CONSEQUENCES FOR CATHOLICISM AND HUMANITY from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 11 - by Stephen D. Mumford

War and the Population Explosion: Some Ethical Implications. John M. Swomley gives evidence of the planetary population problem, the dynamics of the world’s population wars, the responsibility of the world’s “superpowers”, the new ethical dimension of war provided by the Roman Catholic Church’s world wide influence.  He argues that the solutions to overpopulation and disease lie with the United States and the American people requiring changes in our approach to social ethics and to our national politics. From: Christian Ethics Today, June 1998

The Catholic League and Suppression of The Press Today The principles governing League behavior, the methods leading to its success, and a collection of specific acts designed to halt public criticism of the Church. from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 15 - by Stephen D. Mumford

VATICAN SETTING U.S. POLICY TO PROTECT INTERESTS from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

Political Power of Roman Catholic Bishops. Author John M. Swomley highlights the chronology of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ opposition to birth control beginning in 1921 when New York Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes arranged for the arrest of Margaret Sanger to prevent her from delivering a speech on birth control. He concludes with a description of the silence of Protestant churches about Catholic pressures on the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. From: The Human Quest, May-June 1992

ROMAN CATHOLIC RIGHTISTS: Organizations Press For Anti-Liberal Causes. Author John M. Swomley argues that the Catholic right wing is basically built around issues set forth by the Vatican, including abortion, the role of women, opposition to contraceptive research, and various matters pertaining to sex, such as family planning, sex education in the schools, homosexuality and aid to parochial schools. In one sense they are led by the Vatican’s chief agents in the US, Cardinals John O’Connor, Bernard Law, Anthony Bevilacqua, James Hickey, Roger Mahoney and Joseph Bernardin. Cardinal O’Connor, for example, is the ecclesiastical advisor of The Catholic Campaign for America; and Cardinal Law, the Episcopal advisor of Women Affirming Life. From: The Human Quest, July-August 1996

One Nation Under God . . . John M. Swomley reveals a massive political campaign by the Catholic church to achieve religious and political control of crucial American policies and institutions, an undertaking which the popular press and television have virtually ignored. Dr. Swomley discusses the successes of the campaign. Catholic bishops have established an organization in each parish, diocese, state and on other levels and have demonstrated their ability to control political and judicial offices. Form: The Humanist, May-June 1998

The Vatican and Family Politics by Gordon Urquhart, author of The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sect. In the Church (Bantam Press, 1995). “This report, the second In CFFC's investigative series Conservative Catholic Influence in Europe, describes the Vatican's approach to public policy regarding family, gender, sexuality, and reproduction-those areas in which the church is a conservative force in European political life....” [The Report] outlines the Vatican offices involved in family and gender policy, the Catholic hierarchy and diplomatic corps, and the Vatican's partners in politics, in the lobbying community and in church movements.... [and The Report] describes more anecdotally the attitudes and methods that these players bring to what they call `family politics’.

LOSING TOUCH WITH REALITY from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 11 - by Stephen D. Mumford

DESPOTIC AUTHORITY from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 11 - by Stephen D. Mumford

INFALLIBILITY COLLIDES WITH CONTRACEPTION from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 11 - by Stephen D. Mumford

CHANGING THE AMERICAN VIEW OF THE BISHOPS from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 11 - by Stephen D. Mumford

Postponing Self-Destruction of the Church Strategies by which the Vatican and U.S. Catholic bishops have been able to extend their institution's life. from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 12 - by Stephen D. Mumford

LEADERSHIP OF THE POPULATION MOVEMENT from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 12 - by Stephen D. Mumford

CATHOLIC AND AMERICAN -- A CONTRADICTION from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 13 - by Stephen D. Mumford

TODAY'S ANTI-CATHOLICS? -- THE INTELLECTUALS from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 13 - by Stephen D. Mumford

DISTORTION OF THE CHURCH'S IMAGE from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 13 - by Stephen D. Mumford

TOO MUCH EVIDENCE TO IGNORE from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 13 - by Stephen D. Mumford

Vatican Rejection of Freedom of the Press Examines 150 years of uninterrupted papal hostility toward freedom of the press. Discusses techniques used to "bridle" the press and the conclusion of George Seldes, acknowledged dean of investigative reporters, that on "Catholic issues" there is no free press. from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 14 - by Stephen D. Mumford

"Things Are Seldom What They Seem" The "dis-uniting" of America. Explores the broad consequences of the Pastoral Plan, including the erosion of public confidence in our political system. from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

HOW FAR WILL THE VATICAN GO? from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

EROSION OF CONFIDENCE IN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

VATICAN INFLUENCE ON THE U.S. PRESIDENCY from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

PATRIOTISM from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 16 - by Stephen D. Mumford

Conclusions How the Vatican has no qualms about destroying American democratic institutions in its battle to save the Papacy. from: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NSSM 200, Chapter 17 - by Stephen D. Mumford

CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC INFLUENCE IN EUROPE: AN INVESTIGATIVE SERIES Opus Dei: The Pope's Right Arm in Europe by Gordon Urquhart from: Catholics for a Free Choice. "Opus Dei is one of the most powerful -- and reactionary -- organisations in the Roman Catholic Church today. The organisation troubles liberal Catholics, but its devotion to promoting, as public policy, the Vatican's inflexibly traditionalist approach to women, sexuality and reproductive health is cause for concern far beyond the boundaries of Catholicism. Opus Dei pursues the Vatican's agenda through the presence of its members in secular governments and institutions and through a vast array of academic, medical, and grassroots pursuits. Its constant effort to increase its presence in civil institutions of power is supported by growth in the organisation as a whole: .... their work in the public sphere breaches the church-state division that is fundamental to modern democracy. It is essential, then, to monitor the organisation's undertakings in secular arenas -- a task made difficult by the fact that individual’s membership is often undisclosed to the public."

