking homosexuality is immoral. CARDINAL CORMAC MURPHY- unfounded.” legal advice.” The news did Recently, O’Brien had O’Connor, the UK’s former

10 CONSCIENCE IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES

Archbishop of Westminster, the hospital ethics depart- person that “if, after a rape, raped, according to the said on BBC radio that the ment and Cardinal Joachim a supplement is used with Swiss Info website. As in new pope should move away Meisner had prohibited the inten[t] of preventing Germany, the spokesperson from a “we condemn this, performing examinations fertilization, that is in my for the Swiss bishops, Walter we condemn that” mentality, after sexual assaults so that view justifiable,” according Müller, stated that EC would and specifically “with regard they would not have to deal to Deutsche Welle. Cardinal be allowed when it acted as a to contraception, I think the with an unwanted pregnancy, Meisner then released contraceptive, not if it Pope won’t say that the i.e., a woman who wanted an another statement justifying “induces an abortion.” church has been wrong the abortion. Another doctor his decision, saying that he Müller acknowledged that whole time. He’ll be saying working with Maiworm had simply “applied the the distinction is difficult to there are ways….” received similar information Church’s moral-theological make and, similar to the His comment offered a at another area hospital run principles to a new situation decision of Bishop Ignacio way out of the current by the same Catholic entity, made possible by new prepa- Carrasco de Paula of the complete ban on all forms of the Foundation of the rations which came under Pontifical Academy for Life, modern contraception. Cellites of St. Mary. the name of the ‘morning- left the determination in the Instead, Murphy-O’Connor A week later, the Associ- after pill.’” hands of doctors and phar- says the church should focus ated Press reported that Cardinal Meisner’s macists. on the positive aspects of Cardinal Meisner was decision was later supported After the news that the marriage and family life, and “deeply ashamed by this by Bishop Ignacio Carrasco Swiss bishops had indeed that the pope should assume incident because it goes de Paula, president of the approved EC in cases of rape a “listening” attitude. against our Christian Pontifical Academy for Life. was reported in several mission” of treatment at In an unusual move, media outlets in early Rape Victim Turned away Catholic hospitals. Meisner Carrasco left the decision March, the bishops’ confer- from German Catholic did qualify that mission by about which emergency ence website featured a Hospitals Prompts stating that the hospital contraception method has a correction stating that the Cardinal to Affirm Use of would not have performed “preventative and not an policy is to be determined by Morning-after Pill any action that would have abortifacient effect” to be a pending report from the TWO CATHOLIC HOSPITALS IN prevented a pregnancy. made by “doctors and conference’s Bioethics the German city of Cologne Annegret Laakmann, scientists.” Commission. refused to treat a 25-year-old spokesperson for Frauen- woman who said she had würde (Women’s Dignity), Swiss Bishops been raped in December. Dr. responded that “refusing to Consider Sanctioning The Church Imgard Maiworm performed administer the morning- Emergency Contraception the first evaluation of the after pill to women who have for Rape Victims and the State woman at an emergency been raped constitutes CLOSE ON THE HEELS OF THE “Life Choices” of UK center, which led her to failure to render assistance” announcement from Catholic School Employees believe that the patient may which is tantamount to Germany, the Swiss Catholic Now Grounds for have been drugged and sexu- saying “the official church is Bishops’ Conference is Termination ally assaulted, according to discriminating against raped discussing whether to EMPLOYEES OF CATHOLIC Speigel Online. Maiworm women.” condone the use of emer- schools in England and informed the police, wrote a Meisner subsequently gency contraception (EC) by Wales are subject to a newly prescription for emergency clarified through a spokes- women who have been restrictive code of conduct contraception and referred her for a gynecological exam at a nearby Catholic hospital, INFORM YOUR St. Vincent’s, only to be told that the hospital would not CONSCIENCE perform the exam. A local newspaper, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, found out WITH CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE about the story in January, Scan with your smart phone to follow the latest news and action reporting that the doctor at alerts about reproductive rights, sexuality and gender, church and St. Vincent’s said that both state and individual conscience on the Catholics for Choice website.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 11 that extends into their reports that National premarital sex and same-sex Germany’s Catholic-run personal lives, according to Secular Society spokes- marriage are “modern Institutions Like the UK magazine the Tablet. person Stephen Evans errors” that “gravely offend ‘State within a State’ Msgr. Marcus Stock, expressed surprise that “the human dignity,” according A RECENT REPORT IN SPIEGEL general secretary of the Catholic church is able to to the Sonoma County Press Online revealed that Bishops’ Conference of use taxpayers’ money to Democrat. Germany’s social services England and Wales, warns practice this sort of crude The Catholic school are dominated by the Cath- in the handbook “Christ at discrimination” and further system’s 200 teachers, both olic church, which, as the the Centre: Why the suggested that employers Catholic and non-Catholic, second-largest employer in Church Provides Catholic should have no reach into an faced losing their positions the country, has employ- Schools” that senior staff employee’s private behavior. for the upcoming school ment policies that are members risk being fired or year if they did not sign. anything but liberal. The disciplined if certain California Diocese Steps Graham Rutherford, prin- situation highlights the “substantive life choices” are Back from Contractually cipal of Cardinal Newman contrast between Catholic not in line with church Obligating Schoolteachers High School in Santa Rosa, institutions and the fact that teachings, especially “being to Reject Abortion, said that if teachers refuse to the majority of Germans in a non-chaste relation- Contraception, sign the declaration and lost consider themselves to be ship.” Other punishable Same-Sex Marriage their jobs as a result, “That’s “liberal” on social issues, choices include cohabita- IN SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA, not firing them.” according to a 2011 poll tion, same-sex unions, a diocesan policy that would After protests from conducted by the Guardian. remarrying after divorce have required instructors at parents and students, as well The Spiegel article and marrying outside of a Catholic schools to sign a as teachers’ misgivings revealed that there are Catholic ceremony. All staff morality clause as part of voiced on condition of approximately 420 Catholic- in Catholic schools are told their contracts has been anonymity to the press, run hospitals where certain to expect similar scrutiny. shelved for the time being. Vasa rescinded the morality treatment options are While Stock cautions that Bishop Robert Vasa had clause for the next two years. precluded for doctrinal disciplinary action should expected instructors to agree In a letter to the diocese, the reasons—including, until take place with “charity and to follow a “model of Cath- bishop said his focus on recently, emergency contra- compassion,” not everyone olic living,” which included promoting church teachings ception for rape victims. At would use those words to signing a statement that in the schools caused him to these same facilities, 165,000 characterize the publication. contraception, abortion, “overlook a series of very workers at all levels are The Catholic Herald (UK) euthanasia, masturbation, significant considerations”— subject to a code set by namely, consulting bishops and ethics commit- principals, teachers and tees, according to which pastors, accord ing to the these employees’ jobs are at Give a gift that lasts a year. Press Democrat. risk if they get divorced; if Buy a gift subscription to Although Vasa still plans they are gay, lesbian or even to have some morality agree- express support for LGBT ment included in teacher people; or if they or their CONSCIENCE contracts by spring 2015, he spouses make use of IVF or acknowledged in his letter other assisted reproductive BY TELEPHONE AT +1 (202) 986-6093 that “I do have a duty to be methods. The same is true of vigilant but recognize that church-run education insti- this can be done better tutions and nursing homes. through teaching than by These social programs way of decree.” The receive between 90 and 100 OR BY MAIL: send a check for $15 announcement was greeted percent of their funding from ($25 for non-US addresses) to by a mixed reception from the government because of Conscience, parents, teachers and Germany’s gradual transfer 1436 U Street, NW, Suite 301, students. As one teacher of its social welfare system to Washington, DC 20009, USA. stated, “The ultimate goal is private organizations.

OR ONLINE AT: still to filter out those who “Catholic facilities are aren’t followers.” increasingly sealing them- www.conscience-magazine.org

12 CONSCIENCE IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES selves off, often behaving as if they were part of a state within a state,” writes Spiegel. A 2010 decision by the European Court of Human Rights had previ- ously stipulated that church- run institutions do not have unlimited rights to fire because of perceived infrac- tions against Catholic teach- ings, but there has also been public backlash. When a kindergarten teacher in Königswinter was dismissed for getting a divorce, public protest got the woman rein- stated and the kindergarten A still from the 2002 film The Magdalene Sisters. placed under a non-Catholic administration. received approximately 26 of Peru (PUCP). The Tablet overrule the motion by percent of recruits from reported in early February Müller. Bertone convened a Irish Government state sources. Labour Junior that Cardinal Gerhard meeting of top Vatican offi- Issues Official Apology Health Minister Kathleen Ludwig Müller, prefect of cials whose decision invali- to Survivors of Lynch was said to have had a the Congregation for the dated Müller’s letter as a Magdalene Laundries pointed exchange with Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), personal gesture, and not THE 10,000 WOMEN DETAINED Kenny just days before, in had sent a letter questioning one that followed official over seven decades to work which she told him, “There the actions of Cardinal Juan protocol—it was transmitted in laundry facilities mostly will be an apology.” Kenny Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of by fax, not the Apostolic run by nuns “cast a long had expressed concern over Lima, who had tried to block Nuncio. The university has shadow over Irish life, over “the financial consequences the school’s theology profes- been left without a theology our sense of who we are,” of an apology.” sors from teaching. The row department indefinitely Ireland’s Prime Minister, Amnesty International’s is a continuation of the because its canonical license Enda Kenny, stated in director for Northern struggle over the Peruvian was not renewed. February according to the Ireland, Patrick Corrigan, school’s name and Catholic The Tablet reported that Guardian. The apology was signaled the injustice identity, both of which were the ex-PUCP’s theology accompanied by the inherent in the decision by removed according to papal faculty felt Cipriani’s decision announcement of a compen- authorities in Northern decree in 2012. to shutter the theology sation package for around Ireland only to investigate In his letter, Müller asked department was “unjust” 800 surviving women. children who had been Cipriani to provide informa- because it was not based upon Kenny’s speech came abused, which precludes tion justifying the action a formal investigation, while about two weeks after the compensation for the adult Lima’s archbishop took an unpublished canonical Labour Party nearly staged a women who worked in against the instructors at the visitation by Cardinal Peter walkout to protest the Magdalene Laundries in ex-PUCP. The correspon- Erdo from 2011 had been Taoiseach’s failure to issue Northern Ireland. dence also made it clear that favorable. When university an apology, according to the the final decision on the administrators received Irish Independent. A report Ex-Pontifical University’s theology faculty’s fate would Cipriani’s decision in more than 1,000 pages long Theology Department be made by the CDF, accord- December, they said that was released at that time, Receives Disapproval and ing to Peru’s La Prensa. “the university will adopt the documenting the mistreat- Support from Vatican Later in the month, the means necessary” so that ment women and girls VATICAN OFFICIALS ARE same newspaper reported theology courses, which are endured in the laundries, taking sides in the still- that Cardinal Tarcisio required for undergraduates, which were administered by unresolved matter of the Bertone, the Vatican Secre- will still be offered, church personnel but former Pontifical University tary of State, stepped in to according to Zenit.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 13 Irish Abortion Legislation reality under some limited Rights Council (UNCHR) in The Church Advancing with Public circumstances have advanced late 2012 evaluated Ireland’s Approval, despite to the extent that the reac- treatment of human rights and Abortion Hierarchy’s Complaints tions from Ireland’s hierarchy defenders, including those Report Establishes PUBLIC OPINION IN IRELAND and extreme antichoice working to advance repro- Sequence of Events is squarely behind liberal- activists are escalating. ductive rights and abortion Leading to Savita’s Death izing the abortion law, with Member of Parliament access, according to the IN FEBRUARY THE IRISH the majority backing legisla- Regina Doherty has said she Irish Times. The special Health Ministry released a tion that will allow abortion received threatening rapporteur, Margaret summary of the definitive under a wide set of circum- messages over her support of Sekaggya, said that Ireland’s report on Savita Halappana- stances, according to the new abortion legislation. 1995 Regulation of Infor- var’s death, showing that Associated Press. The survey Archbishop Eamon Martin mation Act is not designed the 21-year-old pregnant of 1,002 participants across told the Irish Sunday Times for easily disseminating woman died of a massive Ireland showed that only that “any legislator who information about abortion. infection seven days after 8 percent want the current clearly and publicly states Not only must doctors being admitted to Univer- no-exceptions constitutional sity Hospital Galway in ban on abortion to remain October 2012, according to in place. Instead, a full the Irish Herald. The Indian 35 percent support making national’s condition was not abortion available in cases diagnosed until three days that threaten the life of the after admittance because woman, including suicide, test results were not while 29 percent of respon-

followed up by staff and dents want abortion available . routine vital signs checks upon request. The remain- 2012 were not performed. ing 26 percent want suicide According to the ministry to be excluded from approved report, the hospital not only reasons. A separate poll had a duty to provide an conducted by the Irish REUTERS/ANIS MILI, REUTERS/ANIS

abortion when Mr. and Mrs. Times/Ipsos MRBI in © Halappanavar requested it, February had similar results. UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya, the author of a report on Ireland’s but medical staff should Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore treatment of human rights defenders, speaks during a news conference held in Tunis in 2012. have suggested the proce- responded via the Irish dure as a way to combat the Examiner that he disagreed [support for legal abortion and counselors not spreading infection since with the pope’s disapproval access] should not approach “ advocate or promote” the fetus was unlikely to of Ireland’s plans to legislate looking for communion.” abortion, but the counseling survive. Instead, the doctors for abortion because Irish However, Cardinal Séan sessions must take place said that because of women merit “more than Brady told RTE Radio that face-to-face, which may Ireland’s restrictive abor- mercy and understanding.” “There would be a great prove a hardship for vulner- tion laws their “hands Gilmore stated that the reluctance to politicize the able women, including the were tied.” government would continue Eucharist” among the clergy,” young and those living in Now that the complete to work with the legislature, and Archbishop Diarmuid isolated areas. medical history is available, medical and legal profes- Martin echoed this view that The rapporteur also the extent to which Ireland’s sionals and religious repre- communion “should not reported “a smear campaign abortion law played a role sentatives towards a law become a place of debate and and stigmatization of in Savita’s death has the clarifying and protecting contrast and be used for defenders and activists country grappling with doctors’ roles in the case of publicity reasons by anybody.” working on abortion issues.” legislation to provide abortion. The Irish legisla- Sekaggya gave the example direction for doctors faced ture is moving forward with UN Issues Human Rights of a prominent reproductive with similar situations. its plans to change the abor- Report Critical of Ireland’s health provider who, in The Irish hierarchy opposes tion law. Abortion Policies October and November any change in the law, Discussions of how abor- A REPORT ISSUED BY THE 2012, was the subject of however. tion access will be made a United Nations Human newspaper articles alleging

14 CONSCIENCE IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES that the individual was ably have to participate in an mandatory plan of health accompaniment.” By providing illegal services educational program. services. contrast, Bamberg said, “a and “putting the lives of The ramifications of the preacher should provide women at risk.” The report First Abortion Clinic Opens decision in the Consejo de spiritual nourishment and concluded that the stigma Doors in Colombia Estado are unclear, but strengthen the faith.” surrounding reproductive ALTHOUGH A 2006 DECISION Colombia’s abortion laws The API is responsible for health may lead to an even by Colombia’s Constitu- may undergo further the “Call to Disobedience,” more stringent enforcement tional Court stipulated that changes. According to the an open letter in support of of Ireland’s already restric- abortion was legal in cases newspaper El Espectador, more liberal church policies tive statues than actually where the pregnancy posed a some legislators have towards homosexuality, required by law. threat to the woman’s life or expressed support for the priestly celibacy and divorce health, the first abortion decriminalization of endorsed by the more than Brazilian Authorities clinic only opened in abortion, rather than 500 priests who are members. Release Teen to Mother December 2012. In an confining its availability Charged with Covering up interview with Colombia’s to certain cases. In Vatican Official’s the Girl’s Abortion La Semana magazine, March, the Constitutional Statements Represent A 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO HAD Secretary of Health Court published a further Steps Forwards, Back for been held in a Brazilian Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo ruling on conscientious the Church and state-run girls’ home referred to women’s legal objection to the provision of Homosexuality because she had an abortion “right to terminate a abortion. While affirming ARCHBISHOP VINCENZO last year was released into pregnancy in cases of rape, individual doctors’ right to Paglia, head of the Pontifical the custody of her mother, fetal malformation or threat refuse to perform an Council for the Family, said Portuguese singer Adelaide to the woman’s health” and abortion, the court specified in a press conference in Ferreira. The daughter had recognized that this right that “conscientious February that there are been removed from home had previously been difficult objection is not a right multiple “cohabitation forms because Ferreira and her for women to exercise. attributable to legal entities that do not constitute a boyfriend were under Jaramillo named el Hospital or the State.” In other family” and that “private law suspicion of having helped de Centro Oriente in Bogota words, a hospital or clinic solutions” could be made the girl obtain the abortion. as a location that would offer cannot invoke a corporate available by the state “to Abortion is decriminalized abortion care in these conscience to avoid prevent injustice and make in Brazil under a narrow set circumstances. providing abortions. their life easier.” Paglia also of circumstances—if a However, in March of this said efforts to decriminalize woman’s life is in danger, in year, the Consejo de Estado, homosexuality deserved cases of rape or if the fetus a government body that The Church church support. Though he has a specific fatal rules on conflicts between went on to reaffirm the insti- abnormality. This is the the state and citizens as well and Reform tutional church’s opposition legal reality, although a as between different Priest Leading Austrian to same-sex marriage, the widely cited government- branches of the government, Reform Movement Banned archbishop’s acknowledge- funded study revealed that annulled a decree that had from Giving Sermon ment of the growing number one in five Brazilian women been issued by the Ministry FR. HELMUT SCHÜLLER, of nontraditional couples and of child-bearing age has had of Health and had founder of the Austrian their rights was unusual an abortion. established regulations for Priests’ Initiative (API), has coming from the Vatican. The mother’s case is abortion in Colombia. been banned by two bishops Just three days later, ongoing. Adelaide Ferreira is While the decision does not from delivering a sermon in however, Paglia appeared to accused of covering up her impact the 2006 ruling in Nuremberg. Msgr. George recant via Vatican Radio, daughter’s abortion, which which the Constitutional Kestel, vicar general of the stating that “not only were was discovered when she Court decriminalized Bamberg Archdiocese, the words not understood ... brought the girl to the abortion, healthcare dismissed Schüller as “a but in truth, and perhaps hospital with complications professionals now lack any church critic who preaches knowingly, they were, as it from ingesting abortion pills. regulatory guidelines for against the position of were, derailed.” The Portuguese website providing abortion care, bishops” and the Austrian Another statement Noticias ao Minuto reported although the provision of reform movement as supporting some recognition that the daughter will prob- abortion is included in the “supported by noisy media for same-sex couples was

