Citation

Bernstein C, Politi M. Conscience 1996; 17(4): 14-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Catholics for a Free Choice)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12178873

Abstract

This document recounts a 40-minute meeting between Nafis Sadik, head of the UN Population Fund, and Pope John Paul II a few months before the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The Program of Action being developed for the upcoming ICPD was based on the principles of 1) reproductive rights of couples and individuals and 2) guarantees of reproductive health. The Pope had drawn battle lines between his championship of what he considered a civilization of life and love and what he considered the destructiveness of opposing views that he believed would cause the disintegration of his narrow notion of the family. The Pope's conversation was marked by erratic jumps from one subject to another. The major disagreement centered on family planning. The Pope kept insisting that natural methods would suffice, and Sadik kept presenting him with the reality that most women who lack the means to control their fertility because their poor status impedes their ability to control their participation in marital intercourse. In response, the Pope asked Sadik, "Don't you think that the irresponsible behavior of men is caused by women?" and then tried to change the subject. While Sadik attempted to inform the Pope about the realities of domestic violence and marital rape, about abandoned wives and children, and that the greatest incidence of illegal abortion occurs in poorer Roman Catholic countries, the Pope brushed away these facts with the assertion that things would improve if people were educated to follow moral, spiritual, and natural law. When the Pope asserted that the UN must remove compulsory sterilization, compulsory birth control, and abortion from its Program of Action, Sadik realized that he had failed to read the ICPD's preparatory document. The conversation ended with Sadik saddened by the misogyny she perceived to be embodied in the Pope and by his lack of compassion.

Language: en