Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 8, 2001
Philip Pullella

The Vatican criticism was contained in a document sent to bishops conferences around the world called "The Reproductive Health of Refugees" and intended for Catholics who work with refugees. It was a detailed response to a 241-page field guide by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), written in collaboration with the World Health Organization , the U.N. Fund for Population Activities and some Non-Governmental Organizations.

The Vatican accused the UNHCR manual, which was first published in 1999, of including "anti-values that offend the dignity of the poorest and most vulnerable populations."

The U.N. manual, the Vatican said, included "proposals regarding the limitations of births, an idea of irresponsible sexual relations, and even abortion."

The Vatican said it appreciated UNHCR's concern for refugees but "cannot refrain from expressing its own reservations" when methods employed "could cause grave damage to the dignity of the person and his life..." It accused the field manual of proposing the morning after pill after rape as a form of "emergency contraception" when it was in fact, according to the Vatican, a chemical abortion.

It also accused the field manual of representing sterilization as a form of contraception.

"It (sterilization) is instead, a radical suppression of the procreative function, which is often carried out in poor countries without the victim of this procedure always being correctly informed," the Vatican document said.

"NON-JUDGEMENTAL APPROACH"

The Vatican document accused the field manual of promoting "a non-judgmental approach" to extra-marital sexual relations and homosexuality, both of which the Church forbids.

It said pastors working with refugees had to be careful on programs about reproductive health for adolescents proposed in the manual. "Rather than being educated for real love, within the prospect of marriage and a future family, these boys and girls are introduced into the world of individualistic and irresponsible sexual pleasure, which increases the risk of extending the HIV /Aids epidemic," the Vatican said.

The U.N. agency had no immediate comment on the Vatican's document, which was essentially a restatement of its position on sexual matters when it clashed with the United Nations at the 1994 Population Conference in Cairo.

The Vatican also said the field manual was promoting the condom as the only means of preventing AIDS .

"The field manual is not the most suitable instrument for education in mature sexual responsibility," the Vatican said.

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