Phoenix, Ariz., Oct 16, 2010 / 09:08 am
Despite a threatened protest by clergy from non-Catholic organizations, the Diocese of Phoenix will go ahead with its October 16 seminar on the Manhattan Declaration. The diocese maintains that the document upholds Catholic teachings that the Church cannot compromise.
The diocese will host Princeton professor Robert George, Alliance Defense Fund president and general counsel Alan Sears, and the Susan B. Anthony List's president Marjorie Dannenfelser for the Saturday morning event at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. Speakers will discuss the social and legal controversies surrounding abortion, homosexual “marriage,” and emerging threats to religious liberty.
Although explicitly Christian in nature, the Manhattan Declaration puts forth positions regarded as a matter of basic human reason and natural law by many religious and philosophical traditions. It was launched in 2009 with support from 53 Catholic bishops and three cardinals, alongside Eastern Orthodox and Protestant clergy.
Nevertheless, a group drawn from various denominations, called “No Longer Silent,” has called the declaration “spiritually violent and hateful.” They have condemned the positions presented in the Manhattan Declaration, judging it to be a work of “condemnation and judgment.”