Something Fishy!
It was most interesting to read Michael Northcott's exhortation that "Pro-life should mean saying no to pollutants." (Clouds of Witness 1/9/07)
He argues that ecological issues have been neglected by recent papal teaching on the basis that 'John Paul II believed the greatest moral challenge was...threats to pre-natal human life and efforts to restrain population growth.' But I find this does not stand up to scrutiny when scientific evidence [which many environmentalists choose to ignore] points precisely to the threat to the environment by the chemical pollutants caused by the synthetic hormones in contraceptive pills and devices.
One recalls the shocking evidence of the scientists from the University of Denver Colorado in 2005 and which again was highlighted in July this year;who studied mutant "intersex" fish in Boulder Creek and concluded the main culprits were estrogens and other steroid hormones from birth-control pills and patches, excreted in urine into the city's sewage system. Since their findings, stories have been emerging everywhere in the US. Scientists in western Washington found that synthetic estrogen - a common ingredient in oral contraceptives - drastically reduces the fertility of male rainbow trout. Doug Myers, wetlands and habitat specialist for Washington State's Puget Sound Action Team, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that in frogs, river otters and fish, scientists are "finding the presence of female hormones making the male species less male."
I very much doubt we are immune from such effects on this side of the Atlantic. Perhaps upsetting the delicate balance of the eco-system of our waterways might not figure much in some peoples minds on the grand scale of problems resulting from environmental pollution. But according to Pope Benedict "..our earth, speaks to us and we must listen if we want to survive and to decipher this message of the earth. And if we must be obedient to the voice of the earth, this is even truer for the voice of human life." (Meeting with Italian Clergy 24/07/07)
Edmund Adamus
Director, Department for Pastoral Affairs Diocese of Westminster
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Something Fishy!
This letter was sent to the Tablet but not published. (I'm always happy to publish good letters that somehow do not get to be published in that forum.)
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9 comments:
has anyone noticed as well that there is a very noticeable silence from the animal rights brigades regarding the systemic slaughter of millions of foals every year in the process of obtaining all this oestrogen and progesterone for the pill from pregnant mares ?
politically correct human and animal genocide seems to be permissible if it fits their diabolical agenda ?
It would be nice (and I hope not fanciful) to think that letters published here will receive a far bigger, and wider, readership than those published in The Pill. (Now how did it get that nickname?)
Has anyone noticed that The Tablet has become *the* propaganda organ for loony-tunes population controllers ever since Catherine Pepinster took over as editrix?
The Tablet's current idee-fixe with green rubbish is as obvious as its embarassing. The Tablet likes to think of itself as the left-liberal voice of Catholicism but population-control is as reactionary a creed as you can get.
I have a hard time getting worked up over mutant fish and estrogen in the water supply (and I've been swimming in Boulder Creek). It seems like a case of misguided priorities.
From a Catholic perspective, I think the fact that birth control pills and patches are abortificants is a better reason to argue against them than the fact that they're polluting our water, and mutating our fish.
"John Paul II believed the greatest moral challenge was...threats to pre-natal human life and efforts to restrain population growth." The author of the article finds that "this does not stand up to scrutiny".
Frankly, I think the author is out of his mind. The world wide abortion rate is something over 45 million per year (check the stats - that's probably a low estimate). That's not a "threat" to pre-natal human life, it's a direct assault on it. If that's not a greater moral challenge than polluted water and mutant fish, then I can't imagine what could be.
Steady on, anon.
You have rather missed the point of the letter which was an attack on the Tablet's priorities, not on Pope John Paul.
What he thinks "does not stand up to scrutiny" is the claim that ecological issues have been neglected by papal preaching, not John Paul's belief itself.
And if you are going to insult people by calling them "out of their mind", please don't hide behind the cloak of anonymity to do so.
Fr. Tim -
The cloak is off. That was my anon post above. My name is Beau Jackson. I live in rural Missouri in the United States. I'm 36 years old and a father of 4.
I re-read the article, and think I did mis-construe what the author was trying to convey. In my defense, I don't think it was well written. However, I withdraw my comment about the author and apologize for it.
I frequently post anon, because really...there's what? 6.5 billion plus people in the world. Does my name really help all that much. I guess I don't see much difference between hiding behind anonymity and hiding behind obscurity. You'll note that the other posters in the thread have posted under pseudonyms...what's the difference between "cpks" or "red maria" and "anonymous"?
Beau - I can see that the syntax of the sentence makes it easy to misconstrue. I suppose my reply was a bit sharp there. Thanks for your comeback on it. All the best.
(Actually, it does help if people use a consistent pseudonym rather than anon.)
CPKS: "...The Pill. (Now how did it get that nickname?)..."
Errr .... because it is so hard to swallow?
:^D
Beau, of course the fact that birth control drugs and devices are abortifacient is a far more serious reason to oppose their use than any affect they may have on fish.
And like you I'm not that concerned by mutant fish and oestrogen in the water supply.
But the point, I think, Edmund Adamus was cheekily making - and the point which Father Tim underlines - is that anti-natalist environ-mentalists may be causing damage to their beloved environment in pursuit of their crazed humanless vision of planet earth.
And the other irony is that The Tablet is now blatantly any censoring letters which question its green population-control editorial line. The Tablet is supposed to be committed to free speech and open democratic debate, for heaven's sake!
At the same time, its features, news and letters pages are stuffed full of dodgy Green propaganda. So we have the bizarre situation where reactionary green extremists
David Attenborough are given free run of The Tablet (Attenborough is closely linked to the Optimum Population Trust which calls for a 30 million person slash in the UK population by a swingeing programme of anti-natalist policies and cracking down on - surprise surprise - immigration http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article855953.ece) but Edward Adamus can't get his letter in.
Never would I have thought that the famous lyric on Public Enemy's Rebel without a Pause (Radio, suckers never play me!) would be applicable to the The Tablet's editorial policy. For shame.
The editrix is clearly using this venerable old publication as a soapbox for her own obsessions.
It is quite disgraceful that The Tablet should become a foghorn for such reactionary right-wing nonsense.
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