tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-327746792024-03-07T17:50:10.226+00:00Catholic Action UKchristus vincit! christus regnat! christus imperat!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-92086820495530443072009-12-14T15:58:00.003+00:002009-12-14T16:15:19.369+00:00Euthanasia: the pro-life response?<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Bishops concede 'compassion' as a reason not to prosecute in assisted suicide cases</span></span></b></div><div><br /></div>The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales want you to <a href="http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/ccb/catholic_church/legislation_and_public_policy/consultation_assisting_suicide">respond to the consultation</a> by the Director of Public Prosecutions on assisted suicide. The DPP's proposed guidelines include a list of 'factors' for and against prosecuting those who help others commit suicide. The Bishops official response points out that being a close relative, contrary to the DPP, should NOT give you a right to immunity from prosecution if you persuade granny to end it all and help her on her way.<div><br /></div><div>But their response (<a href="http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/ccb/content/download/5907/40969/file/FINAL_CBCEW_response_to_DPP_consultation.pdf"><span><span>pdf, p 12</span></span></a>) concedes that being motivated by 'compassion' is a factor against prosecution - along with more straightforward factors such as that of making only a small contribution to the death.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is the fact a murderer genuinly beleives his victim is better off dead really a reason not to prosecute him?</div><div><br /></div><div>If the murderer thought that the victim was better off dead because he was a member of the wrong religion or race this would be an aggravating factor in the crime under the present law of the UK. Yet if he thinks so because the victim is disabled, this apparently mitigates the offence, and may lead to a decision not to prosecute.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, the fact that a person is ill, in pain, or dying, gives those around him a duty to look after him. But according to the DPP, and even according to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, it gives everyone a ready-made excuse to help him on his way.</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-78595378798224081482009-11-03T09:49:00.000+00:002009-11-03T09:50:07.162+00:00Catholic Truth Scotland November Newsletter<a href="http://www.catholictruthscotland.com/NovemberNewsletter09.pdf">Click here to read the current newsletter</a>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-10586150047834689582009-10-18T09:16:00.000+01:002009-10-18T09:16:00.488+01:00New Issue of The FlockAvailable <a href="http://www.proecclesia.com/page_newsletter.htm">here</a>.<br /><br />More on the 'Gay' Masses in Soho;<br /><br />Book Reviews,<br /><br />A Catechetical Summer School in Scotland.Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-90224316789957833122009-10-17T09:51:00.003+01:002009-10-17T10:00:23.898+01:00Iveriegh repliesAustin Ivereigh has emailed a correction which we are happy to carry: he condemns Michael Moore's pro-abortion views. We are glad to hear it. It is after all entirely characteristic of The Guardian to tamper with people's words with a view to creating divisions in the Catholic world.<br /><br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">From Austin Ivereigh</span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"></span></span> </p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">Folks:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">This is the email I sent to John Smeaton of SPUC and asked him to publish it under his post. He has ignored me. Let’s see if you have the guts and integrity to publish it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">Austen<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">In my piece for the Guardian which John Smeaton refers to, I never call Moore a “committed Catholic”. Those words were added by the editor in the standfirst. What I say in the piece is that Moore goes to Mass each Sunday. When I questioned whether this was true in a post for America magazine (read it <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=39626035-3048-741E-5105690227736046">here</a> ) I received an emphatic message from his office which led me to apologise for questioning the fact (my apology is <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=64571203-3048-741E-2325509565889036">here</a> ). As for failing to mention that Leo XIII in the same year as Rerum Novarum spoke out against abortion, mea culpa– but I don’t see anything worth apologising for. I have a strong record of speaking out against abortion, and I deplore Moore’s failure to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">Austen Ivereigh<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">Journalist and Commentator<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">5 Cumberland St, London SW1V 4LS<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0mm 0mm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="color:#003300;">austen@austeni.org<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-49028357212282898012009-10-17T09:02:00.003+01:002009-10-17T09:04:51.851+01:00Homeschooling consultation: last callEverything you need is below, courtesy of Christian Concern for our Nation.<br /><br /><span style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial" class="Apple-style-span"> <p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The Department for Children, Schools and Families published a consultation on home schooling.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Please respond in order to preserve the freedoms of those parents who wish to educate their children at home. The closing date is Monday, 19</b><b>th</b><b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>October 2009.</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Parents are responsible for ensuring that their children receive a “suitable” education. The Government wants to usurp the role of parents and impose more governmental control, thus intruding upon families who choose to educate their children at home. Both the Bible and the law recognise it is a parent’s responsibility to educate their children, not that of the Government. Education is compulsory, but school is not. Parents can choose either to send their children to school, or to educate them at home. The Badman Report reviewed elective home education. In our opinion, the Badman Report makes disproportionate and unreasonable recommendations for compulsory registration and invasive monitoring of those families who choose to educate at home.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The point of most concern to all parents, especially Christian ones, is the proposal that those who choose to educate at home will have Government officials interview a child alone—without even a parent being present.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">To read the Badman Report, the Consultation, or to respond on line, click<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/182dxm">here</a>. Please note that the Government have produced a full response to the Badman Report very recently. To read the press release or the Government’s response, both dated 9th October 2009, click<a href="http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/ete/independentreviewofhomeeducation/irhomeeducation">here</a>.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">To read our response<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong><a href="http://www.ccfon.org/docs/CCFON_and_CLC_Home_Education_Consultation_Response.pdf">click here</a></strong>.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">To watch the YouTube Response by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Education Otherwise</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Report on the Review of Elective Home Education</i>, please click<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsJOFVTP6Gk&feature=channel">here</a>.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Send your response headed “Home Education—Registration and Monitoring Proposals Consultation Response” by e-mail to:</b><a href="mailto:homeeducation.consultation@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk">homeeducation.consultation@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk</a></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>There is no need to answer all of the questions in this Consultation unless you wish to do so; you could instead send two or three points by e-mail</b>.</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Please say that you reject all of Graham Badman’s recommendations and ask the Government to abandon them. We would also suggest you make some of the following points, in your own words:</p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Interviewing Children Alone</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">It is a violation of parental responsibility and rights to interview a child alone. Even the police do not do so. Under no circumstances should this proposal be allowed.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>National Register</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Annual registration of children will make no difference to safeguarding them. The current guidelines for local authorities already make it clear that safeguarding applies both to children who attend school and to those who are home-educated.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Compulsory annual registration and inspection visits by the Local Education Authority is not welcome, as in many cases it is precisely because of the education system having failed them, that parents have chosen to educate their children at home.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The suggestion of criminalising parents who educate at home for failure to register their children is totally inappropriate and disproportionate. It is the parent’s choice to send a child to school or to educate at home. It incorrectly implies that it is the Government who has the responsibility for education, not the parents.