East Valley priest talks stem cells with parishioners

By Mary Moore, The Catholic Sun
May 3, 2007

MESA — Priests are often approached after Mass with requests for blessings, prayers and quick pastoral advice.

Such was the case for Fr. Pete Rossa, parochial vicar at St. Timothy Parish, who encountered a couple struggling with a dilemma that would prove to be the impetus for an almost year-long research project on life issues.

The couple conceived twins through in vitro fertilization. The wife, no longer able to carry babies to term, and her husband still had 15 embryos stored in a cryobank — a place where embryos are stored in a frozen state.

Read “The Church, science, in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem-cells in the media.”

Research into Church teaching had led them to understand, only after the fact, that each human embryo is a child. Financially strained by the in vitro procedures and now dealing with costly storage fees, they found themselves agonizing over their choices.

“Their strong desire for children led them down an unexpected slippery slope,” said Fr. Rossa during an April 12 parish meeting.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, artificial fertilization is “morally unacceptable” because it disassociates “the sexual act from the procreative act.”

Fr. Rossa said couples sometimes make uneducated moral decisions because some priests are afraid to talk about emotionally-charged life issues, such as the ability to conceive children.

“It starts off as something we think is good — making it possible for a couple to have children. When you’re suffering, something like in vitro looks like a million dollars,” he admitted, noting that the moral implications of these decisions are “often overlooked in the hope offered by science.”

After months of research into in vitro fertilization and other moral issues linked to it, Fr. Rossa became aware of the great number of people struggling with questions like the couple he met outside of church.

He wrote a lengthy article titled “The Church, science, in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem-cells in the media” and mailed it in March to St. Timothy parishioners. In it, Fr. Rossa attempted to address and educate on these particular life issues.

In an introduction to the article, St. Timothy pastor Fr. Jack Spaulding concurred that in vitro fertilization “is far more than a technology or a topic. It is an issue that touches the very essence of life itself.”

That issue was met with both support and frustration from parishioners who had a chance to speak directly with Fr. Rossa at the meeting.

In both the article and the meeting, Fr. Rossa addressed a few of the many facets of in vitro, and the fates of embryos that do not develop into babies.

“God needs us to preach the truth so it might be received,” Fr. Rossa said. “We need to do our best at this, to know our stuff.”

Part of that knowledge, Fr. Rossa said, is being ready to refer people to morally acceptable alternatives to in vitro fertilization.