Author Topic: Is the Church Above The Law? Church Double Standards (Read 49571 times)

barrister · « **Reply #180 on:** Jun 11, 2012 at 01:23 PM »

Quote from: sharkey360 on Jun 11, 2012 at 11:05 AM

Church leaders slam Aquino admin for ‘surrendering’ to US

The religious leaders also said it is wrong that the Philippine independence is being “surrendered” to another power aside from God.

“The Lord wants every people and every nation free, free to do God’s will and not the will and whims of other nations however powerful they may be. God is the only genuine power whose will is to be honored and kept,” said the EBF.

The EBF is a fellowship of bishops from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Episcopal Church in the Philippines, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, and the Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2012/06/11/church-leaders-slam-aquino-admin-surrendering-us-226245#.T9Vx4nPgL8I.facebook

They don't want any help from the US.

What's their solution? Just pray? Good thing nobody takes those nutjobs seriously.

Klaus Weasley · « **Reply #181 on:** Jun 11, 2012 at 04:02 PM »

Well, we need to U.S. in our side if we don't want China to attack us.

sharkey360 · « **Reply #182 on:** Jun 13, 2012 at 09:20 AM »

Kawawa naman yung biktima.

sharkey360 · « **Reply #183 on:** Jun 14, 2012 at 05:41 PM »

What do you think?

RU9 · « **Reply #184 on:** Jun 14, 2012 at 11:27 PM »

Church Battles Efforts to Ease Sex Abuse Suits

Changing the statute of limitations “has turned out to be the primary front for child sex abuse victims,” said Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University who represents plaintiffs in sexual abuse suits.

“Even when you have an institution admitting they knew about the abuse, the perpetrator admitting that he did it, and corroborating evidence, if the statute of limitations has expired, there won’t be any justice,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/sex-abuse-statutes-of-limitation-stir-battle.html?_r=1

warmaster · « **Reply #185 on:** Jun 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM »

Quote from: sharkey360 on Jun 11, 2012 at 11:05 AM

Church leaders slam Aquino admin for ‘surrendering’ to US

The religious leaders also said it is wrong that the Philippine independence is being “surrendered” to another power aside from God.

“The Lord wants every people and every nation free, free to do God’s will and not the will and whims of other nations however powerful they may be. God is the only genuine power whose will is to be honored and kept,” said the EBF.

The EBF is a fellowship of bishops from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Episcopal Church in the Philippines, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, and the Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2012/06/11/church-leaders-slam-aquino-admin-surrendering-us-226245#.T9Vx4nPgL8I.facebook

How about freedom from religion?

yan ang binabalewala ng simbahang katoliko. na may karapatan rin ang ibang tao magpractice ng kanilang paniniwala or lack thereof. hindi simbahan dapat ang nagpapatakbo sa bansa natin, isang bahagi lang sila ng mas malaking kabuuan ng iba't ibang relihiyon at paniniwala.

sharkey360 · « **Reply #186 on:** Jun 15, 2012 at 04:46 AM »

When churches are above the law in Indonesia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__uWhAsvE-s

RU9 · « **Reply #187 on:** Jun 19, 2012 at 08:04 AM »

Bishop accused of diverting millions
BY ARIES RUFO
Posted on 06/18/2012 2:34 PM | Updated 06/18/2012 6:43 PM

MANILA, Philippines - Tempest is brewing in one of the richest dioceses in the Philippines.

Priests and lay leaders have asked the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Giuseppi Pinto, to look into the finances of the Diocese of Parañaque under Bishop Jesse Mercado for alleged misuse of funds.

They also want Mercado removed, for sowing division among the clergy for his double-standard policy.

After meeting with the papal representative a few times, the group finally secured a commitment from Pinto that he will refer the complaint to the Curia in Rome.

The move comes on the heels of growing sensitivity within the Catholic Church hierarchy on the issue of finances. This follows the backlash on the leaks of documents in the Vatican.

http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/7201-church-fund-misuse-to-be-probed-by-rome

Klaus Weasley · « **Reply #188 on:** Jun 19, 2012 at 09:24 AM »

A lot of our priests and bishops are getting away with their kalokohan here due to the fact that Filipinos are afraid to speak out against them.....until now fortunately.

sharkey360 · « **Reply #189 on:** Jun 19, 2012 at 10:02 AM »

Check this out.

barrister · « **Reply #190 on:** Jun 19, 2012 at 10:30 AM »

Quote from: RU9 on Jun 19, 2012 at 08:04 AM

Bishop accused of diverting millions
BY ARIES RUFO
Posted on 06/18/2012 2:34 PM | Updated 06/18/2012 6:43 PM

Thanks for the link.

