[Someday]

You seem to be treating stem cell research and genetic manipulation as synonyms. That's not so. Not all stem cell research involves genetic manipulation.

Would it be better if I used another story that absolutely involves the Vatican's involvement in genetic manipulation? In fact, they are considering this alternative human embryonic stem cell research as a more moral approach. It is definitely genetic manipulation.

Wrong, see the BBC article. That mentioned the example of taking DNA from a human skin cell and implanting it into a cow egg.

This is still mixing human DNA with animals. The Vatican is clear it does not advocate mixing humans and animals at all. The Vatican is not against manipulating animal embryos, as long as it does not cause a negative reaction. For example, creating super mice with high intelligence is ok as long as they are not allowed out of the lab. Imagine these pests escaping and invading your home? Now we have a serious problem. Imagine someone doing this on purpose? That would be very wrong, don't you agree?

No. There was the example where 99.9% of the DNA is implanted human DNA, any remnant of cow DNA doesn't play any part in mitosis and is discarded.

This will create a cybrid 100% of the time. Keep in mind, the Vatican is always against the killing of viable human embryos, so even if it is a fully human embryo, they will be against it. No one wants to allow these to live beyond 14 days. Why not? What would happen if they did? Why is the 14 day limit of such high ethical importance? Would you ever consider implanting one of these cybrids in a human female?
The answer is obvious, isn't it? They are cybrids and no one knows what monster may result from a viable cybrid human fetus.

And finally, the donation to stem cell research seemed mostly a propaganda exercise to me (and at £25000 a pretty cheap one).

Yes, it is likely some sort of propaganda. But to be fair, as you can see from this article, the Vatican approved of adult stem cell research while Clinton was still President. It isn't a new development at all. And they have been funding it for years, this isn't the first time they made donations in support of it. They have also come out in support of another way to harvest stem cells through amniotic stem cell research.

Just for the record on the Vaticans support of genetic manipulation, it may interest you to know that the Vatican has come out in favor of something the European community thinks is unethical genetic research. The Pope has come out in favor of genetic manipulation to create more food. This is genetic manipulation.

I hope perhaps this clears the mud a little about this strange belief forwarded by the press that the Vatican is against all scientific progress. It's simply not true.