German cardinal says yes to 'morning-after pill'

Photo ~ In dubio, non agitur.

Vatican II at 50: German Cardinal (Joachim Cardinal Meisner) says yes to abortive pill - in his Catholic hospitals

The Cardinal-Archbishop of the largest German diocese, and probably the wealthiest in the world, Cologne, gives his OK to the abortive "morning-after pill" after Catholic hospitals correctly applied Catholic doctrine and refused to distribute them. It is all a matter of "ethical counterweight", apparently...

Two Catholic hospitals in Cologne declined to give emergency contraceptives to a rape victim. The archbishopric in Cologne has now changed its mind - and has also shown an impressive capacity for contraceptive nuance.

That the Catholic Church intends unequivocally to protect conceived life is nothing new. What has changed is how Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner approaches the "morning-after" pill.

Through his spokesman Christoph Heckley, the Cardinal issued a personal explanation on Thursday (31.01.2013) which read: "If, after a rape, a supplement is used with the intend of preventing fertilization, that is in my view justifiable." Heckley reiterated once again, however, that everything which is abortive in nature is not allowed.

Cardinal Meisner's change of heart is the result of consultations with specialists. He now understands that certain forms of the "morning-after" pill prevent conception and are not technically abortive. This suggests that the Cologne church leader previously believed that all kinds of pills which could be taken by a woman after intercourse prevented an already fertilized egg cell from implanting in the uterus.

"The Catholic Church already had a problem with that one," says Antonio Autiero, a professor of moral theology at the University of Münster, in a reference to the traditional pill. "Artificial contraceptives" have been prohibited by the Catholic Church ever since Pope Paul VI published an encyclical, "Humanae Vitae," in 1968. "Nothing has changed doctrinally to this day," Autiero said.

Rorate Caeli

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G.Taylor

Feb 4, 2013

Killing children in the womb, is killing children in the womb.
When will that generation of clergy just go and retire, so the church can bloom. The weeds need taken out of the garden.

Angy

Feb 4, 2013

Ach, Männer, regt Euch doch ab.....

Holy Cannoli

Feb 4, 2013

In the good old days, this German ne'er do well would have been pilloried for a few days before he was executed. Today, the CDF ( The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) will do NOTHING.

The German, Gerhard Ludwig Müller- head of CDF, instead, complains that the sliings and arrows from public protests is too much for the dear, tender, bishops and cardinals to endure.

Well, Dear Gerhard Ludwig Müller, consider this for a moment. If you were doing your job effectively and removing heterodoxy from the Church and sanctioning those responsible (even when it comes from one of your beloved fellow Germans) there would likely be fewer complaints.

Instead, he finds it safer to malign Fellay and the SSPX.

Abramo

Feb 4, 2013

Shame on you, cardinal Meisner

Fidelium

Feb 4, 2013

How do parents tell their children that contraception is wrong and is against the teachings of God and the Church, when someone like this is saying the opposite?

thelastconvert

Feb 4, 2013

We simply don't need Cardinal Meisner in the Church doing what he is doing. It's time for these old hippies to leave and take the last paisley vestments with them. I'm sure the old hippy sisters in the rest homes would just love it.
How did he ever become a Cardinal - who appointed him? This is sort of a no-brainer - kick him out! After a churchmen like this . . . with this much power does this . . . just how does one explain to your children that he is wrong? This is hurting all the rest of us who try to convert non Catholics. Cardinal Meisner is not helping. He needs to leave and keep his month shut.

Gloria.TV – News Briefs

Feb 4, 2013

Comments:

This cardinal has already created scandal by splitting hairs and thus has already created the slippery slope. This is just one more case of "situation ethics" at work.
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In dubio, non agitur.

This man really should be excommunicated immediately. What he is doing is justifying a process whereby Church officials pretend that they are in a state of invincible ignorance in order to enjoy some illusory "freedom" to commit atrocious sins. If the Vatican allows this to pass uncorrected, it will send the US Church a message it is certain to follow, a message sent from Hell itself.
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The crisis gets worse and the Vatican does nothing.
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Cardinal Meisner should give the exact reference of the expert advice. If he has some kind of confirmation of what untill now was no evident for science about post-pill, and for that was impossible to discard reasonable an abortive effect, he must give that evidence to the Church and make it public for the moralists. If not, it is only a big mistake what he did hiding it on an "expert advice".
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New Catholic said...

There is no such magical morning-after pill that merely prevents conception without potentially being plainly abortive - in any number of ways. The pro-life movement has fought hard, for instance, to preserve the rights of conscientious objection in the distribution of the morning-after pill. So let us please avoid games of casuistry here: they are unacceptable in this blog. Leave such comments for the pseudo-Catholic newspapers, and do not post them here. Future comments of this tenor will be deleted.