It's not surprising that relief donations to the Catholic Church are not reaching the intended recipients.

What is surprising is that somebody finally spoke up about it.

Nelson de Leon · « **Reply #191 on:** Jun 19, 2012 at 12:15 PM »

Quote from: barrister on Jun 19, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Thanks for the link.

It's not surprising that relief donations to the Catholic Church are not reaching the intended recipients.

What is surprising is that somebody finally spoke up about it.

Paano kaya nila nakuha yun amount collected...? Ang alam ko, walang list ang mga ibang catholic churches regarding funds na pumapasok...

sharkey360 · « **Reply #192 on:** Jun 20, 2012 at 01:44 PM »

Nagsalita yung bishop. Let's see if he can prove himself innocent.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2012/06/20/prelate-ready-quit-if-found-guilty-227813

sharkey360 · « **Reply #193 on:** Jun 20, 2012 at 08:15 PM »

The accused bishop reacts to the journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T43hYZiQ1Pw

sharkey360 · « **Reply #194 on:** Jun 24, 2012 at 06:26 AM »

Lim: Tyranny

HOUSE Bill 6330 dubbed the Religious Freedom in Government Offices Act has stirred epic condemnation. The common thread of criticism for Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino’s bill which bans religious icons, symbols and ceremonies in government offices is that it curtails religious freedom.

But does it? It bans communal worship of any religion in the premises of a government office. It does NOT ban private worship of any religion by any individual even inside the confines of a government office. The prohibition is on public not private space.

Does Palatino truly misinterpret the Constitution that guarantees “the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference?” Is it not discriminatory to non-Catholics when Catholic icons are displayed in government offices? Is it not preferential to the Catholic faith when Catholic rites are held inside government institutions?

Palatino critics say no one is being compelled to attend Catholic rites inside government offices. No office memo need be circulated. When the boss spearheads any event of any kind, all employees know it would bode better for them to participate.

It’s called moral suasion. It’s why we buy tickets to raise money for the boss’ pet projects. It’s why we buy direct-selling products the boss sells on the side. There is pressure, not necessarily force, to comply or to fall out of grace.

House Bill 6330 seeks to make the state religiously neutral in order to provide all citizens, regardless of faith, the same rights in terms of government. The bill does not seek to have individuals abandon their religion, only to separate matters of faith from matters of the state.

I understand this concept is completely alien to the majority of Filipinos. The Spanish friars, after all, ruled our nation, for 300 years. But you only have to read the books of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, to see that the merger of church and state resulted in religious tyranny.

Palatino has been called crazy, his bill labeled nonsense but who’s really make sense here? Those who say that because the Philippines is 83 percent Catholic, the rest of the population should just shut up and bear with whatever the Catholic majority desires?

Are we saying that in a roomful of people, majority of whom agree to drink cyanide, the minority should just shut up and comply? This is a cult. Not a community. This is tyranny not democracy.

Reactions from both lay and ecclesiastical groups have been telling. Those who choose not to practice the predominant religion in this country are still persecuted for rejecting orthodoxy. That, I say, is curtailment of religious freedom.

Today, the Catholics are up in arms, saying that those who feel offended by Catholic rites and icons should simply shut up because they are the minority. I say beware of the tyranny of the majority. The Inquisition was a moment of great shame in history.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/opinion/2012/06/23/lim-tyranny-228385

rusty · « **Reply #195 on:** Jun 25, 2012 at 03:10 PM »

Vatican fund for Ondoy victims diverted too
by Aries Rufo
Posted on 06/25/2012 2:09 PM | Updated 06/25/2012 4:23 PM

MANILA, Philippines - Even Rome’s intention was not honored.

A huge donation from the Vatican in the aftermath of typhoon Ondoy in 2009 failed to reach the intended beneficiaries, financial records from the diocese of Parañaque showed.

According to a ledger report, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development gave a donation of P697,500 a few days after Ondoy struck.