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">No evidence has been provided of the need for a national register. The idea of registering children who are educated at home is akin to the Government imposing a licensing scheme on home education, when it is not the Government’s responsibility to do so.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Freedom of Choice</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Christian parents may wish to educate their children according to Christian values and should be free to do so. Undergoing a state education may result in children learning more about other religions than about Christianity. The UK is subject to international legal obligations that require it to respect the right of parents to ensure their children’s education is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The freedom to educate at home should not be taken from parents. The Government appears wrongly to be set on a course of eroding parents’ rights in this matter by compulsory means.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Misapplying Child Protection Systems to Home Education</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The Badman Report and the recent DCSF press release of 9th October 2009, inappropriately apply child protection methodology to home education implying that home education can lead to child abuse. In doing this they have cast an unjustified and unfair shroud of suspicion over home educators.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Home educators have been tarred as "guilty" merely because they are home educators and are feeling the need to prove their "innocence" in relation to safeguarding issues. The DCSF needs to produce a measured response rather than allowing a small number of safeguarding cases to make “bad law”. Home educators have pointed out that the most dangerous and damaging abuse of children often takes place in children too young to go to school, where children have been withdrawn from school, or where they are already known to social services.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Expensive and Unnecessary</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The proposals are both expensive and unnecessary, because there are already powers the local authority can use to make a School Attendance Order where it appears that a child is not receiving a “suitable” education.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Government Control</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The Government should not seek to control or to intrude on family life.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The Badman Report states that, “Few would argue with the assertion that parents are the prime educator within or outside of a schooling system”. The Report then seeks totally to undermine that assertion in the recommendations made which will erode a parent’s freedom of choice over their own child’s education.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The proposals reverse the correct presumption of family freedom to educate one’s own children as a matter of parental duty rather than governmental duty. Thus, the Badman recommendations should be rejected as they are founded on this incorrect principle.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Children may be withdrawn from school because parents are dissatisfied with the school system for one reason or another and the last thing they would want is more Government intervention.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Unjustified Government Control</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">It is of real concern that the proposals include asking parents to provide the local authority with achievement and future attainment data. This question is indicative of the Government’s attempt to assert control over what the child is taught and is eroding the basic freedom of parents to educate their children at home.</p></li><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The recent Government proposal to clarify what a “suitable” and “efficient” education means, threatens the freedom of parents to devise a tailored or flexible educational approach for their children in their own homes without one being dictated to them by the Government.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Procedural Concern</b></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">The Department for Children, Schools and Families (“DCSF”) published their Response to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Review of Elective Home Education in England</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on 9th October 2009, which creates uncertainty for respondents to this Consultation. Members of the public are bound to wonder whether their responses to the present Consultation are actually going to be taken into account in the formulation of policy on home education. The correct procedure should have been either to include the Government’s Response to the Badman Report in this Consultation, so that members of the public could comment on it, or to wait until all responses to the Consultation had been considered before producing a Response.</p></li></ul><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px"><br /></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'Gill Sans MT', Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 16px">Please also click<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="western" href="http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EHEreview"><u>here</u></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to sign the petition to reject the Badman recommendations and retain the freedom for parents to educate at home.</p></span></span>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-76500494773479395862009-10-15T16:50:00.001+01:002009-10-15T16:51:29.496+01:00Plenty of food for the World's Population: UN officialFrom Lifesitenews: The head of the United Nations' food agency has said that population<br />control is not necessary to combat food shortages. Dr. Jacques Diouf told a<br />synod of African bishops meeting in Rome this week that "On the earth,<br />there is a sufficient number of financial means, effective technologies,<br />natural and human resources to eliminate hunger in the world once and for<br />all." [<a href="http://is.gd/4iNCv">LifeSiteNews.com</a>, 13 October] Dr Diouf's position<br />is in marked contrast to the calls for population control frequently made<br />elsewhere in the UN system.Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-35195339338990465852009-10-09T11:49:00.002+01:002009-10-09T11:54:13.350+01:00Rosary Crusade Saturday<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The 25th Annual National Rosary Crusade of Reparation</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Saturday 10th October 2009</span></b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">“You have seen Hell where the Souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the World Devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say is done, many Souls will be saved and there will be peace”</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our Lady’s Words to Lucia 13th July 1917</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Assemble by 1.45 pm outside Westminster Cathedral (Ambrosden Avenue)</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Nearest Underground: Victoria</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Procession to Brompton Oratory, Brompton Road, London SW7</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Nearest Underground: South Kensington</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Patron: His Grace Archbishop Vincent Nichols</div><div style="text-align: center;">Led by: Mgr. Emmanuel-Marie de St Jean, Abbot of Sainte-Marie de Lagrasse, France</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Procession with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima to Brompton Oratory praying the Rosary en- route Holy Mass is offered for benefactors every month </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Scapular Enrolment </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Solemn Pontifical Benediction</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">End about 5.00 pm (Anticipated Mass of Sunday at 6.00 pm)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Spiritual Director: the Revd Ronald Creighton-Jobe</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">For Information Contact:</div><div style="text-align: center;">Francis Carey (01494) 729223 – Mathias Menezes (020) 8764 0262</div><div style="text-align: center;">or by post 27 First Avenue, Amersham, Bucks., HP7 9BL</div></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-42335454039318400642009-08-31T12:24:00.002+01:002009-08-31T12:38:17.270+01:00Dissident theologians and pro-abortion politiciansThe Kennedy clan is the most prominent Catholic family in the highly dynastic world of US politics, and it is firmly pro-abortion. How did this come about? The promise of money and allies from the abortion lobby was underpinned by a group of dissident Catholic theologians who actually had a formal meeting in 1964 to coach family members in the sophistical distinctions they could make to rationalise their position. What they advocated appears to have been basically the familiar claim that a politician can be 'personally opposed' to abortion but as a matter of policy various considerations, from the need to maintain public order to the 'distress' of a woman who might be refused abortion, can justify voting to make abortion easier in every possible way - as if the state's duty to defend the lives of the innocent could be set aside so easily.