Media Watch

Ireland Flip-Flops on Cloning

THE IRISH EXAMINER, June 2 — The usually pro-life government of the Republic of Ireland has surprised its fellow members of the European Union by coming out against an EU resolution that seeks to ban all human cloning.

The Irish Examiner reported that the government doesn't back the ban, which includes prohibiting the cloning of embryos for research, because it would set back scientific advancements on major diseases. This decision conflicts with the Irish Constitution's firm protection of unborn life, asserted Dana Rosemary Scallon, an Irish member of the European Parliament.

The government stance was also criticized from the left, by Green Party parliamentarian Patricia McKenna: “We would be very concerned about this development, and it wouldn't be the first time the government has given a public impression of being conservative about something like this when behind the scenes they are privately backing it,” she told The Irish Examiner.

Scallon warned that the Irish government might even challenge its nation's constitution in order to allow therapeutic cloning in Ireland.

Jerusalem Patriarch Calls for End to Occupation

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 30 — The Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, has called on Israel to withdraw completely its troops from the Palestinian territories as a means to stop terrorism.

Their presence in the territories, he said, was actually encouraging violence rather than damping it. He said that because Israel was the far stronger party in the conflict, that nation had the responsibility to “to take the first step to stop the cycle of violence,” the French news agency reported.

“The occupation of the territories is nourishing terrorism,” he said. “The situation has led to economic and social strangulation.”

Speaking at Kirchentag in Berlin, the ecumenical gathering of German churches, Patriarch Sabbah said Palestinians “are living constantly in a situation of injustice.”

Cardinal Joins Queen for Jubilee

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, June 2 — The leading Catholic churchman in Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, joined other leaders of different faiths June 2 for a thanksgiving service marking the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II, Independent Catholic News reported.

The queen and her husband, Prince Consort Philip, rode through central London to Westminster Abbey to the tolling of church bells. While the 1953 coronation was strictly Anglican, this anniversary service was ecumenical, including as lectors Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor and several low-church Protestant ministers.

Present were all senior members of the royal family, as well as Sir Edmund Hillary, who finished his climb of Mount Everest on the very same day 50 years ago.

The queen's remarks on the occasion included the following: “Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings and to put my trust in God.”