Campaign in Support of Holy See at UN Grows to More Than 2,000 Groups

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  After only four months in operation the number of groups supporting the Holy See at the UN has grown to over 2,000 and come from more than 50 countries and all continents. The campaign began in secret in early January and was announced publicly at a UN press conference on March 15.

     The campaign now includes the largest Evangelical groups in the world, including Focus on the Family, and among the most important Islamic groups as well, including the London-based al-Khoei Foundation. The al-Khoei foundation, which joined the campaign three weeks ago, expressed great sadness that pro-abortion groups would attack the Holy See. The al-Khoei Foundation is the largest Shiite Muslim foundation in the world and runs some of the largest and most important universities in the Middle East.

     The campaign began as a reaction to the efforts of pro-abortion extremists to run the Holy See out of its seat as a UN Observer. As a UN Observer the Holy See is not allowed to vote in the General Assembly but can participate in UN debates. As the UN has ventured further into the private reproductive lives of the world's citizens, the Holy See has participated in a coalition of states that have stopped numerous radical initiatives including making abortion a universally recognized human right. This has angered pro-abortion fundamentalists.

     After more than a year the "See Change" campaign has gathered only 498 mostly pro-abortion, population control, and lesbian groups to their side. This number came only after campaign leader "Catholics for a Free Choice" (CFFC) ran ads on the front page of the New York Times and hired a full-time staff member to run the campaign. [Last week the US Bishops condemned CFFC for promoting abortion and for erroneously calling itself Catholic.]

     Worried that their campaign is floundering and has possibly backfired, CFFC just hired Heidenpriem and Mager, a high-powered Washington DC public relations firm, to run the "See Change" campaign and to defeat the pro-Holy See resolutions being considered in the US House and Senate. The account is being run by Nikki Heidepriem, a former official in the Carter Administration. Hiring Heidepriem demonstrates not just the panic at CFFC but also the tremendous financial resources they have to draw from. In their statement last week the US Catholic Bishops pointed out that CFFC are little more than a front for what is a very wealthy international abortion industry. CFFC's budget tops US$ 4 million annually.

     Many wonder why CFFC continues its campaign given that opposition to it has galvanized from all points of the globe. In fact, CFFC president Francis Kissling recently admitted defeat. In her own newsletter she wrote, "It (the Vatican) surely cannot fear that the UN will actually take up the issue." The campaign appears to be mostly about harassment. In 1991 Kissling was quoted as saying she had "looked for twenty years for a government to overthrow" without landing in jail and she "finally found it in the Catholic Church."

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