<div><br /></div><div>From Fr Z, with his emphases and comments in red (see <a href="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/08/the-1964-hyannisport-conclave-catholic-leaders-teaching-catholic-pols-how-to-ignore-evil/">his post</a>):</div><div>The <strong>former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book "The Birth of Bioethics</strong>" (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph <strong>Fuchs</strong>, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert <strong>Drinan</strong>, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles <strong>Milhaven</strong>, Richard <strong>McCormick</strong> and Charles <strong>Curran</strong>, to <strong>enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion</strong>. <span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong>[Get that? There was a workshop for them to help them get around the teaching of the Church.]</strong></span><br /><br /> <strong>Mr. Jonsen</strong> writes that <strong>the Hyannisport colloquium</strong> was influenced by the position of another Jesuit, the <strong>Rev. John Courtney Murray</strong>, a position that <span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong>[AGAIN… pay attention…] </strong></span>"<strong>distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue</strong>." It was the consensus at <strong>the Hyannisport conclave</strong> that Catholic politicians "<strong>might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order</strong>."</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>One conclusion to draw from this is that these networks of dissent which this blog has sought to highlight have their importance and can do real damage. Simply by providing 'cover' for dissenting positions they can render inneffective the Church's opposition to some of the greatest evils of the day.</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-8403624258794809732009-08-26T10:04:00.002+01:002009-08-26T10:10:29.761+01:00Archbishop Chaput responds to The TabletBusiness as usual in The Tablet last week - claiming that abortion is just 'Catholic' issue and that therefore Catholics should not let it get in the way when they decide what political policies to support (er, right!). This is a central tenat of the implicitly or explicitly pro-abortion dissident network of 'Catholic' organisations which feed off the Church and neutralise her public teaching. On this occasion The Tablet was addressing not a UK issue but an American one, so Archbishop Chaput pf Denver has posted a <a href="http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=34310&page=1">reply</a>. (H-t <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100007504/archbishop-chaput-accuses-the-tablet-of-deliberately-distorting-catholic-teaching-on-abortion/">Damian Thompson</a>) In part:<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;">Last week a British Catholic journal, in an editorial titled “US bishops must back Obama,” claimed that America’s bishops “have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue - making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion - rather than the more general principle of the common good.”<br />It went on to say that if US Catholic leaders would get over their parochial preoccupations, “they could play a central role in salvaging Mr Obama’s health-care programme.”<br />The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don’t need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized US Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a “specifically Catholic issue,” and the editors know it. And fourth, the growing misuse of Catholic “common ground” and “common good” language in the current health-care debate can only stem from one of two sources: ignorance or cynicism.</span>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-29993862677238319742009-08-22T12:28:00.004+01:002009-08-23T15:38:09.056+01:00The Muslim question: segregation and secularisationThose who strive to be Politically Correct have been tearing each other apart over the demands of Muslims to adhere to their own customs. Special sex-segregated sessions at public swimming pools with <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100006651/how-the-west-was-lost-ctd-the-burkini/">vastly stricter dress codes</a> have been established by many left-wing local authorities, and have attracted criticism from other lefties. A Labour minister walked out of a Muslim wedding when he discovered men and women had separate rooms, and has been <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/minister-who-left-muslim-wedding-attacked-1773473.html">practically accused of racism</a> by a Labour peer. Sharia courts have been recognised as legitimate forums for arbitration by the Government, to the dismay of those who think they are sexist.<div><br /></div><div>The strategy of the Left in Britain has been to encourage massive immigration, without any effort at integration, for two reasons. First, immigrants tend to vote for the left, partly out of gratitude for the policy on immigration (which they naturally wish to see continued) and partly because of the economic circumstances in which they find themselves when they have settled in. Second, the whole process undermines the British and Christian values which the left hates. Even if the immigrants are Christians themselves, the social disruption large-scale immigration causes undermines the sense of solidarity around shared values and understandings which are appealed to by popular socially conservative politicians. Socialism, for example, has historically been opposed by appeals to family values, historic local loyalties, religious values, patriotism and the like, appeals which are most fruitful when made to a cohesive electorate with shared values and traditions. Such appeals are becoming harder and harder to make.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, immigration from Muslim countries is beginning to create sizable subcultures with a degree of coherence of their own. The values and shared traditions of these groups are powerful and are even more radically opposed to the left's agenda than those of traditional British society. In some respects they are similar to Christian values, and in some respects they differ, and even oppose, Christian values. The big picture, however, is that they oppose the left's agenda of secularisation: of pushing religious values out of public view.</div><div><br /></div><div>So Muslims have been allies with Christians in opposing the secularisation even of Christian festivals like <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2006/11/muslims-attack-secularisation-of.html">Christmas</a>: they know if secularism rules the day, their own aspirations will be crushed. But a traditional Christian state would not tolerate unlimited Muslim self-assertion - exemplified by the 'mega mosque' plan - any more than a secular one. So should Christians ally with secularists to oppose Muslim demands, or ally with Muslims to oppose secularist ones?</div><div><br /></div><div>At this point Christians, and Catholics in particular, should be made to realise how they have been backed into a corner. Secularism and Islam are both self-confident creeds. 'Live and let live' is only a short-term compromise where they are concerned. Christians have allowed the process of secularisation to take place under the wholly mistaken impression that it creates a 'level playing field' for 'reasonable' religious views to co-exist. This is totally false: it cannot be true that Christianity should not have a leading role in public life, as the secularists argue, unless Christianity is false. To deal with the current situation Christians should take a leaf out of the book of both secularists and Muslims, and act as if they believe what they profess to believe is actually true: if it is true it has implications for how society should be run. </div><div><br /></div><div>70% of the UK population professes some kind of Christian belief. Christian leaders should stop kidding them that their values can be preserved in a 'private sphere'. If they campaigned for Christian values to inform public policy at every level, there would be many practical compromises to make along the way, but at least they would be meeting their opponents in debate, and not simply hiding under the bedcovers.</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-61118291960827178542009-08-20T14:00:00.004+01:002009-08-22T11:37:17.539+01:00A Catholic political party?It seems that following the demise of the Pro-Life Party as a political party, a new party was formed which would be specifically Catholic. The Pro-Life Party never won any seats but it got some good publicity for life issues at election times, and won a battle with the BBC over an election broadcast. To have the BBC accused of exercising 'censorship' in a <a href="http://www.swanturton.com/ebulletins/archive/JKCProLifeAlliBBC.aspx">court ruling</a> was an important acheivment.<div><br /></div><div>This new party, '<a href="http://resurgenceuk.wordpress.com/">Resurgence</a>', has been going since 2004; the fact that it's only now that <a href="http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2009/08/resurgence-uk-catholic-political-party.html">a couple of blogs</a> have put a notice about it is surprising. Their documents are a strange mixture of the sensible, the slightly obsessive and the plain barmy. In the last category is the suggestion that they will ban party whips in the House of Commons. First, how? Second, why? In the places where party discipline is weak the efforts of politicians to endear themselves to their voters lead not to high principles, but to pandering to special interests. Just look at the USA. And a party which does not aspire to exercise control over what its MPs do doesn't deserve anyone's vote.</div><div><br /></div><div>Small parties can serve a useful purpose. They can draw attention to neglected issues; they can educate the public and build networks; they can act as think tanks and lobby groups. Resurgance needs to think about what it can acheive, in the short and medium term, and what it shouldn't be bothering about. Detailed and unimaginative plans for vehicle tax reform are beside the point. Giving substance to Catholic social teaching and the pro-life agenda, setting them in the context of the current legislative situation, and preparing good publicity materials on them would actually be useful. The people currently in this field are nearly all either Catholics pretending not to be (the pro-life groups, some conservative thinktanks) or non-Catholics pretending to be Catholics (groups like the dissident 'justice and peace' brigade listed on this blog). How about some real Catholics who admit they are Catholics?