Yesterday the federal district court in DC ruled that the Obama administration policy of funding research that kills the embryo-child must be halted because plaintiffs stand a good chance of proving it violates the law. Here is what Deacon Keith Fournier has written about the decision at Catholic Online:
In a significant opinion issued by Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia human embryonic life was given a stay of execution on Monday, August 23, 2010. The Federal Court enjoined the implementation of the Obama Administration guidelines which would have allowed researchers to extract stem cells from “surplus” embryos donated by patients at fertility clinics. This “extraction” amounts to an execution of human embryonic life. These guidelines went into effect in July, 2009.
…In the Courts own words “having concluded that the Dickey-Wicker Amendment is unambiguous, the question before the Court is whether ESC (Embryonic Stem Cell Research) is research in which a human embryo is destroyed. The Court concludes that it is.”
…The efforts of this administration to use human embryonic life for deadly experimentation, in spite of the medical science which has proven that Adult Stem Cell Research, (which never injures or kills) is far more promising, is not only bad science but it is also morally reprehensible. On Monday, March 9, 2009, President Barrack Obama turned a whole class of human persons into commodities to be used by issuing an Executive Order. The NIH Guidelines which followed treat human embryos as property, capable of being “manufactured” and used as spare parts in experimentation which has produced no discernible scientific results and always kills the human embryonic person.
…..Every “extraction” of embryonic stem cells kills a living human embryonic person. This is not simply a “religious” position, it is medical science and the Judge in this opinion acknowledged these scientific facts. This opinion provides a resource for our work in the great human rights struggle of our age, restoring the legal recognition of the fundamental human right to life for all persons from conception to natural death. Read whole story at www.catholic.org

When the University of Notre Dame, America’s most famous Catholic college, invited President Obama to be commencement speaker and receive an honorary law degree, Catholics and others were scandalized. The Bishops had made clear that Catholic institutions should not give a platform to political leaders whose views contradicted the Church’s moral teachings – especially on human life.

In January, my former Bishop, Kevin C. Rhoades, was transferred by the Vatican from Harrisburg to Ft. Wayne/South bend, Notre Dame’s diocese. Although no reason was (or ever is) given, it seemed to me the Church was looking for a stalwart, uncompromising but diplomatic Bishop to reign in her “wild child” ( I use this term with affection, as I received a Master Certificate from Mendoza College at Notre Dame).

Already, Bishop Rhoades’ salutary leadership in this regard is being felt. In an article sent out by the University, a new Board of Trustees policy on human life:

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/15267-bishop-rhoades-responds-to-statement-and-principles-on-life/

This is an inspiring example of the leadership of a Bishop when institutions or prominent individuals within his diocese, and so are his sheep, require admonishment, instruction or discipline. I know from working with Bishop Rhoades and with those who have labored with him and under his guidance for many years, that he has that fortitude and grace necessary to inspire and direct.

God bless and sustain Bishop Rhoades and all his brother bishops.