A Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops Serving Virginia

Dear Friends in Christ:

In our role as teachers and pastors, we sometimes observe cultural trends which can obscure our relationships with God and one another. At times, people of good will, motivated by compassion and a desire for progress, can even be misled into thinking that something which is intrinsically evil is actually a great good. In this cultural context, we are especially mindful of our teaching responsibility to you, the people who make our parishes such vibrant, Christ-centered communities. Today, this responsibility calls us to share with you a message that is as timely as it is serious. The topic of our message is stem-cell research, which must be viewed through the prism of our Church?s teaching on the sanctity and inviolability of every human life and on the corresponding requirement that technology be placed at life?s constant service. We come to you at a time when this teaching is pitted against an "absolute science" that has detached itself from ethical moorings.

Our infinitely generous God gave us life that we might have it abundantly. By creating each of us in His image and likeness, He has crowned us with a dignity beyond measure -- a dignity that belongs equally to every member of the human family, regardless of size, strength, or stature. Whether we are adults, children, infants, or even tiny embryos, we share a common humanity and a fundamental right to life that must be protected from the very first moment of existence.

Because every human life is sacred, our Church embraces scientific and medical advances that save lives, cure diseases, and improve health, as long as those advances are not made by exploiting, harming, or killing another member of our human family. Viewed in this light, research on stem cells offers both great promises and grave pitfalls. Catholic teaching affirms the great good that can be derived from research on stem cells that are obtained from morally licit sources, like adult tissues and umbilical-cord blood. Indeed, such stem cells have already helped thousands of patients with dozens of different conditions. But just as the Church supports life-affirming research, it also opposes research on stem cells obtained by destroying human embryos. In their efforts to find treatments and even cures for debilitating conditions, researchers must never deliberately extinguish the lives of others.

Some who are critical of this perspective say that "spare" embryos in frozen storage are expendable because they might ultimately be "discarded." This view, however, reduces human life to a commodity and places its perceived usefulness to others above its intrinsic dignity. In stark contrast to this perspective, the Church teaches that human embryos deserve respect and protection precisely because they are human beings, rather than raw material for research and experimentation. They are loved by God and are our brothers and sisters in the human family. The possibility that our family?s smallest members ? considered by some to be the "least among us" -- might be "thrown away" in the future does not alter our obligation to protect them from harm in the present. In other words, their human dignity cannot be violated by some people now simply because it might be violated by others later.

In addition to being obtained unethically, embryonic stem cells have a second flaw: They have not helped a single human patient in over 25 years of research. Nevertheless, debate has surfaced over the last couple of years in our Commonwealth?s legislature about whether to allow taxpayers? contributions to be used for embryo-destructive research. In anticipation of continuing deliberations on this issue in the Virginia General Assembly this year and in years to come, we have begun educating Catholics in our dioceses about the ethical and scientific implications of various forms of stem-cell research through presentations, programs, and materials in our parishes, schools, religious-education programs, and newspapers. Through our newly formed public-policy office, the Virginia Catholic Conference, we are also marshalling resources for the critical advocacy work needed to promote state investments in life-affirming research and at the same time protect the lives of embryonic human beings. As our Conference urges lawmakers during the 2006 Virginia General Assembly session (from mid-January to mid-March) to invest in ethical research that has demonstrated great benefit and to prohibit funding of destructive experimentation that has helped no one, it is vitally important that the Catholic community show solidarity and strong support for these lobbying efforts. [For information about ways you can join the Conference in its advocacy for policies that respect human life and dignity, please visit www.vacatholic.org.]

Participating in the political process, and thereby helping to create a more just society, is an essential part of what it means to be a follower of Christ in our Commonwealth today. In the matter of stem-cell research, the decisions that Virginia legislators make will go to the very heart of our character as a Commonwealth -- by determining whether we respect or reject our own human nature, and whether we honor our role as stewards, not arbiters, of life itself. As you reflect upon the profound implications of the choices before us, and upon the essential need for prayer and faith-centered action on behalf of life, we invite you to meditate upon words the late Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 encyclical letter The Gospel of Life:

We are indeed grateful that you have permitted us to share with you our Church?s important teaching on science at the service of human life.

With our hope that you will cherish the book of life and safeguard its many chapters, we are

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde

Bishop of Arlington

Most Reverend Francis X. DiLorenzo

Bishop of Richmond

Copyright ?2006 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.