</div><div><br /></div><div>And how about some public events, guys?</div><div><br /></div><div>Their list of links exposes the narrowness of their network. They clearly haven't thought at all about the Catholic organisations who might be sympathetic to their cause. Instead they link to the non-Catholic extremist pro-life group UK Life League with its homepage covered in grisly pictures of dead babies (for a critique, <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2007/12/joanna-jepson-gory-pro-life-pictures.html">see here</a>). What does that say about Resurgence?</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks, Paul Kennedy, General Secretary, but you'll have to try again.</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-66467990918989431612009-08-17T15:59:00.006+01:002009-08-17T17:57:02.998+01:00Marriage Care caught out again<div><b>Archbishop Nichols is the President of Marriage Care. When is he going to do something about it?</b></div><div><br /></div>Shortly after Marriage Care's Director, Terry Prendergast, <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2009/07/bishops-respond-to-marriage-care-on.html">gave a talk</a> to a dissident Catholic gay group about how homosexual unions should be recognised by the Church and allowed to adopt children, it has been revealed that Marriage Care's sex education materials are completely amoral.<div><br /></div><div>No surprise there: we pointed this out <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2008/06/marriage-care-dossier.html">long ago</a>. But the Catholic Herald had run a <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000617.shtml">story</a> on it, which is good news.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here it is, in part: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">The manual, called Foundations for a Good Life, is designed to help to teach pupils at Key Stage 3 and 4 - the last two years of secondary school - and college students about relationships, marriage, the family and sexuality.<br /><br />The final two modules are aimed at young people over the age of 16 and deals with methods of contraception.<br /><br />There is no discussion of the morality of the methods with the focus on function and effectiveness. The manual hails condoms as 98 per cent effective in avoiding pregnancy, and the Pill, the coil and hormonal injections as 99 per cent effective, but says that NFP methods are far less reliable.<br /><br />"If you have a regular menstrual cycle, it [NFP] is 80 to 98 per cent effective, but can be lower if your cycle is irregular," the manual says. "NFP is not often suggested for teenagers who might not be considering committed relationships as yet." The manual was criticised by NFP teachers who insisted that their methods were nearly 100 per cent effective.</span><br /><br /></div><div>The point about the effectiveness of NFT is a side-issue, if a predictable one. The real issue here is that the Marriage Care course, just like the 'All That I Am' course from Birmingham and all the other sex education courses being pushed at children, makes a virtue of the fact that it gives information totally inappropriate to the teaching of children in a whole-class context, and does so without any ethical context. The decision about when and how to have sex is a matter of preserving sexual health - the Church's teaching doesn't come into it.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is also interesting to note that the claims in these materials for the effectiveness of condoms derive from fantasy - or (in the technical jargon) from 'perfect use'. Use of condoms by teenagers is obviously far from perfect, and effectiveness rates are <a href="http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0001.html">vastly lower</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">...a major study on contraceptive failure reported that in single woman under 18 years of age, using the birth control pill to prevent pregnancy, the first year failure rate was 11%!</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">3</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> The failure rate of condoms is also seriously higher in the adolescent age group. For example, an article in the journal, Family Planning Perspectives, quotes an annual Practical failure rate of 18.4 percent in teenage girls under 18 years of age who are using condoms to prevent pregnancy. According to these figures, over half of the teenage users will be pregnant within three years. The authors further qualify this failure rate by stating that "these rates are understated because of the substantial under-reporting of abortion among single women; if abortion reporting was complete, failure rates would be 1.4 times as high as they appear here..."</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">4</span></sup></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-44436738018154204952009-08-11T18:51:00.005+01:002009-08-11T18:58:56.096+01:00Sex Ed video from the Archdiocese of BirminghamWarning: contains nudity.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7A6DZxOvxtE&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7A6DZxOvxtE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />See <a href="http://www.lovingit.co.uk/2009/08/all-that-i-am-relationship-and-sex-education-from-the-roman-catholic-archdiocese-of-birmingham.html">Catholic and Loving It</a> for more commentary. If you don't want your 9-year old to see material like this, don't send him or her to a Catholic school where Archbishop Nichols' ideas on sex education have influence.<div><br /></div><div>Don't say you haven't been warned. Wake up!</div><div><br /></div><div>Now the Government are <a href="http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/2009/08/compulsory-sex-education-involves-state.html">promoting masturbation</a> for teenagers - yes you read that right. How long before the Catholic Education Service either catches up with that one or realises that the attempt to produce a 'Catholic' sex education is a hopeless one? Here's an image from a leaflet produced by the NHS in Sheffield. </div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwZ8mHhciFO9C9axiJK9ZteJ8TihzNRqrMrS5cdjX1K-UggkX0I6tsaxeaXmoQ2LDEKMiQVdrgbkZ6FuGE44IlVDd0kXnoiTG-W_s5VR66hflYsfBbK5dNmYPGGhdRJzZmjas/s320/Pleasure+Diary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwZ8mHhciFO9C9axiJK9ZteJ8TihzNRqrMrS5cdjX1K-UggkX0I6tsaxeaXmoQ2LDEKMiQVdrgbkZ6FuGE44IlVDd0kXnoiTG-W_s5VR66hflYsfBbK5dNmYPGGhdRJzZmjas/s320/Pleasure+Diary.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-81116033687843721842009-07-30T18:47:00.002+01:002009-07-30T18:48:49.579+01:00Overpopulation mythThe myth of overpopulation has been exploded so many times it is astonishing that you find people still banging on about it. Here's a nice video.<br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZVOU5bfHrM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZVOU5bfHrM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-20866068284660504642009-07-27T18:10:00.006+01:002009-07-27T18:20:38.981+01:00Bishops respond to Marriage Care on homosexual 'marriage'<div>The most complete report on the bishops' reaction to the <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2009/07/marriage-care-head-on-homosexual-unions.html">speech of Terry Prendergast</a>, the Chairman of Marriage Care, rubbishing Catholic teaching on marriage, appeared in The Tablet. It reveals that Archbishop Nichols is actually the President of Marriage Care, and that Prendergast is an adviser to the Marriage and Family Life Committee (chaired by Bishop Hine) of the Bishops' Conference. In short, he and his organisation are intimately connected with the ecclesiastical bureaucracy, making it particularly difficult for the bishops to distance themselves from even his more outrageous views.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Tablet (25/7/09) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); ">“The Church’s vision is that the crucially important quality of stability in family life needs gender complementarity and role modelling too,” said the bishops. They recognised that circumstances may mean that some of these dimensions were unavailable, creating the need for additional support, but added that “it is inconsistent with Catholic teaching to plan or promote a notion of family from which they are deliberately excluded”.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Mr Prendergast is an adviser on the Bishops’ Marriage and Family Life Committee, chaired by Bishop John Hine, who acknowledged this week that there were difficulties over Mr Prendergast’s observations. The concerns of both Archbishop Nichols and Bishop Hine were raised with the board of directors of Marriage Care at a meeting on Tuesday.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Mr Prendergast said that he felt he had been able to explain his position to the bishops. “My impression was that they were making every effort to understand the position of Marriage Care,” he said.</span></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-29359536249188289792009-07-18T15:00:00.002+01:002009-07-18T15:00:00.161+01:00Liturgical abuses: Pottery Chalices<div style="text-align: left;">Taking a (sadly) rare break from engaging in pointless arguments with Catholic Traditionalists, James Preece has put <a href="http://www.lovingit.co.uk/2009/07/the-last-crusade.html">a very interesting post</a> about the attitude of Bishop Terrence Drainey of Middlesbrough to pottery chalices (and ciboria, pattens etc.). As he points out, they are forbidden - illicit, ruled out, contrary to the laws of the Church, you get it? - by Redemptoris Sacramentum.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Reprobated, therefore, is any practice of using for the celebration of Mass common vessels, or others lacking in quality, or devoid of all artistic merit or which are mere containers, as also other vessels made from glass, earthenware, clay, or other materials that break easily. This norm is to be applied even as regards metals and other materials that easily rust or deteriorate.