Sex BREAKING: Pope Hates In-Vitro Fertilization, Celibate Jury-of-One Still Out on Snowflakes
posted by on March 30 at 10:00 AM
The Catholic Church has yet to issue any authoritative teaching on embryo adoptions, said Peter J. Cataldo, an ethical consultant to the Philadelphia-based National Catholic Bioethics Center.At issue is what may morally be done to the excess embryos created through in vitro fertilization and frozen for possible later use. Over the years, many have been discarded while some have been adopted…. The church teaches that in vitro fertilization is not morally acceptable because the egg and sperm are joined outside of sexual intercourse between a husband and wife. The 1987 document “On Respect for Human Life” (“Donum Vitae”) from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noted that through in vitro fertilization, “(T)he generation of the human person is objectively deprived of its proper perfection: namely, that of being the result and fruit of a conjugal act.”
Those who believe embryo adoption to be illicit follow a similar argument.
Hee-hee. I love the Pope—the man’s hilarious. And so is his flock of Cardinals, and all those US Bishops. All those old, fruity celibates telling the rest of us what to do in the sack, in the lab, in the voting booth, in our Democratically-elected parliaments and congresses.
What I don’t love is the deference the media shows the Pope when he’s got something idiotic to say about gay issues. The Pope sure doesn’t get the same “God Has Spoken!” treatment when he speaks about straight issues. In-vitro fertilization is pretty much a straight issue, and the church is pretty much con. Strongly con. And yet you don’t hear much about that—I’ll bet you didn’t know the Pope was opposed to in-vitro fertilzation. And that’s because when it comes to straight sex and issue that touch on straight sexual rights and freedoms, straight reporters, editors, publishers, and readers aren’t interested in what Pope Ratzi has to say. The Pope is against birth control—big deal. The Pope says divorce is a mortal sin—who gives a fuck. The Pope thinks yoga is satanic (really)—nothing to see here.
But when the Pope say something equally idiotic about gay people—when he comes out strongly con concerning our sexual rights and freedoms—we get screaming headlines about the Pope’s “non-negotiable” positions on gay marriage, civil unions, same-sex couples adopting children, and on and on, as the Pope’s position suddenly matters or should matter.
Uh, straight people? If you’re going to ignore the Pope when he says idiotic, backwards, retrograde crap about you, then we really ought to ignore him when he says idiotic, backwards, retrograde things about me. And remember, straight folks, every idiot thing the Pope says about gay sex is grounded in the same fearful, idiotic, anti-pleasure arguments the Pope makes against birth control, in-vitro, blowjobs, and jacking off, etc.: If it can’t make a baby, it’s not okay with the Pope.
Unless straight people are prepared to limit their sexual rights, freedoms, and expression and live in as the Pope would like you to—no birth control, no blowjobs, no pre-marital sex, no yoga—then straight people should stop making an elaborate show of deference and respect for the Pope’s delicate feelings when it comes to my sexual rights, freedoms, and expression.
Ignore the Pope or not. But don’t ignore him when he has something to say about your sexual conduct and then prick up your ears when he’s got something to say about mine.
Can I get this on a bumper sticker?
The only pope I pay any attention to is The Pope Of Chili Town...
The news media seem to have an unwritten code about defering to the likes of the pope. The other side of that rule is that any non-believer must be portrayed in a negative light.
While I am thinking of this it reminds me of the unspoken rules about media coverage of political demonstrations. That is if tens of thousands of citizens are parading down the street for a redress of their grievances they must never show an aerial view or any picture that shows how many blocks it stretches back. If one person gets arrested that must be featured at the top of the report.
Pope Prada really hates his wiener.
Why thank you COMTE. Know you will always have my blessing.
Besides, maybe the hysterical news media is a good thing. It draws attention to that other Pope's gobbledygook. His claptrap views about straights are old hat. The stuff about gays is new fertile terrain for us to laugh at him about.
Honestly, I think we're reaching the point when everyone but the media is ignoring the Pope.
At least the last pope did enough things to merit attention, like apologizing for torturing Galileo. And trying to make amends with the Orthodox and the Jews. I know that this Pope is only a caretaker pope, but he could at least try to be worthwhile. Maybe hold a clambake or something.
Breaking: Double standards exist, especially when it comes to the media!
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
Also, I hate to admit it, but I agree with the Dope on the in vitro issue. Granted, my rational is completely different. I'm basically against people making new babies in any way, in vitro or old fashioned F-ing. Until every orphan and or foster kid has a home, people have no business making new ones.
Yeah, it hardly seems surprising that a medieval religious institution rejects modern social trends and longs for the good old days. You know, back when they ran everything?
As far as I can tell, the reason the Catholic Church and its pontiff receive the sort of uncritical coverage that, say, Scientology does not has a lot to do with the large numbers of Catholics who read newspapers or watch television news.
Has anyone asked the Pope why he shot at the allies in WWII? I mean he was in the Hitler youth.....
I care about what the pope says as much as I care about what any fat Nazi in a dress says, which is not a whole hell of a lot.
If only the Pope had read The Little Prince.
PRINCE: Sire--over what do you rule?
KING: Over everything.
PRINCE: Over everything?
NARRATOR: The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.
PRINCE: Over all that?
KING: Over all that.
NARRATOR: For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.
PRINCE: And the stars obey you?
KING: Certainly they do. They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination.
NARRATOR: Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, without ever having to move his chair. And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor:
PRINCE: I should like to see a sunset ... Do me that kindness ... Order the sun to set...
KING: If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong? The general, or myself?
PRINCE: You.
KING: Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform. Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable.
PRINCE: Then my sunset?
NARRATOR: The little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.
KING: You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable.
PRINCE: When will that be?
KING: Hum! Hum!
NARRATOR: Replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac.
KING: Hum! Hum! That will be about--about--that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed!
In the same vein: Episcopalians consider birth control and in vitro fertilization to be good things. They accept that divorce can be better than the alternative. They have implemented an affirmative action program nationally and urge it on Dioceses.
That ain't news.
The Episcopal House of Bishops (analogous to the Senate) doesn't chuck the constitution and bylaws of the church to prevent a duly elected bishop from being consecrated, or to prevent other gay bishops from being elected.
That, apparently, is news.
Wait, but isn't sex supposed to be all dirty, and babies conceived without it immaculate? Huh?
You are correct in my opinion, Dan. Screw the media. Screw the Pope. Everybody take a chill-pill and just mind your own business.
hear, hear, Dan! This is one straight guy who opposes all the crap coming from the Pope in one lump sum. When he insults or tries to tell one section of the population that "they're wrong/immoral/whatever", he attacks us all. Wouldn't be so bad if nobody listened to him, but the Catholic church throughout its history has only ceded independent thought and action begrudgingly, if at all.
Now I gotta read that article on him in the new New Yorker, but only after I've eaten breakfast...
Nice post.
Dave
At least he's consistant. Most of the "Life begins at conception" crowd doesn't see anything wrong with discarding leftover embryos from in-vitro.
And unlike the priests who vow to not do any of the above, I haven't resorted to fondling little boys. Which is why I don't see how the pope, as head of the largest organized child-molestation ring the planet has ever seen, has any authority to dictate morality to anyone.
A little late but...
"I know the Pope is infallible, but that doesn't mean he can't make mistakes." --Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report
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