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 15 IN CATHOLIC CIRCLES

allowed to stand for about a France Press (AFP) news month. In April, Cardinal service. Christoph Schönborn, the The instruction amounts archbishop of Vienna, said to to a mere three hours devoted a London audience “there to topics like sexually trans- can be same-sex partnerships mitted diseases, masturbation  Find it and they need respect, and and gender equality each even civil law protection,” year, but Zagreb archbishop on our website according to CathNews, and Josip Bozanic has termed the though he was careful to curriculum “destructive and distinguish these unions dangerous.” Bishop Valentin  Abortion,  ISSUES: from marriage, the cardinal’s Pozaic felt the threat posed contraception, HIV & spokesperson told the by the program to be so dire AIDS, sex & sexuality, National Catholic Register that the left-leaning govern- in May that the remarks ment that approved it was a new reproductive were only meant to apply “communist” regime that health technologies, “in irregular situations.” must be overthrown. “One Francis DeBernardo of should not forget that Nazis religion in public New Ways Ministry, an (also) came to power through policy. organization for gay and democratic elections,” Bishop lesbian Catholics, wrote in a Pozaic said. NEWS: Separate blog post that “Paglia’s In Croatia, where approxi-  comments may not have mately 86 percent of the fact from fiction gone as far as many of us population is Catholic, a about Catholicism would have liked, but they survey of 1,300 adults found certainly are a step in the that 56 percent were for and the latest right direction.” Marianne sexuality education and reproductive rights Duddy-Burke, executive against the hierarchy’s peti- director of Dignity USA, tion campaign to stop the stories from around another lay group for LGBT program. As a 15-year-old the world. Catholics, found Paglia’s student named Laura told follow-up “disheartening” AFP, “It is much ado about ACTION: according to the Religion nothing” and religious   News Service, and indicated leaders “should not interfere Prochoice Catholics the growing support for in schools.” can change the same-sex marriage among the faithful as the most Italian Bishops Welcome tone of the debate likely impetus for change Wrong Candidate to Papacy on reproductive within the church. ITALIAN CARDINAL ANGELO health—in the media Scola was one of the favorite picks to be Pope Benedict and in legislatures in End Notes XVI’s replacement. The Italian the US and beyond. Sex Education Demonized Bishops’ Conference was so by Croatian Catholic confident he would win they Hierarchy extended congratulations to  Campaigns, publications, SEX EDUCATION HAS ONLY Scola after the conclave polling and more. been a part of the Croatian announced a candidate had school curriculum since been chosen. The e-mail Get involved today! 2012, but bishops have mistakenly sent congratula- called the program a slip- tions to Cardinal Scola but pery slope to “pornography, was soon corrected by a promiscuity and homosexu- message to Cardinal Bergo- www.catholicsforchoice.org ality,” according to Agence glio, the new Pope Francis. n

16 CONSCIENCE TRIBUTE

Catholics for Choice women and families. He Court’s 1980 Harris v. spearheaded the develop- McRae decision upheld the Remembers Cory L. Richards, ment of Guttmacher’s 1994 constitutionality of the Executive Vice President and Vice President report, Uneven and Unequal, Hyde Amendment. He for Public Policy at Guttmacher which propelled the severe never got over what he felt gaps in insurance coverage to be a cruel policy, for contraceptives into the emblematic of reproductive public debate. The report, injustice. The repeal of the along with Guttmacher’s Hyde Amendment was an strategic and sustained elusive goal that he worked advocacy efforts, launched a tirelessly toward and drive that led to contracep- hoped—but, realist that he tive coverage guarantees in was, didn’t expect—to see 28 states. Ultimately, this achieved in his lifetime. drive culminated in the Beyond Guttmacher, 2010 Affordable Care Act’s Cory held volunteer leader- requirement—which started ship positions with a to take effect last year—that number of prominent orga- most women with private nizations in the field, insurance receive coverage including the American ATHOLICS FOR CHOICE for public policy in 1988, of contraceptive services Public Health Association, joins the Guttmacher senior vice president in 2000 without additional out-of- Global Campaign for Institute in mourning and executive vice president pocket costs. Cory cele- Microbicides, NARAL Pro- Cthe loss of distinguished and in 2008. brated this as a “game Choice America, National beloved colleague Cory L. As executive vice presi- changer” for American Abortion Federation, Richards, who died of dent, Cory inspired and women. National Family Planning pancreatic cancer on April nurtured the Institute’s Another key part of Cory’s and Reproductive Health 4th at age 64. After almost evolution into a leading legacy is the Gutt macher Association and Sexuality 40 years, including 25 as part think tank on issues related Policy Review, which he Information and Education of Guttmacher’s senior to sexual and reproductive founded in 1998. For the Council of the US (SIECUS). leadership, Cory leaves a health and rights both in past 16 years, journal arti- Cory is survived by profound mark on the repro- the United States and glob- cles written by Guttmacher husband Douglas Mitchell, ductive health movement and ally. A brilliant thinker and policy staff and shaped and partner of 23 years whom he on those who were fortunate gifted communicator, he edited by Cory have not married in 2013; his mother enough to work with him. was a driving force behind only informed the work of and stepfather, Vicki L. and The passion and vision he the translation of Guttm- policymakers, media, advo- Monty Bergman; and his brought to his work, as well acher’s research, public cates and others, but have brother, Scott Richards. as his wit, confidence and education, policy analysis also been cited in US Among those who preceded courage, will be missed and advocacy expertise into Supreme Court decisions him in death were his aunt, sorely by his family, friends an influential and widely and have been entered into author and activist Tillie and colleagues. respected public voice that the Congressional Record. Olsen; his previous partner, Born and raised in has shaped policy at the Tellingly, the issue about Peter A. Ryan; and his sister, Omaha, Nebraska, Cory state, federal and interna- which he was perhaps most Sandy R. Daniels. attended Yale, graduating in tional levels. passionate was the Hyde Cory leaves a void that 1970. Following a position Cory also provided Amendment, which will be difficult to fill. He with Rep. Peter N. Kyros visionary leadership as vice prevents federal health will be acutely missed by his (D-ME) on Capitol Hill, president for public policy insurance programs for the family, his friends, his through which he first and head of Guttmacher’s poorest and most vulnerable colleagues at Guttmacher became involved in public Washington, DC, office. US women from including and at Catholics for Choice, health issues, Cory joined He was the intellectual coverage for abortion care. as well as by the sexual and the Guttmacher Institute as architect of crucial policy Cory had already been at reproductive health a policy analyst in 1975. He changes that continue to Guttmacher for five years community he served with was appointed vice president benefit millions of US when the US Supreme such dedication and skill. ■

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 17 2013 UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON (R) MEETS WITH POPE FRANCIS AT THE VATICAN. © REUTERS/VINCENZO PINTO, PINTO, REUTERS/VINCENZO © VATICAN. THE AT FRANCIS POPE WITH MEETS (R) KI-MOON BAN SECRETARY-GENERAL UN 18 CONSCIENCE Playing Hardball against Women’s Rights THE HOLY SEE AT THE UN By Joanne Omang

URING THE VATICAN CONCLAVE in March, while pundits in Rome spotlighted Pope Francis’s new-era penchant for buses and informal speechmaking, the old-era Vatican was hard at work at the DUnited Nations, trying once again to take women’s rights out of the global dialogue. It failed, but was this a last attempt? Pope Francis, with his genial manner and his preference for the poor, has raised flutters of optimism among many Catholics hoping for a less arrogant and more modern church. That can’t happen too soon at the UN, where the Holy See has played serious hardball against women’s human rights for nearly 50 years. The New York Times called the latest example of the Holy See’s interference at the 53rd meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women an “unholy alli- ance.” Working with Iran, Russia and others, Holy See representatives tried to delete document language asserting that religion, custom and tradition are no excuse for allowing violence against women. The commission ultimately rejected this effort

JOANNE OMANG is a novelist and former Washington Post reporter and editor.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 19 and the final document to decision-making rights for stands as a precedent against 2012 adolescents. Pseudoscientific invoking any of these rea- claims appear repeatedly in Holy sons to justify human rights See statements. Adrienne Ger- abuse. main, former president of the The Holy See’s modus International Women’s Health operandi has been to impose Coalition, recalled in 2008 that its conservative social ide- the Holy See refused to endorse ology at the UN via relent- the use of condoms to prevent HIV less pressure—evident ever at a 1999 gathering on the since it gained semi-official grounds that they are ineffective standing there in 1964. Pope at blocking the virus. “I remember Paul VI spelled out his priv- when people literally gasped” at

ileged position at the UN DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABLE FOR INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL © that assertion, she said. the following year: his dual Fr. Philip J. Bene, the Holy See’s legal attaché at the United Nations, at Rio+20. In 1995, at the Fourth World status as head of a church Conference on Women in Bei- and head of state for the Holy See, he but impossible to negotiate with someone jing, Holy See delegates objected to the said, left him “independent of every who claims to be voicing divine will. word “gender” as code for “a broad fem- worldly sovereignty” and made him the “They have their eyes on the prize, inist rights strategy that includes abor- “bearer of a message for all mankind.” which is getting reproductive health off tion.” Other false assertions include Nearly half a century later, the Roman the global agenda,” said Alex Marshall, statements that women are victimized by Catholic church has global influence via chief of UNFPA’s Services Branch, about rights-based reproductive healthcare, or the UN that is unique among the world’s his experience with the Holy See’s rep- that studies show abortion harms a wom-

As many who have dealt with the Holy See know to their frustration, it’s all but impossible to negotiate with someone who claims to be voicing divine will.

religions. Only the Holy See and Pales- resentatives. “They never stop, and they an’s mental health. More recently, the tine (since November 2012) hold Non- never give up.” falsehood that “as a matter of scientific member State Permanent Observer status Holy See delegates are legendary for fact, a new human life begins at concep- at the UN and most of its agencies. They their tireless attention to detail at UN tion” was entered in the minutes of a have the right to speak, reply and circulate conferences, resulting in long-term 2011 General Assembly session. documents in the General Assembly, as reverberations. Because they prolonged Other Vatican tactics are less subtle. well as take part in international confer- negotiations to such an extent that the Marshall recalled that in 1994, a Bolivian ences with “all the privileges of a state,” closure of the 1994 International Con- delegate to an ICPD preparatory meeting including the right to vote. ference on Population and Development who was deemed insufficiently supportive That means real power. Other reli- (ICPD) was delayed by five days, the defi- of Vatican positions was “replaced with gions or nongovernmental organizations nition of reproductive healthcare in the someone more compliant overnight, at must collar delegates in hallways and outcome document omitted abortion the behest of the country’s nuncio”— the restrooms to make their points. services. The European Union later Holy See’s diplomatic representative to Further, UN conferences operate by endorsed the ICPD Programme of Action Bolivia. The con ference chair refused to consensus. Every word, every punctua- wholesale, without amendments, so that seat the replacement, but again, the failure tion mark of meeting “outcome docu- including abortion services in resulting didn’t faze the Holy See. Before the ICPD ments” is negotiated among delegates programs now requires the reinsertion gathering, its secretary-general, Nafis from up to 180 countries in closed-door of abortion services every time. Score a Sadik, had an audience with Pope John sessions—often acrimonious, agonizing few for the pope. Paul II, who “berated her for her unwill- gatherings that go late into the night. Vatican emissaries routinely try to sub- ingness to steer the process in the right And, as many who have dealt with the stitute women’s “dignity” for women’s direction, as he saw it,” Marshall recalled Holy See know to their frustration, it’s all “human rights” and to erase any reference in a 2010 Conscience article.

20 CONSCIENCE PLAYING HARDBALL AGAINST WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Of course, all NGOs and governments question its moral right to a high status Action did not express universal values are expected to press their views on at the United Nations.” but spoke only for disgruntled radical others in order to win consensus. At the same time, Amparo Claro, Western feminists. They have helped “There’d be absolutely no problem if the director of the Latin American and block efforts to extend human rights ref- church was lobbying like other religions Caribbean Women’s Health Network, erences to gays and lesbians, and at the and other pressure groups,” said Jon called it “entirely unacceptable that UN 2012 Rio + 20 Conference on Sustainable O’Brien, president of Catholics for negotiations are influenced by exclusive Development fell in line behind the Holy Choice. “But their privileged position and dogmatic ideologies and moralities See to exclude “sexual and reproductive” gives them an ear of governments that permanently imposed on other members healthcare from areas of healthcare they shouldn’t be able to have.” by a unique and privileged member.” deserving particular attention in the out- To states in which Catholic votes are The old-era Holy See ignores such come document. critical such lobbying can be very per- protests and continues to tell govern- Some of the work opposing sexual and suasive. In 1994, the Vatican called in ments what positions to take. Guate- reproductive rights is accomplished by ambassadors from predominantly Cath- olic countries and lectured them on the proper positions on contraception and abortion to take at ICPD. John Paul II wrote to every head of state asserting that the ICPD draft would be a “serious setback for humanity” that would “con- 2012 demn marriage to obsolescence.” His speeches called it “the snare of the devil.” “The church is very influential in Latin America, and things like that indi- cate ‘We’re not going to support you in the next election,’” said Serra Sippel, director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and a veteran of many battles over UN documents. The pressure can backfire, however, Sippel said. At 2004 conferences in

Puerto Rico and Chile, Latin American DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABLE FOR INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL © delegates who had some reservations At the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Holy See about reproductive health language Permanent Observer Archbishop Francis Chullikatt (left) consults with Paul Kelly, the delegate from Nicaragua, on Section V of the Rio+20 draft text, which included language on reproductive health. “stepped up and owned it anyway because they were so annoyed” by Holy See pressure. “They said ‘Hey, we agreed mala, Honduras, Ireland, Malta and UN allies, with the Holy See preferring to the ICPD and you’re not going to come Poland are reliable Vatican allies, among to remain behind the scenes. Conserva- down here and tell us what positions to others. As early as 1994, special Vatican tive religious NGOs disrupted March 2000 take on this,’” she recalled. envoys went to Tehran and Tripoli to preparatory meetings for Beijing + 5, sur- Bene Madunagu, chair of the execu- enlist their support—to “sup with the rounding opponents to pray over them, tive board at the Girls’ Power Initiative devil,” as Washington Post columnist Jim according to a 2001 Conscience article. At in Nigeria, was just as indignant. Bishops Hoagland put it—and alliances since the ICPD, unofficial Arabic translations in Nigeria, she said, promote the status then have included Iran and Libya as of draft documents were circulated that quo, “where talk about sex is taboo and well as Syria, Egypt and other countries insinuated the phrase “sexual health” was talk about preventing unplanned preg- that do not support full human rights equivalent to promiscuity. Vatican rep- nancies and sexually transmitted dis- for women. resentatives “don’t need to put out docu- eases is forbidden.” In a statement to These countries got behind the Holy ments when their allies do a lot of that support Catholics for Choice’s initiative, See’s efforts to exclude “forced preg- work,” Sippel said. The “See Change” Campaign, in 2000, nancy” from a list of war crimes proposed Marshall asserted that the new era for she was blunt: “The role that the Roman during the 1998 debate over setting up the the Vatican may look very much like the Catholic church has played as an obstacle International Criminal Court. They old. “The new pope isn’t going to change to AIDS education in Africa calls into agreed that the Beijing Platform for that,” he said. n

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 21 Keeping It All in the Family EUROPE’S ANTICHOICE MOVEMENT By Neil Datta

N THE AUTUMN OF 2004, conservative antichoice Christians in Europe were dealt a public and humiliating blow when Rocco Buttiglione, a nominee for the European commission, was withdrawn Iunder pressure from the European Parliament because of views deemed . incompatible with the office of the EU Commissioner on Justice. This land- 2004 mark decision in European politics was also a rejection of the Vatican’s attempts to influence politics. But for antichoice conservative Christians, Rocco Buttiglione’s rejection was a call to arms—as it was for Rocco Buttiglione himself, who promised in an interview BIANCHI, REUTERS/ALESSANDRO © Rocco Buttiglione, once the designate for EU Commissioner for Justice, watches EU leaders arrive for the shortly after his humiliating withdrawal signing ceremony of the EU Constitution in Rome in 2004. that this would not be the last we would hear of him nor his belief system. with their own legislative agendas. organizations operating in Europe num- Europe’s ultraconservatives stepped up While the antichoice forces invested a ber not one, but three. to make good on Buttiglione’s promise great deal of time and effort, this call to and began building an antichoice arms has been heard by few and heeded n The first is an old network, Catholic in advocacy infrastructure intended to by even fewer. inspiration, closely aligned with the overtake Europe’s political institutions Parliamentarians have registered the Vatican and active in most of continental raised voices from the far right, prompt- Europe. It has centers of power in Italy, NEIL DATTA is Secretary of the European ing the European Parliamentary Forum Germany, Spain and France (to a lesser Parliamentary Forum on Population and on Population and Development (EPF) to extent) and can be referred to as the Development (EPF). EPF (www.epfweb.org) is a investigate. Our research found that the “Vatican-oriented Antichoice” family. network of members of parliaments from opposition groups were all religiously across Europe who are committed to protecting the sexual and reproductive health of the inspired—specifically Christian. In the n There is a second, newer, network that world’s most vulnerable people, both at home course of our investigation we also dis- appears to be an alliance of traditionalist and overseas. covered that the “families” of antichoice Protestants, Catholics from North

