By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 1/24/02)
The CFFC ad campaign, "Condoms 4 Life," which "openly criticizes the Catholic Church (and specifically the U.S. Catholic bishops) for its teaching against the use of condoms to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases" (ACH 01/03/02), continued through Jan. 7, according to Metro’s media relations office.
Brown displayed a full-page ad scheduled for publication in the Jan. 22 Washington Times as well as a proposed Metro ad featuring a skeleton wearing a red AIDS ribbon with accompanying text: "Faithful Condom User. Believe it or not, condoms have a 16% failure rate. AIDS Prevention. No matter what you believe, it’s a matter of how you behave." The ad has been submitted to, but has not yet been approved by Metro, according to Brown. "We are prepared to go to court to get this ad approved, but, hopefully, you will see it soon" on Metro, Brown said.
Brown refuted CFFC President Frances Kissling’s use of the word "Catholic," saying, "Since her initial involvement in abortion, which commenced with Ms. Kissling’s labors for abortion-related organizations and as an employee of an abortion clinic, she and her cadre of followers have literally blasphemed the very truths upon which the holy Roman Catholic Church is founded. Thus, her claim to be a ‘Catholic’ is a sham. The organization is a group of heretics, not a group of Catholics."
"Another appalling inaccuracy in the condom campaign is that this marketing campaign falsely claims that the United States Catholic bishops are killers because they teach the fullness of truth," Brown said. "The Church condemns the use of condoms on moral and logical grounds."
Brown cited "a CDC report" supporting the statement that condoms have a 16 percent failure rate. "The fact is that anyone who is encouraged to use a prophylactic is being asked to play Russian roulette with their very lives, " she said.
According to Brown, CFFC is supported by organizations such as The John Merck Fund, The Playboy Foundation, The Turner Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, among others. The American Life League is "totally supported by private donations from families around the country. We have no foundation support whatsoever," Brown said.
"For 2,000 years, the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church has been unequivocal on abortion in always condemning it as a grave moral evil," said Father Joseph Howard, director of the American Bioethics Commission, a division of American Life League. "Ms. Kissling’s beliefs are rooted in grave error and are completely irreconcilable with being a Catholic or even a Christian, as is her organization," Father Howard said.
"The 1983 Code of Canon Law … applies canonical penalties to most serious crimes including abortion," Father Howard said. "Canon 1398 is quite clear that all who are involved in the deliberate and successful ejection of a non-viable fetus incur latae sententiae excommunication." If Kissling has owned or worked in arbortoriums and is aware of the canonical penalties, her actions "have excommunicated her until such time as she repents of what Vatican Council II called ‘an abominable crime,’" he said.
"Where will Ms. Kissling and her companions be the next time my pager goes off at 2 a.m. … and I go to the ICU of a hospital to give last rites to a young person dying of HIV on a ventilator suffering from pneumocystis carinii … Where will Ms. Kissling be? … It is the priests of the Church who at that time will respond to that young person … who has died through the cooperative efforts of Ms. Kissling’s rhetorical campaign. The truth is that Ms. Kissling’s campaign ends up killing our young people — spiritually and even physically," Father Howard said.
For information on American Life League, go to www.all.org.
Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald. All rights reserved.
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