Newsletter 4
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Credidimus caritati we have put our faith in love Bulletin of WOOMB International Vol 42 No 3 November 2015 Ltd ISSN 2202-7599 Contents Page The Blessing of Interruptions 1 The Blessing of Interruptions New UN Development Goals 2 Genetic Engineering - Editing 3 Life is what happens to you while you’re busy Humanity making other plans! (John Lennon) “It may be that when we long to know what to do Psychological, social, and spiritual 4 we have come to our real work, and that when we no effects of contraceptive steroid longer know which way to go we have come to our real hormones Klaus and Cortés journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” (From a Clarification conceerning FEMM 6 poem by Wendell Berry.) WOOMB International Conference 6 News Around the World 11 • Philippines • Canada • Pakistan • New Zealand • Uganda • Tanzania • United Nations • World Meeting of Families “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted • Vietnam by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and • Congratulations cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with Reactions to Newly Canonised 16 our more important tasks… Saints It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers New Vision for Marriage Preparation 18 frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They Achbishop Chaput on Synod 20 think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s crooked yet straight path.” Mother with Cancer delivers Twins 21 (Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together) New {romotional Material for 22 For us, as disciples of Jesus, interruption is God’s Billings LIFE invitation. God is inviting us to see him all around us, in the lives of others, in our conversations, in our serving those in need, in our teaching of the Billings Ovulation -1- Method® to ALL who come to us. We do not choose He broke into sobs as he dedicated the agreement to who we will teach – God does. We fail in our work for his friend Ambassador Roble Olhaye of Djibouti, Dean Him if we turn any away. “In as much as you did it to of the Diplomatic Corps, who died last week while the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matt negotiations were ongoing. 25:40) “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for We can take heart from Wendell Berry’s poem. It is Sustainable Development,” as the agreement is titled, precisely in life’s interruptions and impediments that has at its core the Sustainable Development Goals, the Holy Spirit is at work. For it is only the Gospel which encompass a wide range of issues from health bearer, who is impeded and interrupted, who is strong, and education, to climate change and economic courageous and creative enough to sing. development. It has 17 universal goals applicable to all countries. The goals were agreed last year, and settled any controversy about abortion by referring back to previous agreements without breaking any new grounds, or establishing any rights in regard to abortion. New UN Development Goals Like abortion, LGBT rights was always a minor side issue in the wider negotiations, but an important one Stefano Gennarini, J.D. to several delegations. During the adoption only a few governments expressed reservations, opting to deliver them when the agreement is formally transmitted to NEW YORK, August 3,2015 (C-Fam) The most anticipated the General Assembly. and comprehensive UN agreement involving social policy since the 1990s does not break any new ground Brazilian Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota on abortion or homosexual issues. complained his delegation wanted “more progressive language” on human rights, including the rights of Countries reached an agreement hailed as “historic” “LGBTI, whether or not these groups are fully stated,” he and “unprecedented” on Sunday evening at UN added, alluding to the fact the agreement says nothing headquarters. But it did not stray from previous about LGBT and Intersex rights. agreements that left abortion to be decided by national legislation, and expectedly does not broach the subject It was the second time he took the floor to complain of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights. that LGBT rights were not in the agreement. When the moderators – the Ambassadors of Kenya and Earlier in the week he had complained that references Ireland – gavelled the agreement, relief and satisfaction to “gender” in the document had been switched to “sex” were palpable in the packed room. Countries needed when it referred to data to monitor the implementation an extra 48 hours round-the-clock negotiation without of the agreement across different sections of society. At translators and often without air conditioning to reach the time he said it was the only place in the agreement a deal after the deadline passed on Friday. where “discrimination on the basis of sexuality” was included. Kenyan Ambassador Macharia Kamau was showered with praise and will be remembered as the principal In fact, the agreement was sanitized even further to architect of the agreement. exclude as much as possible terms that have been used by the UN bureaucracy to includeAtion LGBT utet rights. ad tat. He led multiple rounds of negotiations over the past A reference to “social groupings”Tionsequam was taken outnulla in the three years to secure consensus ahead of September, adionum esed when it will be adopted in what is anticipated to be the final adopted text. And, a reference to “other status” in largest gathering of heads of state in history. Although a list of categories of non-discriminationtin estrud was magna qualified he described himself as an agnostic when it came to so to exclude any special new LGBTfeugait rights. veliqua contentious social policy, he has given indications that mconum dolorting The final document was threeer yearssi etum in velitthe making lut he at least understands the importance of protecting and runs roughly 30 pages. It crystallized multiple nostisi. unborn children. agreements. The details of the framework for the implementation are still to be finalized.Amet, quat. Com- Kamau was overcome with emotion as he closed the my nis num essenis negotiations. With tears in his eyes and choking up, he Ambassador Usman Sarki of ametNigeria, niat. who Nulput vocally recounted how Pope Francis “continuously prodded us” denounced any attempt to impose LGBT rights on his in recent weeks. He said it was a sign that “something country, and demanded that the draft agreement be very special was going on here.” “cleaned” during negotiations this week, also denounced -2- ongoing attempts to read abortion and LGBT rights It will be years, perhaps even decades, before CRISPR into the agreement through implementation efforts is being used to make designer babies. But the issues that are already underway. that raises are already the subject of fierce discussion. In April scientists in China revealed they had tried https://c-fam.org/friday_fax/no-abortion-no-gays-in- using CRISPR to edit the genomes of human embryos. massive-new-un-development-goals/ Although these embryos could not develop to term, viable embryos could one day be engineered for therapeutic reasons or non-medical enhancement. That is a Rubicon some will not want to cross. Many scientists, including one of CRISPR’s inventors, want a moratorium on editing “germ line” cells—those that Genetic Engineering - Editing Humanity give rise to subsequent generations. America’s National Academy of Sciences plans a conference to delve into A new technique for manipulating genes holds great CRISPR’s ethics. The debate is sorely needed. CRISPR is promise—but rules are needed to govern its use a boon, but it raises profound questions. Aug 22nd 2015 The Economist The only way is ethics These fall into two categories: practical and philosophical. The immediate barrier is practical. As well THE genome is written in an alphabet of just four as cutting the intended DNA, CRISPR often finds targets letters. Being able to read, study and compare DNA elsewhere, too. In the laboratory that may not matter; sequences for humans, and thousands of other species, in people it could cause grave harm. In someone with has become routine. A new technology promises to a terrible disease, the risk of collateral damage might make it possible to edit genetic information quickly be worth running. But for germ-line applications, and cheaply. This could correct terrible genetic defects where the side-effects would be felt in every cell, the that blight lives. It also heralds the distant prospect of bar should be high. It may take a generation to ensure parents building their children to order. that the technology is safe. Until then, couples with some genetic diseases can conceive using in-vitro fertilisation and select healthy embryos. Moreover, awash though it is with gene-sequence data, biology still has a tenuous grip on the origins of almost all the interesting and complex traits in humanity. Very few are likely to be easily enhanced with a quick cut- and-paste. There will often be trade-offs between some capabilities and others. An à la carte menu of attributes seems a long way off. Yet science makes progress— indeed, as gene sequencing shows, it sometimes does so remarkably quickly. So scientists are right to be thinking now about how best to regulate CRISPR. The technology is known as CRISPR-Cas9, or just CRISPR. It involves a piece of RNA, a chemical messenger, That means answering the philosophical questions. designed to target a section of DNA; and an enzyme, There are those who will oppose CRISPR because it lets called a nuclease, that can snip unwanted genes out humans play God.