22 CONSCIENCE European countries and, occasionally, issues—abortion, reproduction and sexu- undermining equality legislation, often Orthodox Christians. It is associated with ality, as well as gender norms. through conscience clauses, and then minoritarian right-wing Christian The longest-standing actors within when these objections are denied, political parties and can be referred to as this family are the “prolife” NGO net- terming this discrimination). the “Ecumenical Traditionalists.” works that exist in 11 countries. In many One new-generation antichoice NGO cases created in the 1980s and early 1990s is the European Centre for Law and Jus- n A third family is relatively heterogeneous in reaction to social changes, these net- tice (ECLJ) based in Strasbourg, France— but shares a Catholic background and works have become part of the established also the seat of the European Parliament, some degree of hostility towards the civil society landscape, where they have the Council of Europe and the European Vatican, specifically the Vatican II tended to focus on abortion. In those Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The approach to social issues. This family of countries where antichoice ideology ECLJ, which is the European offshoot of “Ultras” includes traditionalist Catholic gained traction—for example in Poland, the American Centre for Law and movements, both in good or poor Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Italy and Justice, is utilized by the Holy See as its standing with the Vatican, along with Spain—these organizations have tended legal and political lobbying arm their political expressions, which tend to to remain inwardly and domestic-focused. in Europe. be extreme right-wing political parties. In countries where the antichoice move- The ECLJ specializes in litigation at the ment had fewer prospects—such as in ECHR, where it attempts to limit the While these three antichoice families France, Germany and Belgium—the court’s recognition of LGBT and reproduc- are distinct players, each occasionally col- antichoice energy in the country seems to tive rights and intervenes in cases where laborates with—and influences—each have been spent at the European level. there is perceived and actual religious

A hardline group is starting to emerge that the media has labeled as the European version of the US Tea Party.

other, and all work with non-European Since the late 1990s and gaining discrimination. Since 2008, director antichoice groups, including those from speed since 2000, a new generation of Gregor Puppinck and a handful of anti- the United States and Latin America. Vatican-oriented antichoice activity has choice parliamentarians have been active However, each family has its own infra- emerged. These organizations tend to at the Parliamentary Assembly of the structure and strategies with which it be more professional, as they are able to Council of Europe where they 1) failed to seeks to influence European politics. specialize in legal and political lob- prevent the adoption of a progressive bying, in building a pseudo-medico- report on the right to abortion in 2008, THE VATICAN’S HAND IN EUROPEAN scientific basis for religious ideals and despite presenting over 100 last-minute DECISION-MAKING in adopting modern NGO advocacy tech- amendments; 2) campaigned against a “Vatican-oriented Antichoice” is the niques. Importantly, the new generation report on conscientious objection in 2010; largest of the three families and the of anti-reproductive rights groups has and 3) launched several failed initiatives primary antichoice movement in all understood the power shift in Europe on Europe’s “demographic decline,” sex- European countries that have had a tradi- that has increasingly concentrated selective abortion and abortion in the case tional Catholic majority population and political decision-making in the EU of fetal abnormality, which they com- where Catholicism was the main or state institutions, and has therefore adapted pared to “eugenics.” religion. This extensive network is com- by building an advocacy infrastructure Within the Vatican-oriented civil posed of antichoice NGOs and NGO feder- to influence decision-making in the EU society, a hardline group is starting to ations, specialized advocacy and legal arena. Their strategy, deployed equally emerge that the media has labeled, on organizations, think tanks, educational at national and European levels, is occasion, as the European version of the facilities, academic institutions and even threefold: 1) protection of life (from the US Tea Party. An example is a new group some political parties with seats in parlia- moment of conception to natural death); called European Dignity Watch (EDW) ments. Compared to other antichoice 2) protection of the family (which this that pushes its hard-right agenda on the families, the Vatican-allied group repre- group defines as the “natural” hetero- EU level through activities like its 2012 sents the status quo ante of Western sexual family with the father as its advocacy academy to train religious lob- Europe in the 1950s to 1970s on social head); and 3) religious freedom (i.e., byists for the European Parliament.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 23 A good example of another hard-right euthanasia, among others. Altogether, the European People’s Party. This antichoice group, this time acting at agenda-driven medical groups with links means that all positions on international national level but with ambitions to to the Vatican exist in at least seven development made by the EP’s largest expand abroad, is the Spanish antichoice countries in Europe. party, such as whether to support inter- organization Hazte Oir (Speak Up). The Vatican-oriented Antichoice national SRHR, are decided by an anti- Hazte Oir stands out in the Spanish family influences European politics choice politician. landscape because of its modern and through a series of small political parties At the Parliamentary Assembly of the innovative use of social media, which that work in tandem with the antichoice Council of Europe, Italian UDC MP Luca allows it to mobilize thousands of sup- civil society organizations referred to Volontè was elected chairperson of the porters like few other antichoice organi- above. These political parties tend to assembly’s EPP delegation thanks, in zations in Europe. Over the past decade, position themselves in the center of the part, to a letter of support addressed to Hazte Oir has grown from an annual political spectrum (i.e., they support the party members from the Apostolic budget of approximately €300,000 to just welfare state and are generally pro-EU) Nuncio to France. In 2012, Volontè over €1,200,000 in 2011 and plans to but are deeply socially conservative. launched an initiative in partnership expand to Latin America as well as open These parties are often affiliated with with the ECLJ to limit abortion in cases an EU lobbying office in Brussels. the much broader center-right political of fetal abnormality by labeling it a form Any advocacy movement needs a solid family of the European People’s Party of “eugenics,” which originally gathered evidence base grounded in science in (EPP), and it is this wider center-right, the support of much of the EPP delega- order to be convincing to a mainstream conservative political family that the tion to the assembly. However, when audience, which can be challenging antichoice lobby seeks to influence. In a parliamentarians discovered that the

From a bird’s eye view of European institutions, it becomes very clear that the Vatican has developed entry points of influence in the past decade.

when the lobbying group’s motivation is number of cases, the border between genuine intent behind the motion was to a narrowly defined, ultraconservative politician and antichoice NGO is hard to limit access to abortion, over 80 parlia- interpretation of a religious ideology. For distinguish, as a number of antichoice mentarians took the unprecedented step this reason, a specialized subgroup of politicians are also the founders and/or of signing a letter calling for a with- organizations has emerged to provide a leaders of a number of antichoice NGOs. drawal of the motion. Volontè lost his medical or scientific basis for the anti- Likewise, some antichoice leaders have recent bid for re-election to the Italian choice movement’s philosophical posi- founded their own political parties. parliament, but in his final week at the tions. The leading example is the French While representing a very small com- Council of Europe he tried to subvert a Fondation Jérôme Lejeune, whose ponent of the mainstream center right, document intended to address violence founder was a close personal friend and the Vatican-oriented political parties directed at religious communities. ally of Pope John Paul II. In 2011, the often seek to achieve positions of influ- Volontè submitted a draft that focused Fondation Lejeune launched a campaign ence within the EPP and from there, on religious exemptions that could be to force the French minister for educa- channel the whole party’s energy towards applied to healthcare and education. A tion to resign when it was decided that their socially conservative agenda. For coalition formed to dispute this version, schools would have to teach gender example, MEP Anna Zaborska of Slovakia and other members of the assembly pro- equality (rather than the complemen- became chair of the European Parlia- duced a final document that was in line tarity of men and women). ment’s Women’s Rights and Gender with the original priorities, rather than Another biased medical group is the Equality Committee from 2004 to 2009, those of Volontè. European Institute of Bioethics (EIB), where she effectively blocked progress From a bird’s eye view of European established in Brussels within walking on women’s rights for five years. Also in institutions it becomes clear that the distance of the European Parliament, the European Parliament, Irish MEP Gay Vatican has developed entry points of which provides advice in several lan- Mitchell, co-founder of the European influence in the past decade. This guages to medical practitioners on issues Parliament Working Group on Human handful of MPs can count on support such as “post-abortion trauma” and the Dignity, secured a position as spokes- from the Apostolic Nuncio to their supposed dangers of contraception and person on international development for country for key votes. The Holy See rep-

24 CONSCIENCE KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY resentation to the Council of Europe tively new. In the Russian Federation, 16 building a new political family in Europe organizes quarterly meetings of the of the identified antichoice groups were in the form of the European Christian coalition of Catholic-inspired NGOs, created within the past 10 years. In coun- Political Movement along with a parlia- which is composed of well-intentioned tries where the prevalent religion had mentary infrastructure on “human faith-based organizations alongside been a Protestant Christian creed, the dignity” (as defined by them). reactionary ideologues. The Holy See antichoice landscape tends to be much Because of their small numbers, anti- also regularly accredits the ECLJ to serve smaller and less well-developed than in choice groups from this family are par- on its delegation to various Council of their traditionally Catholic neighbors. In ticularly receptive to external support Europe governmental bodies on matters these areas there is usually only one or a and influence—for example, from US ranging from human rights, LGBT issues few main antichoice NGOs, which tend to antichoice groups, which have innova- to reform of the European Court of be small and isolated, often because they tive antichoice material to share. An Human Rights. Members of the Vatican-oriented Anti- choice family are engag ing in more pro- fessional forms of advocacy that require a mix of grassroots orga- nization and special- ized knowledge in the fields of EU politics and law. They are also becoming more bold. The “One of Us” ini- tiative calls on the EU

to stop all funding 2013 related to the destruc- tion of human embryos in scientific research as well as development aid, specifically by halting all funds to improving maternal health because it may ROMANO, REUTERS/OSSERVATORE © Pope Francis shakes hands with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (2nd L) and European Parliament President in some cases cover Martin Schulz at his Vatican inauguration. abortion. The effort to collect the requisite million signatures are at odds with the mainstream religious example is the US-based Center for Bio- enlisted help from across Europe, but currents of their own faith and society at ethic Reform (CBR) which opened a sat- when leaders met on March 20, 2013, large. Together, these groups have ellite office in Bratislava, Slovakia, in they reported that by that point only emerged as part of the newest of the three 2007 and has since reached out to and 283,000 signatures had been gathered. antichoice families, which is composed coordinated efforts with antichoice Representatives also complained of a of traditionalist Protestants from the organizations in eight countries (Czech lack of mainstream media interest Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, and expressed concern over how to por- some East European countries; Catholics Russian Federation, Slovakia, Sweden tray their take on abortion, admit- from North European countries such and the UK). CBR specializes in pro- ting that it often led to being labeled a as the UK and Ireland; and some Ortho- ducing gory material for photo exhibi- “religious zealot.” dox groups. Some members of this tions that compare abortion with the “ Ecumenical-traditionalist Alliance” are Holocaust as part of their “Genocide THE ECUMENICAL-TRADITIONALIST united by their faith’s minority status, Awareness Project,” which was shown ALLIANCE either as a political force or in the coun- in public squares in several Eastern In Eastern Europe, including the former try’s demographics. The Ecumenical European cities and in the European Soviet Union, antichoice groups are rela- Traditionalists’ strategy has focused on Parliament.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 25 The Traditionalist-ecumenical net- entity is the constellation of 50-plus of the far-right Vlaams Belang (Flemish work is still small and somewhat inces- organizations that form part of Tradi- Interest) political party. Secondly, the tuous. While this new network has tion, Family and Property (TFP). Ultras act as a watchdog, pressing for consolidated its structure and funding TFP was established in the 1960s by a political action to match the Vatican’s base, it has had surprisingly little advo- Brazilian Catholic landowner and politi- religious stances. For example, Marc cacy impact in opposing reproductive cian, Plinio Côrrea da Oliveira, and has Balistreiri, the head of Droit de Naître, rights. However, the formerly small and spread to most Latin American and one of France’s TFP fronts, launched an isolated groups no doubt find comfort in European countries as well as the US. initiative during the 2004 US presiden- having their own struc- tial election to have Senator tured network where they John Kerry excommuni- can meet with others who cated because of his pro- share the same reactionary choice views. In 2005, the views and exchange ideas TFP front in Italy tried the on new ways to advance same with Prime Minister their traditionalist agenda. Romano Prodi. Neither attempt was successful, and THE “ULTRAS”—RELICS the episodes seem to have . OF EUROPE’S FASCIST embarrassed the Holy See. 2011 PAST Third, they have been The third antichoice family, experimenting with social the “Ultras,” is a heteroge- mobilization. Italy’s first neous group whose mem- “March for Life” was orga- bers share political and nized by Luigi Coda Nun- economic views incompat- ziante, a Neapolitan ible with parliamentary LUTZ, PHOTO/CHRISTIAN AP © marquis and his daughter, democracy. Politically, they Bishop Aldo Giodano, permanent observer for the Holy See at the Council of Europe Lady Virginia, who head in Strasbourg, France, after a 2011 ruling that crucifixes are to be allowed in public are often branded as far- school classrooms. several organizations that right, and religiously their are TFP fronts. Among the views often predate the Second Vatican TFP has found its niche as a wealthy, con- thousand-plus marchers there were sev- Council. The Ultras’ perceptions of servative social movement aimed at eral far-right skinhead gangs and anti- democracy, autocracy, secularism and defeating communism (and therefore European youth thug groups. In ecumenism, and occasional tendency protecting the private property of large February 2013, the organizers of the towards historical revisionism, force land owners in Latin America) and lib- Brussels March for Life announced their them outside polite society to exist on the eration theology. The group combines intention to team up with FPEC, a TFP margins of politics. The Ultra family is religious and cult-like elements with a front at the EU level, to organize a “pan- naturally drawn to the far-right political platform for political engagement and a European” march. parties and political think tanks that often medieval chivalry aesthetic that could A characteristic of the TFP movement are the modern-day descendants of the best be described as an adult version of is that, unlike other antichoice families various fascist movements that existed in the teenage “goth” style. that attempt to influence mainstream every European country in the early 20th The Ultras, and specifically TFP, play society, the TFP tries to infiltrate and century. The Ultras tend to espouse three principal roles in the antichoice influence Catholic and antichoice groups political views that would undo three of movement. First, they act as a bridge as well as conservative political parties the West’s formative revolutions: the between the respectable center-right/ to bring them closer to their more sexual revolution of the 1960s and ’70s, social conservatism and the extreme extreme agenda. Massimo Introvigne, the Protestant Reformation and the right/post-fascist elements that still exist who created Alleanza Cattolica, the TFP French Revolution, a concept which they in some European political landscapes. front in Italy, runs an online library term “the counter-revolution.” Consider the 2008 opening of the EU- devoted to the writings of TFP founder Some Ultra groups include the liaison office of the “Federation Pro- and other works on the “counter- Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), begun by Europa Christiana” (a TFP front) in revolution.” In 2010, Introvigne was French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, as Brussels, which Christian Democrats appointed Rapporteur on Intolerance well as traditionalist Catholic communi- from Slovakia such as MEP A n na and Discrimination against Christians ties and surviving religious-military Zaborska attended alongside Alexandra at the Organization for Security and orders. The best example of an Ultra Coenen, a neo-fascist Belgian politician Cooperation in Europe.

26 CONSCIENCE KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

MORE MODERN, BUT NOT MORE because it may indirectly cover abortion. shakers, perhaps as few as 30 individuals. MAINSTREAM Antiabortion marches took place in Many of these are more representative In his resignation speech earlier this year, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Rome and tens of of Europe’s past than the average Euro- Benedict XVI referred to deep internal other cities across Europe, whereas a pean of the 21st century. divisions within the Catholic church. decade earlier, such marches mainly took While they may be louder and better These divisions are reflected in the Euro- place on the other side of the Atlantic. coordinated, the European antichoice pean antichoice landscape, which has The intensity of antichoice initia- movement has also been forced to demonstrated its inability to form a tives certainly seems to have increased, package its objectives within wider, more coherent movement. However, when but should this worry the SRHR com- acceptable frameworks, such as “human provoked, the antichoice sector has munity? By the end of 2012, most of dignity” (as defined by them) and reli- shown the capacity to react, reorganize the legislative initiatives mentioned gious tolerance (a tolerance only and modernize. above had failed. This suggests that the extended to their own religious beliefs). It is true that in 2012, antichoice opposition to SRHR may not be getting This in itself is a sign of their fragility. groups were able to field more than 20 stronger, but it does suggest that it is Regardless of how they gild their inten- amendments in the European Parlia- louder and better coordinated than tions with more attractive language, the ment aiming to remove millions of Euros previously assumed. true mission of these antichoice groups in overseas aid for SRHR from the Euro- Despite what is an indisputable pro- is simply no more acceptable to main- pean Union’s 2013 general budget. That fessionalization and modernization of stream Europeans today than was Rocco same year, the antichoice movement the antichoice community over the past Buttiglione in 2004. launched a continent-wide petition few years, we can draw comfort that this The “One of Us” organizers have known as a European Citizens’ Initiative is not the same as antichoice ideas until November 2013 to meet their target based on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, with gaining traction among average Euro- of a million signatures. Perhaps by then the goal of collecting one million signa- peans or in European politics. The anti- they will have solved their dilemma of tures in favor of halting all future EU choice network in Europe is highly how one can be a religious zealot without funding to maternal health worldwide dependent upon a very few movers and looking like one. n Who should conscience clauses protect? IN GOOD CONSCIENCE RESPECTING THE BELIEFS OF HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AND THE NEEDS OF PATIENTS ($5.00 each) Conscience clauses in the United States and Latin America are discussed in this series of publications. Each publication answers many questions, including: Who should conscience clauses protect? How do they affect patients who need reproductive healthcare? How does one follow one’s own conscience while providing ethical treatment for all?

