Church has reason to be discreet in one key area of stem cell debate

THE Catholic Church as an organisation has waged an extensive campaign in the last few weeks seeking to influence how the Tánaiste votes at a European Union Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels today.

The Catholic Church's view is that the Tánaiste should vote against proposed guidelines for the regulation of embryo stem cell research funded under European Union science and research programmes. The church feels that, in order to oppose the use of embryos in research, the Government should oppose guidelines which regulate how this research is conducted.

The Catholic Church's lobby campaign on this issue has involved not only individual prelates and Catholic commentators but has also involved the Irish Catholic Church as a body corporate. For example, in an unprecedented move, the Irish Catholic Church's top men sought a formal meeting with the Taoiseach so that they could raise this issue with him.