Controversy over Catholic "abortion certificates".

Wuerzburg--The controversy over Catholic participation in abortion counselling seems to have been settled. On June 18, 1999, Pope John Paul wrote the German bishops for the third time, asking them to conclude the debate on the "certificates for abortion," which the Archbishop of Fulda, Johannes Dyba, has called "licences to kill."

The controversy has been lengthy. In a recent meeting in Wuerzburg, however, the president of the bishops' conference, Bishop Karl Lehmann, stated that the bishops would implement the Popes directives. Certificates will say that it "cannot be used for carrying out decriminalized abortions." Contrary to rumours, the counselling centres themselves--some 230 of them--will continue to operate.

The Pope's letter had requested that the Church continue to help mothers in difficulty, but have nothing to do with abortion.

Since the Social Democrats took power in Germany in 1998, the anti-life and antifamily pressures have increased. The French-made abortion drug RU-486, now called Mifegyne, has been approved in Germany and imposed on seven other European countries which had no legislation for or against RU-486, by the Brussels bureaucracy.

The German government is also about to recognize same-sex marriages and, as well, has announced benefits for prostitutes. The character of the government is illustrated by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a Social Democrat, whose current wife is his fourth. The foreign minister, Joachim Fischer of the Green Party, is "married" to his fifth wife (Zenit; N.C.R,. July 4, 1999).

Also, in July, a court in Bavaria--a mainly Catholic German province--ruled that children must attend sex education classes despite objections by parents. A Catholic father of six went to court to obtain permission for his children to be absented from the classes. The court rejected the plea, citing a 1977 Supreme Court decision that sex-ed does not infringe on parental rights (CWN).