</span></p> <p>[<a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html">Redemptionis Sacramentum 117</a>]</p></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">But here they are, being used by the Bishop himself. Note the clingfilm over them. A nice touch that. Presumably it is felt to be necessary because these ghastly objects are liable to fall over.</div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NQPjIzsEJZX_KGse_GXRUbPF0ly6GfNRHqoN49uzVsQzCnH9mkQL1LjLl9oGhyphenhyphena4zb55IizC9RBug8atlhyphenhyphen5YuMBk8DdVZ20JOkj9KeccOCjn5yzQLK0PoggljeFEAqG6nnqFg/s400/2009-07_earthenware-bishop-osmotherley.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 228px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359058841546739826" /></div><div>James points out that Bishop Drainey has actually criticised a parish for using them, but continues to use them himself. As Our Lord said,<span style="color:#0000FF;"><i>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The teachers of the law (the scribes) and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So, you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach"</span></span> </i></span>(Matt. 23:2-3)</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-1039248575865268212009-07-17T01:10:00.003+01:002009-07-22T20:25:33.301+01:00Marriage Care head on homosexual unions<div>There follows a press release about a conference organised by Quest, a homosexual 'Catholic' group which was ejected from the Catholic Directory many years ago for rejecting the Church's teaching on sexuality (see our <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2007/02/quest-dossier.html">dossier</a>). Terry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Prendergast</span> is the Chief Executive of Marriage Care, an formerly Catholic organisation listed at great length in the Catholic Directory (under its former name, 'Catholic Marriage Care': see our <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2008/06/marriage-care-dossier.html">dossier</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>On <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Prendergast's</span> jaw-dropping claim that there is 'no evidence' that children do better with both a mother and a father see <a href="http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/experiments.php">here</a> for details of a study and here for <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100003646/married-couples-no-better-as-parents-says-catholic-marriage-spokesman/">Ed West</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Pendergast</span> has spoken and written several times of his support for homosexual marriage and the like, but this <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">speech</span> is particularly clear. It remains to be seen if Archbishop Nichols will take the opportunity either to bring Marriage Care to heal or cut the Church's links with it. Listing in the Directory is a formal endorsement, at least in general terms, by the Bishops of England and Wales, as their own <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">guidelines</span> make clear. 'Criteria for entry into the Catholic Directory' is available from <a href="http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk/ccb/catholic_church/catholic_bishops_conference_of_england_and_wales/publications" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; ">this page</a> of their website, as a <a href="http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk/ccb/content/download/1511/11723/file/Criteria%20for%20entry%20into%20Catholic%20Directory.pdf" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; "><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">pdf</span> (here</a>). It tells us that '<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">ecclesiastical recognition is given to organisations so that they may be publicly known as both Catholic and of national significance</span>'. It goes on to specify as the first criterion for entry:</div><br />'<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">A fundamental commitment to the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, particularly as expressed by the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.</span>'<br /><br />This is explained in more detail: '<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">The word 'fundamental' relates to the key objectives of the organisation as formally written and as corporately pursued. It is tolerant of some variety of emphasis in expression and in operation, but not of deviation from ultimate loyalty to the Church, nationally or internationally.</span>'<br /><br />Head of Marriage Care exhorts Church to re-think the family.<br /><span id="fullpost"><br /><div><br />Gay couples can lay equal claim to their married heterosexual counterparts when<br />bringing up children in stable relationships. That is one of the many<br />challenges laid down by Terry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Prendergast</span>, Chief Executive of Marriage Care, in<br />a speech to members of QUEST, the community of lesbian and gay Catholics at<br />their annual conference this weekend. His remarks come as a timely contribution<br />after many Catholic adoption agencies have, in recent months, had to agonise<br />about whether to fall into line with new legal arrangements which oblige such<br />bodies to make adoption available equally to same-sex as well as heterosexual<br />couples.<br /><br />Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Prendergast</span> will address the gathering in Leicester with his wife, Kate, a<br />lecturer in social policy at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Brunel</span> University. The conference theme is:" We<br />Are Family: New Thinking for the Twenty First Century."<br /><br /><br />"Statistically, children do best in a family where the adult relationship is<br />steady, stable and loving, " he says. "Note that I stress adult, not married,<br />since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with<br />heterosexual couples, " he adds.<br /><br />A dominant theme of his address centres on how the Church has often built up a<br />romantic image of a golden age of the nuclear family which, in truth, has not<br />really found expression in reality, often with unwelcome consequences for those<br />that "do not fit." These include single parent families, and also co-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">habiting</span><br />and same -sex families. He says that often "those individuals.want to live good<br />lives according to the precepts of the Gospels. They are an advert for the<br />Church, an advert that the Church often ignores, or consigns to the waste bin."<br /><br />He says that in all relationships, the institutional aspects are less important<br />than the sacramental qualities, "the presence of God mediated through<br />commitment, consent and covenant. The move from the institutional to<br />companionship, choosing for love, has been marked, possibly more deeply, in<br />co-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">habiting</span> and same-sex couples."<br /><br />Inspired by Professor Margaret Farley's book, Just Love: A Framework for<br />Christian Ethics, Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Prendergast</span> lays out seven norms or criteria for<br />evaluating the richness of relationships and family:<br /><br />Do no unjust harm,<br /><br />Free consent,<br /><br />Mutuality,<br /><br />Equality,<br /><br />Commitment,<br /><br />Fruitfulness<br /><br />Social justice.<br /><br />Terry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Prendergast</span> is Chief Executive of Marriage Care, formerly <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">CMAC</span>, and has<br />been in that role since 2000. He was born in West Yorkshire and joined the<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Montfort</span> Fathers in 1967. He left the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Montfortians</span> in 1970, marrying Kate. He<br />trained as a social worker in 1975 and as a Psychotherapist in 1980, but has<br />been involved in management in the charitable sector since 1989. He has an MA<br />in Managing Change in Community, from Bradford University. He is concerned<br />about long-term relationships, their management and support, as well as the<br />development of their spiritual and sacramental aspects<br /><br />For further comment, Terry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Prendergast</span> can be contacted on the following mobile<br />number: 07771 768631.<br /><br />Kate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Prendergast's</span> address is entitled: "Chance, Choice and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Caritas</span>," and will<br />also feature as part of the conference proceedings . It is hoped a full<br />transcript of the paper will be available soon after the conference on the<br />Quest website at www.questgaycatholic.org.<br /><br />Sit Stephen Wall, a former adviser to both Cardinal <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Cormac</span> Murphy O'Connor and<br />Tony Blair, will be the after dinner speaker on the evening of Saturday July<br />18<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">th</span>. Sir Stephen has been a member of Quest since January 2008.<br /><br />The 2009 Quest Conference will be the 27<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">th</span> in the organisation's history and<br />will take place between 6pm on Friday July 17<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">th</span> and 4pm Sunday 19<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">th</span> July at<br />John Foster Hall at the University of Leicester.<br /></div></span>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-10423932206871537602009-07-16T14:52:00.003+01:002009-07-16T16:50:30.447+01:00Government sexualisation initiative condemnedFr Tim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Finnigan</span> has posted on the latest Government initiate: to promote <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">masturbation</span> by children. Yes, things have really got that bad. 