Support SPUC by ordering from our popular range of Christmas gifts

SPUC has a popular range of Christmas cards, Christmas gifts and other merchandise for sale online in our webshop Order early to avoid disappointment (for Christmas delivery order by 30 November):

• 30 quality Christmas cards for only £5.90
• affordable prices - many frozen from last year
• a range of Advent calendars and Christmas card holders
• pro-life badges and stickers - great stocking fillers!
• educational books, video and learning aids
• pro-life t-shirt
• all purchases covered by our money-back guarantee

You can also order by telephone on (020) 7091 7091 between 10am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

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Please support pro-life vigil at Parliament tomorrow Wed 27 Oct

SPUC has just received news of a vigil (see poster pictured) to be held outside Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday 27 October) marking the 43rd anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act 1967. The vigil is being organised by the Choose Life campaign, an initiative of Christian Concern led by Andrea Williams. The vigil will be held between 12pm and 1pm at Old Palace Yard, immediately opposite Parliament. Following the vigil, a service of lament and repentence will be held between 1.15pm and 1.50pm at the Emmanual Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 3DW.

I regret that I will not able to attend as I will be travelling to Canada to speak at the International Pro-Life Conference. I will, of course, be at the vigil in spirit and I encourage SPUC supporters to support the vigil.

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Greg Pope's appointment to Catholic Education Service conflicts with Pope Benedict's teaching

Pope Benedict told the new Ecuadorean ambassador to the Holy See last Friday that "the public authorities must guarantee [that the law] helps parents, ... to educate their children according to their own religious convictions and ethical criteria ... ".

I wonder if Bishop McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales (CESEW), and Oonagh Stannard, its chief executive officer, happened to mention to Pope Benedict, when he was in England, anything about Greg Pope,the new deputy-director they've appointed. (Bishop McMahon and Oonagh Stannard are pictured, above, with Jim Dobbin MP at a parliamentary reception last week. It was a reception to celebrate the year of Catholic education.)

Greg Pope is a former Member of Parliament, who, as an MP, voted against pro-life Angela Watkinson MP's Ten Minute Rule bill. This bill would have required doctors providing contraception or abortion 'services' to a child under 16 to inform his or her parent or guardian. Mr Pope's anti-life, anti-parents vote on this measure alone disqualifies him to be deputy director of the CESEW. However, Mr Pope's anti-life and anti-family record, printed out, is as long as my arm - and probably as long as your arm in addition to mine! Print out my blogpost earlier this year and check for yourself.

Not least (but not solely) in the light of Mr Pope's appointment, I have no confidence that the CESEW, an agency of the bishops' conference of England and Wales, will seek to ensure that public authorities guarantee that the law helps parents to educate their children according to their own religious convictions and ethical criteria as Pope Benedict has clearly insisted they should. Mr Pope also supported the homosexual agenda* as an MP, including voting against measures (popularly known as section 28) preventing local councils from promoting homosexuality, including the teaching in schools of the 'acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'". And he also signed a parliamentary motion calling for increased funding for international pro-abortion organizations. His appointment is a scandal which is clearly in conflict with Pope Benedict's championship of parents' prior right to educate their children.

* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

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Money more valuable than human life, says Baroness Warnock

Daniel Blackman, a researcher for SPUC, has sent me a report on last Tuesday evening's Intelligence Squared debate on assisted suicide. You can read Dan's full report on the SPUC website, but below are a few details.

The motion of the debate was ‘Assisted Suicide should be legalised: the terminally ill should have the legal right to be helped to end their lives.’ Speaking for the motion was:

• Emily Jackson, professor of law at the London School of Economics
• Baroness Mary Warnock, moral philosopher, and
• Debbie Purdy, the assisted suicide campaigner with multiple sclerosis.

Speaking against the motion was:

• Lord Alex Carlile QC, barrister
• Patrick Stone, Macmillan Reader in Palliative Medicine, St George’s University of London; and
• Lord Richard Harries, former Anglican bishop of Oxford.

The debate was chaired by Sue Lawley, journalist and broadcaster.

The debate is available for free on itunes, which means readers can also listen to the debate for themselves.

Two votes were taken, one before and one after the debate. The results were:

before

• for: 408
• against: 110
• don’t know: 117

after:

• for: 406
• against: 208
• don’t Know: 34

So a large number of the 'don’t knows' decided to vote against against assisted suicide.

