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Youth catechism’s Italian version pulled over contraception error
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.- The publisher of the Italian-language edition of a youth catechism has pulled it from production because of a translation error implying the Catholic Church’s approval of contraception.
The book “YouCat” was presented officially at a Vatican press conference on April 13. Nuova Citta, the catechism’s Italian publisher, has pulled the Italian copies to fix the error, the Associated Press reports.
The catechism, which teaches readers in a question-and-answer format, addresses fertility regulation in Question 420.
The Italian-language edition asked “Can a Christian couple have recourse to contraceptive methods?” It answered “Yes, a Christian couple can and should be responsible in its faculty of being able to give life.”
Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the head of Ignatius Press, which is publishing “YouCat” in English, said that the Italian version incorrectly translates the German word “empfängnisregelung.” While the word literally means “birth regulation” and can signify natural family planning, it is also sometimes used to refer to “birth control” through contraceptive means.
The Italian version of the youth catechism wrongly rendered the German word as “metodi anticoncezionali,” meaning “contraceptive methods.”
The Catholic Church has always opposed the use of contraception. In the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, its use is described as “intrinsically evil.”
“The problem did not originate with the German text,” Ignatius Press President Mark Brumley said in a statement on the publisher’s website, “at least not if the Italian translation is based on the same German text as that on which Ignatius Press based its translation.”
The English and German versions of the youth catechism did not contain the error made in the Italian translation.
Fr. Fessio told the AP the translation error was “an embarrassment” but not a change in Church teaching.
He said Nuova Citta had printed 45,000 Italian copies, 15,000-16,000 of which were already sold.
Organizers of World Youth Day have already ordered 700,000 copies of “YouCat” in various languages to give to young pilgrims along with a sleeping bag, a map and other accessories.
The development of the 300-page youth catechism was overseen by Cardinal Archbishop Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, who edited the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church. The German text of “YouCat” received the approval of the Austrian bishops in March 2010.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Pro-Abortion Republican Fights to Fund Planned Parenthood | LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Republican Fights to Fund Planned Parenthood
by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 3/28/11 10:32 AM
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is one of just a handful of pro-abortion Republicans in the Senate, but she has become the most outspoken of the group saying she will fight to ensure Planned Parenthood continues getting taxpayer funding.
“I think there are some that feel very strongly and will continue the effort to defund. I think that is a fight that is not yet resolved,” she told the Anchorage Daily News.
“More fundamentally, without the care Planned Parenthood provides — without access to Pap smears, pelvic exams and breast exams — women will die,” she said in a statement with pro-abortion Deocratic Alaska Sen. Mark Begich.
Murkowski and every other Republican senator voted for a House-approved long-term budget bill (the continuing resolution that contained the Pence Amendment de-funding Planned Parenthood), but she told the newspaper the vote on the bill, which the Senate rejected, was merely a test to determine how many lawmakers supported the rest of the bill and did not reflect whether pro-abortion Republicans or some Democrats would support Planned Parenthood de-funding.
Previously, Murkowski talked about legitimate health services Planned Parenthood provides in defending its funding, ignoring its own report showing it now does more than 25 percent of the 1.2 million abortions that are done annually in the United States.
“From 2002-2008, Planned Parenthood received $342 million in federal taxpayer money through Title X funding alone. With these funds, Planned Parenthood has provided women throughout the U.S. with important family planning and contraceptive services as well as screening for breast and cervical cancers for low-income women,” she said earlier this month.
Two other pro-abortion Republicans — Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — have joined Murkowski in saying they will vote for federal funding for the abortion business. A third, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, confused groups on both sides of the abortion debate last week with a statement saying he supported funding family planning efforts but not determining where he stands on funding Planned Parenthood itself or other abortion businesses.
A fourth Senate Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, is pro-abortion and has supported Planned Parenthood in the past, and the abortion agency endorsed his 2010 campaign for the Senate.
Meanwhile, a group of Senate Democrats considered the most likely to support de-funding Planned Parenthood have said very little on the subject, according to a report in The Hill, a congressional newspaper.
The three Democrats who call themselves pro-life — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — have said very little. Manchin declined to comment to The Hill, Nelson’s office would not speculate on whether there would be a vote on de-funding, and Casey has repeatedly voted to support Planned Parenthood funding in the context of funding family planning efforts.
Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia (who is retiring), Jon Tester of Montana (who faces a highly competitive 2012 re-election battle against pro-life Rep. Denny Rehberg), and Kent Conrad of North Dakota all declined to tell The Hill how they would vote.
Recently, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid indicated he would reject any House Republican funding bill that yanks Planned Parenthood funding — saying not only no, but “hell no.” President Barack Obama has also said he opposes de-funding Planned Parenthood in the budget bills.
This week, several leading pro-life organizations are calling on Congress to keep pressing forward with efforts to de-fund the $1 billion-dollar Planned Parenthood abortion business, which receives $363 million from federal, state and local government. With statistics showing Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion business in the nation and that it provides only abortion to almost every pregnant woman who walks in its door, and with videos showing it looking the other way as helpless sexually-trafficked young girls are subjected to abortions after being victimized, pro-life groups say there is little reason to fund the organization.