'An <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">orgasm</span> a day keeps the doctor away', says the leaflet. This has now been roundly condemned by Peter Bradley, Deputy Director of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kidscape</span>, a charity concerned with bullying, including the sexual bullying which, unsurprisingly, is on the rise in schools. <a href="http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2009/07/kidscape-response-to-nhs-sheffield.html">His message</a>:<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">In summary - parts of the leaflet provide young people with ridiculous, irresponsible advice that may lead young people on a potential sexual path of misery and harm. This is a frequent message adults tell us about on reflection in later, more mature years.</span><div><br /><div>Here's part Fr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Finnigan's</span> <a href="http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-taxpayer-funded-sex-ed-filth.html">post</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In January, Panorama ran a programme called "Kids behaving badly" on the subject of sexual assaults at school. In a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1105262/Children-aged-FIVE-expelled-sex-offences-girls-molested-classmates-School-bullying-takes-shocking-twist.html">Daily Mail report on the programme</a>, Michelle Elliott of the charity <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Kidscape</span> is quoted as saying:<blockquote>Sexual bullying has become much more prevalent. On the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kidscape</span> helpline we used to get maybe one or two calls a year. Now we are getting two or three a week. It’s probably the tip of the iceberg.</blockquote>I wonder what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Kidscape</span> think of the latest initiative from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">NHS</span> Sheffield which has prepared a leaflet for young people telling them that it is good to have an orgasm a day, and encouraging them to masturbate. (See the promotional article in "<a href="http://www.sexualhealthsheffield.nhs.uk/publications/cypn070709.pdf">Children and Young People Now</a>".) The booklet is, of course, strongly endorsed by the Family Planning Association and the Brook, whose spokesman extols the value of sex education before adolescence. (See also the report from the Christian Institute: <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090713/pupils-told-regular-sex-is-good-for-you/">Pupils told: regular sex is good for you</a>.)<br /><br />How long will it be before feminists, child safeguarding agencies and ordinary parents begin to cotton on to the clear and present danger that this kind of explicit sex education presents to their children?<br /></div></div></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-78950026109743876942009-06-19T14:38:00.004+01:002009-06-19T14:50:18.353+01:00Pope Benedict XVI, the ReformerComment: Luke Coppen makes a good case for Benedict XVI being what commentators said before his election, a man who cracks down on abuses. The Holy Father is doing it in different places and on different subject with seriousness, but no fanfare - sometimes even with a degree of necessary secrecy. As Coppen points out, this means that his reforming zeal has gone largely unnoticed; it also fails to fit the stereotype of a liberal reformer which many commentators assume is the only kind.<div><br /></div><div>We should qualify what we said about the foccacia episode in the diocese of Linz. It is not that the Pope is doing nothing about Linz - as noted below he's just had an emergency meeting with the Austrian bishops to talk about it, and other matters. Nevertheless he doesn't feel able to do what many frustrated faithful Catholics assume he should do, which is simply remove the bishop, because of the nebulous concept of 'collegiality' which descended like a miasma onto the Church after Vatican II. However, even that needs to be qualified, since he has removed an African archbishop who tolerated concibinage among his clergy. Since this is one of the problems in Linz, is sauce for the African goose going to be sauce for the Austrian gander?<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/editor/index.shtml#e19062009">Coppen's article</a> is worth reading in full but here's the key passage:</div><div><div><br /></div><div><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">The Maciel affair</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: In May 2006 Pope Benedict took the highly unusual step of ordering one of the world's best-known priests to retire to a life of prayer and penance. His decision followed a Vatican investigation into allegations that Fr Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement, was a sexual abuser who had fathered at least one child.</span><br /><span id="fullpost"><br /> <em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Investigating America's seminaries</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: Not long after his election Benedict XVI oversaw an apostolic visitation of seminaries in the United States. The investigation was inspired by the clerical sexual abuse crisis of 2002 and covered all schools of theology as well as college-level seminaries, houses of formation, and academic institutions that form future priests.<br /><br /></span> <em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Scrutinising American female religious orders</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: The Pope has also ordered a wide-ranging investigation of American women religious. The </span><a href="http://www.apostolicvisitation.org/en/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">apostolic visitation</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> of institutes of women religious in the United States, which is currently underway, covers approximately 400 apostolic religious institutes of women and approximately 59,000 women religious. It is likely to lead to a shake-up of American female religious life.<br /><br /></span> <a href="http://bit.ly/f2kg4"><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Deposing the leader of an African Church</span></em></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: Earlier this month Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo of Bangui, the most senior Catholic cleric in the Central African Republic (CAR). The resignation followed a visit to the CAR by a papal emissary, Archbishop Robert Sarah, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, in March. It is widely thought that the Pope requested the archbishop's resignation because he tolerated priests keeping mistresses.<br /><br /></span> <em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Calling for a thorough accounting of abuse in Ireland</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: Also this month Pope Benedict called for a profound examination of the state of the Irish Church following a damning report into "endemic" abuse in schools run by religious orders.<br /><br /></span> <em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Crisis talks with the Austrian bishops</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">: And this week Pope Benedict held an </span><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000570.shtml"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">emergency meeting</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> with the leaders of the Austrian Church. The gathering followed the appointment and subsequent resignation of Gerhard Wagner as auxiliary Bishop of Linz and reports that priests in senior positions in the diocese live with mistresses. The Pope reminded the bishops of "the urgency of going deeper in the faith and the integral fidelity to the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Church" - a coded message that the Austrian Church is in serious need of reform.<br /><br />These events together show the determination with which Pope Benedict is confronting the gravest scandals in the Church today. They have all had considerable publicity, but nevertheless have not created the perception that Benedict XVI is a bold reformist pope. </span><br /></span></div></div></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-31862706348683242962009-06-16T15:30:00.004+01:002009-06-18T12:59:26.003+01:00FocacciaThis has rendered <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/06/15/what_do_you_think_this_is">Damian Thompson</a> speechless and it has had the same effect on us. But focaccia was used as the host at a Mass in Linz, Austria, and under the appearance of focaccia the Blessed Sacrament was paraded around in this 'monstrance'. That's assuming focaccia is valid matter, which it probably is; it is certainly illicit.<br /><br /><object id="mediaplayer2607946095" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="384" height="318"><param name="movie" value="http://www.gloria.tv/?media=27931&embed"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.gloria.tv/?media=27931&embed" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="384" height="318" quality="high" scale="noborder" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br /><br />Hat-tip to <a href="http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2009/06/linz-another-giant-leap-towards-leaving.html">Cathcon</a>.<div><br /></div><div>As the little film indicates, this is a scandal with global implications. The Pope has done nothing. There is no reason to imagine, things being as they are, that the Pope will do anything. This fact is the backdrop to the problems of the clerical abuse of power faithful Catholics face all over the world.