# 419 Friday, February 22, 2008 -  EXORCISM, STEM CELLS, AND WHEN A CHURCH
MAKES A MISTAKE

 Read the next statement carefully:

"(because of the) attention given to unproven embryo destructive research .
funding for and the promotion of adult stem cell research have been nearly
non-existent."(1) (emphasis added).

Is this correct?

No. The statement is either an act of ignorance, or a deliberate falsehood.

Here are the facts:

In 2007, the United States government gave nearly five times more funding to
adult stem cell research than it did to embryonic: awarding  $203 million to
adult stem cell research-but only $42 million to the embryonic variety.(2)

If you look at the entire span of the Bush Administration, the advantage
given to adult stem cell research is staggering. According to White House
figures:

 "Over the past six years. $3 billion has gone to . all forms of stem
cells.(of which only)
"$130 million has been devoted to (human) embryonic stem cell research." (3)

 The source of the "nearly non-existent" statement? The Michigan Catholic
Conference, official voice of the Catholic Church in that state.

The next six paragraphs, taken from the same press release by the Catholic
Conference,  detail a strategy to block embryonic stem cell research funding
in Michigan.

"Michigan Catholic Conference Launches Massive Statewide Stem Cell Education
Program". For Immediate Release, Monday, October 1, 2007.

"In an effort to communicate the Catholic Church's teaching on human life as
it relates to adult and embryonic stem cell research, the Michigan Catholic
Conference today announced the states seven diocesan bishops have launched a
monumental internal statewide education program that includes over 500,000
Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes.

".every registered Catholic home in the state has been sent a letter signed
jointly by the state's diocesan bishops, a 12-minute DVD, and a brochure.

" .in addition to the statewide household mailing, every parish in the state
has been encouraged by its diocesan bishop to address the issue of stem cell
research.

".Parishes have received from the Conference a packet of informational
material that includes a question and answer document, sample bulletin
announcements, and the aforementioned DVD and brochure.

".Catholic hospitals, universities, schools, charity agencies and fraternal
organizations have also received educational material..."  (1)

End quote.

And what happens after all that propaganda is disseminated, received, and
digested?

Citizens are encouraged to contact government officials-who have already
been threatened with excommunication if they support embryonic stem cell
research.

This is a systematic, full-scale attack-backed by an organized,
sophisticated, well-financed political battle plan-- against medical
research to cure disease.

I suspect (though I cannot prove) that similar tactics are in use all across
the nation. We do know that Catholic Churches in California were used to
distribute glossy full-color anti-embryonic stem cell research pamphlets;
and that the Church was central to anti-research efforts in Missouri, New
Jersey, Delaware and other states.

This is not a matter of a person's private faith; this is an attempt to
impose that religious belief on all of us.

If medical research is denied, this affects every man, woman and child in
Michigan-and across America as well. What if state funding of embryonic stem
cell research was allowed in that state, and a cure for cancer was
discovered?

Cure research could help millions. Denying that cure is a blow to all who
might have been healed, and their families.

But what about the larger question: is it possible for a Church to make a
mistake?

Some argue that religion, being about God, is also dictated by the Supreme
Being, and therefore must be above criticism.

As one Pope said:

 "The idea that defect, shadow, or other misfortune could ever cause the
church to stand in need of restoration or renewal is hereby condemned as
obviously absurd."
-Pope Gregory VXI, 1832

Personally, I believe churches are run by fallible human beings, people who
(like all of us) are capable of making mistakes.

 Like this one, made by a priest from another church, the Romanian Orthodox
Church:

This happened just a few weeks ago.  On January 31, 2008, a priest, Daniel
Corogeanu, "began a seven-year jail term for murdering a young nun during an
exorcism ritual when she was bound, chained to a cross and denied food and
water for days. Irina Cornici, 23, died from dehydration, exhaustion and
suffocation. the Romanian Orthodox church condemned (his techniques) as
abominable. (and) defrocked Corogeanu, and excommunicated the four nuns, who
in September were handed five and six year terms." (4)

But surely that is an individual's crime, not the Church itself?

True. And to its credit, the Orthodox Church did not cover up the crime, and
disowned the individuals involved.

But their official belief in exorcism, driving out demons from a person,
still continues to this day-as it does in the Catholic Church.  Have you
heard the phrase, "Beat the Devil out of him"? That comes from exorcism,
when (in the Dark Ages) an insane person would be physically whipped in an
attempt to drive demons out.

Does exorcism (or attempts at it) still exist, outside of the movies?

On January 26, 1999, a new and revised exorcism policy was released by the
Vatican.

"Vatican releases new rite for exorcism. De Exorcismus et supplicationibus
quibusdam. sets out a new and precise liturgical form for the rite of
exorcism. The 84-page form.was published entirely in Latin; . different
nations may now prepare their own versions." (5)

The current Pope, former Cardinal Ratzinger, has a chief exorcist, Rev.
Gabriele Amorth, who allegedly has performed 30,000 exorcisms.  In 2006 this
individual made headlines when he called the fictional character Harry
Potter the "king of darkness, the devil."(6)

In time, perhaps, the Church's policy toward embryonic stem cell research
will change.

Or maybe not: like the belief in exorcism, which continues to this day.

Members of a religion have a right to believe whatever they wish.

But no church has the right to dominate the rest of us.

Like the freedom to swing a fist-allowable until the fist reaches another
person's nose-- religious beliefs are up to the people involved, until they
impose them on others.

If a person wants to refuse medicine (as some say no to blood transfusions
for religious reasons), that is their right.

But if any religion would deny my family access to the best medical research
available, there we must quarrel.

Religious attempts to block medical research must and will be opposed.

The lives of our loved ones depend on it.

1.
http://www.micatholicconference.org/public_policy/press_releases/20071001-MassiveStemCellEducationProgram.php
(2) http://www.nih.gov/news/fundingresearchareas.htm  (note: both figures
refer to human stem cell research).
3. "Advancing Stem Cell Science Without Destroying Human Life", page 6,
Domestic Policy Council, The White House, January 9, 2007, updated April,
2007.
4. Associated Press, www.FoxNews.com, January 31, 2008.
5.""Vatican releases new rite for exorcism", Catholic World News, Jan. 26,
1999
6. http://www.cbc.ca.arts/story/2006/o9/03/harrypotter-exorcist-pope.html

Don Reed
www.stemcellbattles.com

Don C. Reed is co-chair of Californians for Cures, and writes for their web
blog, www.stemcellbattles.com. Reed was citizen-sponsor for California's
Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999, named after his
paralyzed son; he worked as a grassroots advocate for California's Senator
Deborah Ortiz's three stem cell regulatory laws, served as an executive
board member for Proposition 71, the California Stem Cells for Research and
Cures Act, and is director of policy outreach for Americans for Cures. The
retired schoolteacher is the author of five books and thirty magazine
articles, and has received the National Press Award.

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
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