TO ORDER DIRECT:

+1 (202) 986-6093 OR www.catholicsforchoice.org

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 27 . 1999 , REUTERS/DAMIR SAGOLJ REUTERS/DAMIR ©

Iranian girls walk in front of a billboard featuring Ayatollah Khomeiny in 1999 on the 10th anniversary of his death. The occasion marked the reaffirmation of the Ayatollah’s death order for blasphemy against British author Salman Rushdie. Fatwas are Opinions By Marieme Helie Lucas

FATWA IS AN OPINION BY A nity in which he lives or is known. In not allow women to study religion further Muslim cleric, or a well-read other words, it is the opinion—on reli- than first year in university; women are believer, whose knowledge of gious issues, or issues that can be related struggling to assert their rights in religion is recognized and to religion—of someone you know and accessing religious studies, but they often appreciated by the commu- whose knowledge you trust. Any scholar have to go to Europe and North America of Islam, any well-read believer, can give to fulfill their desire; fatwas, it follows MARIEME HELIE LUCAS is an Algerian A a fatwa, i.e., his opinion based on religious suit, are to this date virtually exclusively sociologist and psychotherapist. She founded knowledge. Although progressive scholars offered by men. the Women Living Under Muslim Laws of Islam agree that women should also be Is that all? Yes, that is all there is to it. international solidarity network in 1984, as well as the Secularism Is A Women’s Issue scholars, could become imams and could You can decide to follow the opinion international network in 2005. give fatwas, most Muslim countries do of the cleric or not. Or to seek another

28 CONSCIENCE opinion. Your decision about how to react exist within Catholicism. For instance, the not give them equal love. Hence, they to the fatwa is between you and your con- opinion of someone affiliated with Opus said, the Qur’an clearly indicated in this science, you and your God. A fatwa is not Dei is likely to be in opposition to that of verse that polygyny was not something a law—and it is not legally enforceable in someone who stands with liberation an ordinary man was able to practice democracies. theology. While one Catholic perspective while staying in conformity with the Not unlike the role traditionally might say—metaphorically at least—that divine injunction. played by pastors in the Catholic church, the adulteress should be stoned, the other If laws, based on different interpreta- Muslim believers would go to their would ask: but who will cast the first tions of the Qur’an, can differ to the nearest religious scholar and ask for his stone? One would excommunicate a point of reaching radically opposed con- opinion on everyday matters in their lives woman for using contraception, the other clusions, we can imagine the differences related to religious practice: whether they would support her attempt to survive with in opinion of the numerous Islamic could do this or that without committing already too many children to feed. One scholars and learned believers all over the a sin; how to practice their religion when would ban condoms, while the other will Arab World, Asia and Africa who live in they traveled; how to behave vis-à-vis a advocate for their use in order to prevent different cultures, not to speak of those neighbor in a specific circumstance. the spread of the AIDS epidemic. now living in the diaspora in Europe and Alternatively, if Catholics today find that What is much more commonly North America, who have been exposed there is no one they trust nearby, they can accepted when it comes to Catholicism— to many new ideas. get a response about religious questions i.e., that there are different political trends Coming back to our earlier examples, in a more modern and anonymous way within the church and among believers we can imagine the response of the online. For decades in many Muslim as well—is often so difficult to grasp scholar solicited for his opinion by the countries, daily papers have been full of when it comes to Islam. The other is seen woman who is afraid of committing a sin such questions, and an appointed cleric as totally monolithic. if she maintains good relations with her answers them via his column in the news- This is not the case, of course. neighbor who has a bad reputation. He

What is much more commonly accepted when it comes to Catholicism—i.e., that there are different political trends within the church and among believers as well—is often so difficult to grasp when it comes to Islam. paper. And now one can also get a fatwa A good example is the difference might say that the best she can do is to go on the Internet. between Algeria and Tunisia with regard on behaving as a good neighbor and have The questions raised are often very to personal status laws on monogamous compassion for the other woman. But down to earth and sometimes crude. A vs. polygynic marriages, with both coun- another scholar may just as well express woman might ask whether it would be tries claiming that their laws are rooted the view that the woman should cease to sinful for her to visit and get acquainted in Islam. Please note the dates marking meet this bad neighbor who should be with a female neighbor whose reputation each country’s legal evolution on mar- chased out of the building or the town has been tarnished by gossip. A man riage; they are important and we will because the devil is in her. Either way, the might ask if a nocturnal emission during come back to them. word will spread that this is the learned Ramadan forces him to go immediately Algeria legalized polygyny in 1984 on man’s fatwa (read “opinion”) and people for ablutions in the middle of the night, the basis of the Qur’anic verse stating will take action accordingly. On several and whether or not it annuls his day of that “a man can have up to four wives.” occasions, the opinion that a city should fasting (in which case he will have to con- Tunisia in 1956 (nearly 30 years before be cleansed of its “bad Muslims” led to tinue fasting for one more day at the end Algeria passed its legislation) banned the mobs attacking, stripping, burning, tor- of Ramadan). practice and legalized monogamy on the turing and killing women or members of Of course, opinions differ, depending basis of the second half of the verse “pro- other Muslim sects. on who holds them. vided he treats them perfectly equally.” Or in the case of the man with noc- Tunisian legislators argued that although turnal emissions during Ramadan, a OPINIONS a man could give the same amount of cleric can consider that he should go out Catholics for Choice is well placed to money, a house of similar value, equally in the middle of the night and he should understand the diversity of opinions that costly jewelry, etc., to his wives, he could fast an extra day. Another cleric might

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 29 determine that the man is tired, that performs marriage ceremonies for reli- number of prominent Muslim scholars additional fasting would not be appro- gious Muslim women who choose a and learned Muslim believers around priate as it would increase his fatigue, Christian or a Jew for their life partner— the world issued fatwas (their opinions) nor would it be appropriate to force him you must realize that Muslim men can stating that Imam Khomeiny’s fatwa to go out of bed for ablutions. These marry women from outside the “religion should not be followed. But they did opinions can either appease the fears of the Book,” but Muslim women cannot not make it big in the media, to the and anguish of those who seek advice, marry outside Islam. But then again, the point that relatively few people read or they can advocate punishment and Mufti does not believe that God created their opinions. stir violence. men and women unequal, only that men I believe that opinions by progressive pretend they are superior. Another Muslim scholars are little known, MEDIATIC AND NON-MEDIATIC FATWAS example is the imam in a “difficult” whether inside or outside the Muslim The fatwas that reach international suburb of Paris prone to communal con- world. Such scholars are persecuted by attention through the media are usually flicts who regularly opens the mosque he far-right regimes as well as fundamen- those advocating punishment and is responsible for to his Jewish neighbors talist nonstate actors who pretend to act violence, inspired by the most regressive for meetings. in the name of Islam: often their books interpretations of the religion. This defi- Both of these religious leaders are of the are burned and owning them is a punish- nitely serves a political purpose, as it opinion that what they do is perfectly com- able offense. And, alas, too often, they points at Islam as a religion of violence, patible with their religion. (Try to say the themselves are killed. in which one can be stoned to death for same sentence, using a different word: The question then arises: who chooses

In this political context it is not surprising that women become the first targets of fatwas. Like other far-right movements of the past, Muslim funda mentalists aim at sending women back to their assigned place…. sex outside marriage or beheaded for “Their fatwa is that what they do is per- to popularize what, when and for what blasphemy. fectly compatible with their religion.”) purpose ? It is not my purpose to defend here To take it a step further, they even the idea that Islam is either this or that. believe that what they do is commanded THE POLITICAL ROLE OF It no more reasonable to argue that by their religion. EXOTIC TERMINOLOGY Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance Both the imam and the Mufti can give The mere fact of calling opinions anything than it is to say it is intrinsically violent. you numerous religious arguments to other than “opinions” amounts to legiti- In sacred texts, one can read the God of justify their conclusions. And in Islam, at mizing and sacralizing them as the true war, the God of wrath, the God of least in principle, there is nobody in expression of a dogma inherent to Islam. terror, or one can read the God of peace, between the believer and his God. No To brand them with exotic terms such as the God of freedom and the God intermediary. “fatwa” is a dangerous trend: how, then— of compassion. Have you heard of their fatwas? I sus- especially when one does not know what “Islam does not speak,” argues Soheib pect you have not. Or maybe you did it means—can one go against a fatwa, Bencheikh, the Algerian-born former know about what they were doing, but without going against Islam itself ? Great Mufti of Marseilles, France. It is you did not consider that these were Non-Muslims’ fear of being seen as what Muslims do in its name that gives fatwas in their own right? They are. anti-Islam has been shamelessly exploited different contents to this religion. The term fatwa first made it to the by the Muslim religious right in Europe “Islam” per se is always and necessarily international media when a cleric from and North America. Claiming that they mediated through human believers, their Iran expressed his opinion on the lit- are the true representatives of Islam, thoughts and their actions: by definition erary works of a British author of Indian these ultraconservatives give the impres- Islam—like any religion—is represented origin. The opinion of Imam Khomeiny sion that if one opposes any of their dik- by people who deem themselves Muslims, was that Salman Rushdie was to be put tats and fatwas, one is necessarily branded and who have different opinions about to death for having written a novel that “kafir” or “infidel” (which in their view what Islam was, is and should be. the imam himself never read, but that— is punishable by death) or “Islamo- The former Great Mufti of Marseilles he was told—was blasphemous. A good phobic.” While if you translate the term

30 CONSCIENCE FATWAS ARE OPINIONS into a language you understand, what a dience to her husband; from secluding regimes using Islam as a way to silence relief: it was only an opinion. And only women, limiting their freedom of people. Hence, a huge number of self- one opinion, at that. movement, requiring them to get per- appointed representatives of Islam If you have doubts about a fatwa, if you mission from their “guardian” for work impose their opinions (fatwas) on others are not satisfied with it, you can just get or travel, to sanctioning situations in and raise enough support from fanati- another opinion from another scholar to which Muslim women can remain cized crowds to have these opinions counter the first one. It will be just as single if so they wish, become taxi implemented, sometimes even regardless valid—or invalid—as the one you got in drivers, imams, union leaders or heads of the law of the land. As a result, we see the beginning. Ultimately, the decision of state; from promoting tolerance and so many cases of women and men stoned, is a matter between you and God. freedom of opinion to imposing the lashed or amputated after some self- While journalists aim to attract death penalty for “un-Islamic” behavior appointed representatives of God issued readers’ attention by using exotic terms, or alleged blasphemy. fatwas ordering these harsh punishments. they play a very dangerous political role. In many instances, out of sheer igno- rance of the Arabic language they inad- vertently attribute to these foreign words the biased meaning that funda- mentalists themselves are promoting. Let me mention here that it is not just fatwas that are now passed off as laws instead of opinions, but concepts like “jihad,” or “sharia,” are frequently mis- construed. A jihad is the internal combat that a believer launches against him/herself to become a better individual, to amend him/herself and subsequently to come closer to God. It is not a real war with 2000 weapons where people are killed, as is now currently understood the world over, thanks to fundamentalist interpre- tations or opinions being relayed by international media. By popularizing

fundamentalists’ terminology, we PLATIAU, CHARLES REUTERS/ © strengthen them politically. Soheib Bencheikh, the former Mufti of Marseille, speaks in 2000 at a press conference held after a meeting Sharia is not, as you may have gath- with French President Jacques Chirac. ered from the media, a divine law that governs all Muslims. Sharia means the Any decent Arabic scholar would It is interesting to note that in many path, the road, the way to God—a highly confirm how to translate jihad, sharia or instances, what these right-wing extrem- individual and spiritual journey for fatwa, as I did here. But using this ter- ists think is part and parcel of their reli- believers. It has never meant any human minology, rather than their exact equiv- gion is simply cultural and has nothing law; it is not a legal corpus in existence alent in English, grants an air of to do with Islam. In one recent example, in any so-called Muslim country. objective reality to what is only … the a cleric from the Middle East came to If one compares the existing laws in opinion of extreme right-wing political preach in Tunisia, where he advocated different Muslim countries all across forces working within religion. female genital mutilation (FGM) as an Asia, the Middle East and Africa— Islamic practice. That came as a shock keeping in mind that all pretend they THE QUESTION OF FATWAS IS to Tunisians who have never heard of are in accordance with Islam—one can INTIMATELY LINKED TO THAT FGM, as it is not traditional practice in find the most extraordinary variations. OF DEMOCRACY. North Africa. The reason for this is Laws range from banning polygyny to It has not always been the case in history, simple: FGM is a pharaonic custom pre- making it legal; from declaring equal but there is no denying that most dating Islam that flourished in the rights and duties for both spouses in predominately Muslim countries, in this sphere of influence of Ancient Egypt, marriage, to mandating the wife’s obe- day and age, are governed by repressive including Sudan and the Horn of Africa,

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 31 FATWAS ARE OPINIONS but not in other parts of Africa. religious far right, has become visible to enforce a state-sanctioned interpreta- Nevertheless, it has been common all. The progressive interpretations of tion of religion upon citizens. Unlike a practice for right-wing clerics to try and Islam—such as the 1956 Tunisian law on democracy where laws are voted by enforce antiwomen cultural practices monogamy, which was welcomed and citizens, in a theocracy laws are decreed by bringing in the sanction of Islam. praised by Tunisian citizens and by many by clerics, who act as interpreters of It is not just diverse interpretations Muslim believers around the world— God. “Divine” laws eradicate democ- of Islam that justify different opinions, have been replaced by regressive inter- racy by taking decisions out of the reach but also traditions that have no relation pretations in many countries. As we saw, of “one person one vote.” to religious beliefs. In these cases, Algeria legalized polygyny in 1984, 28 In this political context it is not sur- issuers of fatwas are either ignorant (and years after Tunisia outlawed it. Both did prising that women become the first thus should not be allowed to express so in the name of Islam. The more recent targets of fatwas. Like other far-right religious opinions) or perversely manip- of these precedents in these two neigh- movements of the past, Muslim funda- ulating the ignorance of their followers boring nations clearly indicates the mentalists aim at sending women back in order to bring about a backward soci- present political trend: backward reli- to their assigned place: the church (in etal project under the cover of religion. gious opinions—never the progressive this case, the mosque), the kitchen and In the past 20 to 30 years, the rise of ones—are slowly but surely replacing the the cradle. The last few years have wit- what has been coined as Muslim funda- law of the land. nessed a flourishing of opinions sup- mentalism, which is in fact a facet of the On the rise are theocracies that porting, for instance, early marriage of girls under nine years of age, beating one’s wife or female mutilations as Islamic. During the March 2013 session Get more background on of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, devoted this year to violence condoms, the Catholic hierarchy against women, the Muslim Brother- hood issued a statement declaring that and faith-based AIDS care. the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stands in opposition to Islam. It is of crucial importance that those statements are taken for what they are: Order your copy of just opinions. And it is equally crucial “The Politics of to identify—not in religious terms but in political ones—those responsible for Catholics and holding and publicizing such opinions. The debate is not whether those fatwas Condoms,” a truly represent Islam, but which polit- publication ical brand of citizens voices them. It is the personal responsibility of people the produced for the world over, Muslims, non-Muslim believers and atheists alike, not to be XIX International intimidated by the fear of being labeled AIDS Conference, anti-Islamic, and to strongly condemn extreme right opinions passing them- which took place in selves off as religious. As the former Grand Mufti of Mar- Washington, DC, seilles said to the Algerian newspaper in July 2012. L’Expression in March, his opinion about fatwas spreading through international media is: “They are irrelevant. But they cause immense damage. A fatwa E-mail [email protected] does not clear one of his or her per- sonal responsibility; it remains just or call (202) 986-6093. an opinion.” N

32 CONSCIENCE At the Back of the Bus ULTRA-ORTHODOX JUDAISM AND WOMEN By Dahlia Lithwick . 2011 © REUTERS/BAZ RATNER, RATNER, REUTERS/BAZ © Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women sit on a bus in the West Bank as men are reflected in the bus window.