</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-83455335305394560992009-06-15T11:01:00.003+01:002009-06-15T11:16:40.906+01:00Clerical abuse and clericalismRead <a href="http://www.lovingit.co.uk/2009/06/the-catholic-church-a-culture-favourable-to-abuse.html">James Preece's brilliant analysis</a> of the clerical abuse scandals and Catholic culture. Here's the money quote:<div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">As far as I can see, the position of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales including our own Bishop Terrence Drainey is currently "let us have a culture that tolerates and even encourages clerical abuse, in which priests and bishops are free to abuse their power and authority and laypeople are expected to be co-conspirators or else face accusations of disrespect and disloyalty but let us make an exception for the sort of abuse that the civil authorities take seriously, that is, the sort of abuse that costs money and looks bad in the papers".</span></div><div> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">This is like saying "stealing is okay, as long as you don't steal anything somebody will notice" or "lying is okay, as long as nobody finds out". Essentially, the Bishops are saying "it's okay with us if priests abuse their power, as long as they don't do anything illegal".</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">What concerns me most of all is this: As long as the </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">culture</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> remains in place, the </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">potential</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> for harm continues. As long as the </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">culture</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> remains in place, the potential for "[hiding] behind a clericalism which is prepared to protect vicious behaviour at the expense of defenceless innocents" remains in place.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">This is simply unacceptable.</span></p><p>This is partly why this blog has never been shy about reporting clerical abuse stories - something which the aggressive liberals in the comments boxes have never been able to understand, and which has got us in trouble with conservative Catholics as well.</p><p>Clericalism and ultramontanism is not the answer to the problems of today. Yes, we have problems of disobedience of legitimate authority justly exercised, and in those cases the authority should be supported. But this is not the opposite problem as the sex abuse being covered up by bishops: it is another example of the same problem.</p><p>How so? The sex abusers were disobedient. Their bishops didn't approve of the abuse; they asked them to stop. The abusers were breaking canon law as well as the natural law. The abuse persisted because of a failure of legitimate authority. But it also persisted because of the false deference towards that failing authority.</p><p>Because no-one wanted to confront and denounce the bishops and religious superiors who were failing to exercise their authority, out of deference to that authority, they were enabled to go on not exercising their authority.</p><p>The clerical club which protected the abusers, without necessarily approving of them, is also tolerating priests who commit liturgical abuses, refuse to give the faithful communion kneeling, refuse to teach the whole gospel, and turn their parishes into centres for left-wing activism.</p></div></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-45448506184219769962009-06-11T18:38:00.007+01:002009-06-11T18:45:58.365+01:00Home Schooling in the spotlight<div><b>Comment:</b> notice how the NSPCC is gunning for homeschoolers. There is in fact less chance of a child being abused if he is being taught at home, than at school, but the NSPCC and its allies in the government don't want to be confused with facts. They like to see all the boys and girls in neat row so they can indoctrinate them as they like.<br /><br />The actual proposals here don't threaten serious damage to homeschooling, but the threat is always there.<br /><br /><b>From CFNews:</b> A review of home education in England is expected to recommend a national registration scheme for home educators. It is also expected to say local authorities should have the right to visit any child taught at home.<br /><br />The government commissioned a review to find out whether local councils were monitoring home educated children, or offering parents enough support.<br /><br />But the government has also been concerned that home education could be a cover for abuse. The review, conducted by former director of education for Kent, Graham Badman, will say that parents who home educate should have to register annually on a scheme administered by local councils. But a parent's right to home educate will not be challenged, ministers have said.<br /><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><b>Support</b><br />Local authorities currently have no statutory duty to monitor children educated at home. But they must ensure that all children are receiving a suitable education, either in school or otherwise.<br /><br />Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: 'We will ask local authorities to provide easier access to extra support for those home-educated children who need it - particularly the relatively high proportion of home-educated children who have special educational needs and others who need or want to access services that would otherwise be provided through their school.' He said asking home educators to register would bring England into line with other European countries.<br /><br />Scotland differs slightly from the rest of the UK in that local authorities are encouraged to inspect home educating families at least once a year.<br /><br /><b>'Outdated'</b><br />But home educators say authorities should stop treating them with suspicion and concentrate on giving them support.<br /><br />Ann Newstead, spokeswoman for home education group Education Otherwise, said: 'If one thing could come out of this review which would mean it was not a complete waste of public money, it would be that the decision to home educate is treated with respect and as a positive choice.'<br /><br />The review is not expected to propose any minimum standards or set subjects. It is understood the review has not found any evidence that home education was being used specifically to conceal trafficked children, or forced marriages.<br /><br />Children's charities have urged the government to tighten up rules regarding home education. NSPCC head of policy and public affairs, Diana Sutton, said current legislation was 'outdated' and a system was needed to deal with cases where local authorities had concerns.<br /><br />Estimates of how many children are home educated vary from between 20,000 and 80,000 children. [BBC]</div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-91990864373076942972009-06-10T14:23:00.001+01:002009-06-10T14:23:00.319+01:00CAFOD to use a pagan guru on pilgrimage<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsp-MWfHnMk47AktZOgsOlMXzc548H-oofO11lQLCUHCRH88Ye-uj2-qjEHJabSbOphJEoD3njdzQ99na03XCtXPs5Na6TLb_oZrzcyMqIsGpOUDsS5UXD2SfLjJJoP2C_IgQyg/s1600-h/holyislandpilgrimage09_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsp-MWfHnMk47AktZOgsOlMXzc548H-oofO11lQLCUHCRH88Ye-uj2-qjEHJabSbOphJEoD3njdzQ99na03XCtXPs5Na6TLb_oZrzcyMqIsGpOUDsS5UXD2SfLjJJoP2C_IgQyg/s400/holyislandpilgrimage09_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345318937580156722" border="0" /></a><br />This really beggars belief, so let's hear it direct from the <a href="http://rcdhn.org.uk/social_concerns/cafodholyisland09.php">website of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle</a>. If you didn't have sufficient reason to stop supporting CAFOD before, you do now: they have arranged for a Catholic pilgrimage to be led, in part, by a pagan leader with a view to him imparting his spiritual wisdom to pilgrims. For the other reasons, see our <a href="http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2008/02/cafod-dossie.html">dossier on CAFOD</a>.<br /><br />From the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle: <span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">A Brazilian of the Yanomami tribe will be the special guest at CAFOD's annual pilgrimage to Holy Island this year.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">Davi Kopenawa Yanomami is a member of the Yanomami índios in Brazil, and a spokesman on tribal issues and Amazon Rainforest conservation. CAFOD supports Hutukara, an indigenous grassroots organisation of which Davi is president. He will be joining pilgrims for the day on June 13 to walk across the Pilgrims' Way from the main land to the island. Davi will also lead the reflection at key points along the way with reflections from his own tradition, focussing on how we live in harmony with God's creation.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">CAFOD Hexham & Newcastle Diocesan Manager Anne-Marie Hanlon said: "This is a real honour for us, and we are thrilled to have Davi coming to Holy Island this year. He is an inspirational speaker and comes from a tradition where people are still fundamentally linked to their environment. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say about climate change, and also to hear how his customs value the stories of his ancestors just as he will hear how we revere our Northern saints.”</span>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-38094963066407835682009-06-09T13:59:00.009+01:002009-06-09T14:20:13.756+01:00The Recife AffairFrom CFNews gives a long commentary on the affair from Mgr Schoonans., <a href="http://www.cfnews.org.uk/PEP.htm#RECIFE">here</a>. He discusses the multiple inaccuracies of the article by <span style=";font-family:Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;font-size:100%;" >Archbishop Rino Fisichella in the<i> Osservatore Romano </i>of the 15th of March, which it shares with other attacks on the local ordinary who reminded the abortionists that, under canon law, they were excommunicated <span style="font-style: italic;">latae sententiae</span> (ie without him having to do anything). Mgr Schoonans also reports that Mgr Lombardi, the Vatican press officer, appeared to try to re-interpret remarks of the Holy Father to make them compatible with support for the Recife abortion (which he falsely suggested was an example of 'indirect' abortion: medical treatment such as chemotherapy not aiming at the death of the unborn child, which brings it about).