Nichols: the sex ed scandal that won't go away

The Times and the left-wing press are trying to tar our newly installed Archbishop of Westminster with the Irish sex abuse scandal. This is a pretty low trick: he obviously isn't responsible for those crimes, and has condemned them. But there is something he is fully and completely responsible for, and that is the deliberate sexualisation of children in Catholic schools. I'm glad to say that, as a result of the Government's increasingly totalitarian drive on sex ed, the issue is being raised more and more urgently: see an excellent long post on the Sensible Bond, a letter from Eric Hester in the Catholic Times, and Jackie Parkes (and here).

What the sex education programme Archbishop has endorsed as Chairman of the Catholic Education Service and as Archbishop of Birmingham does can only be described as grooming children for illegal, underage sexual activity - just as the Government wants it to. The Catholic Education Service's defiance of Church teaching on sex education places it completely outside the Catholic debate. What is going on? Do they think that Catholics could volunteer to be death-camp guards if they were a little less brutal to the inmates than the other candidates for the job?

We have no inside information but we can say this. Bishops bear a responsibility for all the souls in their dioceses. Parents bear a responsibility for the souls of their children. Nothing the CES or the Government can say or do can change that. There is plenty of room in hell.

Matthew 18, ⁶ whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

 ⁷Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

 ⁸Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. ⁹And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

 ¹⁰Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.