Misplaced Pages

Catholics for Choice: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 18:29, 11 August 2011 editJorgePeixoto (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,199 edits →See Change Campaign← Previous edit Revision as of 18:35, 11 August 2011 edit undoRoscelese (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers35,788 edits →See Change Campaign: okay, that change in structure was nonsensical, but i assume it'll be fixed eventually...in the meantime, more pressNext edit →
Line 41: Line 41:


=== See Change Campaign=== === See Change Campaign===
Since 1999, CFC also coordinates an international campaign of over 70 NGOs, called the See Change Campaign, to remove the ] and instead designate it as a non-governmental organization. The campaign was begun after disagreement in the UN conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, and Beijing. <ref name="dburke2007" /> <ref>{{Cite news |work=Irish Times |date=March 25, 1999 |title=Campaign to challenge Vatican's status at UN |first=Patsy |last=McGarry}}</ref> <ref name="seechange"> , retrieved 2011-08-11 </ref> Since March 1999, CFC also coordinates an international campaign of 541<ref>{{Cite news |work=The Nation |first=Katha |last=Pollitt |date=June 26, 2000 |title=Women: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?}}</ref> NGOs, called the See Change Campaign, to remove the ] and instead designate it as a non-governmental organization, which cannot vote and which must be invited if it wishes to address a meeting.<ref>{{Cite news |work=Ottawa Citizen |title=Canadians join move to oust Vatican from UN International coalition |first=Christopher |last=Shulgan |date=April 19, 1999}}</ref> The campaign was begun after disagreement in the UN conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, and Beijing. Kissling, then CFC's president, said that an entity whose citizenry "excludes women and children" should not "have a place at the table where governments set policies affecting the very survival of women and children."<ref>{{Cite news |work=Irish Times |date=March 25, 1999 |title=Campaign to challenge Vatican's status at UN |first=Patsy |last=McGarry}}</ref>


== Mission == == Mission ==

Revision as of 18:35, 11 August 2011

Catholics for Choice
File:Catholics for Choice logo.jpg
AbbreviationCFC
Formation1973
PurposePro-choice advocacy and activism
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
PresidentJon O'Brien
Websitecatholicsforchoice.org

Catholics for Choice (CFC), formerly Catholics for a Free Choice, is a pro-choice organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1973 "to serve as a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman's moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health." CFC is currently led by President Jon O'Brien.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states that CFC is not a Catholic organization.

History

CFC was founded in by Joan Harriman, Patricia Fogarty McQuillan, and Meta Mulcahy, as Catholics for a Free Choice, to promote access to abortion in the context of Catholic tradition. Its first president was Joseph O'Rourke, a Jesuit priest who was expelled from the order in 1974. CFC emerged from Catholics for the Elimination of All Restrictive Abortion & Contraceptive Laws, a New York lobby group that had been formed in 1970.

O'Rourke remained as president of CFC until 1979, when Pat McMahon was hired as Executive Director. McMahon shifted CFC's legal status from a lobby to an educational association, opening the group up to tax-exempt status and to foundation support. One result of this was a $75,000 grant on behalf of the pro-choice Sunnen Foundation which funded the group's first publications, the Abortion in Good Faith series.

In 1978 Frances Kissling joined the group, and in 1982 she was made president. She lobbied politicians and activists, many Catholic, to work in favor of giving women access to contraception and abortion.

New York Times ad

Main article: A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion

In 1982, CFC sponsored a briefing of Catholic members of Congress, highlighting the majority of American Catholic opinion that dissented with the Catholic Church on the topic of abortion. Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro wrote an introduction to the briefing, and endorsements were also received from Congressmen Tom Daschle and Leon Panetta. Ferraro wrote that responses varied to the problem of abortion, and that "the Catholic position on abortion is not monolithic..."

During the 1984 presidential campaign, Ferraro was chosen as the vice-presidential running mate of Walter Mondale. Cardinal archbishop John Joseph O'Connor sharply criticized Ferraro's pro-choice position, and in October 1984 Kissling responded to O'Connor by placing an advertisement signed by 97 prominent Catholics, including leading theologians, lay persons, priests and nuns, in The New York Times. The advertisement, entitled "A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion", stated that "direct abortion ...can sometimes be a moral choice" and that "responsible moral decisions can only be made in an atmosphere of freedom from fear of coercion."

The ad directly challenged Church authority. The Vatican took disciplinary measures against some of the nuns who signed the statement, sparking controversy among American Catholics, and intra-Catholic conflict on the abortion issue remained news for at least two years. In the end, CFC was seen to gain credibility and status by the advertisement, while the Church hierarchy was unable to advance their political goals on the topic of abortion.

In 1992, CFC was classified as a non-governmental organization by the United Nations (U.N.); CFC subsequently participated in some U.N. conferences. With other groups, the CFC successfully lobbied against the naming of John M. Klink, a former representative of the Holy See at the U.N., to lead the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in 2001. More recently, it has assisted in drafting legislation with the stated goal of reducing abortions, partly by increasing financing for family planning.

Kissling led CFC until her retirement in February 2007. CFC's former Vice-President and Director of Communications Jon O'Brien was subsequently appointed as the organization's new President.