The figure was about 10,000 euro, with the euro-peso exchange at that time pegged at one euro equivalent to P70.

The money was coursed through the “Apostolic Nuncia,” the ledger report – a copy of which was obtained by Rappler – showed.

But an analysis of the remittances to the typhoon victims revealed that only about 16% or P263,236.50 out of the total P1,631,473.05 donations has been disbursed.

The Cor Unum foundation was established in 1971 by Pope John Paul VI. In the Vatican website, Cor Unum’s mission represents “the care of the Catholic Church for the needy, thereby encouraging human fellowship and making manifest the charity of Christ.”

Among its objectives is to “assist the Pope and be his instrument for carrying out special initiatives in the field of humanitarian actions when disaster occurs, or in the field of integral human promotion.”

http://www.rappler.com/nation/7550-vatican-fund-for-ondoy-victims-diverted-too

rusty · « **Reply #196 on:** Jun 26, 2012 at 07:45 AM »

Cardinal’s Aide Is Found Guilty in Abuse Case
By JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: June 22, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide, was found guilty Friday of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

The single guilty verdict was widely seen as a victory for the district attorney’s office, which has been investigating the archdiocese aggressively since 2002, and it was hailed by victim advocates who have argued for years that senior church officials should be held accountable for concealing evidence and transferring predatory priests to unwary parishes.

The trial sent a sobering message to church officials and others overseeing children around the country. “I think that bishops and chancery officials understand that they will no longer get a pass on these types of crimes,” said Nicholas P. Cafardi, a professor of law at Duquesne University, a canon lawyer and frequent church adviser. “Priests who sexually abuse youngsters and the chancery officials who enabled it can expect criminal prosecution.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msgr-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?_r=1

sharkey360 · « **Reply #197 on:** Jun 27, 2012 at 08:33 PM »

As Filipino women suffer…

THE 2011 Family Health Survey, released last week by the National Statistics Office (NSO), clearly showed the effects of a decade of neglect of reproductive health services by the national government.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose political survival was dependent on conservative elements of the Catholic Church, dismantled the national programs for the delivery of family health services not only through “benign neglect” but also by an active and systematic degradation of the family planning infrastructure that had survived sporadic periods of indifference over the preceding three decades.

Catholic fundamentalists, heady with the success of the pseudo-people power coup of 2001, began the hatchet job by convincing health regulators to withdraw registration of “Postinor”, a brand of the hormonal contraceptive levonorgestrel specifically designed for use immediately after unprotected sex (especially for victims of rape and incest). The underhandedness by which this was accomplished was matched only by the continuous deception that allowed health authorities to pay lip service to family health while depriving poor women of quality reproductive health services.

The Population Commission was, until 2001, a technically competent bureaucracy that ably supported family planning and population management and development activities. Its mission was doomed with the appointment of two commissioners from known conservative Catholic groups – one nominated by Couples for Christ, the other from the Opus Dei.

Procurement of contraceptive supplies by the Department of Health was scuttled. Funds earmarked for this purpose were diverted to extremist Catholic groups purportedly for “natural family planning”. This method of family planning remains unused except by a miniscule proportion of women despite the millions of pesos spent supposedly for its promotion.

The results have been devastating to the millions of women who would otherwise have been helped by government provision of family planning services. All the surveys conducted from 2001 to 2011 showed that, while overall contraceptive prevalence stagnated, this indicator of effective reproductive health services actually declined among the poor – the very population group that needed them most. Even more ominous for mothers, teen pregnancies during this period show an alarming upward trend. Total fertility rates remained high and unplanned pregnancies also climbed, while family planning needs remained unmet.

All these contributed to the deadliest effect of fundamentalist influence on health services - thousands of Filipino women dying unnecessarily of childbearing-related causes. This is evidenced by the 2011 FHS that reported maternal mortality at 227 per 100,000 live births – a number surpassed only by the least developed countries in Asia and Africa – from 162 just five years ago.

The observation made by NSO, that on infant and child mortality the Philippines is likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets, is little consolation. Neonatal mortality (infant death during and immediately after birth) is still the highest contributor to infant mortality and the current maternal, neonatal and child health and nutrition (MNCHN) programs have hardly addressed this problem. What is more, surviving children among the poor continue to be malnourished and uneducated – making it difficult for them to become productive members of society as adults.

