Priests urge stem cell opposition (Missouri Resolution)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/27/stemcell.sermons.ap/index.html

The battle over embryonic stem cell research moved into the pews Sunday, as Roman Catholic priests across Missouri urged churchgoers to oppose a petition seeking a constitutional amendment that would protect the controversial work.

The petition drive was announced last month by a group of business leaders, patient advocates and researchers as a response to legislative efforts to ban a type of stem cell research known as therapeutic cloning.

Missouri's Catholic dioceses oppose it, and urged their priests statewide to begin a campaign Sunday aimed at keeping Catholics from signing the petition.

At St. Peter Catholic Church, across the street from the state Capitol, the Rev. James Smith quoted Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and compared the cultivation of human embryos for research to the gruesome experiments performed on concentration camp occupants during World War II.

-- has a lot to do with religious belief.

I wonder if these folks oppose stem cell research so vehemently because if medical and life-sustaining benefits emerge from that research, it would amplify the role of Science in human problem-solving.

In another context, it would suggest that knowledge is the truer salvation than abstract religious belief, that life-force is not the sole domain of a Creator.

When I still lived in the states I taught at a Catholic High School. The resident priest has a PhD in Biology, he got his PhD then joined the priesthood. He was in favor of cloning organs for medical purposes, he was not opposed to stem cell research (although he did have some ethical issues with it), he was in favor of genetic manipulation to eliminate diseases, physical deformities and to repair errors in the DNA (like the ones that cause retardation, etc). I think all of these are in opposition to the Catholic Churches position.
I've always attributed his open-mindedness and faith in science to the fact that he had a life with real people before he became a priest and that he was well educated in science (He got his PhD from the University of Chicago or at Northwestern I don't remember which).

Should lose their exemption for this political behavior.

on the record about this.

I think it is important for the future of Missouri
that we get a clear statement supporting one side or the other.

how catholics can believe anything that comes out a priests mouth is beyond me. considering the decades of hidden and protected sexual abuse of their children.