N 2011 AN INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL to her school in clothing they deemed at the arrests of Jewish women attempting erupted when ultra-Orthodox men immodest. That event was the capstone to sing and pray at the Western Wall. in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh of other efforts by the ultra-Orthodox All of this seems to have created a tip- spat on and harassed an eight-year- community to marginalize women and ping point of sorts, suggesting that the old Modern Orthodox girl walking their voices in Israel. This includes a longstanding Israeli view that the ultra- campaign to seat women in the backs of Orthodox, or Haredim, may do what IDAHLIA LITHWICK public buses, the vandalizing of posters they please so long as they do so in their is a senior editor at Slate, and in that capacity writes the “Supreme or billboards featuring images of women, own spaces, had gone too far when “their Court Dispatches” and “Jurisprudence” a group of ultra-Orthodox soldiers own spaces” began to encompass public columns. Her work has appeared in the New refusing to attend events at which a spaces as well. York Times, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the Washington Post and Commentary, among woman singer was featured, as well as the In Israel in recent years, we have seen other places. growing international attention directed an increase in legal restraints on what

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 33 women can wear, where they can go, and matters of marriage, divorce and con- in part because Israel’s Haredi popula- how they can behave in areas such as version—itself a holdover from the tion has systematically put itself into a public sidewalks, supermarket checkout Ottoman policy allocating religious profoundly untenable social and eco- lines, playgrounds, waiting rooms and authority in Palestine to the religious nomic bind. They mainly live in isolated preschools. In some communities, mar- groups. Foundational questions of who communities, cut off from the rest of ried couples are even barred from is a Jew were also left to the Rabbinate. society. They focus on teaching their walking together on the streets. And in Today, issues of family law, including children to study Torah, or Bible, and extremely orthodox Jewish neighbor- custody and divorce, are still under the thus offer generally substandard curri- hoods in the United States and else- purview of the Rabbinate, regardless of cula in math, science and other fields where, this increasing conservatism is one’s personal religious affiliation. As vital to career advancement. The ultra- manifest through local governments and the ultra-Orthodox birthrates boomed, Orthodox opt out of army service, so that rogue groups, which have been able to this has come to mean that the religious the principal route of social and eco- marshal arguments about religious representatives of almost a million nomic advancement open to secular freedom to justify treating women as people (or nearly ten percent of the gen- Israeli youth is also closed to them. This they do. Simply put, community leaders eral population) now exert control over also engenders bitter resentment on the have been granted the political and legal fundamental issues that affect everyone, part of the population that is willing to authority to impose these decisions, and such as which rabbis may officiate what serve and even die in defense of Israel. they are taking advantage of this power weddings and which marriages are valid. Perhaps most vitally, these ultra- more and more. To be a valid marriage under Orthodox Orthodox groups largely believe that men But it hasn’t always been this way: halacha—Jewish religious law—both should study Torah in lieu of participation

The promise of gender equality guaranteed in Israel’s constitution has been on a collision course with the ultra-Orthodox establishment for decades.

photos of even Orthodox Jews before the parties must, among other things, be in the economy, such that only 38 percent founding of the state of Israel show that Jewish from matrilineal descent, a take any part whatsoever in the national women did not always cover their hair requirement that excludes many Russian, labor force, and many live on government and men and women were much freer Ethiopian and other self-identified welfare. With an average of six to eight to mingle, even at holy sites including Israeli Jews. As a result, a significant children per family, and the political clout the Western Wall. But today, ultra- number of secular Israelis now choose to to demand that they be permanently sub- Orthodox women are being regulated, marry in nearby Cypress or via fax sidized, the Haredim have grown to be an zoned and restricted with increasing through a helpful rabbi in Peru. abiding underclass that is supported by fervor, and the only question is whether On a deep level, then, the promise of working Israelis. Thus, subsidies and they will accede to it. gender equality guaranteed in Israel’s army exclusions—offered at the founding The situation in Israel has been com- constitution has been on a collision of the state to what was seen as a dying plicated from the outset. With the course with the ultra-Orthodox estab- minority of Haredim, about 1 percent of founding of the state in 1948, secular lishment for decades. It is vital to note, the population at the time—have become Israeli leaders settled upon what are however, that the Haredim—Haredi a financial obligation few hardworking known as the “Status Quo” agreements, literally means “trembling”—encompass Israelis wish to support with their already which essentially froze in amber the huge swaths of religious sects and view- high taxes. religious status of the times. For points, some of which are vehemently But Israel seems to be undergoing an example, cities that had no public bus opposed to the types of segregation and almost seismic shift in recent months. service on the Sabbath could not add it isolationism described here. That was confirmed by nothing so much (Orthodox Jewish law prohibits driving Ironically enough, the pushback as the surprising triumph of a centrist on the Sabbath). The Rabbinate—a reli- against religious gender bias in Israel political party, called Yesh Atid (“There gious, as opposed to secular, political appears to be happening as a conse- Is a Future”), which became the second- body—then had complete control of quence of democracy and demographics, largest faction in the national elections.

34 CONSCIENCE AT THE BACK OF THE BUS

Its charismatic leader, Yair Lapid, New York Times, “People say, ‘Wait a and the United States describe them- emerged from the woodwork with a minute, I don’t see myself as part of a selves as the victims of religious persecu- plank promising to draft Haredim into society where women cannot sit in the tion, zealotry and bigotry. Haredi Jews the army, to promote civil marriage and front of the bus.’” argue that they want simply to be let to empower Reform and Conservative The situation in the United States has alone. The question remains whether the rabbis. Heralding his project of freeing run a parallel course. Incidents in recent law permits them to be left alone to push Israel from the control of the ultra- years have included a discrimination their wives and daughters into an ever- Orthodox, last May Lapid warned that lawsuit filed against seven ultra- smaller public sphere, or extend their “Israel cannot be the only country in the Orthodox businesses for posting signs customs to an even larger one. Western world that has no freedom of commanding patrons to dress modestly, The answer to that question may well religion for Jews.” and demands for segregated public come from women themselves. One of As a result of cooperation between busing in ultra-Orthodox communities the great untold stories of recent decades Yesh Atid and a modern Orthodox party called Israeli Home, the coalition just formed under Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- yahu this March contains no commitment to the ultra-Orthodox platform or parties. The coalition also includes a clutch of modern orthodox reformers intent on imposing the draft on the Haredim and reassessing the role of the Rabbinate

in civil institutions. While .

it’s not easy to pinpoint the 2013 reasons Israelis have been so inspired by Lapid’s cam- paign message of “sharing the burden,” it’s clear that secular citizens have been © REUTERS/BAZ RATNER, RATNER, REUTERS/BAZ © increasingly horrified by A woman prays on one side of a partition at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, which has been the site of struggles with Orthodox the curtailment of wom- groups over women’s proper public role. en’s freedom. Since there is photographic evidence in New York. The New York Times is the extent to which ultra-Orthodox of ultra-Orthodox women enjoying recently reported on shadowy “modesty women have quietly carved out spaces for more social freedoms than many do committees” that terrorize the residents themselves in commerce and politics, in today, the new gender restrictions rep- of their neighborhoods into dressing entertainment and in law. In so doing, resent a modern reaction more than a according to the stringent code of they may have upset the legal and polit- longstanding tradition. Indeed, there is modest dress (thick stockings, long ical status quo in their own communities some evidence that as Haredi women are skirts). As is the case of Israeli incidents in the short term, but in the long term pushed into the workforce, the male of harassments and threats, the conduct they have also gained access to the levers authorities clamp down ever harder on is invariably ascribed to a handful of bad of power and policy for the first time in their movement and dress. And it may be actors and rarely condemned by the reli- modern history. More than any ground- that a repercussion to this sequence gious authorities. Segregated buses, both swell of political momentum in Israeli of events has stirred secular Israelis in Israel and the US, for instance, are secular society, or any one lawsuit filed to object. described as voluntary, and episodes of in America or Tel Aviv, that is why the As Mickey Gitzin, director of Be Free violence and threats are written off as voices of Haredi women will ultimately Israel, a group that advocates for equality isolated and unauthorized. determine whether their place at the back and religious pluralism, recently told the Haredi communities both in Israel of the bus is a permanent one. N

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 35 Meet Some Religious Extremists By Catholics for Choice

EXTREMISM IS COMMONLY THOUGHT TO BE ANOTHER FACE OF PATRIARCHY, BUT IN reality, there are plenty of women’s faces mixed in with the male majority within fundamen- talist movements. Women from a variety of faith traditions use religious ideology to override others’ claims to basic rights, especially reproductive rights. Below is a sampling of these women, some of whom have government or academic posts.

children and advocate for abominable UGANDA vices such as homosexuality….”; EL SALVADOR • Said at a youth conference: “In God’s JANET word, homosexuality attracts a curse, but JULIA REGINA MUSEVENI – now people are engaging in it and saying DE CARDENAL – Cabinet minister they are created that way. It is for President and for Karamoja money… The devil is stoking fires to executive Affairs; Member destroy our nation”; director of Sí a of Parliament • Was described in a cable sent by Senior La Vida, which representing Presidential Adviser John Nagenda in the is a partner of Ruhaama country’s own WikiLeaks scandal, who Vida Humana County, Ntungamo District; First Lady relayed to a US embassy political officer Internacional (the international arm of of Uganda that President Museveni is “quite Human Life International) Museveni: intemperate” about homosexuality, but De Cardenal: • Is described in her official government the First Lady is a “very extreme woman” • Opposes abortion as well as profile: “Above all Janet Museveni is a and the real motivation behind the comprehensive sexuality education; professed and active Christian whose work Anti-Homosexuality Bill, according to • Pointed to the case of Rosita, the and life is driven by faith”; Uganda’s Daily Monitor; nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl who had an • Stated that the lack of a customary • Appointed Rev. Martin Ssempa, who has abortion, saying that “the safest thing for weekend in Uganda “has made the publicly burned condoms and published her” would have been “to have the baby”; Ugandan families vulnerable and left room the names of alleged LGBT individuals in • Believes that abortion is never necessary for children to be influenced by teachings newspapers, as Special Representative to because “no case exists in which a and bad practices from abroad for example the First Lady of Uganda’s Task Force on woman’s life is in danger, now that people advocating for homosexuality”; AIDS; and technology has advanced so much”; • Spoke before a church audience and • Was a significant force behind the • Partnered with the Catholic hierarchy “urged the youth to invite God in their government’s downplaying of the “C” on a letter-writing campaign to the lives and become born-again believers and for Condoms in the ABC strategy for Legislative Assembly in 2002, asking it live a victorious Christian life free of the combating HIV & AIDS—according to not to ratify legislation to protect evils of promiscuity, homosexuality, Rubaramira Ruranga, the founder of an women from discrimination because it alcohol and drug abuse and the many NGO for people living with HIV & AIDS, “asks for the legalization of abortion, other pitfalls that await those insensitive who said: “When you get the wife of the promotes promiscuity and asks for the to the Spirit of God”; president and other senior people actually recognition of homosexual unions”; • Appeared at an Anglican cathedral and discouraging condoms, people listen. • Advanced a constitutional amendment in “criticized those who still call themselves They think, ‘Who else knows better 2009 to define marriage as between a Christians and yet continue to … defile than them?” man and a woman and justified this

36 CONSCIENCE position: “Now there are countries in schools in the country today assume which they are asking [for the USA that human lives begin at conception! recognition of unions] in which men or This is not a theological teaching but a women want to marry their pets!”; HELEN medical fact”; • Believes “the UN has been infiltrated by ALVARÉ – • Decried the shortcomings of the United gay organizations”; and Associate Nations’ efforts to advance women’s • Explains gender roles as innate: Professor of rights because “it seems there is a “Women are capable of staying at home Law at George tendency to think rather of the woman and taking care of children, while men go Mason Univer- and the girl as individual rights-bearers crazy if they stay at home taking care of sity School of despite both women’s and girls’ children, and that is part of Natural Law.” Law; former spokeswoman for the US aspirations to be in a family”; Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secre- • Testified before Congress that “there is tariat for Pro-life Activities; member of emerging evidence … that more easily PHILIPPINES the Holy See delegation at the 57th available abortion is associated with session of the UN Commission on the women‘s ‘immiseration’ and not their LIGAYA Status of Women in 2013 flourishing”; and ACOSTA, PHD – Alvaré: • Was described by Cardinal Tim Dolan of Regional • Explained that the “erosion of the New York as “attractive, articulate, Director for traditional family” is happening because intelligent,” in an interview, during which Asia and “sex is not tennis. It is not something a he also said that hiring her to speak for Oceania, man and woman might do for fun”; the bishops on abortion-related issues was Human Life • Is vehemently against contraception, “the best thing we ever did.” International leading journalist Sarah Posner to write a (HLI), a US-based antichoice organiza- profile of her titled “Birth Control’s tion that has been active in opposing Worst Enemy”; USA the RH Bill • Wrote in reaction to Sarah Posner’s Acosta: description of her as “birth control’s JUDIE BROWN – • Worked for the Philippines Department worst enemy”, “The comments are as President of the of Health for almost 30 years, where she expected: I am the worst kind of American Life supported the use of contraceptives and self-loathing, woman-hating, celibate- League (ALL); condoms; male-mouthpiece prude, who wouldn’t has served • Began campaigning against know good sex if it slapped her across three five-year contraception after a religious the face”; terms as a conversion experience in 2004 (“which • Delivered a speech at the UN member of the Pontifical Academy for she attributes in part to the reference Economic and Social Council meeting Life in Rome materials HLI provided her,” according dedicated to the elimination of violence Brown: to the HLI website); against women and girls in which she • Opposes “anybody, any law, any language • Has said that contraceptives are “Class 1 laid blame on women who had had or any argument that supports a single carcinogens”; abortions: “Abortion, in all its forms … abortion for any reason”; • Told an audience that foreign NGOs are cannot but contribute to aggravating • Led ALL when it was one of the early sending vaccines to developing nations to the spread and the pain of violence in proponents of aggressive and intimidating reduce their population by making our societies”; techniques such as sidewalk counseling, children sterile; • Opposes same-sex marriage because: clinic blockades and the systematic • Promotes the idea that “the Filipino “Every time same-sex marriage targeting of patients and doctors, family is under siege by international proponents tell people that marriage is according to Right Wing Watch; death peddlers—among them USAID, utterly unrelated to children but strictly • Has repeatedly taken the bishops to task UNFPA, IPPF and others which are about a feeling, they are destroying the for not coming down more harshly on pouring limitless funds into our poor, the uneducated, and the formation prochoice Catholics: “As the faithful country to annihilate the nation’s of their family lives. Don’t tell me you’re watch the accelerated destruction of children”; and in solidarity with them when your morality in America and the Henry the • Advocates for therapy to change sexual argument is destroying their lives”; VIII-style tactics of the attempted orientation: “Homosexuality can and has • Erroneously said that “the obstetrics destruction of Catholicism in America by been healed.” textbooks used in the leading medical Obama and his ‘Catholic’ drones, one

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 37 FUNDAMENTALIST WOMEN

wonders where most of America’s bishops • Stated that “human life begins at the suffered by rape,” according to the are… Why have these high-profile moment of fertilization. This is an Guardian; destructive Catholics not been publically objective, scientific fact, not a question of • Belongs to the Familiokratos coalition, rebuked?”; ideology, politics or religion”; which points to the male-female • Has publicly criticized Cardinal Dolan • Believes that the zygote “is a human life” marriage and the family as the basis for turning down an invitation to attend a and thus “is subject to the same rights as for human rights and the fundamental dinner at which she would be present, yet any other individual of the species”; unit of society, and believes we must choosing to dine with President Obama • Described Spain’s abortion law, “not to reinvent humanity along the at the Al Smith dinner: “On the one hand, liberalized in 2010: “[It offers] security, if lines of some artificial ideology: the he found it problematic that I led and by that you meant that it grants the first and last sign of the approach of continue to lead a campaign to beseech security to commit a murder”; totalitarianism is the collapse of Catholic bishops to obey canon 915 and • Rejects the need for legalized abortion the family”; deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion because “no woman in her right mind” • Takes an essentialist view of gender roles, politicians. On the other hand, he finds it would choose it; encouraging legislation that “truly Christlike to dine with the most • Spoke out against same-sex marriage promot[es] their intrinsic qualities… pro-abortion president in the history of because “children have a right to a Since women are experts in relationships, this nation”; mother and a father”; networks, and the management and • Embraces stratified gender roles—a 1979 • Frequently speaks out in opposition to resolution of conflicts, they can promote People profile about her and her husband the morning-after pill, which she peace; and that is the real revolution we said that “her own mother ‘waited on my considers to have abortifacient properties; all need today”; father hand and foot, and they were very • Called in vitro fertilization an act of • Is very sensitive about “gender” in policy happy. I am very proud to have someone I “aggression” and says that IVF changes language: “Gender mainstreaming want to wait on. I love being married to a human reproduction from “a sublime act constitutes a form of social and chauvinist’”; and of love” to “a sublime act of technology, instrumental engineering which aims to • Is against contraception because making the embryo pass through quality change natural masculine and feminine “contraception has ensnared women in control”; and identities and their expression in public more ways than one…. [They] suffer and • Opposes generating stem cells for and private life”; even die because of it”—she recounts her treatment purposes because this “values • Made a motion to delete a resolution own experience with taking birth control the life of a sick person more than the life affirming that “all women have control and wonders “how many silent abortions of an embryo,” which, she says, is over their sexual and reproductive rights, occurred in my body.” equivalent to Hitler’s statement “Since not least by having access to the Jews are going to die, we might as contraception and abortion.…”; well experiment upon them.” • Said during a discussion about same-sex SPAIN marriage and civil partnerships, “This debate demonstrates the way in which MÓNICA LÓPEZ SLOVAKIA the argument of non-discrimination BARAHONA – based on gender and sexual orientation Bioethicist; ANNA is lumped together with the argument director of the ZABORSKA – for free movement of workers, with a Jérôme Lejeune Member of single aim: to force the Member States Chair for European to make fundamental changes to their Bioethics at Parliament, national traditions in the field of civil Madrid’s Center Slovakia; law, which governs the definition of the for Biosanitary Studies; member of the member of EP family”; and administrative council for the Pontif- Committee on • Said, according to LifeSiteNews, while ical Academy for Life; holds a Women’s Rights and Gender Equality contesting her portrayal as anti-gay-rights doctorate in chemistry and a masters and Committee on Development; by the media: “I was referring to a in philosophy physician specializing as an ENT situation where images of people dancing López Barahona: Zaborska: naked in love parades in places like Berlin • Said that “what we know about the origin • Opposes abortion even in rape cases, or Rome are broadcast on TV and of life makes clear that science is in line arguing that when “[the victim] ends her watched by children. I was questioning with the magisterium of the Catholic child’s life—the jolt from killing her own myself if these people should be teachers church”; child is often bigger than the one of my kids.” n