See Change Campaign

Since March 1999, CFC also coordinates an international campaign of 541 NGOs, called the See Change Campaign, to remove the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and instead designate it as a non-governmental organization, which cannot vote and which must be invited if it wishes to address a meeting. The campaign was begun after disagreement in the UN conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, and Beijing. Kissling, then CFC's president, said that an entity whose citizenry "excludes women and children" should not "have a place at the table where governments set policies affecting the very survival of women and children."

Mission

The organization describes its mission as "to shape and advance sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women's well-being and respect and affirm the capacity of women and men to make moral decisions about their lives. CFC works in the United States and internationally to ensure that all people have access to safe and affordable reproductive health-care services and to infuse our core values into public policy, community life and Catholic social teaching and thinking."

CFC argues that Catholic teaching on the primacy of individual conscience, and the role of the faithful in establishing church law, support a pro-choice stance on these issues.

Funding

In 2007, CFC had a budget of $3 million, increased from $2.5 million annually in the years leading up to 2003. It is supported largely by secular foundations such as the Ford Foundation, Buffett Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Playboy Foundation.

Criticism

Church

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that CFC "is not a Catholic organization, does not speak for the Catholic Church, and in fact promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church as articulated by the Holy See and the NCCB," and that "its activity is directed to rejection and distortion of Catholic teaching about the respect and protection due to defenseless unborn human life." It also stated that "The public relations effort has ridiculed the Holy See in language reminiscent of other episodes of anti-Catholic bigotry that the Catholic Church has endured in the past."

In response to similar accusations, theologian, ecofeminist and CFC board member Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote that CFC was part of a schism rather than a proponent of anti-Catholic bigotry, that the accusation was an attempt to portray the "Catholic right" as the only authentic Catholics, and that "the charge of 'anti-Catholicism' is being used as a scare tactic by the Catholic right in the service of repression of progressive Catholic views."

Other critics

Helen M. Alvaré, an associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, said that CFC has "no grass-roots base among Catholics." She said the CFC arguments were not different from other pro-choice groups.

Excommunication

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, issued an interdict in March 1996 forbidding Catholics within his diocese from membership in 12 organizations including CFC. Bruskewitz stated that membership in any of these 12 groups "is always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic Faith." Members of the diocese were given one month from the date of the interdict to remove themselves from participation in the named organizations or face automatic excommunication. Bruskewitz remembered that heeding the ban on receiving certain sacraments, which results from excommunication, would "be left to the person's conscience."

References

  1. ^ Djupe, Paul A. and Laura R. Olson, Encyclopedia of American religion and politics, p. 84, Infobase Publishing 2003
  2. Catholics for Choice | Action Center, retrieved 2011-08-11
  3. CFC associates flyer - WORKING DRAFT, retrieved 2011-08-11
  4. Catholics for Choice | What You Can Do, retrieved 2011-08-11
  5. Become a CFC E-Activist, retrieved 2011-08-11
  6. Catholics for Choice – About Us
  7. ^ U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – Office of Communications
  8. Priest Expelled for Forbidden Baptism Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 4b, Oct. 18, 1975
  9. "When the swallows come back to Capistrano" Bottum, Joseph. First Things, Oct. 1, 2006. at highbeam.com. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
  10. ^ The New York Times. Backing Abortion Rights While Keeping the Faith. Banerjee, Neela. February 27, 2007
  11. ^ Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Ruether, Rosemary Radford; Cantlon, Marie (2006). Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America. Vol. 3. Indiana University Press. pp. 1104–1106. ISBN 0253346886.
  12. ^ Dillon, Michele (1999). Catholic identity: balancing reason, faith, and power. Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
  13. Weaver, Mary Jo (1999). What's left?: liberal American Catholics. Indiana University Press. p. 96. ISBN 0253213320.
  14. Davis, Tom (2005). Sacred work: Planned Parenthood and its clergy alliances. Rutgers University Press. pp. 146–147. ISBN 0813534933.
  15. "After 25 Years, a Catholic Warrior Steps Aside" Burke, Daniel. Religion News Service. 2007-02-22. at CFC website. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
  16. Pollitt, Katha (June 26, 2000). "Women: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?". The Nation.
  17. Shulgan, Christopher (April 19, 1999). "Canadians join move to oust Vatican from UN International coalition". Ottawa Citizen.
  18. McGarry, Patsy (March 25, 1999). "Campaign to challenge Vatican's status at UN". Irish Times.
  19. Catholics for Choice – About Our Work
  20. Kissling, Frances (Oct. 2001). "The place for individual conscience". Journal of Medical Ethics. v.27, Supp. Archived from the original on 2005-09-03. Retrieved 2011-07-20. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. Hunter, James Davison, Before the shooting begins: searching for democracy in America's culture war , p. 744, Simon and Schuster, 1994
  22. Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Autumn 2000). "The Mantra of Anti-Catholicism". Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion.
  23. Extra-synodal Legislation: Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz at ewtn.com. March 19, 1996. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  24. "Catholics in 12 Groups Excommunicated in Nebraska". Daily News. Los Angeles, California: The Free Library, by Farlex. Associated Press. May 16, 1996. Retrieved July 18, 2011.

External links

Categories: