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This is disgraceful, that the church would essentially try to harm Amnesty in this way. The Amnesty policy (i am a member) is NOT a pro-choice policy. It is in fact more pro-life even than George Bush, who supports abortion in many other cases. The policy merely acknowledes that woman and girls are sexually abused in the contex of war and that in those scenarios a woman should have the right to a termination. I am embarrassed to be a catholic today, because the church leaders are giving the impression that we should stand aside and give no support to a woman or girl who is pregnant as the result of sexual abuse. This is extraordinary and appalling. he Catholic Church has lost many members because some priests have abused children and the hierarchy in a large number of cases acted to protect the church and the priests rather than the children. Now the church hierarchy is acting to defend the abusers again, but allowing the sexual crimes against women to stand. I appeal to the leaders of my own church to wake up and recognise that this attack on Amnesty will do nothing but further reduce the church's moral authority and further erode any influence the catholic church has in the international world.

To the female victims of sexual abuse, whether through conflict-related rape or incest, I apologise as a Catholic that your plight is being used in this way by the church. I will not be resigning from Amnesty and I will not be leaving the church. I am just praying that God will intervene to help the Pope, Cardinals, bishops and priests of the Catholic church (male, every one of them) realise that they are hurting women and girls by their actions in response to Amnesty.

Who threw the baby out with the bath water, I guess the RC’s did.

I'm afraid, Anne Rice, you are mistaken in thinking that the new Amnesty position is limited victims of rape or incest. It is committed to campaigning for complete decriminalisation. They may use Darfur as the context but the end result is that they will come after countries like Ireland (north and south). I resigned from Amnesty last month because of this new policy and regretfully, Amnesty are now just another pro-choice organisation (all be it doing good work in other areas, but completely undermining their stance on the death penalty) that we will have to oppose until they come to their senses.

Is there anyone as helpless as a child conceived by rape in Darfur? It is scandalous that Amnesty has abandoned them.

"Is there anyone who is as helpless as a child conceived by rape in Darfur?"

YES! The woman who has been raped. By soldiers or government supported janjuweed terrorists. Gang raped. Sometimes until she is unconscious. Sometimes until she is dead. In some cultures she becomes an outcast among her own people in the aftermath. Then she is expecected by the Catholic Church to spend nine months in a pregnancy bringing some monster's baby into the world. It's an atrocity the Catholic Church imposes because each new life born offers the possibility of another follower of the faith, even if it is a convert to the Catholic Church and the possibility of a donor to the collecton plate. The monsters who sit in the Vatican care nothing about this, they "Pontificate" on how every human being on earth should live their entire lives and if they don't follow their dictates, they will suffer eternal torture in hell. Are the followers of those who preach this insanity, this ultimate cruelty, mentally ill as Richard Dawkins would have us believe? Yes beyond the slightest shadow of doubt.

Don't feel smug you Anglicans who follow Armagh or Westminster Abbey, you are no better. There is not a single life on this earth that a Priest, minister, rabbi, imam, or guru of one theology or another wouldn't destroy without the slightest hesitation for the most miniscule chance of the betterment of his religion. They are criminally insane.

New policy Padraig?
Amnesty has always been pro-choice

quote from June '07

Amnesty International today firmly stood by the rights of women and girls to be free from threat, force or coercion as they exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.

Responding to a statement from the Vatican, Amnesty International contradicted the claim of Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, that Vatican funding for Amnesty International would cease.

Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

"We have not accepted funds from the Vatican and do not accept funds from any other state in support of our work against human rights violations.

"Millions of people around the world of many faiths and creeds donate to Amnesty International as individuals. Among them are welcome donations from members of the Catholic faith.

'We hope that Amnesty InternationaI's work against torture, against the death penalty and for the proper administration of justice including for women and girls will continue to draw active support from people of conviction the world over.'

'It means that sometimes the secular framework of human rights that Amnesty International upholds will converge neatly with the standpoints of certain faith based communities; sometimes it will not."

The Catholic Church’s decision to end school involvement with Amnesty and their call for people to cancel their membership are very small-minded, political actions, not moral ones.

Whatever one's views on abortion, the awful plight of women gang-raped as an act of war hugely complicates this issue even more.

By taking an absolutist stance on a very messy ethical dilemma they are refusing to acknowledge that reasonable, thoughtful people can reach different conclusions as to the best course of action without becoming pariahs.

Can Catholic schools now only work with Catholic organisations? Almost all of their school funding comes from a UK government that has legalised abortion on wider terms than Amnesty supports. I presume that the Church will also be ending this relationship and begin funding the schools themselves.

In deciding that complete separation from Amnesty is required in order to avoid being seen to support one ethical decision, the Catholic Church is setting an interesting example. Should the many Catholics who disagree with head office on many issues, such as contraception, homosexuality, abuse cover up, etc. now publicly leave the church en masse (as it were)?
I would say yes, but then I may be biased.