On Birth Control, Vatican Official Calls For Stronger Protection Of Conscientious Objection

By Alessandro Speciale
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A senior Vatican official on Tuesday (April 17) called for stronger protection for conscientious objection for both the Catholic Church and individual Catholics when they are faced with laws that conflict with their "moral norms."

Speaking at Italy's Catholic University in Milan, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, former governor of the Vatican City State, waded into the fight between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Obama administration over mandatory insurance coverage for contraception, saying the mandate raises "serious problems of conscience" for Catholic institutions and citizens.

Excerpts of his speech were published in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's semi-official newspaper.

Echoing the bitter dispute between the U.S. bishops and the White House in recent months, Lajolo stressed that it is "essential" that "the freedom of the church and of its institutions to live and act in conformity with its own religious conviction is always guaranteed."

The remarks, which carry the unofficial stamp of Vatican authority by appearing in the church-owned newspaper, represent one of the Vatican's first forays into the high-stakes political fight between the U.S. bishops and the White House.

He quoted recent U.S. laws concerning adoption and abortion, saying abortion has been treated as "a matter of reproductive health, imposing to all health institutions the obligation to insure for abortion coverage." The White House insists no entity will be forced to pay for abortion, but some critics say some birth control pills are akin to abortion.

Lajolo called for conscientious objection to be "enshrined in civil law as much as possible" and said that the church must conduct a "more articulated doctrinal elaboration" of its principles.

Conscientious objection, he explained, should be seen as an "instrument for interior freedom" that individuals and "institutions such as the church or other religious confessions" can "legally turn to when faced with laws that, for their moral consequences, are in contrast with official moral norms affirmed by religious authority."

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Comments

[DocG]

01:54 PM on 04/21/2012

This from the same (and last) 'divine right' monarchy. Does anyone realize the predecessors of these people brought the world both the Spanish and Roman inquisitions. Oh, and institutionally sanctioned pedophilia. Irony and hypocrisy of the highest order for the Hitler youth soldier and his enablers.

[esmenegron]

08:14 PM on 04/20/2012

What is a "theologist"?

[Mister H]

07:03 PM on 04/20/2012

Many people are puzzled by the Catholic Church's teaching against contraception.

But, in a lot of ways the teaching makes sense.

For those who wish to learn more about the Church's teaching on contraception, an excellent commentary and further resource links can be found here:

http://allhands-ondeck.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-catholic-church-opposes.html

[Killermolls44]

06:22 PM on 04/20/2012

Stay in the Vatican and dictate your own people, leave Americans alone you leeches.

[SmileAndActNice]

10:01 AM on 04/20/2012

So long as no woman is being forced to use birth control, the protections of an individual's conscience is adequate on this topic.

What someone else does is on their heads, not yours. Your conscience may not demand or forbid anything of me. Just as mine may not dictate your actions.

Which is good for you if you listen to the pope because I consider religious indoctrination of the young to be child abuse. peddle your theology when they are older and have BS filters. But my morality doesn't get to control your life.

Birth control pills have medical purposes and may not be excluded from drug coverage. Basic decency respects doctor client privacy so you may not demand that trained doctors share people's medical details with you and seek your approval for their prescriptions.

And all any employer pays for is work. Period. What an employee does with their compensation is none of the employers business. If I don't get it without working, it is my compensation.

[been2there]

12:43 AM on 04/20/2012

My moral right to refuse to let any employer get away with offering substandard health insurance matters--and that is what Catholics are trying to do. It is shameful.

[miriamfl]

10:26 PM on 04/19/2012

Correct me if I'm wrong but VATICAN CITY sit in the middle of Italy which has legalized abortion and birth control !!!! Are you trying to dismantle legalized abortion and birthcontrol in Italy???

[Killermolls44]

06:23 PM on 04/20/2012

Probably, but then again Italy decided to be smart and tax the catholic businesses.

[daily randy]

02:48 PM on 04/19/2012

>> the church must conduct a "more articulated doctrinal elaboration" of its principles.

It just kills me how Catholic leaders use words in sentence combinations that make absolutely no sense to the average person. They do it because they hope it will get the masses to think that Catholic leaders are more educated and better versed than the masses are. They were able to pull this off centuries ago by making sure everything written and spoken (of a religious nature) was done in Latin ... forcing the masses to rely completely on Catholic leaders to interpret everything for them. Once the Bible was printed in other languages, these Catholic leaders lost their fake/manufactured intellectual superiority with the masses. So now they've turned to using words that make no sense to anyone given the way they use them in sentences. Of course, if they said things in simple, common terms, everyone would quickly realize that everything they say is ridiculous. For example, the above statement I quoted from the article, is simply saying that they need to speak about their beliefs with enough detail to fully express their feelings and ideas on the subject. So why don't they just say that? ... I mean, the masses have been onto their need and desire to be seen as superior for a long, long time now, so they aren't accomplishing anything by doing this.

[floresislander]

10:18 AM on 04/19/2012

Hey Catholic Church.......just stop demanding taxpayer funding and you won't have to violate your conscience.....Of course does the Catholic Church even have a conscience is the next question? Google" Emanuela Orlandi" and " De Pedis"

[Hydroplatypus]

10:55 PM on 04/19/2012

Basically this is my position on most things relating to the catholic church. Especially as up here in Canada the Catholic school system is publicly funded for historical reasons.

[HotelDrama]

10:07 AM on 04/19/2012

Here's an idea. If you are opposed to abortion, don't get one. If you are opposed to birth control, don't use it. I see no problem here.

[floresislander]

10:22 AM on 04/19/2012

Then you must not be a Republican!!! The party that believes in getting government off the backs of people and into their bedrooms.........