Close your eyes and picture this: you are a poor woman in war-ridden Bosnia. You have just been raped by an enemy soldier as part of an attempt to rid the country of your race. The only comfort you are given is the possibility of a drug that could rid your body of the child that has been planted in your womb. Now imagine that you are told to carry to term the child of the man who raped you.
While I am not Catholic myself, nor do I claim to know everything about the Catholic religion, I have always assumed that the Pope, being God's right-hand man, was a man of integrity, kindness and compassion. However, these characteristics were absent from one of his recent decisions.
The Vatican has withheld its annual $2,000 donation to UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, charging that the organization has become an advocate of birth control and abortion. And what is the horrible deed that the world's best friend to children has committed? The charge made by the Catholic Church is to a United Nations manual that deals with women in refugee camps.
The manual states that women in refugee camps have "the same rights as others to have access, on the basis of free and voluntary choice, to comprehensive information and services for reproductive health, including family planning and maternity."
In the war in Bosnia, starting in 1991, soldiers raped women in order to "breed- out" the Muslim race. It is to these women that UNICEF advocates the use of the "morning after" pill that would end the pregnancy. And it is these women that to whom the Pope would deny freedom of choice.
Even though $2,000 pales in comparison to UNICEF's $1 billion annual budget, the Pope's action utilizes the power of persuasion. In addition to not sending its check this year, the Vatican issued a press release saying it felt "duty-bound to warn the Catholic faithful" of UNICEF's ways. Even though the war crimes that were committed happened from 1991-1994, the Catholic church is still urging its followers to boycott UNICEF.
In a world full of children who are dying from famine, the only hope is aid from organizations such as UNICEF. One would think that a man as powerful as the Pope would rather help the efforts of this organization.
Unfortunately the Pope's tactics could have a profoundly negative effect on UNICEF's credibility and effectiveness.
Let's just hope that this bullying by the Vatican to coerce the rest of the world to its position on reproductive health won't hinder UNICEF's ability to provide care for the children in this world who need it the most.