Dan also reports that Baroness Warnock said that, that unlike gold and platinum, life does not have value in itself. Her claim reminds me of Psalm 134:15-17, which reads:

"The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, but they speak not: they have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths."

I found Baroness Warnock's claim - which says effectively that money is more valuable than life - truly frightening. This is the same materialistic attitude that resulted in the lives of countless millions of slaves being sacrificed in the name of profit.

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Jack Valero of Catholic Voices issues a statement about condoms

Jack Valero of Catholic Voices has sent me the following message which I am happy to publish - and to comment on:

Dear John

A priest friend has recently alerted me to the fact that some people reading your blog entry on my appearance on Sunday Morning Live in early September in which you quote me, have got the mistaken impression from it that I was advocating the use of condoms, which would create scandalous confusion. I would therefore ask you to put in your blog another entry with the paragraph below in full so that your readers are not left in error.

Regards

Jack

Jack Valero's statement is as follows:

"Some people who did not see the whole of my appearance on Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) in early September and only read what was selectively quoted on this blog may have misunderstood my views about condoms and AIDS. I would like to make it clear I totally support the Magisterium of the Church as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all the relevant encyclicals (Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, etc). Anyone who would like further clarification can easily contact me through Catholic Voices, Opus Dei, Facebook, etc."

Unfortuntately, Jack Valero's statement includes nothing which addresses the scandal caused by what he said on Sunday Morning Live in early September. Indeed it compounds that scandal by suggesting that his comments on Sunday Morning Live can be understood to be true to Catholic church teaching on the transmission of human life.

Here again is what Jack Valero said on behalf of Catholics:

Jack Valero: The Church is not against condoms the Church is against promiscuity

Julie Bindel: The Church is against condoms!

Jack Valero: The Church is against promiscuity and sex outside of marriage

Colm O'Gorman: Is the Church now supporting the use of condoms?

Jack Valero: No, the Church is against... er... promiscuity

Colm O'Gorman: In marriage? Does the Church oppose the use of condoms in marriage?

Jack Valero: Well, no, the Church is against contraception of course.

Colm O'Gorman: So it's against condoms?

Jack Valero: But, but, we're talking here about HIV, no the Church is against contraception.

Jack Valero attempts to make a distinction between the use of condoms to prevent conception and the use of condoms to prevent HIV; and attempts to claim that the Church is not against condoms on the grounds that the Church is not against the use of condoms to prevent HIV.

Yet Humanae Vitae is crystal-clear in its prohibition of any action by a couple to close the marital act to the transmission of life:

"[E]ach and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life." (Humanae Vitae, 11)

As I said at the time, Mr Valero is providing a bridgehead for other Catholics in representative positions to adopt their own dissenting interpretations, not just of Catholic teaching on the use of condoms, but on other areas of Catholic teaching on life and family.

I say this, quite openly, in the spirit described as follows by Archbishop Raymond Burke, soon to be made a cardinal, in his address to the World Prayer Congress for Life earlier this month:

" ... One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "dictatorship of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities ... "

And on Humanae Vitae and the separation of the unitive and the procreative dimensions of sexual intercourse, Archbishop Burke said:

"... A second fundamental presupposition of my presentation is the essential relationship of the respect for human life and the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family. The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union."

And elsewhere he said:

" ... A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life."

Visitors may wish to make up their own mind about the nature of Jack Valero's comments by watching Sunday Morning Live for themselves.


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Why the pro-life movement must tackle contraception head on

Two weeks ago I posted about the launch of SPUC's new petition against TV condom adverts.

44 years ago when SPUC was founded to fight against abortion legislation, we could never have imagined what the scope of our campaign would be at the beginning of the 21st century. In late 1966 the first pro-life campaigners had little idea that condom use would demand the attention of SPUC.

Yet here we are in 2010 running a petition against advertising condoms on prime time television. People may wonder why we are doing this. They may protest that contraception is not part of SPUC’s remit. But the question is not so much “Why is SPUC campaigning against television advertisements for condoms which target children?”, as “How can SPUC ignore this?”

SPUC cannot ignore this. Promoting contraception to children is priming them for teenage sex. Teenage sex leads to unintended conceptions and abortions. Southern Cross Bioethics Institute explains how this is so in the briefing prepared for the Society in connection with our petition.

