Picture: Facebook ad seeks human eggs

A friend of mine here in Washington DC, like most girls her age (2o's), has a profile on Facebook.

And what does Facebook consider an appropriate advertisement for her demographic?

See for yourself:

Egg donation can be an appealing solution to the financial difficulties young women face, especially those attending higher education.

But the fact of the matter is that egg donors are most often recruited in order to assist couples trying to become pregnant through In Vitro fertilization, which is condemned by the Catholic Church.

Egg donation, while reducing the donors fertility, also treats a woman's reproductive gametes as a product that can be bought at a market price, which is against human dignity.

I don't think Facebook should be allowing such ads to be targeted at young women.

16 away! {update - made it!}

The official AmP Facebook fanpage is a mere 16 members from the new goal of 750. As I've said, AmP posts are fed into the Facebook page - so you can keep up to date on the news without ever having to leave Facebook (the designers must love me for that).

And a big thank you to everyone who has voted for AmP in the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards this week!

update: bingo! 751 as of 12:35EST. Thanks to those of you who dipped into their friends list! =)

AmP Facebook Fanpage passes 700 member mark!

Over the weekend the official AmP Facebook Fanpage passed 700 members!

I think the fact that it now streams AmP blog content has helped motivate folks to join.

Okay, now go invite your friends and get active! (Discussian threads, event announcements, etc....)

Web: I'm friends with a Bishop on Facebook

When I first heard the rumor that the new bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas had a profile on super-popular social networking site Facebook, I had to follow up on it to see if it was true.

Lo and behold, as of yesterday, I'm the Most Reverend Anthony Basil Taylor's friend ... on Facebook, that is {photo}.

Luckily, I wasn't tempted to ask him based on his profile picture if he was an Anglican Bishop, as the blogger at St. Monica's Kneeler harrowingly recounts.

Now, in all probability, the profile is administered by someone in the diocesan offices.

So, with that proviso in mind, let's take a look at the bishop's online Facebook profile. It includes, notably:

• A yahoo email address
• 388 friends (as of this posting)
• The "Help Fight Global Warming! Together we can make a Difference" application
• Someone left him a "bumper sticker" saying "Who's Awesome? You're Awesome!"
• The "We're Catholic" and "Send Catholic Gifts" applications
• He posts his weekly homilies, in English and Spanish
• He's part of one cause: "The Social Reign of Christ the King", and one blog network: "Immaculate Heart of Mary's Hermitage Report."
• He has 38 wallposts (he's got some catching up to do - I have 2100+)

I especially got a kick out of his Education & Work background....

I must quibble. "Employer" should be "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" or, I guess, "Pope Benedict XVI."

But "Position: Bishop"? Okay, he's got me good there.

... welcome to the New Evangelization (?).

Catholic Facebook Drama

At least this time it's a minor one. Damien Thompson writes:

I accepted a Facebook friend request yesterday, and suddenly I noticed a familiar name in my new friend’s list – Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor! I wouldn’t presume to add myself as a friend of His Eminence, but I did post a nice message on his wall.

Back came the response (see above): “You do not have permission to write on this wall.”

That’s not very welcoming is it? Particularly when you consider what I’d written: “Many thanks, Your Eminence, for your tireless efforts to implement the Holy Father’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.”

Who could object to that?

Of course, someone other than the Cardinal might have created the page.

While we're on the topic of Facebook, some folks in Lafayette, LA formed a group called "Facebook - stop removing Fr. from priests' names!":

Facebook is randomly removing the "Fr." prefix from priests' names and the "Sr." prefix from sisters' names but haven't done so for "Rev." and "Dr." Signup to join this group and we'll petition Facebook to reconsider what seems to be this anti-Catholic and more generally anti-Religious action.

I would say, however, that mosts the priests I'm friends with on Facebook do have their "Fr." titles retained.