A fear of failure: the Vatican puts its antiabortion message above poverty alleviation.

In the run up to the recent UN World Summit, high-ranking Vatican officials instructed Catholic bishops around the world to ensure that "no 'religious leader' of the Catholic church and subject to our jurisdiction agree and sign" an interfaith statement in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).

The statement, "A Faith-filled Commitment to Development Includes a Commitment to Women's Rights and Reproductive Health: Religious Reflections on the Millennium Development Goals," focused on the MDGs and poverty eradication. It was an initiative of the International Interfaith Network for Development and Reproductive Health, a CFFC project.

A memo issued by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state and dean of the College of Cardinals, articulating the Vatican's order resulted in bishops' conferences issuing warnings throughout Latin America against signing the declaration.

In a letter issued by the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington (the Vatican's Embassy in the US), Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo described the gravity of the situation:

   The terms "reproductive health"
   and "reproductive rights" are so
   ambiguous as to include abortion,
   contraception and other illicit
   means of family planning that are
   clearly contrary to the Church's
   teaching. If this initiative succeeds, it
   would render useless the efforts of
   the Holy See in this area and would
   discredit in the eyes of the
   international authorities the position
   of the Catholic Church in defense of
   basic values, such as that of life.
   [Emphasis added.]

The Vatican's orders put forward oft-repeated misinformation regarding UN definitions of reproductive health, insisting that they include abortion, and mischaracterized the religious leaders' declaration as a statement promoting abortion. Sodano's memo was leaked to the Latin American press and was widely seen as part of an ongoing effort by the Vatican to eliminate any references to reproductive health in UN documents.

In fact, the religious leaders' statement broadly supported the overarching aim of the MDGS, which is poverty alleviation, and held that women's equality and reproductive health are key elements in achieving those goals. The statement was circulated to UN officials at the 2005 World Summit (see previous article).

The statement urges government leaders and policy makers:

* To ensure that women and men have access to food, shelter, education and comprehensive health care:

* To provide universal primary education for all that includes lessons in peace-building, tolerance and living healthy lives;

* To promote gender equality and eliminate violence and discrimination against women;

* To provide prenatal care and access to adequate nutrition, medicines and education, and clean water for mothers and their children in order to reduce child mortality;

* To provide information and services to women in order to prevent unplanned pregnancies, which often lead women to abortion, and to address illegal and unsafe abortion as a public health concern;

* To ensure that sexual and reproductive health care and services include prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections;

* To promote greater understanding of the linkages between the environment and reproductive health, and encourage integrated actions to address these things; and

* To ensure livable wages for all and demand that wealthier countries cancel the debts of developing countries.

The history of Vatican activism in pursuit of social justice at the UN demonstrates the same blind one-sidedness that one sees in its other political forays. If any link is made between poverty, development, environmental sustainability and reproductive health or women's rights, the Vatican is ready to undermine issues it believes in to ensure that reproductive health is not supported in any way. The thought that those who support women's rights and reproductive heath and rights might also support an end to poverty cannot be tolerated.

Despite the Vatican's attempts to interfere in this instance, the interfaith statement was signed by more than 200 religious leaders--Catholic and non-Catholic--from 35 countries who are deeply committed to improving the lives of the world's poor and marginalized people.

The full text of the statement is available online in English and Spanish at www.catholicsforchoice.org/new/ mdgstatement.htm.

SERRA SIPPEL is the director of the international program at CFFC.