Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
July 25, 2001
Archbishop praises association's decision on stem cells
ST. LOUIS (CNS) — Archbishop Justin F. Rigali of St. Louis has praised the American Heart Association's "happy reversal'' of a decision to fund stem-cell research involving human embryos.
In a column in the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper, he said a Catholic woman in the St. Louis Archdiocese had played a key role in convincing the heart association to change the policy on research for treatment of heart disease.
The woman, Deby Schlapprizzi, and a committee working with her to organize the 2001 Heart Ball for the St. Louis chapter of the American Heart Association submitted their resignations, stating that they could not be involved in fund-raising activities as long as the association supported embryonic stem-cell research.
In making "a happy reversal of a position taken by the board only four months earlier,'' Archbishop Rigali wrote, the American Heart Association cited a letter he had written to the board, as well as "the decision of a number of heart association benefactors from the St. Louis community.''
The archbishop said he is grateful to the leadership of the American Heart Association for the willingness to listen and consider the "serious moral concerns.''
"I commend the wisdom ... in reversing a policy to fund research of questionable medical benefit,'' he wrote. "I applaud the heart association's courage in not appeasing the extremists in the scientific community who believe that whatever is scientifically possible should be permitted no matter what ethical and moral principles are violated.''
Archbishop Rigali also called on Catholics of the archdiocese to make their voices heard in opposition to embryonic stem-cell research.
In the column, he said Catholics must take an active interest in the issue of research on stem cells derived from human embryos as well as other issues regarding the promotion and defense of innocent human life.
"Such heinous attacks on human life must not be allowed to go unchallenged,'' he wrote.
Earlier this year, Archbishop Rigali had called embryonic stem-cell research profoundly disturbing and unarguably contrary to the "gospel of life.'' Such research "sets the stage for additional abuses involving the creation and destruction of life for research purposes,'' he noted.
The archbishop also cited the promising alternative of research using stem cells from adults.
"This research can be not only morally acceptable but also more desirable because the very real problem of tissue rejection seems to be circumvented,'' he said.
Archbishop Rigali called on readers to contact their representatives in Congress.
"We must do everything possible to defend life,'' he said. "Using our human ingenuity and relying on the power of God, we can be confident of success in the effort to dismantle the culture of death so that in this new millennium we might see the foundation of what Pope John Paul II describes in Evangelium Vitae as `an authentic civilization of truth and love.'"
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