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THE CHURCH: HISTORY’S GREAT SURVIVOR

RALPH McGUIRE ON THE SECRET OF HER SUCCESS PAGE 9

BRATZ DOLLS NATASHA LAVATTIATA DISCOVERS WHY GIRLS WANT TO LOOK LIKE THEMP9

No. 6323 www.catholicherald.co.uk

October 12, 2007 £1 (Republic of Ireland €1.50)

MPs to raise breast cancer link to abortion

BYSIMONCALDWELL

CATHOLIC women MPs are planning to warn Parliament that record levels of abortion in Britain will cause the numbers of cases of breast cancer in future years to soar. Their concerns have been prompted by a report in a respected American medical journal which predicts a massive rise in cases of breast cancer in England and Wales among women who have had abortions before they gave birth to their first child. Annual cases of breast cancer will rocket from 39,229 in 2004 to 65,252 in 2025, the report said. It claimed to show that, among seven known risk factors, abortion is the “best predictor” of incidence of the disease. Labour MPs Claire CurtisThomas and Geraldine Smith are now planning to speak on the matter after Parliament reconvenes next month. Miss Smith said: “This is an issue that needs to be investigated properly. This is just another example of one of the possible physical repercussions women face after they have an abortion. “Women sometimes enter into an abortion quite lightly and in some cases it is being used as a form of birth control. We know there are psychological repercussions and it is now being shown that there are physical repercussions.” Mrs Curtis-Thomas, who five years ago tabled a motion

in the House of Commons asking for more research into the alleged link, said: “The concerns I have now are the concerns I have had for a number of years. “There is evidence to suggest that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer. The more objective opinions that can be gathered to support that the better so that women who are considering having an abortion understand the full range of risks that they are exposing themselves to.” The pair will raise the matter when the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, which is to be included in the Queen’s Speech next month, reaches the House of Commons. Pro-choice MPs have received notification from Parliamentary clerks that the 1967 Abortion Act can be opened for amendment under the terms of the Bill, which has the aim of bringing British law up to date with biotechnological advances in such areas as IVF and research on human embryos. MPs led by the Lib Dem Evan Harris hope to use the Bill to further liberalise the abortion law by scrapping the requirement of two doctors’ signatures for an abortion and extending the Act to Northern Ireland, where abortion remains illegal. Pro-life MPs hope that such developments as three-dimensional scans of babies sucking their thumbs while still in the womb will persuade

Parliament to cut the upper limit for abortion from 24 to 12 or 13 weeks. The Government has never accepted a link between abortion and breast cancer and scientific opinion remains divided, even though the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said the results of such research “cannot be disregarded”. But the latest evidence of a link will undoubtedly be used to apply pressure on MPs and peers to restrict the access of women to the procedure. The study, entitled The Breast Cancer Epidemic, was conducted by Patrick Carroll, an actuary and statistician of Pension and Population Research Institute in London, and is published this month in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. It provides evidence to show that countries with higher abortion rates, such as England and Wales, could expect a substantial increase in breast cancer incidence. Where abortion rates are low – in countries such as Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic –a smaller increase is expected. Where a decline in abortion has taken place, such as Denmark and Finland, a decline in breast cancer is anticipated. The data was statistically analysed using a respected model which has accurately predicted the numbers of other types of cancers in the past. Continued on Page Two

Jon Snow rages at ‘fascist’ pro-lifers

Jon Snow lost his cool after pro-life activists bombarded him with e-mails PA Photos

BYSIMONCALDWELL

NEWSREADER Jon Snow has sparked anger among pro-life campaigners after he accused them of being “fascists”. The veteran Channel 4 presenter later apologised in an e-mail to one man who complained about his remarks. Mr Snow, 60, lost his cool after activists asked him to step down from chairing a session at a Global Safe Abortion conference organised by Marie Stopes International, the private abortion provider. He was overwhelmed by more than 600 e-mails from members of the ProLife Alliance and other groups who warned him he was compromising his professional impartiality by his involvement in the event. But Mr Snow responded by accusing the protesters of “a collective act of closet fascism”. He objected to being the target of what he described as an “organised deluge”. It was, he told one man who wrote to him, “a total pain in the a---”. Colin McGregor of Paisley wrote back to Mr Snow to say: “I object to being called, if only by inference, a fascist. That’s the last thing you could describe me as.” Mr Snow replied: “Thanks Colin and sorry for that, but matters are getting a little extreme at this end.” The newsreader told one woman, who did not wish to be named, that “no other issue, no other organisation, has ever done this to me”. He grew annoyed at the protests because he has already cancelled his appearance at the event in London on October 25 because of prior commitments. Continued on Page Three

