_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Condom campaign
Powell’s statement irks conservatives
In an address on television’s MTV rock-video network, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged acceptance of condom use, and rejection of “conservative ideas” regarding sexuality.

“It is important that the whole international community come together, speak candidly about it, forget about taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you should tell young people about,” Powell said.

The statement by Powell was broadcast around the world by MTV, in a direct appeal to youthful audiences. The message from the American top foreign-policy official appeared to be in conflict with the Bush administration’s support for sex-education programs based on abstinence outside marriage.

“It’s the lives of young people that are put at risk by unsafe sex,” Powell said. “Therefore protect yourself.”

Commission deadlocks
No decision on “therapeutic” cloning
The President’s Council on Bioethics, unable to reach a consensus on the ethics of cloning humans for research purposes, has instead decided to present a discussion of the arguments for and against the procedure to help the President and lawmakers understand the ramifications.

While President George W. Bush has already said he is opposed to all forms of human cloning, including so-called “therapeutic” cloning (which clones a person and then kills him before implantation to harvest his cells), Congress is still divided over the issue. A bill passed by the House last year banned all cloning, but a substantial number of legislators oppose a total ban.

“The important thing is for people to have a full understanding of all the arguments,” said Leon Kass, the council chairman and a bioethicist at the University of Chicago. At a two-day meeting of the council, Kass asked members to separate the discussion from the issue of abortion, but they were unable to do so, since the question of when life begins colored the whole discussion.

Robert George, a philosopher at Princeton University, argued that using an embryo for research means society will have judged a developing human as an object available for use. “The blastocyst [the embryo a few days after conception] is a human being at a certain stage of development. It is a human being,” he observed.

However, other council members rejected the assertion that the embryo is a human being. Michael Gazzaniga, head of Dartmouth College’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, said an embryo is a potential human.

Another bishop in disgrace
Second resignation from Florida diocese
Bishop Anthony O’Connell of Palm Beach, Florida, has admitted sexually molesting a high school student more than 25 years ago. Shortly after that admission was reported by the St. Louis-Post Dispatch, the bishop resigned.

Bishop O’Connell told the newspaper that he had engaged in the activity with a former student at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Missouri. Christopher Dixon, who is now 40, was a student in the minor seminary when the alleged abuse by Bishop O’Connell took place. He said he was earlier abused by a priest starting in the 5th grade at Hannibal Catholic School, and that when he arrived at the seminary, he confided in then-Father O’Connell, thinking he was someone he could trust.

O’Connell said his behavior at the time was “naïve,” although he did not specify whether he was “naïve” about Church teaching on sexuality or about criminal laws against the sexual abuse of minors or about some other factor. He acknowledged that he and Dixon had touched inappropriately while sleeping unclothed in the same bed.

Dixon was eventually ordained, but left the priesthood after entering a treatment program for depression related to the abuse. In a secret agreement, the Jefferson City Diocese settled Dixon’s complaint with a $125,000 payment and an agreement that Dixon would not pursue any further claims against the diocese or the priests.

Bishop O’Connell was appointed as bishop of Palm Beach after a sexual molestation scandal forced the resignation of his predecessor, Bishop J. Keith Symons.

The revelations about Bishop O’Connell came on the same day that the Florida Catholic Conference issued a statement that called sexual abuse both “criminal and sinful.” The signatory bishops said, “The people of God have a right to be able to trust those who minister to them in God’s name.” O’Connell was one of the signatories.