We are running this petition to alert people to the dangers of advertising condoms to children and young teenagers. We can’t shy away from this because condoms are an indelicate subject or because we think that these advertisements won’t affect our children. The risks are real to all children, including the unborn.

These advertisements pose a long-term threat to the culture of life. As increasingly explicit sexual messages are being thrust at our children, their hearts and minds are closing to the pro-life message. As sex is robbed of its special and intimate role in creating new human life, the sense of anything special about an unborn baby is lost too. From the generation of children whose minds have been poisoned about the true meaning of sex and the dignity of new life, who will be left to take up the pro-life cause?

In our struggle to build up a culture of life, one of the most upsetting things we are witnessing is the way in which those who are pursuing an ever more liberal abortion culture, are using children to achieve their ends. Their methods are to subject primary school children to explicit sex education in the classroom where their natural reticence about sexual matters will be broken down, to fill secondary schools with promotional messages about contraception and abortion and to screen condom advertisements in their homes. Our children are in the front line of this anti-life onslaught. We cannot leave them exposed and unprotected.

Catholics scandalised by fellow Catholics must speak out says Archbishop Burke

I am delighted to hear that Archbishop Raymond Burke (right), prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (the Catholic church's supreme court) will become a cardinal (on 20 November). 11 days ago I heard him speaking to the World Prayer Congress for Life at the Augustianum in Rome. His address was entitled "Catholic orthodoxy: antidote against the culture of death" and I strongly recommend that you read it in full.

To my mind, there are three essential documents to study for all pro-lifers and people of good will who are seeking to build a culture of life: the papal encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae, on both of which I have written frequently, and now, albeit at a different level, Archbishop Burke's speech to the pro-life congress in Rome "Catholic orthodoxy: antidote against the culture of death". Here are some extracts:

" ... The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union. The so-called "contraceptive mentality" is essentially antilife.Many forms of so-called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy, at its beginning, a life which has already been conceived ...

" ... A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life.

"The lack of integrity in obeying the Magisterium is also seen in the hypocrisy of Catholics who claim to be practicing their faith but who refuse to apply the truth of the faith in their exercise of politics, medicine, business and the other human endeavors. These Catholics claim to hold “personally” to the truth of the faith, for example, regarding the inviolability of innocent and defenseless human life, while, in the political arena or in the practice of medicine, they cooperate in the attack on our unborn brothers and sisters, or on our brothers and sisters who have grown weak under the burden of years, of illness, or of special needs. Their disobedience pertains not to some truth particular to the life of the Church, that is, not to some confessional matter, but to the truth of the divine natural law written on every human heart and, therefore, to be obeyed by all men.

Archbishop Burke went on to talk about "the scandal of disobedience to the Magisterium" - in words which can clearly be applied to the scandal of Greg Pope's actions as an MP, the same Mr Pope who has been appointed deputy director of the Catholic Education Service (CES) of England and Wales. I will return to this topic soon. I will do so in the spirit Archbishop Burke described in his address as follows:

" ... One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "dictatorship of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities ... "

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Ireland, historic bastion of civilised values, is targeted by the culture of death

Josephine, my wife, and I, went last month with two of our children, to join 10 of Josephine's 14 brothers and sisters for a family reunion in County Meath, Ireland.

Josephine's family were commemorating the 50th anniversary of their leaving Ireland for England in pursuit of work.

Josephine and Teresa, our daughter, are pictured (above) standing on the Hill of Slane where St Patrick lit the Paschal Fire on Easter Eve in 433 AD - in defiance of the Royal edict of the High King of Tara. The Easter Fire is lighted each year on the hill. Josephine recalls how, as a little girl, she and her family would walk from Wilkinstown to Slane - several miles - for the ceremony.

The Hill of Slane remained a centre of religion and learning for many centuries after St. Patrick. The ruins of a church and college can be seen on the top of the hill. I'm pictured right with Teresa and Paul, our son, exploring in ruins of the college.

Whenever I'm in Ireland I never cease to be deeply moved by the archaeological evidence and, more important, the living human evidence of a people who upheld Christian values for hundreds of years and who have played a critical role in preserving those values as the true basis of western civilisation.

