Thursday, May 21, 2009
Father Jenkins Exposed!
Now, I know I'm just beating a dead horse here...
but I've seen this argument thrown around enough times to decide to look into this myself. Apparently, Father Jenkins sits on a board of directors for a pro-abortion group.
This would seem to be a strange position for a Catholic priest to be in, especially since Father Jenkins did, in fact, express his opposition to abortion in his commencement speech on Sunday. I later found out the "pro-abortion group" in question is actually the Millennium Project.
And it's true! He is a board member along with President Jimmy Carter, actress Angelina Jolie, and a Dr. Pedro Sanchez.
But what's all this about the Millennium Project being a pro-abortion group? Aren't they trying to eliminate poverty in Africa? What does that have to do with abortion?
Well, if you read the story on Lifesitenews.com you'll find that the Millenium Project explicitly details its support of abortion in its handbook for combating poverty in villages in Africa. You can find it on page 92, fifth paragraph from the top, sandwiched between the paragraph about giving vaccinations to pregnant women to prevent children dying from rubella and tetanus and the paragraph detailing the importance of emergency obstetric care to help reduce maternal mortality. Shame on you, Father Jenkins!
In countries where abortion is legal, safe abortion services in controlled settings by skilled practitioners should be established. In villages with a nearby district center with sound surgical capacity, these services can be referred. However, in instances where no district center or alternate post for safe abortion practices is accessible, abortion services can be offered at the village level, provided that sufficient surgical capacity exists.
Clearly, Lifesitenews.com would prefer that Catholics demand complete ideological purity with the charitable organizations with which they associate. Forget about the Millennium Development Project's support for adoptions, pre-natal care, pediatric care, and other work that they do to assist mothers and children, or any of the work they do with improving education, farming, and health care in the developing world. What's most important is that we cannot support any organization that will provide safe abortions in countries where abortion is already legal for mothers who would probably otherwise opt for an abortion without a skilled practitioner anyway.
Oh, and also, the folks at the Millennium Project provide people with contraception, which is a big no-no, especially since, as the Lifesitenews article points out, contraception doesn't work:
Fr. Jenkins has stated in the past that Notre Dame participates in the Millennium Villages Project via the Notre Dame Millennium Development Initiative (NDMDI). The efforts of the NDMDI focus on Uganda "where Notre Dame, through the Congregation of Holy Cross, has strong ties."Note to Lifesitenews.com: if you use an acronym, make sure you know what it stands for
Interestingly, Uganda is known for its unprecedented success in reducing its HIV rate over the past several decades, using the so-called ABC approach, which emphasizes abstinence and faithfulness as the surest means of avoiding infection. In the last few years, however, anti-HIV leaders in Uganda have complained about an increasing effort by large Western aid organizations to pressure the country to vastly increase its promotion of condoms.
Abstinence
Be Faithful
Condom use
By their own admission the ABC approach works, so what's wrong with distributing condoms? But then of course, I make the mistake in expecting these guys to make sense.
