Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
An estimated crowd of more than 16,000 took part in the 14th annual 12-mile Guadalupana Pilgrimage from South San Francisco’s All Souls Parish to San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral on Dec. 1. Roxanna Garcia (above) of St. Paul Parish in San Pablo played the role of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Alfredo Ruiz of Cathedral Parish in San Francisco represented St. Juan Diego, the indigenous native of Mexico to whom the Virgin Mary appeared, leaving a miraculous image on his cloak or tilma. See additional photos and coverage on Page 11.
(CNS PHOTO/BRYCE RICHTER, COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON)
Stem-cell advance met with California caution By Rick DelVecchio Human embryonic stem cells will play a role in stem-cell research for years to come as scientists try to confirm that reprogramming adult cells to mimic embryonic stem cells is as promising a technique as it appears to be, the interim chief of California’s state-funded stem-cell research institute said. November’s announcement that two groups of researchers had created stem cells without destroying human embryos appeared to herald an imminent end to the moral dilemma that has split some scientists and the Church. The Catholic Church teaches that embryos at any stage are human beings and that no potential medical benefit justifies destroying them. But Dr. Richard Murphy, interim president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, said that cells created by the reprogramming technique must be tested to make sure they are safe and effective. He said the testing will involve a detailed comparison of the genetic makeup of reprogrammed cells to that of human embryonic stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells will be necessary for this work because they are the “gold standard” of a quality called pluripotency, he said. They are called pluripotent because they can mature into any other type of human cell.
Junying Yu of the Genome Center of Wisconsin poses in a lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nov. 19. Yu is lead author of a paper on reprogramming adult stem cells to create cells nearly indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells. The head of California’s stem-cell research institute, however, claims embryonic stem-cell research will continue.
“What this new research does is really reinforce the need for these,” Murphy said. “Unless we understand what goes on in a human embryonic stem cell, which is totally pluripotent, we are not going to be able to understand whether these induced pluripotent cells are as important as we hope they are.” He said the reprogrammed skin cells reported last month have 1,000 fewer genes than the 30,000 genes in embryonic stem cells. “That’s three percent, and we really don’t know what those 1,000 genes do,” Murphy said. “It could be that they are really critical. Work on human embryonic stem cells is clearly needed to figure that out.” Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk disagrees. The director of education for the Philadelphia-based National Catholic Bioethics Center, an independent non-profit that advises U.S. bishops and the Vatican on life issues, warned in a Dec. 1 commentary (see Page 14) that although reprogramming promises to end the ethical and scientific issues over stem cells, there are voices in the “bio-industrial complex” pushing to expand destructive human embryo research. In an interview with Catholic San Francisco, he said he was not surprised by Murphy’s remarks about the STEM CELL, page 8
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Dominican Republic report . 3 Charities’ wish lists . . . . . . 6 Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Impact of abortion on men addressed
Mission San Rafael Arcangel turning 190
Mission Dolores choir sets holiday performances
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December 7, 2007
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Clergy appointments . . . . 21 Classified ads . . . . . . . 22-23
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 9
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No. 37