www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

If the Vatican were to endorse genetically modified organisms, it would have
a profound impact on global discussion of the issue. With a flock of 1.1bn
faithful, the Roman Catholic church's ethical messages penetrate the whole
world, February 2006 by Tony Barber.

But GMOs are a divisive issue in the church, pitting clergymen sympathetic
to their use (who have enthusiastic support from the US embassy to the Holy
See) against others who express opposition.

Perhaps for this reason, the Vatican under Benedict XVI, who was elected
Pope last April, has yet to take a definitive stance.

Some African and South American bishops have doubts about GMOs because they
worry that control of world food supplies will rest with a few giant
companies. GM crop use in developing countries may exacerbate the poverty
and vulnerability of poor farmers, they say.

But advocates of GMOs in the church contend that there is a moral obligation
to eradicate hunger if the technology exists to do so. By 2025, half the
world's population will be living in regions with severe water shortages, so
higher-yield crops that need less water must be developed, they argue.

The most authoritative Vatican statement on GMOs appeared in a 2004
publication, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, prepared
by the Holy See's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. In a passage
devoted to safeguarding man's environment, the council pleased supporters of
GMOs by stating: "In effect, nature is not a sacred or divine reality that
man must leave alone . . . The human person does not commit an illicit act
when, out of respect for the order, beauty and usefulness of individual
living beings and their function in the ecosystem, he intervenes by
modifying some of their characteristics or properties."

However, opponents seized on another pair of sentences in the compendium
that said: "The authorities called to make decisions concerning health and
environmental risks sometimes find themselves facing a situation in which
available scientific data are contradictory or quantitatively scarce. It may
then be appropriate to base evaluations on the precautionary principle."

In other words, the jury is still out as far as the Vatican is concerned.
This conclusion seems reinforced by the fact that the compendium was
reviewed before publication by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith - the Vatican organ that enforces theological discipline and that
Benedict ran for 24 years before he became Pope.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the 73-year-old Italian prelate who heads the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is seen as one of the Vatican's
highest-level supporters of GMOs. He organised a scientific conference on
the matter in 2003, describing the stakes involved as "high and delicate"
but stressing the Vatican's view that it was a field of inquiry "subject to
evolving research".

On one point, the Vatican seems certain not to budge. Those who support
contraception as a way of limiting families and thereby improving access to
food find no support at all at the Holy See.

[www.truthabouttrade.org]

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