The Vatican Announces. . . . . . . Embryonic Stem-Cell Researchers---------EXCOMMUNICATED

Hat Tip to Drudge. The UK Telegraph is reporting the story here.

Here's an interesting reaction from a researcher who will be affected.

But the threat was shrugged off yesterday by Italy's leading expert on cloning, Prof Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies in Cremona, who was the first scientist to clone a horse.

Prof Galli likened the Vatican to the Taliban and added: "I can bear excommunication. I was raised as a Catholic, I share Catholic values, but I am able to make my own judgment on some issues and I do not need to be told by the Church what to do or to think."

SOME THOUGHTS BY A METHODIST (aka ME).

What strikes me as very intriquing about Prof Galli's response is his confused and contradictory reasoning. He says two things that can't be reconciled: 1)"I share Catholic values;" and 2) I am able to make my own judgement on some issues."

Fair enough, on one level. Certainly he can make judgements for himself on a large variety of issues. But, if he rejects a central Catholic teaching about the nature of human life and the continuity of human existence and worth from conception to death, how can he say that he "shares Catholic values." He might share a kind of Catholic aesthetic sensibility of a generally Catholic religious world-view. But, he surely does not embrace Catholic moral teaching.

Further, he says he "shares" the values. That way of putting the issue reveals that he conceives of himself as being theologically, philosophically, ethically, and spiritually on the same axiological footing as the magesterium. The "values" of the Catholic, as I understand them as a Protestant, are not to be shared, but to be embraced (not merely surrendered to, but thoughtfully and faithfully embraced). The language of sharing implies that he has values that might or might not be taught by the Church, but he nonetheless shares some of the Catholic values.

Finally, when he says that he can "make his own judgement" on some issues, I wonder a couple of things. First, why only some issues. In fact, if he jettisons values as he sees fit he is essentially making his judgement the trump card on all issues. Second, on what basis would he make up his own mind. The fact is we reason about things (all things) based on some particular presupposed primary perspective about the way the "way things are." As Stanley Hauerwas, of Duke Divinity School would say -- our reasoning is always based on some narrative account of the value of the world, our place in the world, and what we should be doing ultimately. So, as Prof Galli "makes his own judgement" he owes it to other Catholics (especially those he teaches) to reveal the world-view that is shaping his own reasoning. It could be that he has embraced an intellectual perspective that is, indeed, antithetical to the Catholic world.

P.S. if he can so blithely dismiss the threat of excommunication, he really no longer believes in the saving ministry and soul-guiding ministry of the Church, anyway. Again, fair enough, but don't pretend to "share" Catholic values.