</span><br /><br />The most worrying thing here is the impression of divisionsn and open dissent at the highest reaches of the Vatican.<br /><br />Here is an extract.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">3. Divisions in the Church</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">1. According to RF, the attitude of Archbishop Cardoso undermines the credibility of the Church. But the Church and its pastors do not deserve to be credible unless they proclaim the truth. The Gospel does not recommend that we please men, it calls us to be faithful to the message which it is our mission to announce. As regards abortion, the Church's doctrine is expounded with clarity in major documents such as Gaudium et spes (1965), para. 51 § 3 ; cf. para. 27 § 3 ; Code of Canon Law (1983), para. 1398 ; 1314; 1323 s. ; Donum vitae (1987), para. 3 ; Evangelium vitae (1995), para. 62 ; Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997), para. 2271, 2322.</span><br /><span id="fullpost"><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">RF's article was published in the French edition of the Osservatore Romano on 17 March. It is astonishing that it fails to echo the statements of His Eminence, Cardinal Re, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, published in La Stampa on 7 March. Could RF have been unaware of this statement when he signed his article? In this statement, Cardinal Re declares, with regard to the double abortion performed at Recife: " it is a crime in the eyes of God. The excommunication of the person performing the abortion is just". On 14 March, Dom Cardoso, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, received a letter of praise from that same Cardinal. The Church's position is also reaffirmed by Father Gianfranco Grieco, Head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, in La Stampa of 7 March.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">2. The Osservatore Romano is the unofficial mouthpiece of the Vatican. It publishes pontifical texts. It also publishes articles at the request of certain dicasteries. It also publishes texts proposed by authors considered to be knowledgeable about and respecting of the Church's doctrine. This prestigious publication is particularly necessary at a time when the media pronounce with assurance on any issue. As Molière wrote, " People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything. " (Les précieuses ridicules, scene 10). With some notable exceptions, adherence to an elementary code of ethics, for example, checking the sources on which relies, does not appear to be a priority. In the case under examination, those in charge of the Osservatore Romano let through a text containing serious inaccuracies and omissions and biased in every sense of the word. To cap it all, instead of putting a stop to the circulation of this article in foreign languages, the publication's Director arranged for the text to be circulated in different languages. The Vatican's mouthpiece is therefore seriously adding to a muddying of the waters in as far as it is failing to comply with its mandate as a faithful mouthpiece, palming off on its readers products which are doctrinally dubious.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">3. On 20 March, a few days after the appearance of RF's article, while meeting the authorities in Luanda, Benedict XVI made reference to the abortion. The Pope regrets that the abortion is being presented as a matter of maternal health. Let us quote the strong words pronounced by the Pope:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"How bitter the irony of those who promote abortion as a form of maternal healthcare! How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health!" (Osservatore Romano, French edition, 31 March 2009, pages 4 and 15).</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Whence immediate protests from certain journalists, whose reasoning can be summarised as follows: " Abortion is a matter of reproductive health. Yet the Pope is against abortion. Therefore he is opposed to reproductive health, which must include therapeutic abortion." According to this sophistic argument, the premature twins constitute a serious danger to the young Carmen and are themselves in danger, and so it is necessary to go ahead with the abortion.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The next day, in Luanda, Father Federico Lombardi S.J., Head of the Vatican's Press Office, felt obliged, even authorised, to blunt the authority of the Pope's statement, quoted above. The statement did not relate to therapeutic abortion, as understood by the ideologists of reproductive health and safe motherhood. In a context in which he is commenting on the Pope's words, Fr Lombardi goes so far as to affirm, incautiously, that the Catholic Church has " always allowed indirect abortion ", when treatment given to a pregnant woman in order to save her life "results in the death of the foetus " (Cathobel, 23 March). The double abortion performed on Carmen would be therapeutic and would thus, in the twisted logic of the Reverend Father, escape the sanction of Canon Law. It would not be condemned by the Pope who moreover - it is added- said nothing, in Africa, on the events in Recife. It is therefore difficult for Father Lombardi to have avoided compromising the Holy Father by creating the impression that the Pope did not condemn the double abortion in Recife, on the grounds that this double abortion was therapeutic! It follows that the Pope would have implicitly disagreed with Archbishop Cardoso!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Admittedly, Father Lombardi asserted, in Luanda, that he did not have all the necessary information regarding the Recife case. However, his statement poses a fundamental problem. Is it normal for a journalist, even a highflyer, to set himself up as an authorised interpreter of what the Pope has just said, especially if his interpretation has the effect of blunting the edge of the Holy Father's statements? It would doubtless be necessary to clarify the levels of expertise and authority. Should the Pope's words be so obscure as to need deciphering by an unofficial media magisteriium?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">4. Serious grounds for concern have emerged in circles close to the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Council for the Family:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">a. Incomprehension and sadness on the part of a considerable number of Christians, engaged for several years in multiple pro-life programmes encouraged by the Church. A feeling, often well-founded, of having been " abandoned " by their pastor.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">b. Perplexity and shame on the part of many members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who are wondering how such a faux pas could have occurred, and what action will be taken.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">c. Discredit affecting the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who has undermined his own moral, theological and scientific authority. Loss of confidence in the President and disillusionment. Many members of the Pontifical Academy for Life fear that RF's statements will compromise them at rank and file level. There will be a down-sizing in aid of all kinds earmarked for the activities of the Pontifical Academy for Life.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">d. Fears of a weakening of the Pontifical Academy for Life: its members will be less motivated and will become divided among themselves. There is already talk of only convening members of the Academy every two years. But where is this decision coming from, if confirmed? Is it, as rumoured in certain circles, the prelude to the burial of the Pontifical Academy for Life, at a time when the attacks on life are incessantly multiplying ?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">5. In his Letter to the Archbishops of the World, dated 10 March 2009, the Holy Father, quoting the letter to the Galatians (5, 13-15), wrote: "If you bite and devour one another, be warned: you will destroy one another " Referring to the question of Archbishops following the lead of Archbishop Lefebvre, this quotation also deserves to be repeated in relation to the scandal of Notre Dame University and the harrowing story of Carmen and her twins.</span></span>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32774679.post-56684991593105783832009-06-08T20:33:00.001+01:002009-06-08T20:34:53.687+01:00Say no to clapping at MassA note on a form of liturgical abuse from <a href="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/06/ratzinger-on-applause-in-church/">Fr Z</a>.<div><br /></div><div><br /> <em>"Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that <strong>the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared</strong> and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. " (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898707846?tag=whatdoesthepr-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0898707846&adid=1F6BXDE66NHAQJRZ04FE&">Spirit of the Liturgy</a> p. 198)</em><br /><br /> This message has been brought to you by <a target="_blank" href="http://soberinebriation.blogspot.com/2009/06/important-message-applause-during.html"><em>Sober Inebriation</em></a> Weblog.<br /><br />If you should encounter applause during Mass in your parish do not panic. Immediately after Mass go out and get a copy of Pope Benedict’s book "The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898707846?tag=whatdoesthepr-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0898707846&adid=1F6BXDE66NHAQJRZ04FE&">Spirit of the Liturgy</a>" by Ignatius Press and give it to your pastor as a gift. Be sure to highlight the above passage on page 198. Yellow highlighter works really, really well.<br /></div>Herculeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02315335341007019884noreply@blogger.com0