38 CONSCIENCE GISA: Global Interfaith & Secular Alliance

HE GLOBAL INTERFAITH AND that time, some have attempted to use religious extremism in key countries and Secular Alliance: Working conservative interpretations of religious its impact on SRHR, especially with for Reproductive and Sexual and cultural beliefs to restrict the global regards to access to contraception, safe Health and Rights (GISA) is a political landscape for SRHR. This was abortion services and comprehensive group of faith-based and evident at the 45th session of the UN sexuality education. GISA allies collect secular organizations from around the Commission on Population and Devel- and publish this evidence to raise Tworld working and strategizing collec- opment in 2011, the sessions of the UN awareness of religious extremism as a tively to counter religious extremist Commission on the Status of Women in decisive threat to women’s human rights forces that seek to curtail global prog- 2011 and 2012, and the Rio+20 Summit and women’s autonomy. ress on guaranteeing reproductive and in June 2012, where vigorous efforts sexual rights. GISA was formed in were made to block references to gender 2. Building the capacity of allies to October 2011 as a result of the Global equality, access to services and compre- effectively counter religious opposition Advocacy Planning Meeting on Reli- hensive sexuality education by religious to SRHR by offering skills-building gious Funda mentalisms in Yogyakarta, extremist groups and their allies using workshops in the Global South and the Indonesia, which was convened by the vague and inaccurate interpretations of Global North to create a diverse, credible Asian-Pacific Resource and Research religious teachings. As the world looks and truly global coalition of allies Centre for Women (ARROW) and Catho- forward to the review and renewal advocating for SRHR. This network will lics for Choice (CFC). The alliance is processes for key documents and devel- challenge the perceived monopoly structured to enhance partnerships opment frameworks in 2014-2015, GISA enjoyed by some extremists when it between organizations based in the will leverage policies related to sexual comes to representing people of faith. Global South and the Global North to and reproductive health and rights. The counteract religious extremism when it alliance will also create and present 3. Engaging in evidence-based advocacy threatens the sexual and reproductive sound alternatives to religious extremism before key international arenas to push rights agenda. from a progressive, women-centered, for a women-centred, rights-based values-based position that advances the sexual and reproductive health agenda. OUR RATIONALE international sexual and reproductive GISA allies will educate decision-makers Almost two decades ago, the landmark rights agenda while pushing for positive to effectively and consistently combat the international consensus documents of change at multiple levels. influence of religious extremist groups in the International Conference on Popula- the policy-making process. tion and Development in Cairo (1994) OUR AGENDA and the Fourth World Conference on GISA’s three-point strategic agenda is OUR POSITION STATEMENT Women in Beijing (1995) succeeded in centered on the following actions: Time and again, religious extremists have securing a place for women’s sexual and attempted to influence public policy to reproductive health and rights (SRHR) on 1. Creating knowledge and generating curtail access to reproductive and sexual the global development agenda. Since evidence to define the negative trends of health services and resources. They use

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 39 GISA: GLOBAL INTERFAITH & SECULAR ALLIANCE conservative interpretations of religious People of faith are sometimes por- When religious extremists set the teachings to justify denying access to trayed as unquestioning, and religious public health agenda, they force their basic health services. As a result, many leaders are thought to represent all narrow interpretations upon everyone— people—mostly women, mostly poor— believers. When it comes to reproduc- believers and non-believers alike. These suffer needlessly. tive and sexual health and rights, nothing extremists seek to restrict access to Adherence to these narrow inter- could be further from the truth: there is modern methods of family planning and pretations of religious doctrine should strong support for these rights among life-saving and therapeutic medicines not be given greater priority than adherents of every religion. and procedures; deny young people crit- ensuring life, health and well-being. Faith leaders are thought to represent ical information about their health; deny Most people of faith —regardless of their all dimensions of their religion. Yet there those who are most vulnerable to HIV religion—live their lives concerned with are many disagreements among the infection the means to protect them- what is best for themselves, their families clerics of every faith, and every religion selves; and more. and communities rather than uncom- bears internal inconsistencies and varia- The Global Interfaith and Secular promising adherence to religious ide- tions from one culture and context to Alliance is a groundbreaking global ology. People make choices according to another. Support for reproductive and effort uniting people of different reli- these priorities and according to the sexual health and rights exists within the gions—and of no religion—in support dictates of their individual conscience. tenets of every faith. of reproductive and sexual rights.

CONVENING PARTNERS

The Asian-Pacific Resource and Now Available Research Centre for Women (ARROW) is the leading regional women’s partner- ship NGO working on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Global South for the past 18 years. ARROW has systematically utilized stra- tegic information dissemination, evidence generation, capacity building, advocacy and partnership building as DIGITAL EDITIONS strategies to achieve our objectives. They currently work with 26 regional Read your favorite cutting-edge coverage of partnerships across the Asian-Pacific reproductive rights, church and state issues region and have regional partnerships across the Global South. and US politics on your handheld device: Catholics for Choice shapes and advances sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women’s well-being and respect and affirm the capacity of women and men to make moral decisions about their lives. CFC works in the United States and internationally to ensure that all people have access to safe and afford- Add the newsjournal of Catholic opinion able reproductive healthcare services and to your digital library of searchable, to infuse our core values into public policy, community life and Catholic interactive content. social thinking and teaching. Catholics for Choice is at the forefront of national and international debates on the inter- section of faith, women’s health and catholicsforchoice.org/conscience reproductive justice. n

40 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS

lauded. Greek marriages were, by and Unintentional Erotica and large, open to adultery so long as discre- tion was practiced—given that you were Intentional Repression: not the woman in said pairing, in which case you could be stripped of your rights Church, State and Sex and beaten at will by your husband, with only the most slim chance of a divorce By Bennett Elliott should this be proven. Pagan Rome is often cast in a similar light as Greece when it comes to sexual attitudes—as an empire without physical Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire restraint before the church rose to power Eric Berkowitz and imposed a tyrannical attitude (Counterpoint, 2012, 352 pp) towards sex upon the whole of the 978-1582437965, $17.89 Western world. The book debunks this characterization by citing an iteration of the cult of Bacchus that engaged in “dec- ROM THE ANCIENT SUMERIANS “All ancient civilizations,” affirms the adent” sexual behavior with the sons and on to the Greeks and Romans all opening chapter, “were intent on con- daughters of some of Rome’s most pres- the way through to sodomy trolling people’s sex lives.” Going back tigious citizens. Originating as a female trials in Victorian England, Eric to nearly 2100 BC, one of the first capital cult that later accepted male initiates, the Berkowitz’s Sex and Punishment: punishment laws recorded anywhere Bacchanal was eventually accused of cor- Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire pertains to adultery: “Ur-Nammu’s Law rupting young men. In response, the Fcharts the emergence and No. 7 mandated that mar- Roman government undertook a cam- often-surreal mutations of ried women who seduced paign beginning in 186 BC that laws governing sexual activ- other men were to be killed; “unleashed a massive wave of terror that ities and attitudes. The their lovers were to be let off lasted two years and claimed about seven product of Berkowitz’s scot-free.” Incest, prostitu- thousand lives throughout Italy.” Key extensive scholarship is a tion, masturbation, adultery, senators claimed that sex-crazed antics well-written, disturbing, pederasty, bestiality—these such as those practiced by the cult would frequently entertaining and acts have always existed “crush the commonwealth.” almost impossibly informa- among humans, according When Constantine came to power tive tome that masterfully to Berkowitz, though the and pagan attitudes shifted to Christian disrupts the popular notion attitudes about these behav- practices upon his conversion, a change that there has been conti- iors have been anything but in sexual mores began to occur— nuity in sexual legislation stable, even in the same geo- though the contrast was not always as across the ages. It also undermines the graphic location and era. severe as is commonly thought. Before oft-heard pleas for sexual mores to Ancient Greece is frequently held up the fall of Rome, homosexuality was return to some ill-defined age of as an example of liberal sexual attitudes, tolerated, though thought to be unblemished propriety. Above all else, a paradise of reason overflowing with shameful. As Christianity became the the author conveys that, while laws parity between men and women, men state religion, homosexuality was out- governing sex have always been fluid, and men, women and women—but the lawed, but these laws were loosely the propensity to punish those who historical record indicates otherwise. enforced. By 533 AD, all homosexual would claim autonomy over their own While men often kept company with acts were labeled an “offense against bodies has been a constant. And as for young boys (generally as some part of God” and Emperor Justinian was regu- those halcyon days of sexual freedom: tutelage that contained components of larly “executing homosexuals, espe- despite Berkowitz’s expert scholarship social mobility), associations between cially those in the clergy.” However, as he is unable to locate precisely where two grown men were not always viewed the Roman Empire crumbled and the this bygone era might reside in the in as favorable of a light, specifically for church expanded, state and religious written record. those males in the receptive role. law began to part ways and such atro- Unless, of course, they were in a Spartan cious punishments as “death by castra-

BENNETT ELLIOTT is a freelance writer living military unit, in which case all aspects tion”—though they are normally in Washington, DC. of homosexual relationships were attributed to ecclesiastical authorities—

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 41 actually fell outside religious jurisdic- an exceedingly wealthy institution with of who owns what be undone—should tion and were enacted by municipalities. a pronounced concern for what did and “logic” be fundamentally undermined by This divergence between the spiri- did not constitute moral behavior. Some- that “most primal of urges”—then, tual and secular enforcement of morals where around the year 1200 it began very surely, society would collapse and is most interestingly catalogued in gradually to address sexual offenses, spe- humanity would degenerate into a feral Berkowitz’s analysis of church peniten- cifically prostitution, with something shambles of equity. tials—books that served as “the church’s more than penance. However, even this It is this last observation that makes field guides for ranking good and bad shift was not as rigid in its parameters as it clear to the reviewer why Berkowitz sexual behavior” among other uses. If compared to the modern hierarchy’s chose to stop at the end of the 19th cen- the church’s views on sexuality can be standards of morality. “The church’s tury. Sex and Punishment rounds out said to have issued from St. Paul and St. involvement in prostitution was never with the rise of the Comstock Laws in Augustine, then the codification of hidden,” Berkowitz states flatly. Bishops the US—which prohibited sending what constitutes “good” and “bad” provided exclusive municipal franchises “obscene materials,” as well as contra- sexual behavior must surely issue from to aristocratic families for brothels. The ceptives, through the mail—and also the apogee of church power, the Middle local abbess for Avignon was responsible the Oscar Wilde trial and the “Maiden Ages. The author points out that peni- for revenue collection at the city brothel. Tribute of Modern Babylon” scandal. In tentials were not a product of the church In Perpignan, the Dominicans collected the third of this trio the reader is con- hierarchy, but instead were compiled alms for the upkeep of the order’s bor- fronted with a bizarre tale of journalism

While laws governing sex have always been fluid, the propensity to punish those who would claim autonomy over their own bodies has been a constant.

locally and “varied from parish to dello. The author also makes it clear that and child prostitution along with an parish.” The result was a labyrinth of conduct in nunneries was much more underlying message: the legal frame- rules about sexual behaviors and their colorful than the majority of representa- work for sexual morality in the “modern” corresponding penances that were, by tions presented in textbooks or cinematic world is a hangover from the late Victo- the author’s account, some of the most treatments of the subject—the situation rian era. These three cases lay bare the pell-mell collections of unintentional often had to become bawdy in the striking similarity with which both eras erotica and intentional repression ever extreme for the church to finally step in approach sexual morality in the state- created. Covering a galaxy’s worth of and shut it down. house, religious institutions and the “lusts” and “indiscretions,” some peni- The Inquisition; the Reformation; the newsroom. If sexual legislation is implic- tentials asserted that “a man who had Salem witch trials; male civil unions in itly an issue of property, then many of sex with a pig knew that he was being late Medieval France; the rise of pornog- our lawmakers, church leaders and jour- less offensive to God than he would be raphy; the Marquis de Sade; the sexual nalists are still grappling with the very if he was having anal sex with his wife.” proclivities of pirates, aristocrats, boot- Victorian notion that some people need One thing these penitentials did not do, blacks and kings; 19th century sex traf- to have their sexual agency denied in however, was prescribe torture or death ficking—Berkowitz’s scope is impressive order to safeguard the common good of as a punishment. By and large, until the and rarely off target. While the reader society. Their reasoning is that, while onset of the Inquisition the church’s may quibble a bit about which topics he women and LGBT individuals together focus was on penance, and while pen- chooses to spend more time with, a wide make up over 50 percent of both the ance would take different forms (even overview with only a few major points Catholic church and the state, the sexual for the same offense) from the laity to for in-depth analysis allows the book to autonomy of this majority is a threat to the clergy, the church was not in the illustrate his implicit thesis: that the their own safety. Those who value business of torturing or killing homo- overwhelming majority of sexual legisla- freedom in their most intimate acts have sexuals, adulterers, pederasts and bes- tion was created, and to this day persists, long been opposed by civil and religious tialists. Secular authorities took as an extension of property law. Through authorities, and if neither side can point responsibility—if they could be both- numerous examples, Sex and Punishment to an age of complete license or perfect ered—for worldly punishments. exposes the foundation of fear upon propriety, there has been enough flu- The church was both the preeminent which such restrictive thinking rests. idity throughout the years to indicate international organization in Europe and Namely, that should the understanding room for change. n

42 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS

race), but the ideological background to Left Foot Forward: her work is glossed over. A more pene- trating analysis of the tensions that Advancing Sexual Rights these viewpoints must have generated would have been fascinating to read. in Britain Later calls from the left for a change in contraceptive policy emanated from By Roger Ingham a wish to reduce the numbers of children born in working class families so that the health of mothers and children could be preserved and improved. Again, this Sexual Politics: Sexuality, Family Planning and the British Left was not necessarily an appeal for wom- from the 1880s to the Present Day en’s rights, but rather a pragmatic solu- Stephen Brooke tion to poverty and ill-health with the (Oxford University Press. 2011, 320 pp) idea that poor and unhealthy women 978-0-19-956254-1, $125.00 could not serve the needs of their men- folk, the demands of home or industry or the good of their country. At around EXUAL POLITICS; SEXUALITY, section is understandably rather short and this time, women’s trade unions became Family Planning and the comparatively superficial. actively involved with the family plan- British Left from the 1880s to The early period was characterized ning cause by organizing marches to the Present Day is a fascinating by belief systems that we find quite London, direct lobbying and coalitions. yet ultimately frustrating book unbelievable these days, such as that the However, as Brooke points out, the tracing the political history of reform and success of true socialism required a arguments in favor of birth control in Schange in three domains eugenic approach. For this period worked against the push for related to sexuality— example, the renowned a more general emancipation of women, namely, birth control, statistician Maurice Ken- since they did little to challenge the tra- abortion and gay rights. dall (a key feature of all ditional, gender-stratified working-class The author, Stephen first-year university statis- family structure. Indeed, they perpetu- Brooke, a historian based tics textbooks) regarded ated the status quo by trying to make in Toronto, reports on the maternity as a method of the existing family configuration more multiple forces driving “citizen-making,” neces- bearable for women while leaving the change within, and fos- sary in order to bring about men’s position untouched. tered by, the Socialist and a socialist state where all Among those working to change Labour and Trade Union could and would contribute society there were also those in the movements. equally. For him, and many British left who turned a reformist lens The three main parts of others at the time, women’s upon their own movement. Dora Russell the book trace key events during different economic independence was necessary and Naomi Mitchison, both feminists, historical periods—between the world so that they could contribute to society, authors and socialist activists, had visions wars; from the 1940s to 1967, the year of not because it was their entitlement. of a British society that allowed for the Abortion Act; and then from 1967 to A further source of frustration greater sexual freedom, reflected in their around 1997. A short final chapter brings appears in this section. Marie Stopes, a open discussion of sexual pleasure. Marie the story up to date with the New Labour pioneer of birth control clinics in the Stopes had earlier discussed sex as a plea- initiatives, although since the book took UK and a suffragette, shared these views surable activity, but only if it was snug- the best part of ten years to write, this last on eugenics and even (according to some gled up safely within marriage. Russell, biographies) wrote poems for Hitler in in comparison, frequented Blooms-

ROGER INGHAM is professor of health and support of his approach to building bury—which, for the benefit of non-UK community psychology, and director of the healthy and robust societies. But this readers of this review, is an intellectual Centre for Sexual Health Research at the aspect of Stopes’ involvement is not haven far from the grime and noise of the University of Southampton, UK. He has mentioned in the book; instead, she is UK’s industrial hotbeds. In the cases of researched many aspects of sexual health described as a pioneer of clinics (in con- Russell, Mitchison and Stopes, demands over the years and has been involved in various aspects of national and international junction with Margaret Sanger, who has for birth control access came from policy development. also been criticized for her views on women of the left, but also developed