Scientists Associated With Vatican Call for Population Curb By ALAN COWELL in The New York Times reveals: One of the Vatican's lay panels has urged limits on family size to avert "insoluble problems" of runaway growth.

The report, by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences also suggests that the birth rate should be limited to about two children per couple.

"There is a need to contain births in order to avoid creating the insoluble problems that could arise if we were to renounce our responsibilities to future generations."

The Vatican immediately distanced itself from the report.

The Feminist Majority Report, Right-Wing Religious Investment Funds Scare Pharmaceuticals Away from Contraceptive Research reviews the right-wing religious investment funds that are the latest strategy in their attempt to scare pharmaceutical companies away from mifepristone (also known as RU-486) and contraceptive research. The report summarizes the activities of the Catholic Values Investment Fund, the Timothy Fund and the Aquinas Funds, a Dallas-based Catholic mutual fund founded in 1994 that has claimed credit for stopping major pharmaceuticals from bringing mifepristone to the US. As Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation reveals, “Of the nine major pharmaceuticals that were involved in contraceptive research and development in the 1960s and 1970s, only two remain . . .” From: The Feminist Majority Report - Spring 1998

Pronatalist Zealotry And Population Pressure Conflicts: How Catholics Seized Control Of U.S. Family Planning Programs by R.T. Ravenholt, M.D., MPH, Former Director, Office of Population (1966-79) of the United States Agency for International Development, chronicles his fourteen year effort to establish a population program within USAID, his eventual removal and dilution of the project.

And how ".... Right-to Life" adversaries invoked the assistance of two Roman Catholics, Congressman Clement Zablocki of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and his assistant, John H. Sullivan, to attack AID's population program...”

And how ".... another Catholic, then Deputy Administrator, John H. Murphy.... and others, created a task force for the purpose of reorganizing and thereby decapitating the Office of Population.”

And how ".... with the help of Jimmy Carter and his political appointees, religious zealots finally managed to degrade AID's population program by placing the two Federal agencies with family planning programs under Catholic control.”

Concludes with a statement by President George Bush, written while he was the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and published as the foreword to Phyllis Piotrow's book, World Population Crisis: The United States Response. This document reveals the political costs of taking a stand against the Vatican and, when seen through the lens of history, provides some insight on why Bush turned against the needs of the world and supported the Vatican during his presidency.

A Church Free to Serve. Author John M. Swomley on maintaining the separation of church and state as a way of protecting and empowering both. From: Christian Social Action, June 1996

Exposing Mother Teresa: Hitchens’ Book A Devastating Insight. John M. Swomley debunks the myth of Mother Teresa, who has been unjustly raised to quasi-sainthood by the media, in a review of the book, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa In Theory And Practice, by Christopher Hitchens. From: The Human Quest, September-October, 1996

Foreign Political Interference . . . Vatican Style. John M. Swomley discusses the Vatican’s intervention in the internal affairs of Lebanon, Poland, Argentina, Sudan, Biafra, Nicaragua, Palestine, the United States and the United Nations. From: The Humanist, July-August 1997

WATCH ON THE RIGHT: The Istook Threat. John M. Swomley discusses a new threat to our liberties in the form of actions by right-wing Christians as demonstrated by the Istook amendment. A revealing look at the politics of the Christian right-wing lead by Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, a papal loyalist, and Representative Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, the “Father of Public School Prayer.” From: The Humanist, September-October 1997

WATCH ON THE RIGHT: The Pope Versus the Bible. John M. Swomley reveals why it is crucial that Vatican theology, ideology, and power be scrutinized, analyzed and publicly opposed if essential freedoms are to be preserved.  He compares Vatican dogma and the actions of Catholic bishops with biblical evidence. From: The Humanist, November-December 1997

The Pope and the Pill: The Catholic Church’s teaching against contraceptive birth control has “laid a heavy burden on” innumerable people. John M. Swomley attributes the overpopulation problems in many countries and the political campaign in the United States to deny women reproductive freedom to the papal decision to protect the authority and "infallibility" of the papacy.  He also confirms the Catholic Church’s fear that papal infallibility would be compromised if with abortion were condoned. From: Christian Social Action, February 1998

Idolizing The Fetus: In Roman Catholic Theology, Mothers Take Second Place. John M. Swomley states that “Fetal idolatry denies a woman’s right to control her body, her life, her destiny, all of which must be sacrificed to an embryo or fetus once she is pregnant.”  He shows this to be the basis for the violence resulting in over 1,700 attacks against reproductive health clinics during the past 20 years. “Fetal idolatry or the denial of reproductive freedom to women is the major battleground issue for both patriarchal and clerical control of women.”  From: Human Quest, May-June, 1998

The Two Faces of Mr. Hyde: Vatican Puppets in American Politics. John M. Swomley states “The extreme religious right has captured control of the House of Representatives on the subject of abortion, largely through the leadership of Roman Catholic Henry Hyde, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. His influence has also been strong in the impeachment hearings of President Clinton.” The author declares that “In essence, the Vatican and its representatives in the United States are advocating a theocracy, which has been repudiated by Catholics in Europe. Unless liberal Catholics, Jews, Protestants, humanists, and others organize to oppose such theocratic action, what appears simply to be right-wing politics will be even more subversive of democracy.” From: The Humanist, January-February 1999