Ireland Balks

IRELAND ON-LINE, June 28 — Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern recently told Pope Benedict XVI that, despite a European Parliament vote to allow taxpayer funds to be used for embryonic stem-cell research, Ireland will not fund the research, which requires the destruction of human life.

“We insist that no EU funding shall be allowed for embryonic stem-cell research in Ireland,” Ahern said following an audience with the Holy Father. He added that Ireland “would be unable to prevent embryonic stem-cell research going ahead in many member states.”

Gets It Now

TIMES FREE PRESS, June 26 — Tennessee Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Corker said he was wrong 12 years ago when he said he didn’t think abortion was an appropriate issue for government to regulate.

Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, said in 1994 that he was “personally pro-life” but has had a change of heart. He is now in a battle with GOP pro-life congressmen Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant in an Aug 3 primary. The winner faces pro-abortion Democrat Rep. Harold Ford.

Election Novena

PRIESTS FOR LIFE, June 25 — The pro-life organization is launching an 18-week prayer campaign designed to help prepare the nation for the 2006 elections. The prayers are meant to help pro-life candidates at the polls and to encourage voters to choose candidates who are most likely to help reduce or stop abortions.

Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, said the campaign will begin the Fourth of July and end on Election Day. “This is a double-novena, a pair of nine-week periods of prayer,” he explained. “The intentions of the campaign are that citizens take an active role in the elections and understand that the most important issue is abortion.”

Killing Suicide

JURIST, June 28 — A California Senate committee has rejected a measure that would make the state the second, following Oregon, to legalize assisted suicide, reported the legal journal. The measure was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a tie vote, effectively killing any chance of passage this year.

The measure would have allowed doctors to prescribe lethal barbiturates for patients who are declared terminally ill and have less than six months to live. A coalition of groups including doctors’ organizations, disability activists, Hispanic organizations and pro-life groups banded together to oppose the measure.