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 43 Bookshelf Catholic Teaching Brothers: from completely different philosophies Their Life in the English-Speaking World, 1891-1965 about women and sexuality. Tom O’Donoghue (Palgrave Macmillan 2012, 226 pp) As an aside, one of this reviewer’s This book is a dual history: of Catholic religious brothers and of Catholic religious favorite quotes attributed to Dora Rus- education from the late 19th century until Vatican II. The writer was schooled by the sell (which Brooke does not mention) is: Irish Christian Brothers and subsequently worked in a missionary school run by “We want better reasons for having chil- the same order. In O’Donoghue’s view, women religious have historically sought dren than not knowing how to prevent recognition from the institutional church for their contributions, even before them.” The author does include an Vatican II, but religious brothers have not done the same, leading to a near- excerpt from a letter Dora Russell wrote invisibility even among Catholics. Catholic Teaching Brothers paints a familiar to her husband, in which she said, “I hate portrait of the order, yet the author is not afraid to make critical statements, the Labour Party and men are quite dis- especially in the section on sexual abuse. Ranging from Ireland to other parts of gusting.” It’s a compelling phrase, but the English-speaking world, this book provides compelling insight into the the reasons for, and impacts of, this brothers, the third arm of the Catholic religious and one with ever-diminishing apparent anger are not really explored numbers. or explained in the book. A further glimpse of the rather strong The Logic of Desire: Aquinas on Emotion emotions held by some activists came Nicholas E. Lombardo (Catholic University of America Press 2010, 319 pp) almost 50 years later. Member of Parlia- At the mention of the name Aquinas, the human faculty that comes to mind is ment Leo Abse was a strong advocate for reason. This book, however, examines Aquinas’ rational approach to emotion and reforming laws concerning homosexu- desire. His belief that God commands us through our God-given desires is a novel ality, but was not at all supportive of birth way of viewing the world through the eyes of this Doctor of the Church. Rather than control or abortion. In his 1973 memoir assuming an attitude of denial like some of his contemporaries, Aquinas held that Abse reportedly described abortion law passion was essential to human flourishing—with the necessary guidance of reformer Stella Browne, who had died reason, of course. Aquinas’ classification system for passions is rather dry and some 18 years earlier, as a “loud-mouthed technical, but that foundation leads to much more interesting sections about the filthy story-telling ragbag.” Others asso- way human affection compares to that of God and the angels, as well as an ciated with the abortion rights movement analysis of Christ’s emotional experience and Passion. In the last segment the were merely called “intelligent shrill author attempts to apply Aquinas’ science of the Passion to modern-day ailments viragos.” like boredom—a pervasive phenomenon that has received little serious or As the book progresses it is enlight- compassionate attention from either modern psychology or the church. ening to realize that the social causes now usually aligned under the general heading Soldier of Christ: The Life of Pope Pius XII of “sexual and reproductive rights” devel- Robert A. Ventresca (Belknap Press 2012, 432 pp) oped through very different routes and Before he was Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli was papal nuncio to Germany for over originated from such different roots. The a decade, which led to his reputation within the Vatican as someone with the best push for wider access to birth control and grasp of the German psyche. This impression was put to the test during his papal abortion served similar aims—popula- reign, which stretched from 1939 to 1958. The author does an admirable job tion control was the most frequently cited creating a restrained, historical investigation of this controversial pope and the goal for earlier reformers, but as this question that dogs his memory to this day—could he have mustered a better developed into a call for reproductive Vatican response to the atrocities of World War II? Or put another way, does rights, this in turn became a part of an attaining the office of pope wipe away any previously existing character traits? overarching demand for women’s rights. Soldier of Christ provides ample and extremely readable documentation about On the other hand, the gay rights cause the Vatican’s diplomatic relations during the period in question, leaving it up to was seen as a middle class irrelevance for the reader to decide if Pius could have done more. Perhaps the most damning much of the 1900s until a few pioneers impression one walks away with is that of Vatican diplomacy itself and its really started to become engaged with limitations. Pius XII’s single focus when dealing with Hitler over many years was depicting gays and lesbians as a more uni- the concordat between the Holy See and Germany. With the Vatican’s temporal versal constituency. Even then, some who presence only recently restored in 1929 with the Lateran treaty, the pope had to be were generally supportive of reforming concerned with shoring up the Holy See’s power and prestige with assurances like the UK’s criminal statutes on same-sex concordats, which may well have distracted him from addressing a human rights activity seemed to have been drawn in out crisis of epic proportions as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic church. of pity for the poor homosexual men who (continued on page 45) suffered from a “disability and a very real

44 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS Bookshelf (continued from page 44) disability,” as MP Roy Jenkins called it Catholics in the American Century: Recasting Narratives of U.S. History in what Brooke termed a “benevolent R. Scott Appleby and Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Editors condescension.” Even Leo Abse, who (Cornell University Press 2012, 224 pp) sponsored the early Sexual Offences This book is a collection of essays about America seen through a Catholic lens over Bill, arguably at great risk to his own the last century. One of the starting places is to compare John F. Kennedy’s pluralistic career, did so for fear of “little boys Catholicism with that of his contemporary, Jesuit John Courtney Murray. Murray had growing up to be adult homosexuals.” fallen afoul of the Vatican because he advocated for the US concept of religious This was a real hodgepodge of a bill, but freedom rather than a united church-state, but he often criticized American culture it did start the ball rolling for greater for its secularism and decadence. This ambivalence about Catholics being a part of recognition of the civil rights of gays the larger American society surfaces in several of the essays in the book. and lesbians. Brooke describes this early One of the most interesting offerings is the chapter titled “Crossing the Catholic legislation as “more about sexual diffi- Divide: Gender, Sexuality and Historiography” because it complicates what is often a dence than about difference.” too-simple conflict between Catholics (as a monolith) versus reproductive health Sexual Politics traces these develop- options. It recounts the story of Mary Steichen Calderone, a Quaker and influential ments within leftist political movements sex educator who found allies, as well as enemies, among priests. Her intent was to in great detail and with great insight. In promote a sex-affirming ethic that would resonate in people of all religions and she a number of places, however, it would had some success. The overall impact of the book is a valuable one: in this day and have been helpful to have known a lot age when the hierarchy is extremely vocal about its version of American Catholicism, more about some of the people who in truth, Catholics have always had to forge their own vision of what it is to be appear but then disappear from the cast Catholic in America—sometimes creating something entirely new, sometimes in of characters—either as supporters or sharp contrast to others of their same faith. opponents of one movement or another. It would also be useful to read more Beyond Obedience and Abandonment: about some of the differences between Toward a Theory of Dissent in Catholic Education opposing sub-groups within the Socialist Graham P. McDonough (McGill Queens University Press 2012, 307 pp) and Labour movements, as well as what At the beginning of the book the author recounts conversations he had about the specific factors seem to have catalyzed project: he would ask people if they had ever avoided politics or religion among the substantive advances in abortion, polite company. “The answer was always ‘yes,’ with a smile that uncovered the contraception and LGBT rights during anticipation of a well-planned rejoinder,” he said. When it comes to Catholicism, the periods in question. there are many issues that tend to create the same guarded reaction—abortion, The narrative would have benefited homosexuality and contraception are just a few of many subjects that are too hot to from the inclusion of more than just handle among polite company, much less within religious education. Yet that is written sources, of which Brooke clearly precisely the aim of this volume: to create a “pedagogy of dissent” or a teaching consulted many (including biographies, method that allows room for students who take conscientious stances against minutes of meetings, official records of certain Catholic teachings. One of the central points of Beyond Obedience and parliamentary proceedings, books and Abandonment is that “a systemic suppression of dissent within the church” has led journal articles, contemporaneous to a severe underrepresentation of dissenting Catholic views for teachers to draw newspapers and others). Although the from. And, McDonough says, people are leaving the church in droves because period covered is vast, some of the fig- they’re taught there’s only one way to be Catholic. This book is itself is a step ures from the relatively recent era are towards righting these wrongs with an intelligent and caring kind of dialogue. still available to be interviewed. History recounted in the words of those who Reproductive Health Psychology lived it could well have provided more Olga B. A. van den Akker (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 360 pp) context to the political scene: the deals There are many useful resources for both psychologists and medical professionals (if any) that were made behind doors to in this handbook. For example, “Psychological Processes of Fertility” has a helpful support certain legislation; the differ- summary of psychological disorders that can occur during and after pregnancy. ences of opinion between reformers and Some may find that the book’s main advantage lies in its collection of scholarly how (if) they were resolved; how many citations. While it cannot aim to provide an exhaustive treatment of the wide span legislators voted one way or another for of topics it contains, the chapter on abortion doesn’t transcend the level of a list or fear of losing votes as opposed to gen- bring the reader into the mind and experience of a woman in that situation. This uine commitment to a cause; the covert may be due to the fact that the author, a professor of psychology, is directing her and overt influence of faith groups; and writing to others in the field, whose clinical experience has already exposed them so on. For example, some of the leading to the complex realities of reproductive health.

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 45 parliamentarians such as David Steel and David Alton, as well as other key To Restore Eden: players like Peter Tatchell, Joyce (now Baroness) Gould, Dilys Cossey and The Paradox of Church Reform others, are still very much with us and, in some cases, still very much involved. By Henk Baars Another point that deserves mention is Brooke’s fairly frequent use of the term “pro-abortion” to describe the various Reassessing Reform—A Historical Investigation into Church Renewal groups that were lobbying for choice. Christopher M. Bellitto and David Zachariah Flanagin, Editors Some recognition and/or discussion of (Catholic University of America Press, 2012, 304 pp) the way that this term is often used by 978-0813219998, $69.95 critics to attack (with varying degrees of subtleness and aggression) those who support a woman’s right to choose would HE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS After several professorships at various have served both completeness and accu- celebrating the 50th anni- American universities and research insti- racy—as would a mention of the way that versary of Vatican II, but tutions, in 1963 Ladner moved to the “pro-life” is used to imply that those who there is another significant University of California, Los Angeles, argue for reproductive choice are milestone in church reform where he became a popular professor spe- somehow against life. that occurred around the same time— cializing in medieval church history. It is But no one volume can cover every- Tthe publication of Gerhart in this period of history that thing, and each reader will bring his or Ladner’s The Idea of Reform: Ladner found the roots of a her own frustrations to bear when Its Impact on Christian recurrent reform movement reading the book—and will likely learn Thought and Action in the Age in the Catholic church. a great deal from it. The approach of of the Fathers. In Reassessing Reassessing Reform is essen- Sexual Politics is sound: including birth Reform scholars build upon tially an homage to this control, abortion and LGBT issues Ladner’s work to understand original thinker compiled together in one volume illustrates the where the urge for reform by representatives of the multiple and sometimes contradictory comes from, and how it generation of students and positions that eventually were woven relates to a broader social scientists influenced by him. into a more unified rights agenda. Out and historical context. Nowadays we often asso- of this convoluted beginning was even- Gerhart Ladner was born ciate the word “reform” with tually born the legislation that advanced in 1905 to a Jewish family in the string of demands we sexual and reproductive rights in Britain Vienna. He converted to continually, and rightfully, to where they stand today. On the other Catholicism in the early 1930s and fled to place on the church leadership. This is the hand, the book addresses sexuality but London in 1938 upon Hitler’s annexation same list that is being presented now to not sexually transmitted diseases and of Austria. After the conclusion of the war, Pope Francis: modify the church’s moral their particular impact during war Ladner settled in the US, where he became teachings, allow women to play equal roles times—the emergence of HIV, for one of the preeminent professors at the as men in the church and, above all, trans- instance, is relevant to the discussion University of Notre Dame. Nevertheless, form the church structure into something because it forced greater recognition of, the émigré retained his European men- more transparent and democratic. We can and openness about, routes of transmis- tality—connecting him to a Europe that gain insight into the pressing concerns of sion and sexual practices. Also over- had disintegrated in the two World our time by looking at how the early looked was the way that Margaret Wars—which made it difficult for his church responded to the various move- Thatcher objected to—and delayed— American students to identify with him. ments emerging in the medieval period the national sexual attitude and behavior and thereafter. The book offers various survey (now NATSAL, and in its third HENK BAARS is president of case studies to support this view: Pope decade of data-collection). While we do Marienburgvereniging, a movement of Gregory VII’s strategies for managing learn a great deal from this fascinating Catholics working for a changing church, as change; shifts in governance within the book, all of the abovementioned areas well as president of Church and Peace, the Dominican order; and Biblical and church oldest peace movement in the Netherlands. are important aspects of sexual and reform at the Council of Basel in 1433, A long-time European advisor for CFC, he is reproductive rights in the UK that also manager of Stek, a Protestant social which occurred in dialogue with the fol- remain to be explored. n relief organization in The Hague. lowers of Jan Hus, the Czech forerunner

46 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS of the Protestant Reformation. The in behavior change and set the wheels in new thinkers will never get to the genesis chapter studying lay spirituality in the motion for institutional reforms. of what exactly sparks the metamor- works of 15th century German theologian In other words, according to Ladner, phosis to begin with. Nicholas of Cusa provides some inter- the heart of the church does not lie in The Holy Ghost is an elusive but esting concepts, while the section on its structures, whether literal or figura- essential force within in the church. This reflective orders of monks acting as advi- tive. For example, in cases where con- means that reformation can be deliber- sors to lay elites at the eve of the Protestant gregations are not able to maintain a ately chosen, with the major condition Reformation is also very stimulating. church building for financial reasons, that it is a joint product of God and man. Each contributor enriches the reader the faith community can sustain itself Reform is traditional, in that its ultimate with a different angle of the historical by continuing to congregate elsewhere. intention is to restore what was lost in church, and the net effect is to compel a This arrangement is not only cost effec- the Garden of Eden, a process that it is new look at the current renewal strategy tive, but the ministers appointed from based in theology. But paradoxically, it being employed by Catholics critical of the congregation are able to thrive in always originates as a personal spiritual the church status quo. Then as now, it positions for which they had been transformation—making it neither seems that all attempts at reform fail denied official authorization. There are entirely new nor a replica of the past when they reach the gates of the Vatican. many examples of Catholics in America One of the authors, M. Vargas, For many years the church has decayed and Europe who stay true to their faith asserts that Ladner’s basic ideas are too from within because it refuses to adopt by altering their form of worship. These straightforward to explain the complex some of the innovative ideas that the rest pioneers pave the way for others. relationship between individuals and of society utilizes. Today’s innovative Catholics are well institutions. It may very well be too

Reform aims to restore what was lost in the Garden of Eden, but it always originates as a personal spiritual transformation—making it neither entirely new nor a replica of the past.

However, ecclesia semper reformanda— within the tradition of St. Francis of simple to present the current crisis in the church is always being reformed. This Assisi and his poverty movement, which the church as two opposites—good dictum—popular in both the Protestant also began with personal conviction. reformers versus conservative oppo- Reformation and in the Vatican II era— Centuries later, the latest pope chose nents. Does it not always come down to reminds us that “reform” is not something this name for himself. a struggle between those seeking the that only happens at the institutional Understanding the language and middle ground amid much ambivalence level. Individuals can examine the way images of change within the historical and conflicting forces? Would one transformation happens in their own church without distortion requires an rather not clarify this in the context of lives, in their surroundings and their faith artful touch. Of course, there are various culture and time? Is the past relevant communities, and thus gain insight into points of departure from which the phe- for a current definition of reform? Can why the Catholic church is still so large nomenon of reform can be viewed, and a church leader speak of a false or a true and dynamic. Basically, the only way for not all of the contributors share Ladner’s trait of reform? Vargas’ answer to all of any organization to endure is to grow, and viewpoint. Their research methods vary, these queries is no. the church has certainly grown. as do their definitions of key concepts. This more contextual framework is For instance, the early period of Lad- Perhaps the most fundamental questions liberating, but as Ladner’s work indi- ner’s work is characterized by the idea raised by Reassessing Reform are: who, and cates, the history of the Catholic church that church reform always begins on the what, impels reform? Is it God who acts is a sequence of unfinished narratives, level of personal piety. Church structure mercifully and intervenes in the human ideas and thoughts. Although the late must ultimately adapt to what we call, in soul and that of the church? Or is it the professor did not manage to completely modern terms, individual spirituality. human being who acknowledges and synthesize these threads into a whole, Perhaps this is the reason why few con- administers the reality of God in a novel the church nevertheless deserves to be form to the moral doctrine of the church way? Sadly for us, it may be that the examined in its totality, including all its in toto: unlike edicts about sexuality, examination of this transformative loose ends, so that vital reforms can be devotions and spiritual movements result impulse inspiring the church’s old and implemented and institutionalized. n

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 47 social justice, inside and outside the Finding Shelter church, seeking a liturgy that sustains them in building the city of God, not Outside the Big Tent: one that replicates sexism, homophobia and clerical elitism. Their exposure to Catholic Reform Movements diverse liberation and feminist theolo- gies energizes their dissent, especially By Eileen Moran over sexuality and gender issues, where the elite, celibate hierarchy has been the most tone deaf. These groups include lay Catholics as well as nuns and priests, The Underground Church: including married, resigned and women Nonviolent Resistance to the Vatican Empire priests. Some remain anonymous in Kathleen Kautzer interviews to avoid sanctions because (Brill Academic Publishers, 2012, 346 pp) they are still directly employed in Cath- 978-9004219380, $136.99 olic institutions or in local parishes. In contrast, the groups that organized to oppose church closures or the bishops’ handling of the sexual abuse HE UNDERGROUND CHURCH Who are the reformers? Kautzer of children, such as Voice of the focuses on Catholic reform identifies both the common traits as well Faithful (VOTF), are more moderate or groups committed to as the diversity among reform activists. conservative. VOTF carefully avoids changing the institutional They are overwhelmingly white, challenging any official church teach- church. In this thoughtful middle-aged or older, middle class, very ings but was disturbed that bishops analysis Kathleen Kautzer distinguishes well educated and professionally skilled, acted just like secular corporate elites Ttwo waves of reform groups and a majority are women. to protect assets and each other; first and assesses their respective Being Catholic is central to vilifying and blaming victims and then evolving strategies to change their personal identity and attempting to buy them off with hush the church—that is, to reduce motivates both sets of money. The clerical culture that put the dominance of the hier- reformers’ largely volunteer priests and bishops on a pedestal has archy. Faced with increased efforts to change the church been seriously undermined by the hierarchical conservatism, or openly resist or reject the sexual abuse scandal and exacerbated some reformers move further decisions of church hier- by the response of church leaders, from to the margins, developing archs. Reform groups may the bishops to the popes. alternate liturgies. Others differ about church teach- Those mobilized to oppose bishops’ leave to form independent, ings on abortion, celibacy unilateral decisions to close parish underground churches or women’s ordination but churches, ostensibly due to priest short- staffed by resigned and agree that clerical power ages, told Kautzer in interviews about women priests and schismatically free of should be made more accountable and the distrust that tends to grow without Vatican rule. The author skillfully inte- transparent—this is true for the more transparency. For instance, the inter- grates the data she collects first hand with progressive Vatican II reformers or the view participants suspected these deci- a comprehensive appreciation of others’ more moderate activists organized later sions were really based upon more scholarly contributions to measure the around clerical sexual abuse or church venal, self-interested considerations impact of reformers on the Catholic closures. Catholics’ expectation to share that led the bishops to remove popular church, both on the level of the hierarchy decision-making is itself a legacy of Vatican II reformist pastors or free up and the faithful. Vatican II, the belief that collectively valuable real estate, sometimes to pay “We are the church.” off clerical abuse victims. EILEEN GEIL MORAN serves on the Executive The book provides a detailed picture For Kautzer, clericalism, the cul- Council of the Professional Staff Congress, of each of the major reform organiza- ture of extreme deference given to the union representing the faculty and staff tions, their origins, missions and priests and bishops, shaped reformers’ of the City University of New York. A former agendas, including their overlapping initial preference for insider strategies. member of the CFC Board of Directors, she is a political sociologist and committed advocate networks and coalitions. The progres- Naive about organizational power, for reproductive rights. sive Vatican II activists tend to focus on they appealed to hierarchs’ good will

