National Media Watch

National Catholic Register

Nov. 12-18, 2006

Bishops Urge Support for Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Ban

BOSTON GLOBE, Oct. 30 — Massachusetts’ four bishops urged Catholics to go to the state Capitol on Nov. 9 to voice their support to put the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex “marriage” on the 2008 ballot, reported the Globe.

Twenty-five percent of the legislators would have to vote “Yes” on the amendment to define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman” in two consecutive sessions to have the issue placed on the ballot. Same-sex “marriage” has been permitted in the state since 2004.

The Episcopal church, United Church of Christ, Unitarians and some Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish movements are urging legislators to defeat the amendment. The Catholic Church has been bolstered by evangelical and black churches in supporting it.

Study Shows Young Adults Find Faith Attractive

LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR, Oct. 28 — Recent research conducted by the Journal for Scientific Study of Religion has found that young adults between the ages of 18-30 are attending more religious services and showing higher levels of association with religious traditions and beliefs, said the Nebraska daily.

“I don’t have any exact figures, but I know during my time we have had significant growth in the number of students here,” said Father Robert Matya, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the past eight years. “When people grow in Christ in their life, others are attracted to that. as well.”

The campus group Fellowship of Catholic University Students has grown, as have other campus ministry groups such as Navigators and Campus Crusade for Christ.

The research also showed a high correlation between regular church attendance and involvement in youth groups.

Catholic-Friendly Reproductive Medicine

WASHINGTON POST, Oct. 31 — The Post reported on the work being done by Dr. Thomas Hilgers’ Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, citing it as the most prominent women’s health center serving Catholics, doctors, medical students and patients who object to practices that go against Church teaching.

Hilgers’ “natural procreative technology” can address a variety of women’s health issues without the use of birth control pills, sterilization, abortion or in vitro fertilization. He says that the center’s work treats the underlying causes of reproductive ailments that other physicians often miss.

Anita Nelson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California at Los Angeles, described Hilgers’ work as “anti-science.” But Hilgers noted that the institute’s success rates tend to be much higher than most mainstream gynecology and fertility clinics. The institute attracts more than 700 new patients a year.