***

Even as Filipino women and children suffer from benighted government policies encouraged by what can only be referred to as the Catholic Taliban, most Filipino Catholics remain oblivious to the ferment that is going on within their Church here and abroad. Philippine media, for a variety of reasons including a residual colonial reticence on matters of religion, have managed to ignore or minimize not only stories of Church corruption and malfeasance but also coverage of dissent among clergy and religious.

As the pedophilia scandals have quieted down somewhat, many concerned Catholics throughout the world are just beginning to realize that aberrant sexual behavior of clergy is only a sign of more deeply rooted problems in the entire institutional make-up of the Roman Catholic Church. These structural problems, beginning with a stubborn clinging by the Vatican to outdated monarchical authority, are major hindrances to ensuring the relevance of religion to human existence in the 21st century.

In the United States, American nuns have become the vanguard of what has been a hard struggle to maintain the beginnings of modernity that started with the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. While the Church hierarchy is under attack by ultraconservative heretics like the anti-Vatican II Lefebvre group in France, the Vatican continues to resist the participation of women in Church governance – as shown by the recent censure of Sister Margaret Farley, who wrote “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics”, and Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, author of “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God.”

Meanwhile, here in the Philippines, a group of young priests with some lay support, have brought charges of financial malfeasance by the Bishop of Parañaque (with jurisdiction over Las Piñas and Muntinlupa) to the attention of the Vatican through the Papal Nuncio. This news has made it to the pages of a website specializing in news about the Church known as The Vatican Insider (accessed via www.vaticaninsider.com).

***

Email [email protected]

http://malaya.com.ph/index.php/opinion/7204-as-filipino-women-suffer

rusty · « **Reply #198 on:** Jun 28, 2012 at 05:20 PM »

Catholic school hit over 'collateral'
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Can't pay tuition?

St Andrew's School (SAS), which is under the controversial Diocese of Parañaque, allegedly offers a solution that has sparked outrage from concerned alumni. This is for the school to “forcibly” demand collateral from parents that include game consoles and television sets, said SAS alumni in a public manifesto.

Through representative Eduardo Carabeo Jr, the alumni sent the statement in the wake of a Rappler exposé on Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado who is accused of fund misuse. (Read: Bishop accused of diverting millions.)

“We denounce the present SAS management's decision in implementing a non-standing policy of forcing parents whose children have back accounts with the school, to produce 'anything of considerable value' such as certificate titles of land title (sic), jewelries, wristwatches, vehicle registration papers, even PlayStations, laptops, payroll-linked ATM cards, television sets, video cameras, etc, even those not owned by the parents themselves but even those of friends and relatives, to be posted as guarantee, as if SAS were already engaged in the business of pawnshops,” the alumni said.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/7481-catholic-school-hit-over-forced-collaterals

Rally mars Catholic school's anniversary

http://www.rappler.com/nation/7700-rally-mars-catholic-school-s-anniversary

Klaus Weasley · « **Reply #199 on:** Jun 28, 2012 at 08:02 PM »

I'm very happy we're now calling out the Catholic Church for all their kalokohan. We bow our heads to them for far too long.

xgh0st12x · « **Reply #200 on:** Jun 28, 2012 at 09:19 PM »

My 2 cents on the post by Rusty above:

At the end of the day, i think the school's rationale here is for them to think of the school as a business and not a catholic school. Let's face it, would the school impose such policies if parents settled their childrens tuition fees etc. with the school in a timely manner?

It's a business that needs to stay afloat regardless of its religious orientation.

Sure, it's not a Christian thing to do. But again, would they have resorted to such strategies if obligations were settled on time?

My wife and I work hard to put our kids to school. But i certainly would not blame the school if they imposed such policies on us should we fail to fulfill our obligations to them.

IMHO, it's a better option than saying "Well, you cant pay your dues to the school your child goes to? Get him/her the *%!@ out of here then"

Mejo double edged sword ito.

As a Christian, it definitely is not the thing to do.
As a business however, it's an option one should consider.

Nelson de Leon · « **Reply #201 on:** Jun 28, 2012 at 09:42 PM »

Quote from: SonOfKratos on Jun 28, 2012 at 09:19 PM

My 2 cents on the post by Rusty above:

At the end of the day, i think the school's rationale here is for them to think of the school as a business and not a catholic school. Let's face it, would the school impose such policies if parents settled their childrens tuition fees etc. with the school in a timely manner?

