Archdiocese: No ice-bucket challenge for ALS

[CincyDem]

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has asked the principals at its Catholic schools not to encourage students to raise money for the ALS Association as the ice-bucket challenge becomes an internet sensation.

The challenge itself is fine, said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese just doesn't want fundraising to be sent to the association, which funds at least one study using embryonic stem cells, Andriacco said.

[...snip...]

The Archdiocese asks that any money raised is sent instead to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute in Iowa City, Iowa, where the research is only conducted using adult stem cells.



Read more: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/08/20/ice-bucket-challenge-cincinnati-archdiocese/14342977/

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This is the archdiocese that this year added a "morality clause" to their contracts. Local radio news has reported that principals are reminding teachers of that clause when asking them to not participate in the ice-bucket challenge.

[DRoseDARs]

1. Goddamn, Catholic Church, can you ever stop being shitty? nt

[big_dog]

4. Weird Al Yankovic just put in a challenge to the Pope so we will get a decision on this soon..

[1monster]

6. This needs its own thread so we can K & R it!

[caraher]

2. So this is spreading

A more-Catholic-than-the-Pope FB friend posted links to priests urging the same thing.

I can understand, to some degree, Catholic opposition to abortion. But I'm pretty certain that the number of abortions performed, even in part, with the purpose of fetal stem cell research is zero. The worry is completely theoretical and divorced from the reality of both abortion and scientific research.

Meanwhile the suffering of ALS patients is very real.

[theHandpuppet]

17. Facts about embryonic stem cell collection

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/stem-cell2.htm

Embryonic Stem Cells

Once an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm, it will divide and become an embryo. In the embryo, there are stem cells that are capable of becoming all of the various cell types of the human body. For research, scientists get embryos in two ways. Many couples conceive by the process of in vitro fertilization. In this process, a couple's sperm and eggs are fertilized in a culture dish. The eggs develop into embryos, which are then implanted in the female. However, more embryos are made than can be implanted. So, these embryos are usually frozen. Many couples donate their unused embryos for stem cell research.

The second way in which scientists get embryos is therapeutic cloning. This technique merges a cell (from the patient who needs the stem cell therapy) with a donor egg. The nucleus is removed from the egg and replaced with the nucleus of the patient's cell. (For a detailed look at the process, see How Cloning Works) This egg is stimulated to divide either chemically or with electricity, and the resulting embryo carries the patient's genetic material, which significantly reduces the risk that his or her body will reject the stem cells once they are implanted....

[caraher]

21. Right

But to the fanatical, these "unused embryos" either become "snowflake babies" or are murder victims in America's shameful holocaust.

In other words, to them, what you just described is a horrific offense against the sanctity of human life. Unlike, say, using these embryos - that will likely be destroyed anyway - to develop treatments and cures for horrific diseases

[Garion_55]

3. these girls have a message for The Archdiocese....

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=837137626327255

NO!

[theHandpuppet]

18. Yeah, I've got a message for them, too

Imploring their parishioners to pray against gay marriage, making teachers sign those horrid contracts or be fired, now this.

And that message is -- FUCK OFF.

[lame54]

5. He's hijacking their promotion

[LynneSin]

7. I could understand if he's annoyed with the challenge - I think many are getting annoyed

but that's bullshit about the Embryonic Stem Cell research. If there is the ability to reverse ALS by using these cells then it's bullshit to deny someone this technology.

[Retrograde]

25. I'm with you here

The challenge is dumb, and verges on the dangerous (sudden thermal shock, anyone with a weak heart?): why not just donate the money.

Actually, there is some philosophical consistency since the Catholic Church does oppose in-vitro fertilization, but he needs to recognize that Catholics aren't the only people on the planet.

[msanthrope]

8. Dennis Schnurr is a horrible, silly man. nt

[VA_Jill]

9. The Pope

really needs to fire a bunch of American bishops anyway. A whole lot of them are just flat out insubordinate, like the one in Madison, WI, who told priests not to baptize the children of gay parents *after* the Pope told priests to quit discriminating against them and go ahead and baptize the kids.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Of course that is not really what old Francis said. Further, in a ritual based practice, if he wants

his priests to do a thing, he must tell them not just to do it, but how to do it. The actual teaching of the Church and of Francis is that gay people are inherently disordered. Francis himself has said fighting our rights is 'God's war which we must fight'. So if his intention is to reverse all of his longstanding bigotry, all due respect but he needs to do much, much more than mutter some vague musings. This man said gay families are Satan's idea. If he really did not mean it, the old bigot should say so.
The Pope indeed.

[NYC Liberal]

19. Frankie loves us though.

We're good people, he says. So long as, of course, we don't have sex, never have romantic relationships, abstain from sex, don't get married, don't adopt kids, and just generally shut up and sit down.

And he says don't discriminate against gays. Unless you're unfortunate enough to be gay in Uganda. Then Frankie will leave you hanging high and dry with nary a word while you're thrown in jail or killed.

[Brother Buzz]

10. Father Guido Sarducci, please pick up the nearest white courtesy telephone.

[Chasstev365]

12. Italian People Got 40-50 Miracles

(American Saint Anne Seaton), "but she got two measly miracles, one of them I understand was card tricks!"

[Brother Buzz]

13. Pfft, my great uncle (X11) was canonized and he shared a single miracle between....

his class of Forty Martyrs.

Here he reposes in Westminster Cathedral doing his Elvis impersonation:

[Chasstev365]

11. Do They Still Teach about Limbo?

Last edited Wed Aug 20, 2014, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

Honestly clergy: It's the 21st Century, not the 19th!

[LiberalElite]

16. No.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/18025/limbo

[Arugula Latte]

14. Ahh, that RCC and its leaders. What a bunch of swell guys.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. My youngest brother has ALS and is a devout Catholic.

Nice to hear the church cares so much about his well being.

[caraher]

22. I hope we find an effective treatment for him

My Catholic brother-in-law's brother died of ALS and I can tell you that as of the last time I saw my brother-in-law (this past weekend), nobody in that devout family had any trouble donating to the ALS Society.

[merrily]

26. I'm so sorry. It's a hard thing for the person, but also hard for those around him or her.

[theHandpuppet]

23. Check out the comments to the article published in the Enquirer

At least it's encouraging that about 95% of the comments regarding this action by the Archdiocese are along the same lines as those here on DU -- and many of those are from Cincinnati Catholics.

[woodsprite]

24. Ethel Kennedy didn't seem to have a problem with it. n/t