During our trip to Ireland Josephine and I travelled to Galway and we went exploring that beautiful county.

We visited the Church of the Immaculate Conception to pray before the Blessed Sacrament which was exposed in a side-chapel. I found in the church a number of newsletters promoting the Clann Resource Centre. (The parish newsletter made reference to activities being run by the Centre.)

The Clann Resource Centre newsletter makes reference to Club4U, a club for 14 - 18 year-olds. The newsletter says: "Activities include workshops on issues including mental health, sexual health, relationships and body image. Activities also include DVD nights ... ".

That evening I looked up Club4U on the internet and found a number of "Help on the Web" links on their Think Positive page. One click on spunout on that page took me to another page where I clicked on sexual health where, lo and behold, Irish youngsters - maybe youngsters whose families go to Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception - can be introduced to the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) which is affiliated to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the largest abortion-promoting agency in the world. The IFPA is the organization which earlier this month held a conference in Northern Ireland entitled the 'First All-Ireland Conference on Abortion and Clinical Practice'. The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland has issued a statement "deploring" and "opposing" the conference, saying:

"This conference is clearly designed to undermine the rights and welfare of children in the womb and the consistently pro-life position of the majority of people on this island. It is an attempt to normalise what is unacceptable. We appeal to all those who cherish the inherent dignity of human life in all its stages to join us in expressing opposition to this event.

"Every human life is worthy of protection from the moment of conception to natural death. The dignity of the human person is absolute and inviolable. We call on public representatives to express their opposition to this conference and to promote and defend a legislative environment which respects the inherent dignity of life in all it stages.

"A conference which promotes themes such as 'manual vacuum aspiration' and 'issues in late abortion' is an affront to the dignity of the human person. It is gravely immoral. Respect should be shown in all circumstances for the life and well being of both the mother and the unborn child.

"One of the objectives of the conference is to learn about how clinicians can be trained to provide abortion services. This raises questions about how the statutory authorities should respond to such an event in a jurisdiction where abortion is illegal in most circumstances.

"No one should be forced to act against their conscience on a moral issue as fundamental as the right to life of the unborn. Employers and others must therefore uphold the right of every person to have their moral conscience and deeply held religious beliefs respected."

It breaks my heart that Ireland, whose history and whose people have repeatedly demonstrated their outstanding defence of Christian values and the sanctity of human life, should be targeted by the culture of death so aggressively. The promoters of the culture of death do not even stop at the door of the church as I found in Oughterard, County Galway, last month, in that most sacred place for the Catholic community - a Catholic church where the Blessed Sacrament is being exposed.

I hope and pray that material promoting Club4U in Oughterard will be withdrawn and a new club, one without links to the pro-abortion industry, is established in the area and elsewhere in Ireland.


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Please respond to UK government consultation seeking to promote abortion

Paul Tully (pictured), SPUC's General Secretary,  is appealing to pro-lifers in Britain and worldwide to participate on a UK government consultation - the clear aim of which is to promote abortion overseas. Paul writes:

The UK Department for International Development is promoting abortion in a new public consultation – please respond urgently, whether you're in the UK or abroad. The deadline for consultation responses is 20 October.

Please go to this page:  http://consultation.dfid.gov.uk/maternalhealth2010/ then click the links in either or both of the boxes:
"People around the world: Take our survey" (This leads to a ‘surveymonkey’ online survey) and

"Development partners: Have your say" (this will lead to a set of questions to which people can respond with comments – scroll to the bottom of the comments displayed to add your comment.)

If you can, please respond to both of these sets of questions.

As you will see, the issues of abortion and contraception dominate the approach to reproductive health in this consultation.

The consultation mentions some positive measures (like early breastfeeding) to reduce infant mortality, but does not mention measures that protect maternal health such as promoting marriage and stable families, continence and responsible sexual behaviour. Nor is there any effort to help people resist unsafe practices like pre-marital sex, promiscuity or prostitution.  The survey also presumes that abortion can be “safe” for women – whereas it always carries risks. 

Please respond to this consultation before Wednesday (20th October), and encourage others to do so too.

Further information that may be helpful in responding to the consultation:

A short briefing on maternal death and the Millennium Development Goals:
http://www.spuc.org.uk/campaigns/un/matmorbrief201008

A useful British Medical Journal article, pointing out that rising rates of maternal death in southern Africa are largely due to HIV: http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5068.full  (This article also cites Margaret Chan of WHO, saying that training midwives and improving healthcare facilities are the effective measures being taken to reduce maternal deaths.)