NEWS

Collar warning

Priests told clerical dress could incite violence p2

FEATURE

Neville Kyrke-Smith reports on the Church in the shadow of the Russian Bear p9

INTERVIEW

Abbot Power The Englishman in charge of a Roman basilica p7

NEWS

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FEATURES 7-9 COMMENT 10-11 ARTS 12 CHARTERHOUSE 16

40 YEARS OF ABORTION IN BRITAIN

Pope Benedict’s life told through the eyes of a cat

Professor Dawkins is seen at Mass

Keep Christ in the Middle East

Saturday, 27 October, ʻ07, 2pm to 5pm HOLY HOUR JOHN SMEATON (Nat. Dir., SPUC) looks at what the Abortion Act has meant for Britain and reviews new threats to the unborn. BERNADETTE GOULDING (Dir., Rachelʼs Vineyard, Ire, U.K.) talks about her abortion, her healing and her ministry to women and men affected by abortion

St Monicaʼs Church 1, Stonard Road London N13 ALL WELCOME

BYCINDYWOODENINROME

CHICO, Pope Benedict XVI’s nine-year-old ginger Siamese cat, has published a book for children about the life of his master. The cat’s tale is confirmed, at least as far as the facts of the papal biography go, by Mgr Georg Gäänswein, Pope Benedict’s personal secretary and the author of the preface to the Italian children’s book, Joseph and Chico: A Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI. Edizioni Messaggero Padova,the book’s publisher, hopes to find translators and foreign publishers for the book later this month. In his preface Mgr Gäänswein wrote: “It’s not every day that a cat considers the Holy Father his friend and sits down to write his story.” Mgr Gäänswein assured readers that he knows Pope Benedict well and that the words author Jeanne Perego puts into the mouth of Chico are “all true and interesting”. The papal secretary said he shares Chico’s opinion that “the Holy Father is a special person”, especially because “he is a sincere friend of Jesus”.

A neighbour looks after Chico and pet dog, Igor, in the garden of the Pope’s property in Pentling, Germany

Chico, a ginger tabby, wrote that he met the future Pope in Pentling, Germany, a town near Regensburg where the Pope and his brother have a house. Chico belonged to the neighbours, but said he was welcome in the Ratzinger house. Chico would rub up against the Pope’s legs, curl up in his lap, watch and listen, which is how he came to know the details of the Pope’s biography. While the Pope and his brother were teenagers preparing for the priesthood, “in Germany the tragedy that would shake the world unfolded. I am speaking of Nazism, one of the most dramatic and shameful moments of human history,” the cat

wrote. “Joseph was forced to do something that absolutely went against his will: enter the army and leave for war.” The young Joseph Ratzinger was assigned to a unit defending a factory that made aeroplane motors and then was sent to prepare bunkers against a possible tank attack. At the end of the book Chico described watching coverage of the 2005 election of Pope Benedict. “I was so excited that I forgot to demand my dinner,” he recalled. “Now Joseph Ratzinger is not just my friend, but also the great friend and guide of all Catholics.”

Charterhouse: Page 16

BYEDWEST

AS CANDIDATES for conversions go, they don’t come much more improbable than Richard Dawkins. But the best-selling author of The God Delusionhas been seen attending Mass in Oxford. “He’s been to Masses at the Benedictine St Benet’s Hall at least a few times,” an unnamed source told the Daily Telegraph this week. “Most recently he was seen at the Oratory Church, St Aloysius. No one is sure why: it could simply be research or perhaps the seedling of a Damascene conversion.” The 66-year-old biologist was raised an Anglican but has been an atheist all his adult life.

Editorial Comment: Page 11

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