Denver Catholic

2 I CATHOLIC LIFE MAY 22, 2013 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER ARCHBISHOP'S COLUMN MOST REV. SAMUEL J. AQUILA Human cloning a Pandora's Box that should be banned now, ethicist says BY WAYNE LAUGESEN The adventure and privilege of the priesthood Almost 37 years ago, I was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ in Denver's Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. I promised obedience to my bishop and his successors. I lay on the floor, invoking the intercession of the saints in heaven. My hands were anointed with oil. And, when the bishop placed his hands upon my head and prayed the prayer of ordination, I became a priest, forever. The priesthood has been a gift beyond my imagination. The priest is called to pour out his life for the People of God—to give himself to those the Lord loves with unencumbered abandon. To many, this call seems too difficult, too lonely or too demanding. But in my 37 years as a priest, I have found that while the call is challenging, it is a call made easy, joyful and fulfilling, by the love of God the Father and the friendship of Jesus Christ. The priesthood, in my own life, has been the adventure of learning to die to myself—to love as God loves for the sake of the kingdom of God. I have the privilege of forgiving sins in the name of the Lord. I have the privilege of praying over bread and wine, and watching as the Holy Spirit and the words of Jesus transform them into the body and blood of Christ. The priesthood is an adventure, a privilege, and like all the sacraments a pure gift. On Saturday, I ordained seven men to the priesthood in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. My heart filled with joy for these new priests. My memory returned to June 5, 1976, the eve of Pentecost, and the day of my own ordination. I prayed that these seven men would experience the same joy that I have had. I prayed that they would know the love of the Father and the friendship of Christ. I prayed that they would pour out their lives in love, constantly in-filled by the Holy Spirit, living in the communion of love of the Trinity. The priesthood seems foreign to our postmodern world. In a culture obsessed with sex, celibacy seems strange. In a culture of "independence," obedience seems a burden. And in a self-centered culture, in which self-fulfillment is deified and worshipped, a life of radical charity seems impossible and naïve. The priest is a sign of contradiction, a living witness to the love of Christ himself. The priest is called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and to make his life a total self-gift to Christ and the Church. At the heart of the priesthood is the Eucharist, wherein the priest stands in the person of Christ, the Head, Shepherd and Spouse of the Church. The Eucharist becomes the prayer of the priest in which he surrenders himself to Christ, and utters with him, "This is my body given for you. …This is my blood poured out for you." I pray I will ordain many more men in the Cathedral Basilica. At Saturday's ordination, we read from Luke, Chapter 10. Christ sends out missionaries to proclaim the Gospel. "The harvest is abundant," he says, "but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." We are blessed in the archdiocese with many men who See Aquila, Page 5 Catholics must stand up and say "no" to human cloning, warns ethicist Christian Brugger. Brugger, the Cardinal Stafford professor of moral theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, spoke to the Denver Catholic Register after scientists at Oregon Health and Science University in May became the first to credibly document successful therapeutic cloning of a human being. They used the same methods as researchers who cloned the late Dolly the sheep into existence 17 years ago. "It's a Pandora's Box. We are going to open a box and bad things are going to come out of it," said Brugger, who holds graduate degrees in moral theology and philosophy from Seton Hall, Oxford and Harvard Universities. In "therapeutic cloning," scientists create a human embryo to harvest the individual's stem cells for research or medical procedures. They begin with a plan to kill the embryo when done with it. "Reproductive cloning," by contrast, involves creating an embryo for implantation into a woman with plans of a live birth. "There is every reason to believe that in the next several years scientists will implant an embryo into a uterus and attempt a live birth," Brugger said. "Even if the laboratory doctors in Oregon are committed to using this only for embryonic stem cell research, there will be rogue scientists around the world who are going to use this another way. It would be naïve to think this won't be used to produce live births." Even if it's not, Brugger and other Catholic theologians and ethicists say it is intrinsically evil to create human life with a plan of killing it for the benefit of someone else. "There are certain things we just shouldn't do." —Christian Brugger on human cloning "Both types of cloning are reproductive," wrote Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila in a column for the National Review Online. "Both bring a new human being into existence. In fact, so-called therapeutic cloning is the more heinous because the process is intended to create life, exploit it, and then destroy it." Brugger hopes Catholics will contact their representatives and senators in the Colorado Legislature and Congress to ask for a ban on all forms of human cloning. "Everyone needs to stand up and say 'no' to the normalization of this type of research," Brugger said. "Speak with relatives and neighbors. Ask them to support the introduction of anti-cloning legislation. This needs to be a rapid response. Shout it loudly. There is no place for neutrality on this issue." He may get cooperation from at least one member of Colorado's legislative delegation, who told the Denver Catholic Register he would work to stop more human cloning. U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, said he has co-sponsored anti-cloning legislation since he began his political career in the Colorado Legislature and has carried his position into Congress. No cloning ban has passed, he said, mostly because too few have taken it seriously. "It has always been considered premature, as if this wasn't something we needed to worry about because of limitations of science," Lamborn said. "That's not the case now, and it's very troubling. This is man trying to replace the creator." Most troubling, Lamborn explained, is the mentality among some scientists "that it's no big deal to engage in experiments that result in the destruction of embryonic human life." Brugger said the most imminent concern is the potential repeal of the Dickey Amendment, a law that prohibits federal funding of research that produces or destroys human embryos. He said politicians who lack fundamental reverence for life would surely be tempted to use taxpayer funds for a litany of potential cures scientists will link to therapeutic cloning. "The pressure on Capitol Hill is going to be very high to overturn Dickey," Brugger said. "If it gets overturned, and it will be the next big battle after this announcement, then the National Institutes of Health will start funding cloning to the tune of billions of dollars per year." See Cloning, Page 7 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-722-4687 OR CIRCULATION@ARCHDEN.ORG Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. 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