The buzz on Capitol Hill is that pro-life lawmakers are growing tired of short-term Continuing Resolution bills and are ready to dig in and fight hard for a long-term Continuing Resolution bill that completely defunds Planned Parenthood – which means the next three weeks could determine the direction the debate goes from here.
Leading pro-life groups have also been buttressed by support from more than two dozen fiscally conservative and libertarian groups that normally don’t weigh in on abortion debates but are urging Congress to de-fund Planned Parenthood. They released a letter to members of Congress asking for just thatFiscal Conservative Groups Seek Planned Parenthood De-Funding | LifeNews.com
Fiscal Conservative Groups Seek Planned Parenthood De-Funding
by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 3/21/11 6:24 PM
More than two dozen fiscally conservative and libertarian groups are calling for Congress to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
“On behalf of the millions of fiscal conservatives and libertarians represented by our organizations we write today to strongly urge Congress to eliminate all funding for Planned Parenthood,” the groups write to members of Congress. “This as a fiscal issue with symbolic resonance; it is illustrative of the broader problem of federal sponsorship of activities that are better undertaken by the private sector, and which interfere unnecessarily in the lives of Americans who have diverse viewpoints. If at least Planned Parenthood funding cannot be cut at a time the United States stands at the brink of insolvency, then there is little hope for fiscal restraint to ever be regained in the federal government.”
The letter and list of signers follows:
Dear Member of Congress,
On behalf of the millions of fiscal conservatives and libertarians represented by our organizations we write today to strongly urge Congress to eliminate all funding for Planned Parenthood. This as a fiscal issue with symbolic resonance; it is illustrative of the broader problem of federal sponsorship of activities that are better undertaken by the private sector, and which interfere unnecessarily in the lives of Americans who have diverse viewpoints. If at least Planned Parenthood funding cannot be cut at a time the United States stands at the brink of insolvency, then there is little hope for fiscal restraint to ever be regained in the federal government.
Over the past two years, domestic discretionary spending has exploded by 84 percent. This increase, due largely to spending under the guise of economic “stimulus,” is only the tip of the iceberg – the President’s latest budget plan calls for spending to average almost 23 percent of GDP, a share of the economy almost three percent higher than the historical average. What’s worse, the President hopes to make this government bloat permanent; Obama has proposed “freezing” discretionary spending at its current levels, a move that would increase spending to over $4 trillion in 2016 and put taxpayers on the hook for almost $9 trillion in new spending over the next decade.
The time to get serious about spending is right now, and every avenue must be immediately attacked in order to curb our destructive spiral of spending. No program or department can be off limits.
On economic merit alone, Planned Parenthood should be near the top of the cut list. To begin with, as Chuck Donovan at the Heritage Foundation has pointed out, Planned Parenthood is awash in net income. From 2002 to 2007, the national organization and its affiliates took in $388 million more than they spent on programs and services. Even in the midst of the recession, the president of the organization still received more than $337,000 in an annual salary and tens of thousands more in benefits and allowances. Planned Parenthood is receiving a rolling, annual bailout-and they don’t even need it.
When the House of Representatives voted two weeks ago to end federal grants and contracts for Planned Parenthood, it did so alongside eliminations for other pet projects, such as military contracts, signaling the sanctimony preserved for institutions revered on both sides of the aisle is coming to a close. It was deciding that American taxpayers should not be on the hook for unnecessary and controversial funding at a time when they simply cannot live with any more spending.
The federal budget is out of control, and if we cannot at least eliminate funding for an enormously wealthy, controversial nonprofit like Planned Parenthood our
movement to significantly cut the federal budget to sustainable levels will be dead in the water.
American taxpayers cannot afford to be the unwitting benefactors of endless bailouts, and the Pence Amendment is not just another social-issue skirmish. It is a
test of economic and budgetary seriousness. Planned Parenthood must be privatized.
Jon Caldera
Independence Institute
Susan Carleson
American Civil Rights Union
Mattie Corrao
Center for Fiscal Accountability
Brandon Dutcher
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Ryan Ellis
American Shareholders Association
William Estrada
Generation Joshua
Bill Felkner
Ocean State Policy Research Institution
Jeff Frazee
Young Americans for Liberty
William Greene, Ph. D.
RightMarch.com
Michael Jones
Young Americans for Freedom
Jimmy LaSalva
GOProud
George Landrith
Frontiers of Freedom
Mario Lopez
Hispanic Leadership Fund
Col. Francis X. De Luca, USMCR (Ret)
Civitas Institute
Lisa Miller
Tea Party Washington, DC
Seton Mobley
Less Government
Chuck Muth
Citizen Outreach
Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform
Tim Phillips
Americans for Prosperity
Amy Ridenour
The National Center for Public Policy Research
Terrance Scanlon
Capital Research Center
William Shaker
American Council for Health Care Reform
Tom Schatz
Citizens Against Government Waste
Steven Stone
RenewAmerica
Dino Teppara
Indian American Conservative Council
Forest Thigpen
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
Rick Tyler
ReAL Action
Richard Vigurie
ConservativeHQ.com
Rick Watson
Florida CenterRight Meeting
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