What do you think about the Catholic Church telling its followers not to donate to Amnesty International?

Question

The Vatican has said that after a recent change of policy, Amnesty is "encouraging" abortion. Personally I think the Vatican should be ashamed of itself. Amnesty International does more good work in one day than the Vatican has ever done.

PS Amnesty International isn't offering widespread support for abortion - its stance is that it's the woman's right to choose, particularly in cases of rape. How any person can find that objectionable is beyond me.

Ann8 1969 - you are so wrong. Follow the link below to see what the Vatican said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6750887.stm

At least get your facts straight before posting such a sanctimonious reply.

Cabron O - I live in the UK so unless you're referring to President Blair...
I'd like to see your evidence to back up what you say about Amnesty International. Why don't you e-mail me with it?

Answer 1

I think it's very disappointing. Amnesty does sterling work bringing injustice to the world's attention. By focussing on one tiny aspect of Amnesty's policy, the Vatican is asking us to ignore all the good work. It's short-sighted and, sadly, a reflection of how right-wing the Vatican has become.

Answer 2

I can not understand it, Amnesty provide a great service and much of what they do, campaign against, fits very well with Christian values and Ethics.
Is the Vatican going to react in this way to any organisation who are pro abortionist ?
Each to their own is what I say, however the Catholic faith and in particular the high ups at the Vatican often seem rigid and unforgiving with their dictates, this not being in anyway conducive with forgiveness, tolerance and understanding.
Also I really despise their use of guilt as a means of control.

Answer 3

This is how it started.

In an Aug. 3 interview aired by Vatican Radio, Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia, speaking on behalf of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, said the work and the values upon which the rights organization, founded by a Catholic in 1961, is based would be compromised.

“This move gradually towards adopting a right of abortion as a fundamental human right is going to undermine that work and divide the membership, and therefore, lessen its effectiveness in the world,” Bishop Evans said.

In other words, if you divide the membership over such a hot topic, then how can Amnesty International remain focused an united on their goals? If you divide the membership, the organization suffers and, as a result, the world suffers.

Bishop Evans also warned that many Catholics within Amnesty International would leave the organization due to conflict of conscience and this would, in turn, affect the membership base.

For the full story, please see http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=20771

And, personally, I find it ironic and funny that you think the Vatican has done less good work than Amnesty International, which was founded by Catholics.

Moreover, the Catholic Church has always held that abortion is always wrong. Amnesty International was warned about the consequences of adopting a pro-choice stance. The Vatican can no longer contribute funds in good conscience. The Catholic Church has always had a zero-tolerance policy on abortion. Amnesty International knew that already.

How would you feel if some guy raped your sister, but you were still required to pay his rent for him? Nobody should be required to support something they feel morally reprehensible.

The bottom line is that the Vatican pulled financial support because Amnesty International, even after being warned, even after the Bishops Conference pled with them, chose to offend the largest donor to charity in the world...the Catholic Church. The Vatican, in turn, alerted the Catholic faithful to what is going on, much like you'd scream to the world about your sister's theoretical rapist.

Catholics who have strongly-held views about abortion WANT to know who is pro-life and who is pro-choice so they can make informed decisions about to whom they want to volunteer their time, talents and treasure.

Answer 4

The Catholic church is against abortion. It makes sense that they would be against an organization which makes it available; I have no problem with its stance.

The Catholic church is speaking to its members on a matter of faith & morals which is what a church is all about.

Less than 1/2 of 1% of priests molested children.

The Catholic church contributes a great deal through its parishoners. In the US money is donated to Catholic Relief Services which reaches out to the international community.

Answer 5

Amnesty International (AI) should support human rights for all humans, including the unborn.

Amnesty International claims to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948 (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-udhr-eng) which states:

Article 2.1 Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, BIRTH OR OTHER STATUS.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to LIFE, liberty and security of person.

In recent years, Amnesty International has been moving closer and closer to adding abortion as one of the "human rights" that it wants to protect. This move would be a big mistake.

Catholics believe that life is a sacred gift from God and needs to be treated with all human dignity from the moment of conception to the point of natural death.

