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STATEMENT ON US INVOLVEMENT IN UN POPULATION CONFERENCE
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(Issued by Women for Faith & Family on August 26, 1994)
Women for Faith and Family takes the opportunity of "Women's Equality
Day" to denounce in the strongest possible terms the recent public
allegation by State Department official Faith Mitchell that the
Vatican's disagreement with the US over the Cairo conference "has to
do ;with the fact that the conference is really calling for a new role for
women, calling for girls' education and improving the status of
women."
This outrageous allegation flies in the face of Pope ;John Paul II's long
record of concern for women, from placing women's education on the
agenda of the 1981 UN Conference on Least Developed Countries, to the
issuance of "Mulieris Dignitatem" (On the Dignity of Women) to his
August request for "every legitimate initiative which promotes the
genuine emancipation of women."
That the Church which for centuries has led the world in providing
"girls' education" could be seriously accused of the opposite would be
laughable were it not for the shocking ignorance or outright mendacity
which is behind the authority of Mitchell's State Department
statement.
This crude, bigoted attempt--and others like it from other Clinton
appointees--to villify the Vatican rather than engage in informed and
respectful debate appears to be a last-ditch effort to deflect public
attention from the fundamental flaws in the UN's final draft document
for Cairo.
The UN document is hostile to the notion of the superiority of
marriage-based families, is wholly indifferent to the moral and legal
status of unborn human beings and is in direct contradiction to its own
predecessor, the 1984 international agreement of Mexico City which
stated that "in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of
family planning."
Women for Faith and Family stands with the Holy Father's assessment
of the Cairo document:
"The vision of sexuality which inspires this document is
individualistic. Marriage is ignored, as if it were something of the
past. An institution as natural, universal, and fundamental as the
family cannot be manipulated without causing serious damage to the
fabric and stability of society."
WFF also stands with the May 28, 1994 letter to President Clinton
signed by Cardinals Hickey, Bernardin, Law, O'Connor, Bevilacqua, and
Mahony and by Archbishop William H. Keeler, President, National
Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB):
" ... The United States is doing the world no favor," the letter states,
"by exporting a false ideology which claims that any type of union,
permanent or temporary, is as good as the traditional family. There is
mounting evidence that being a part of an intact, traditional family or
an extended family helps children grow into emotionally well-adjusted
and productive citizens. While it is true that many single parents do an
admirable job of raising children, nonetheless we owe it to the children
of jour country and of the world to encourage stable, intact two-parent
families."
Obsessive individualism is the root cause of the breakdown of
America's social fabric and America's families. Let's not export it.
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