A WHO article which does not distinguish between spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) and induced abortion, but suggests that maternal deaths due to abortion are overestimated in surveys where the data is of poor quality: http://centre.icddrb.org/images/WHO_Analysis_of_Causes_of_Maternal_Death_-_Khan_&_co..pdf


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Mary Robinson, winner of Christian knighthood, promoted crimes and attacks against human life

I see that Mary Robinson, the former Irish president and UN High Commission for human rights, has received a Christian knighthood. At the end of last month she was invested as a Dame of the Irish Grand Priory of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus.

The aims and obligations of the Order of St Lazarus require that "all members of the order ... shall be committed to the upholding with their lives, fortunes and honour, the principles of Christianity, and shall stand united before all men in their determination to live and die following the teaching of Christ and His Holy Church."

Unfortunately, those making this award clearly did not consult God-fearing Irish citizens or, indeed, the author of this blog.

If they had done so they would have discovered that Mary Robinson has devoted much of her career to opposing the teaching of Christ and His Holy Church, not least in fighting for the legalization of abortion. The Catholic Church, for example, describes abortion as a crime and attack against human life.

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Pro-life lobby succeeds at the UN

International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest abortion promoter, has admitted defeat in its efforts to hijack the millennium development goals in order to promote legalize abortion throughout the world - and unrestricted access to abortions for adolescents.

Earlier this year, Pat Buckley, SPUC's chief lobbyist at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva,launched an appeal to church leaders and pro-life groups worldwide to oppose an extreme, "ideologically driven" pro-abortion report produced by Navanethem Pillay, the High Commissioner on Human Rights, being "bounced through the Human Rights Council. Pat said at the time:

"This report is being bounced through the United Nations forums, blatantly ignoring any evidence which disputes its conclusions and deliberately avoiding debate. The clear intention of the powers-that be is to use this ideologically-driven report's findings to influence the Millennium Development Goals Review later this year at the UN in New York."

At Pat Buckley's instigation, SPUC issued a worldwide alert in five languages warning that a right to abortion, under the guise of reproductive health, would be proposed at a United Nations (UN) summit in New York between 20 and 22 September 2010 and urging pro-lifers around the world to take action - in particular to contact the most relevant government officials in their countries objecting to the attempts being made to promote abortion under the guise of reproductive health.

May I take this opportunity of thanking all those who took action to defend unborn children and their mothers throughout the world, including our colleagues in other pro-life organizations and courageous delegates from pro-life nations.

Carmen Barroso, regional director of International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, has written to pro-abortion lobbyists saying that the Summit ’s Outcome Document ... officially adopted by the General Assembly on the 22nd of September ... neglects any reference to safe abortion, comprehensive sexuality education, adolescents ... indicating that there is still much work to be done." [This language is pro-abortion code for legalized abortion and unrestricted access to abortion for children from 12 upwards.]

Please keep SPUC's lobbyists at the UN in your prayers, in particular Pat Buckley and Peter Smith who spend up to six months of the year away from their families working morning, noon and night to try to stop anti-life, anti-family language going into international agreements. Pat leaves for the UN in New York on Monday for a three-week stint and Peter leaves for New York in November for a similar tour of duty. It's hard, grinding work - generously supported by the Society's donors. Thanks to all.

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Three quiet cheers for the axing of the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group

I would like to call for three quiet cheers at the news that the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (TPIAG) has been axed by the Coalition Government. (Complacency is something always to be avoided like the plague by pro-life campaigners.)

It was just under a year ago, as visitors to my blog might recall, that the previous British government accepted all the major recommendations of the TPIAG's 2008/2009 annual report.

Amongst the report's appalling major recommendations, accepted by the government, were the following:

• that all schools including faith schools must teach all aspects of sex and relationships education within the context of relationships in an anti-discriminatory way; they said that contraception, abortion and homosexuality are all legal in this country and therefore all children and young people should be able to learn the correct facts
• that sex and relationships education should include explicit links to young people's advisory services and provision of contraception and sexual health services and young people should be taught how to access such services

The TPIAG report also commended the Government for its decision to make sex and relationships education compulsory for schoolchildren from 5 to 16 and they sai:

"We are very pleased that Church of England and Catholic Church are also supporting this move."