It's a business that needs to stay afloat regardless of its religious orientation.

Sure, it's not a Christian thing to do. But again, would they have resorted to such strategies if obligations were settled on time?

My wife and I work hard to put our kids to school. But i certainly would not blame the school if they imposed such policies on us should we fail to fulfill our obligations to them.

IMHO, it's a better option than saying "Well, you cant pay your dues to the school your child goes to? Get him/her the *%!@ out of here then"

Mejo double edged sword ito.

As a Christian, it definitely is not the thing to do.
As a business however, it's an option one should consider.

Hindi naman ata registered yun school as a foundation or a non earning institution so pwede ata nilang gawin. And if the parents feel na hindi nila afford, may public school naman. If mataino yun bata, may mga scholarship programs naman ang different schools.

Ang nasa isip na lang siguro ng mga parents, na the school is run by the catholic church. And being a catholic church, is suppose to be a non-profit organization.

xgh0st12x · « **Reply #202 on:** Jun 28, 2012 at 10:15 PM »

I see your point of view bro. Ang sana lang na wag nila gawin is to charge interest on the values of the items that are surrendered to them as collateral. Ibang usapan na yun. Kasi may profit na yun eh.

Tavus · « **Reply #203 on:** Jun 29, 2012 at 09:23 AM »

Quote from: Klaus Weasley on Jun 19, 2012 at 09:24 AM

A lot of our priests and bishops are getting away with their kalokohan here due to the fact that Filipinos are afraid to speak out against them.....until now fortunately.

i know. i believe the internet has something to do with it. the its amazing tool that has open up free speech and democracy.

Tavus · « **Reply #204 on:** Jun 29, 2012 at 09:34 AM »

Quote from: barrister on Jun 11, 2012 at 01:23 PM

They don't want any help from the US.

What's their solution? Just pray? Good thing nobody takes those nutjobs seriously.

What of course not! We dont need there help. It's so simple, Lets all pray. We know Gods hand will come from the sky and smack those chinese ships.

Klaus Weasley · « **Reply #205 on:** Jun 29, 2012 at 12:19 PM »

Quote from: Tavus on Jun 29, 2012 at 09:34 AM

What of course not! We dont need there help. It's so simple, Lets all pray. We know Gods hand will come from the sky and smack those chinese ships.

Some Filipino believe that we are somehow special in God's eyes as a race due to the fact that the Vatican has massaged our spiritual egos so that we'll pretty much say "How high?" every time they say "Jump!"

RU9 · « **Reply #206 on:** Jul 02, 2012 at 07:13 PM »

Vatican labels the ordination of women a 'grave crime' to be dealt with in the same way as sex abuse
By STEVE DOUGHTY
UPDATED: 07:08 GMT, 16 July 2010

Making a woman a priest is as sinful as abusing a child, the Roman Catholic Church declared yesterday.
New religious rules published by the Vatican set both sins at the same level of gravity and recommended the same punishment for guilty priests.

Church officials in Rome insisted that the new version of Canon Law showed it was 'very, very serious in its commitment to promote safe environments'.

But it had the appearance of an own goal by Pope Benedict XVI in his attempt to cool the scandal over Catholic cover-ups of child abuse by paedophile priests.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295012/Vatican-labels-ordination-women-grave-crime-par-sex-abuse.html

Klaus Weasley · « **Reply #207 on:** Jul 02, 2012 at 08:24 PM »

Jeez....I read somewhere that much of the cardinals on the higher-ups of the Vatican are so isolated from the mainstream that they have little to no idea how the outside world sees them. This is proof of that.

sharkey360 · « **Reply #208 on:** Jul 12, 2012 at 01:32 PM »

Are you with Mrs. Gates or the Vatican?

Catholic Melinda Gates defies the Vatican over birth control funds
Philanthropist reveals £360m grant to prevent unwanted pregnancies in poorer countries

Melinda Gates, billionaire philanthropist and practising Catholic, yesterday laid down the gauntlet to the Vatican by vowing to dedicate her life to improving access to contraception for women in the developing world.

At an extraordinary summit in London, Mrs Gates announced that the charitable foundation she set up with her Microsoft founder husband Bill was donating $560m to family planning services.

