Experts at Vatican conference split on genetically modified foods

Published: 2003-11-12

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although affirming principles such as the goodness of creation, human responsibility and the need for solidarity, two priests looking at the morality of using genetically modified foods drew different conclusions. U.S. Jesuit Father Roland Lesseps, an agricultural scientist working in Zambia for the past 15 years, and Legionaries of Christ Father Gonzalo Miranda, dean of the bioethics faculty at Rome's Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum, spoke Nov. 11 at a Vatican conference. Father Miranda said that if, as most scientists claim, the risks of genetically modified foods for human health and the environment are no greater than with traditional foods, then it could be considered morally obligatory to promote their use to feed the poor. Father Lesseps, reading a paper he wrote with Jesuit Father Peter Henriot, a U.S. missionary working in Zambia, said Catholic moral teaching requires caution when intervening in God's creation, leading to a rejection of genetically modified crops until their long-term impact on human health, on the environment and on the poor is evaluated.

Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .