The importance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church cannot be overestimated in the life of a Catholic. Why? Because what the Church teaches is of vital importance to the spiritual life of any Catholic. Too often, Church teaching is not known or understood properly, even by Catholics. The best way to correct that is to go to the Catechism in order to find out precisely what the Church teaches.

On Wednesday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. We celebrate Mary’s “yes”—“Let it be done to me according to your word”—to the Angel Gabriel. Mary agreed to God’s will that she be the mother of Jesus; thus she is the most faithful of virgins, women, and all of us.

In her Litany, the Blessed Virgin Mary is invoked as “Virgin Most Faithful.” Mary’s instantaneous and unmitigated response to the Archangel Gabriel grounds the appropriateness of this title. From the moment of the Annunciation by Gabriel, Mary’s reply has been the apex of the Christian assent of intellect and will in the obedience of faith: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). So important was Mary’s testament of faith that St. Augustine of Hippo says, “Mary is more blessed for her perceiving the faith of Christ than for conceiving the flesh of Christ” (Sermo 72/A.7). As the new Eve, Mary upends the defiance and incredulity of Eve (and Adam). St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes, “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary has loosened by her faith” (Adversus Haereses, 3.22.4; cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 56). It is in Mary that we, “the poor banished children of Eve,” find the exemplar of faith in Christ; it is from Mary that we beg intercession and protection from denial and doubt in faith, so that “we made be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

The Lord himself attests Mary’s faith-filled example. When from a crowd a woman cries out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked,” Jesus responds, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:27–28; cf. Matt 12:46–50; Mark 3:32–35; Luke 8:21). In other words, the hallmark of discipleship—hearing the word of God and keeping it, the very thing that Mary did so perfectly at the Annunciation—is best illustrated not in Mary’s fecundity but in her Fiat. This exemplarism continues from the Incarnation to the Crucifixion, for Mary stands at the foot of Calvary. Immediately before surrendering his spirit, Jesus entrusts St. John to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son,” and commends Mary as the model extraordinaire to St. John, “Behold, your mother” (John 19:26–27). “Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the Cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was born of her” (LG, no. 58).

Likewise, Mary’s intercessory role is evidenced in the Lord’s earthly life. It is with the Wedding at Cana that Mary’s compassion is highlighted. When the wine runs short, she turns to intercede on behalf of her friends to her Son. So secure is her faith—“the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)—that she does not pause for a verification after having told Jesus of the problem. Instead, she turns straightaway to the servants to say: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:1–11; cf. LG, no. 58). In other words, her absolute faith knows no hesitancy: once asked, her Son’s beneficence is assured for their hosts at Cana. And it is assured for us. “By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix” (LG, no. 62).

For two thousand years, the sterling instance of Mary’s faith has stood efficaciously before the sons and daughters of the Church for inspiration and imitation. For two thousand years, Mary has mediated our petitions to her Son. Therefore, it is right and just that we should cry out: “ Mary, Virgin Most Faithful, pray for us!”

President Barack Obama signing of an executive order that allows federal spending for embryonic stem-cell research is travesty for many reasons, not the least of which is the potential for such federally-funded research to lead to human cloning. The President says that human cloning is “dangerous, profoundly wrong” and has no place in society, but we are certainly on a slippery slope toward it at this point.

Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical letter Humanae vitae (July 25, 1968), warned against the danger of separation of the unitive and procreative aspects of the conjugal act, which “most closely uniting husband and wife capacitates them for the generation of new lives” (no. 12), to the effect that artificial birth control would initiate a slippery slope of moral denigration and disregard for life (no. 17).

Paul’s prescience was acute. As worldwide society detached love (unity) from life (procreation), divorce and fornication arose to the detriment of innumerable families. As worldwide society detached life from love, abortion and infanticide (euphemized as “partial-birth abortion”) arose to the detriment of the entire human family. The latest disregard of love and life is human cloning.

Mindful of contemporary attempts to clone human beings, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an Instruction entitled Donum vitae (February 22, 1987). Donum vitae notes that “attempts or hypotheses for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union” (no. I.6).

Human cloning is twice immoral. It is the ultimate separation of love and life to the extent not only of perverting the conjugal act vis-à-vis the absence of loving unity in in vitro fertilization, but also to the extent of nullifying the natural fusion of the male and female gametes (sperm and egg) in the procreation of human life.

Proponents of human cloning often distinguish between reproductive cloning (cloning with the intent of producing embryos to be reared as children) and therapeutic cloning (cloning with the intent of producing embryos for biomedical research). This is a distinction without a difference: the methods and results of such production are the same, namely, human lives are wrought. This distinction, differentiating only secular ultimate ends, is contemptuous of the rights of the human beings to be fashioned.

In the first instance, such cloning would produce human beings who are the genetic doubles of already living or deceased persons. Born without mother or father, outside the course of natural procreation, such persons would be bereft of identity, should they be allowed to reach maturity. And in the darkest moments, they are human beings who are destined to be nothing more than a conglomeration of spare parts to be harvested by their human originators.

In the second instance, such cloning would produce human beings who are the guinea pigs of science run amok. Born without mother or father, outside the course of natural procreation, such beings would be corralled like laboratory rats or cattle, should they be allowed to live more than a few days. And in the darkest moments, they are human beings who are destined to be tortured, mutilated, dismembered, or murdered in unbridled experimentation. Human cloning, for reproduction or therapy, is repugnant to human dignity and to God’s will for those whom He created in His own image and likeness (Gen 1:26–27).

Although a number of nations have enacted legislation to ban or limit human cloning, reckless and irresponsible technicians practice human cloning nonetheless. Humanity is too far along on a slippery slope to a barbarism hitherto unknown in human history. Human cloning must be stopped, despite any scientific advances it might yield, for man’s destiny is not ultimately fulfilled in this life. “Let all be convinced that human life and its transmission are realities whose meaning is not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full meaning can only be understood in reference to man’s eternal destiny” (Gaudium et spes, no. 51).

Pray and work for President Obama to reconsider.