Vatican Shuns Amnesty International

It saved mom's life, but church doesn't care

(NEWSER) - News that the Catholic Church has excommunicated a nun because she approved an abortion to save a mother's life (see NPR's story here ) doesn't make much sense to a blogger at Feministe . The nun, an administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix, apparently was supposed to let this woman die as a matter of righteousness. "Sometimes the ends do justify the means," she writes. "I understand that sometimes Morality Is Hard, but this should not be." More»

(NEWSER) - Italy has legalized the abortion drug RU-486, drawing the ire of the Vatican, which threatened to excommunicate doctors who prescribe the medication and women who take it. A church official said using the pill is "a sin in a moral and juridical sense," but a politician who is also a gynecologist hailed yesterday's decision, telling ANSA, "It's above all a victory for Italian women, who from today have more choice." More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama told Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that he would make every effort to reduce the number of abortions in the US, according to a Vatican spokesman. Bioethics and life issues were the focus of the men's 40-minute talk yesterday. The pontiff gave the president a booklet explaining the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research, Reuters reports. More»

Get out of here with your fancy science, church says

(NEWSER) - Embryos deserve “the dignity proper to a person,” the Vatican declared today in an uncompromising doctrinal declaration on reproductive science, its first in more than 20-years. The long-awaited document condemns everything from embryonic stem-cell research to human cloning to the morning-after pill, which falls “within the sin of abortion.” Human life, the church declared, “can never be reduced merely to a group of cells.” More»

Archbishop's supporters suspect regime is behind adultery lawsuit

(NEWSER) - An archbishop and prominent critic of Robert Mugabe's regime has resigned his Catholic Church leadership position after being accused of having an affair with a married woman. Pius Ncube remains a bishop, and his supporters say they see the authoritarian Zimbabwean regime behind the scandal, which Ncube calls "a state-driven, vicious attack," the LA Times reports. More»