atheism and children

[Catholic_Lady]

Well it's just weird because all of us Catholics make up the "Catholic Church." But I see what you mean. You're referring to the higher ups. The Pope, Cardinals, etc.

Well first of all, I don't think they could make it illegal even if they wanted to. The governments world wide don't consult with the Church when making their laws, etc, so your question is flawed to begin with.
Second, I don't think any of those guys are interested in making IVF illegal anyway. There are plenty of things we (as a Church) think are immoral but that we don't think should be illegal. IVF is one of those things.

Abortion and the death penalty, on the other hand, are definitely things the higher ups have said should be illegal, and that we, as a Church, believe should be illegal. But as far as I know, they don't speak the same way about IVF. Neither do I think they should. The answer is no.

I missed this statement in all the commotion. I think it's naive for you to suggest the Catholic Church (i.e. "the institution") does not attempt to persuade politicians to vote in ways that match church doctrine. I'll agree that its influence has waned greatly in the past few decades, but let's not pretend this retreat was initiated by the Church itself.

I'm not singling out the Catholic Church here: this is not unique to it at all.

We've had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age, the chemical age, the information age... here's hoping for the secular age.

As you said, we all want to "persuade" politicians to vote in what we support, if we could. So I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to get at.