(Fortunately, in a significant victory for SPUC and for the pro-life and pro-family movement, the compulsory sex and relationships education clauses in the previous government's Children Schools and Families bill were defeate - in spite of the support of church leaders in England and Wales.)

The TPIAG, of course, were referring to the Catholic Education Service and to the Catholic Bishops' Conference and England Wales. As I mentioned at the time, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) taught (whilst Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith):

"We must not forget that the episcopal conferences have no theological basis, they do not belong to the structure of the Church, as willed by Christ, that cannot be eliminated ... No episcopal conference, as such, has a teaching mission: its documents have no weight of their own save that of the consent given to them by the individual bishops."

I do hope that the CES and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) will use the opportunity provided by the scrapping of the TPIAG to scrap their scandalous co-operation with the government on sex and relationships education which includes providing access to schoolchildren in Catholic schools to abortion and birth control drugs and devices without parental knowledge or consent. In place of such co-operation, the CES and the CBCEW should get its policies in line with the Catholic Church's key teaching document on sex education, The truth and meaning of human sexuality: guidelines for education within the family.

The CES and the CBCEW are handing our children over to the abortionists. It's the worst development in this country for hundreds of years.

When the CES/CBCEW policy is reversed, I will give three loud cheers.

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Pope Benedict calls for worldwide vigil for life on 27th November

Pope Benedict has called on every diocesan bishop in the world to join him in leading a Vigil for All Nascent Human Life on Saturday, 27th November. On that day, the Holy Father will celebrate such a vigil in St Peter's coinciding with first vespers of the First Sunday of Advent.

Catholic News Agency reports:

"A letter from Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and Cardinal Ennio Antonelli of the Pontifical Council for the Family has been sent to the bishops of the world to invite a similar celebration and prayer initiative on a local level throughout the Catholic Church."

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has responded positively to Pope Benedict's request highlighting the Holy Father's request that:

“All Diocesan Bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements.”

In a statement, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas, chairman of the episcopal conference's pro-life committee, has highlighted the "unprecedented" nature of this request from the Pontiff and makes the following appeal to US Catholics:

"I heartily encourage all Catholics, whether at home or travelling over the Thanksgiving holidays, to take part in this special prayer ...

" ... Becoming a voice for the child in the womb, and for the embryonic human being at risk of becoming a mere object of research, and for the neglected sick and elderly is one of many ways we can teach our fellow citizens that 'The Measure of Love is to Love Without Measure.'"

I would urge all my visitors to contact their parish priests and their bishops to ask that the Pope's request be publicized and promoted to the greatest possible extent. 

Let's never forget: According to one calculation, 55 million people were killed during the second world war. From the perspective of 2010, these killings in the most deadly war in human history seem like the mere preluded of a tragic drama which was to be played out for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st. Hundreds of millions of innocent human beings have been killed. There have been over 50 million recorded abortions in the US since 1973 and over 7 million recorded abortions in Britain since 1968 bringing us to well over 55 million abortions in the US and Britain alone - not to mention the deaths of human embryos through invitro fertilisations procedures and the countless deaths of human embryos through abortifacient birth control.

Pope Benedict's call for a vigil for all nascent human life could not be more timely or more important. Let all who believe in prayer, pray for a great outpouring of grace on our bishops which impels them to respond generously to his call.

The USCCB has, they say, developed Vigil prayer aids for dioceses and parishes which will soon be available. Given the scale of the worldwide crisis, no-one could possibly argue that the vigil cannot be supported because of other priorities or because of events being held in support of life at other times of the year. A world figure has called for a worldwide response to arguably the greatest crisis ever to befall humanity and it really must be supported.

I would like to give publicity to any events occurring in dioceses throughout Britain - so do keep me posted about what's happening in your diocese or parish.