48 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS and reasonableness. Some of the Vat- caring for the poor. Significantly, most author concludes that while these ican II reformers, active for close to reformers sought greater inclusion underground parishes could be viable, four decades, believed the promise of within the church, while CFC’s priority their low visibility and inability to offer lay empowerment in spite of their was limiting the bishops’ impact on religious education for children may actual encounters with bishops’ public policy. make it more likely that lapsed or dis- intransigence. While reformers continue to apply senting Catholics will move into other The book points out that even before pressure from within, some also break Christian denominations. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI or bend the rules to sustain their vision Overall, Kautzer depicts a big tent appointed more conservative bishops, of a more egalitarian, democratic Catholicism with room for all, which US bishops had proven to be unyielding, church. Less confrontational are has been replaced by a more conserva- and in some cases quite mean-spirited, groups like DignityUSA (gay Catholic tive leadership using repressive strate- in repressing dissent or criticism. In advocates), Women’s Alliance for The- gies to roll back Vatican II liberalism. some dioceses, the most orthodox of ology, Ritual And Ethics (WATER) and Benedict’s goal of a leaner, more obe- critics, such as VOTF, were not allowed other small faith communities and reli- dient church also has dim prospects, as to meet on church property. The laity’s gious orders who find spiritual nour- it, too, leaves most of the young out. anger and assertiveness over clerical ishment by developing and sharing The American church is already far abuse and cover-ups shocked bishops their own rituals and liturgies, while leaner and grayer than it used to be, accustomed to polite deference. For distancing themselves from the institu- with a dramatic decline in both voca-

Even before Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI appointed more conservative bishops, US bishops had proven to be unyielding, and in some cases quite mean- spirited, in repressing dissent or criticism. example, in response to bishops’ resis- tion’s dictates. tions and people in the pews that has tance to their message, an “astonished Invisible to average Catholics are the left out well over 22.5 million lapsed VOTF member exclaimed, ‘How do they examples Kautzer provides of the more Catholics. expect us to respond to the rape of our radical and quite vibrant underground Taken together, Catholic reformers children?’” In fact, hierarchs jealously faith communities and parishes. The are a small minority, but their strength guarded their power, responding range includes feminist faith services lies in their liberal, democratic views, harshly to all critics, whether from pro- and Masses for gay Catholics, as well as which are far more in tune with the gressive Call to Action (CTA) or more underground Catholic parishes where views of American Catholics than those orthodox VOTF members. Masses are celebrated by women priests, of the bishops. The author reports that Kautzer notes that only Catholics Corps of Reserved Priests United for the reform movements have been most for Choice (CFC) pursued a more Service (CORPUS) or Vatican II pastors successful at influencing the attitudes directly confrontational, outsider who were fired by conservative bishops of fellow Catholics. And surely both strategy from its inception, utilizing unhappy with their liberal parish lead- reformers and the overwhelming the media effectively to provide an ership. Others resigned rather than majority of Catholics have felt a connec- alternative, but still Catholic, view that knuckle under. tion to the social changes in the larger championed the right of the individual However, these diverse Catholic society concerning women’s and gay conscience to challenge hierarchical reformers have not tended to recruit rights. Most Catholics, whether hegemony. Most other groups were younger Catholics to the movement, strongly identified with the institution slower to learn the effectiveness of out- not even their children or grandchil- or not, will find Kautzer’s analysis of sider strategies, discovering that the dren. As older Catholics with minimal The Underground Church valuable and bishops were most accommodating financial resources, their groups’ sus- engaging, particularly going forward, when, as a last resort, they took their tainability is in doubt over the long as those who are still in the pews weigh issues to the public through the term. Maintaining these organizations their options within and outside the media—whether addressing the sexual and alternative centers of worship is Catholic community. n abuse of children, church closures or labor-intensive for activists with other the harassment of nuns for prioritizing full-time work responsibilities. The

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 49 Reports Worth Reading

Conflicts in Care for Obstetric Complications in same inevitable conclusion: The primary concern of Church Catholic Hospitals officials in these cases has been to protect the reputation Lori B. Freedman & Debra B. Stulberg, American Journal of of the Church and its priests—not the best interests of the Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2012 child.” This stands in opposition to Article 3 of the This qualitative report provides a useful follow up to an Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In addition, the initial study about patient care conflicts in Catholic report highlights other practices by which the Holy See hospitals led by Debra Stulberg, also published by the violates the CRC, while relating the institutional failures to American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2012. specific examples such as Cardinal Bernard Law and This article relates three case studies in which ob-gyns Cardinal Roger Mahony. with different attitudes towards abortion found SNAP points to certain problematic practices identified themselves in conflict with ethics committees at a by multiple inquiries, among them, that the Holy See Catholic hospital. refuses to accept that it is subject to any law other than In one case, a Catholic hospital determined that a church law and ensnares legal discussions in questions woman with an aggressive form of cancer had to go to a about the “universal church” versus Vatican City local outpatient abortion clinic to have a termination jurisdiction. Compared to the very general tenor of the before she could receive the surgery and chemotherapy Holy See’s report, submitted 15 years late, SNAP’s she required. In other instances, women who were not publication holds up a mirror to the sexual abuse crisis as allowed to receive treatment at a Catholic facility were it has affected an untold number of individuals worldwide. transferred elsewhere, sometimes a great distance. The list of six recommendations reflect victims’ need for Further, some physicians admitted that they routinely justice and Catholics’ desire for transparency—things that referred some women with high-risk pregnancies for care shouldn’t have to be requested over and over again from at other hospitals because “the last thing I want is for her the hierarchy. to get here and not get the care she needs.” Other respondents said they had ways to avoid conflicts Future Choices II: An Update on the Legal, with the hospital administration, such as by insinuating Statutory and Policy Landscape of that a patient already had an infection, rather than Assisted Reproductive Technologies admitting they wished to induce a miscarriage to Jessica Arons and Elizabeth Chen, Center for American prevent infection. Progress, March 2013 This report revisits legal issues related to assisted Fighting for the Future: reproductive technologies (ART) first examined in a 2007 Adult Survivors Work to Protect Children and publication from the Center for American Progress. The End the Culture of Clergy Sexual Abuse intervening six years have shown that the law is having a The Center for Constitutional Rights, submitted on behalf of hard time keeping pace with the rapidly changing the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, technology. For instance, most states have yet to February 2013 determine how they will define what health benefits are In October 2012, the Holy See issued with little fanfare its “essential” and therefore, covered by the Affordable long-overdue second report to the Committee on the Care Act. Convention on the Rights of the Child. In response to the Legal precedents for a number of ethical issues are Holy See’s document, the Survivors Network of Those included, such as the 2012 Dias v. Archdiocese of Abused by Priests (SNAP) compiled its own report to reflect Cincinnati decision, which upheld an employee’s right to jurisprudence and advocacy on the clergy sexual abuse sue the archdiocese for sex discrimination after an IT crisis in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia. worker was fired for using in vitro fertilization. Other Although the hierarchy has worked hard to depict the lawsuits deal with issues related to parentage and crisis as existing in the past, the Cloyne Commission in citizenship of children resulting from ART. The authors Ireland, for example, found that mandated notification suggest that laws discriminating against children who procedures “were not fully or consistently implemented” were conceived through the help of ART should be from 1996 through 2009. eliminated, and that gray areas leaving such children The information set forth in “Fighting for the Future” without a legal parent or without citizenship should reflects that every investigation conducted “reached the be addressed.

50 CONSCIENCE BOOK REVIEWS

Redefining Religious Liberty: achievement. In the relationship between parents, The Covert Campaign against Civil Rights unplanned births can cause increased conflict and Jay Michaelson, Political Research Associates, March 2013 decreased satisfaction, while conversely, the consistent “Religious liberty” is increasingly the banner flown by the use of contraception can improve mental health outcomes religious right as it carries out its campaigns against by granting a greater degree of control over family size. reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights, but what underlies Educational and workforce achievement were also boosted this innocent-sounding term? This Political Research by contraceptive use. Associates publication debunks the idea that “religious Interestingly, these studies viewed the state-by-state liberty” belongs to any one sector of society, as well as the disparities in contraceptive access as a “natural practice of using this pluralistic concept as an excuse experiment” that proved the role contraception has played to discriminate. in women’s social achievement. This experiment illustrated As Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry writes in how lower-income women’s well-being is affected by cuts his forward, “The potency comes not from the truth or in contraceptive access on the state level. For this reason, validity of this claim, but from the fact that such a claim the unplanned pregnancy rates among women with puts progressives into a quandary.” Using both legal incomes below the poverty level are five times that of precedents and profiles of conservative organizations, higher income women. “Redefining Religious Liberty” expertly unpacks the soundbites that have been employed in the USCCB’s Updated WHO Guidance on Safe Abortion: “Fortnight for Freedom,” the fight against marriage Health and Human Rights equality and the demands for religious exemptions to the Joanna N. Erdman, Teresa DePiñeres and Eszter Kismödi, Affordable Care Act’s contraception policy. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 2013, As part of the effort to turn the right’s “inversion of the p. 200-203. victim-oppressor dynamic” on its head, Michaelson This journal article summarizes the changes made by the advocates for a strong, cross-sector response from both World Health Organization (WHO) in the update to its staple prochoice and LGBTQ forces, and across faith and secular publication on safe abortion, revised in July 2012. The communities. The publication gives readers the tools they changes to the original document on safe abortion, first need to take back the concept of religious liberty, published in 2003, are organized along three lines: an separating it from the coating of conservative religious evidence-based approach, human rights standards and a values such ultra-right actors as the United States pragmatic concept of safe and accessible abortion care. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Becket The WHO now acknowledges that no single standard of Fund have layered it over with in recent years. care is possible because of local conditions, especially the lack of resources. Pragmatism can also be seen in the The Social and Economic Benefits of Women’s Ability WHO’s recommendations for streamlining abortion care to Determine Whether and When to Have Children because burdensome regulations are often based on Adam Sonfield, Kinsey Hasstedt, Megan L. Kavanaugh and ideology rather than evidence. Similarly, looking to the Ragnar Anderson, Guttmacher Institute, March 2013 effect rather than the intent of legal restrictions on This new Guttmacher Institute review of the scientific abortion reveals that such laws do not reduce the abortion literature on the impact of contraceptive use finds data to rate. Legal status affects the safety of abortion procedures, support women’s reported reasons for using contraception. but not the likelihood of whether or not a woman will seek These reasons, culled from a 2011 survey of family an abortion. planning clinic clients, range from taking better care of Significantly, the WHO’s new guidance does not contain themselves or their families to educational and gestational upper limits for safe abortion methods. professional achievement. Another important precedent is the recognition that a By synthesizing the results from 66 studies over the past woman’s right to abortion access is not only based upon three decades, the reviewers found that these perceived risks to her health or life. In addition, excessive benefits were indeed reflected in the lives of women and bureaucracy set in the way of women seeking abortions their families. Close birth spacing and larger families are constitutes a violation of the human rights of equality and linked to decreased investment in parenting, which can nondiscrimination because they delay access—particularly impede the children’s development and educational for the vulnerable and marginalized. n

VOL. XXXIV—NO. 2 2013 51 POSTSCRIPT

“Sex is not tennis. It is not something a “The homolobby represents the very centre of internal 5 man and woman might do for fun.” 1 opposition against the Pope.” —Fr. Dariusz Oko of the Archdiocese of Krakow, Poland, writing about the “homomafia in the church,” which he describes as a —Antichoice pundit Helen Alvaré, speaking to an group of “militant homosexuals in cassocks” who pursue a audience at Georgetown University about the “erosion of “homoideology.” the traditional family.”

“Just think of the television, which is the true and great Moloch within our homes.” 6 —Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, speaking about popular culture on Vatican radio, “Rape victims are transferred to other facilities comparing television to an ancient deity to whom children were if the intention to take the ‘morning-after pill’ sacrificed. is evident.” 2 —A spokesperson for Archbishop Joachim Meisner of Cologne, “Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to about the refusal by doctors at local church-run hospitals to marry is like legalising male breastfeeding.” 7 accept patients who say they have been raped. —Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, cautioning that the term “gay marriage” should be used “only sparingly” “Nothing in my own background or education equipped because repeated usage might legitimize the concept. me to deal with this grave problem.” 3 —Cardinal Roger Mahony, who holds a master’s degree in social “It’s practically impossible to get out of the Catholic work, writing in his blog about his mishandling of sexual abuse Church.” 8 cases in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. —Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The point is that more and more women provoke, fall into arrogance, believe they are too independent and “Campaigners for abortion rights like to describe exacerbate tensions. They trigger the worst instincts, Ireland’s restrictive abortion regime as dating from an leading to violence and sexual abuse. They should 1861 law, the Offences Against the Person Act. That consider self-examination and ask the question: did law is indeed still on the books. To invoke it makes we ask for it?” 4 opponents of abortion sound like fusty, obscurantist, —Fr. Piero Corsi of Lenci, Italy, relating Italy’s rise in retrograde lackeys of colonialism.” 9 “Stiletto murders,” or domestic homicides, to women wearing provocative clothing and neglecting ironing and other —Columnist Christopher Caldwell, alleging that the push to household chores. liberalize Ireland’s abortion law does not enjoy popular support.

1 Zosia Dunn, “Conference Draws Pro-Life Advocates,” Hoya (Georgetown), January 29, 2013. 2 Frank Hornig, Barbara Schmid, Fidelius Schmid and Peter Wensierski, “Church and State: Where Catholic Beliefs and Public Needs Collide,” Der Spiegel Online, January 24, 2013. 3 Cardinal Roger Mahony, “Historical Evolution of Dealing with the Sexual Abuse of Minors,” Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA, February 1, 2013. 4 La Repubblica Genova, “Volantino shock Ecco il testo,” December 26, 2012, as translated in Barbie Laiza Nadeu, “Catholic Priest Blames Italy’s Stiletto Murders on Women,” The Daily Beast, December 28, 2012. 5 Dariusz Oko, “Z papieżem przeciw homoherezji,” Fronda 63 (2012), pp. 128-160, as translated by LifeSiteNews, February 26, 2013. 6 Vatican Radio, “Cardinal Ravasi: The Believer ‘As a Baby Weaned,’” February 20, 2013. 7 Mary O’Regan, “‘All our detractors can do is call us names,’” Catholic Herald (UK), January 28, 2013. 8 Sister Mary Ann Walsh, “Here comes everybody: divorced, gays, sinners, a couple saints,” USCCBLOG, April 1, 2013. 9 Christopher Caldwell, “Irish Stew,” Weekly Standard, 18, No. 28, April 1, 2013.

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Index: When Extremism Becomes Law

NUMBER OF WOMEN JAILED 14 NUMBER OF FOR ABORTIONS COUNTRIES IN EL SALVADOR WITH LAWS a 76 PERMITTING Number of SINCE 1998 countries in which STONING e sexual activity 628 with someone of Countries Number of the same gender with countries is illegalb blasphemy in which 23 lawsg divorce is not Number of US allowedc states in which d 94 PHILIPPINES1 adultery is illegal a Central American Women’s Network, “Maternal Health, Reproductive Rights and the Criminalisation of Abortion,” September 2012. b United Nations, “UN Issues First Report on Human Rights of Gay and Lesbian COUNTRIES WHERE WOMEN ARE People,” December 15, 2011. c GMA News (Philippines), “PHL Now Only Nation in the World without Divorce; Malta Gives In,” May 29, 2011. d Tim Murphy, “Map: Is Adultery Illegal?” Mother Jones, November NOT ALLOWED TO GET 29, 2011. e Women Living Under Muslim Laws, “WLUML: Petition to f the United Nations Secretary General & the OHCHR: End Stoning Now,” A DRIVER’S LICENSE April 8, 2013. f Telegraph, “Saudi Women Launch Legal Fight against Driving Ban,” February 6, 2012. g Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Saudi Arabia “Laws Penalizing Blasphemy, Apostasy and Defamation of Religion are 1 Widespread,” November 21, 2012.