The Church, stem cells, marriage & Dianne

December 5, 2003
letters@telegram.com
fax: 508 793-9313

Rejected – too soon.

Dianne Williamson’s Catholic bashing of Church teachings on stem cells, gay marriage and liturgy (T&G 11/30) is a weak attempt to declare morality by so-called expert opinion.

The Catholic Church teaches that adult and umbilical stem cells are fine for medical research. These stem cells have provided relief from suffering for years. But the Church condemns the unproven technology of embryonic stem cells because it is immoral to create a baby only to abort that life to harvest embryonic stem cells. The Church also teaches, based on the Bible and Natural law, that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. Finally, Catholics do not receive bread and wine at Mass, as Dianne said, we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Since Jesus is God, one might want to consider bowing before God.

Faith is complex, involving both intellect and will, but for the sake of argument let’s compare the experts. Dianne has a Biotechnology company Vice President and the President of the United Church of Christ in Massachusetts. The Catholics have Pope John Paul II, the 264^th successor to Peter, the primary Apostle of Jesus Christ. Massachusetts’ citizens may want to further investigate which experts more accurately reflect God’s teaching, especially before they exercise their God-given rights in the voting booth.

Jay G