The Catholic Church is not just against torture, capital punishment, and abortion; it is pro-life in the widest sense. This is often called a "Consistent Ethic of Life."

This pro-life stance stresses the highest regard for dignity of human life including that of:
+ All people in objecting to unjust war and nuclear arms.
+ The unborn in objecting to abortion, in vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning
+ The elderly, sick and dying in objecting to assisted suicide and euthanasia
+ Prisoners in objecting to torture and the death penalty
+ The poor and minorities in supporting social justice issues.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

If AI is encouraging abortion, it is doing harm at least in that area. The Catholic Church has quite a strong record of working for human rights worldwide. I regard it as more reliable in this area than AI is. In addition, the Catholic Church provides massive amounts of aid to the poor and victims of war and natural disaster. AI has done some good work, but can't compare with the Catholic Church, which has many more members after all.

Answer 7

Surely the RC Church should be looking to clean up it's own act in respect of child abuse and paedophilia before pointing the finger at other organisations?

Talk about glass houses and stones!!

And for the poster who seems to know little about the UK - for your information, we are not GOVERNED by royalty - the queen is a symbolic figurehead who has no political clout at all! If the people of Britain were to democratically elect a Govt who's policies included scrapping the monarchy then she and her family would be ordinary (if very rich!) citizens in the blink of an eye! Indolent spongers living of the backs of our taxes they may be, according to your views on the matter, but worshipped they most certainly are not - anyone is free to criticise and debate on the matter... this is a country where free speech is alive and well and not repressed by either state OR religion.

Also, whilst the queen is technically head of the Church of England - that is NOT the same as the RC church (in fact it is fundamentally different) and abortion is acceptable within our church rules. 'Devil Worshippers' LMFAO

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Edit:

"Catholics believe that life is a sacred gift from God and needs to be treated with all human dignity from the moment of conception to the point of natural death."

So how does that square with a history that includes (but is by no means limited to) the crusades, the inquisition, active participation of priests in the holocaust, abuse of women (Mary Magdalene Laundries etc), abuse of children and protection of paedophiles?. To be honest I expect hypocrisy from any organised religion but the RC church really does take the biscuit.

Answer 8

by utilizing the guidelines of united states of america of america, a no longer-for-income non secular organisation won't be able to espouse political viewpoints, different than human beings that are inevitably a factor of ethical teachings. it extremely is far greater questionable to tell congregants to vote for Obama or face the implications than it extremely is to point that congregants be sure you vote professional-existence on the polls. it extremely is a good yet no longer basic to work out line, and it extremely is inevitably so. If the ethical framework delivers a determination rule for many electorate of their voting decision, and if their non secular faith delivers a background for this ethical framework, it may be commonplace that faith performs an factor in forming the ethical framework of a voter. on a similar time, there could be no overt administration, or perhaps chic administration. A church won't be able to vote, yet each and each member can. by utilizing a similar token, it extremely is impossible to require electorate to pass away their non secular convictions on the door while they arrive to vote. certainly, if a citizen won't be able to make his or her non secular perspectives popular while they're pertinent in a vote, then that citizen's ideals have been compromised. it is not basically for the Catholics, it extremely is for all faiths who attempt to be suitable in the daily affairs that confront, confound and project their adherents. in an attempt to reply to; there won't be able to be a tenet of who to vote for, yet there could actually be a demonstration of a thank you to make precis moraes concrete in the voting technique.

Answer 9

The CC over the past few weeks has released two inflammatory statements comparing abortion to the holocaust.
To women who have had this procedure they do not need this guilt trip from men, who basically believe that women are the basis of everything bad in the world according to their holy book.
As an atheist and a pro choice campaigner I will be proud to give to Amnesty in the future.

Answer 10

The Catholic Church is not the best place to get information about organizations they feel are a danger to children in this case Abortion.When you realize the Catholic Church has been protecting Priest who were molesting children. By transferring the Priest to a different church. It seems to me until they clean up their act. Pointing the finger at Amnesty International is meaningless and should be rejected by Catholics.