A top Vatican official on Wednesday urged Catholics to stop funding Amnesty International, following a change in the human rights group's abortion policy.
In a statement by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino said the Vatican would no longer finance the international organization "after its pro-abortion about-turn".
Urging Catholic individuals and groups to halt donations, Martino, who heads the Pontifical Council, said the Vatican's response was "an inevitable consequence" of the change in Amnesty's policy.
The statement also quoted sections of an interview Martino gave the National Catholic Register website, in which he accused Amnesty International of "betraying its mission".
"The Church teaches that it is never justifiable to kill an innocent human life. Abortion is murder," he said.
But the London-based rights organization, which changed its long-standing "hands-off" stance on abortion in April, said Martino had "misunderstood" the group's new policy.
"Amnesty has never promoted abortion," said Executive Secretary Deputy-General Kate Gilmore of the organization's International Secretariat in London.
"Instead, it is in favour of states respecting women's reproductive rights, allowing women in certain circumstances to reach their own decisions - for example if they have been subjected to rape, incest or other forms of violence, or if their life is at risk from pregnancy".
Furthermore, Amnesty receives no Vatican funding, unless it has been "donated anonymously" Gilmore said. The group accepts financing from no state in order to preserve its independence, she explained.
Nor did it receive money from any official Catholic agencies, she added.
CARDINAL'S COMMENTS COULD INFLUENCE CATHOLIC DONATORS.
But Vatican watchers on Wednesday said the cardinal's comments could still carry considerable weight.
Even if the organization receives no official financing from the Vatican, Catholics are under a strong obligation to heed statements by top Church figures.
This means that small groups and individuals may well decide to withdraw financing in the wake of Martino's remarks.
The change in Amnesty's policy followed two years of consultations with health and human rights experts, as well as the organization's 2.2 million members in 74 countries.
It was sparked by the organization's Stop Violence Against Women campaign, which found that women who fell pregnant as a result of human rights violations faced particularly severe suffering, sometimes being excluded from their communities or facing permanent injury and death while undergoing illegal abortions.