The size of the donation is intended to emphasise the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s commitment to reducing unwanted pregnancies in poorer countries, which experts say lead to more than 100,000 women dying prematurely every year.

A life-long Catholic, Mrs Gates said she had grappled with her faith before deciding to speak out against the Vatican’s opposition to contraception.

“Of course I wrestled with this. As a Catholic I believe in this religion, there are amazing things about this religion, amazing moral teachings that I do believe in, but I also have to think about how we keep women alive,” she said in an interview in advance of the summit.

“I believe in not letting women die, I believe in not letting babies die, and to me that’s more important than arguing about what method of contraception [is right].”

The summit, co-hosted by the Gates Foundation and Department for International Development, started with a remarkable declaration by the Indian government pledged to provide free access to family planning for all 64 million women currently denied the opportunity to control when and how many children to have.

Cash pledges then came in thick and fast from world leaders, with more than £3bn by the end of the day, Almost half of contribution were from developing countries.

David Cameron was given a standing ovation after announcing Britain is doubling its financial support for family planning services to £1bn over the next eight years, but was immediately asked how he would tackle religious opposition to the efforts.

He said Britain’s contribution would save the life of a woman or girl in the developing world every two hours for the next eight years by preventing deaths caused by too many pregnancies, too close together.

Mr Cameron and Andrew Mitchell, international development minister, were widely praised for showing leadership and commitment to women’s health, though the funding is not new money and will come out of existing aid budgets.

Australia and Germany both agreed to double their contributions for family planning programmes. Nigeria, where only one in 10 couples currently use contraception, announced a 300 per cent increase in funds.

In total, the summit raised nearly enough money to expand family planning programmes to an extra 120 million women.

In her speech Mrs Gates said: "What we're doing is an enormous undertaking… We're committed to innovating constantly; we're committed to educating women about their options… It is a difficult task but it is absolutely urgent."

Mr Cameron said: "When a woman is prevented from choosing when to have children it is not just a violation of her human rights it can fundamentally compromise her chances in life and the opportunities for her children.

"Family planning works not just because smaller families can be healthier and wealthier but because empowering women is the key to growing economies and healthy open societies."

Mr Cameron added: "We're not talking about some kind of Western imposed population control, forced abortion or sterilisation.

"What we're saying today is quite the opposite. We're not telling anyone what to do. We're giving women and girls the power to decide for themselves."

An estimated 220 million women around the world do not have access to contraceptives or family planning information.

In some countries women need written consent from their husbands before they can talk to a doctor about contraception while in others, family planning services are not offered to adolescents or unmarried women. In others, contraceptives are frequently out of stock when women need them.

For the past two decades vaccinations against infectious diseases have been pursued as the global health priority at the expense of contraception and family planning. But a series of papers published in The Lancet earlier this week concluded that addressing the unmet need for contraception was crucial if Millennium Development Goals on maternal deaths, poverty and gender equality were to be ever achieved.

And a recent report from Save the Children said every year one million teenage girls die or is injured because of pregnancy or childbirth – making pregnancy is the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide.

Mrs Gates said the Foundation had initially focussed on vaccines because women would not choose to have fewer children until they were sure their children would survive childhood

In address by video link, Aung Sang Suu Kyi told delegates that giving women control over family planning would lead to healthier, better educated women and children for the future.

“Reproductive rights are basic human rights,” said Hillary Clinton.

Bill and Melinda: A labour of love

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was set-up by the Microsoft founder and his wife in 1994. Since then it has become a significant player in global development and health. As co-chairs of the Foundation, the Gates' are intimately involved in its work.

Latest figures show that the foundation has funded $26.2bn worth of programmes and grants, including more than $6bn for libraries, scholarships, emergency relief, schools and homelessness in the United States.

Global health is their first love, on which more than $15bn has been spent so far. They are probably best known for their work on Malaria, vaccines and HIV/Aids, but have also invested significantly in research and treatments for diarrheal diseases, TB and pneumonia which costs millions of lives every year. They have offices in India and China where large programmes of work are focused.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/catholic-melinda-gates-defies-the-vatican-over-birth-control-funds-7936386.html

sharkey360 · « **Reply #209 on:** Jul 17, 2012 at 10:16 AM »

Do bishops here in the Philippines idolize Sarah Palin?