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Don't fall for the euthanasia lobby's campaign of spin and hijacks

Sir Michael Caine, the actor, has claimed in an interview that, following his request, a doctor gave his terminally-ill father a lethal overdose. Sir Michael also expressed support for voluntary euthanasia. (Readers might recall that Sir Michael was one of the lead actors in the pro-abortion film "The Cider House Rules".) Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), has an excellent blog-post on Sir Michael's comments, uncovering the spin that the pro-euthanasia lobby put on such media reports.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (which has recently tried to whitewash itself by rebranding itself Dignity in Dying), has not only has sought to trade on Sir Michael's comments, but is also now seeking to hijack the medical profession for its pro-death campaign, starting a new group called Healthcare Professionals for Change. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the media earlier this week:

“A doctor is obliged by professional ethics and in law to act in their patients’ best clinical interests. For a doctor to kill their patients instead of treating or caring for them cannot be in their patients’ best clinical interests. 200 years ago, Dr Christoph Hufeland, Johann Goethe's doctor, warned that, once a doctor steps outside their vocation to preserve life, he become the most dangerous man in the state. Legalising assisted suicide would turn a class of private citizens into public killers. It would change doctors and nurses from being healers and carers into poisoners and angels of death. Also, making assisted suicide available to patients would lead to pressure on pro-life doctors and nurses to assist suicide, thereby diminishing their autonomy to practice their profession according to their consciences and Hippocratic ethics.”

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My address on human rights to this week's pro-life congress in Rome

Below is an abridged version of the address I gave on Thursday at the World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome, organised by Human Life International (HLI). The full version can be found on SPUC's website in the original English, plus translations into German, Italian and Spanish.

Human rights: truth and illusion in Europe

Rights which are incompatible with natural law are not only invalid, but their promotion demands the subjugation of some human beings in order to advance the interests of others. Almost on a weekly basis we see such alleged rights invoked to justify public policies which threaten the most vulnerable in society or used to silence those who speak out in defence of Christian values and natural law. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than with the attempts to separate the right to life from the principles of natural law.

Despite attempts to distort them, international agreements like the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognise the right to life of all members of the human family “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” This also includes the distinction of personhood and non-personhood held by some, including thus far, European courts, to apply to the unborn child.

We must call upon governments and human rights institutions to return to the original meaning of these documents which were drafted in response to the atrocities revealed by the Nuremburg Tribunals. To do this, we must become more familiar with the international agreements which were intended to protect all human beings at every stage of life. We must resist injustice and continue to speak out for those who cannot defend themselves.

Tragically, abortion is legal in the vast majority of the Council of Europe member states. For many years in Britain, our government has been pursuing a policy of providing access to abortion and birth control drugs and devices for children under the age of sixteen without parental knowledge or consent. Similar policies are being pursued by the Spanish government. Tragically, over 60 years on from the Universal Declaration and the Second World War, it seems that the lessons have not been learned, not in Britain by the British government, not in Spain, by the Spanish government, and the same pressures are developing in Ireland and, without doubt, in other countries in Europe.

Europe is under intense attack and the pro-life and pro-family movement and Catholic Church leaders must be in the front line of resistance. This is World War Three and it's primarily a war on the unborn and on parents as the primary educators of their children. There is in fact a worldwide attack on unborn children, on marriage and the family, and on parents as the primary educators of their children. It's being led by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest abortion-promoting agency, which has its headquarters in London. This attack is also promoted by the pro-abortion lobby in the European institutions, including the European Commission which is the world's largest multilateral donor to International Planned Parenthood Federation.

This attack on the unborn and on families is also supported by leading international pro-abortion figures such as Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, who is clearly exploiting his entry into the Catholic Church in order to undermine Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life, on marriage and on human sexuality, together with his wife Cherie Blair, who is also a Catholic; and by US President Barack Obama's administration. In Britain, this attack on unborn children, marriage and the family is also being supported by the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales.

Sadly, the situation is made even worse by church leaders who appear to have imbibed the spirit of the age. Sadly, more and more Catholic parents are telling us at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children about terrible experiences in Catholic schools, both at secondary and primary school level.

Disunity continues to grow in the Church throughout Europe because its leaders persist in failing to teach the doctrine and prophetic message of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical on the transmission of human life. The use of contraceptive drugs and devices by so many Catholics, which may, according to the manufacturers, cause an early abortion, is draining the pro-life movement of the support of the community most likely to support the battle against abortion. Couples who may be turning a blind eye to the practice of abortifacient birth control in the intimacy of their married lives may well find it difficult to support our unequivocal campaigns against abortion, IVF, human embryo research and euthanasia.

I believe that the values of Nobel Prize Winner Mother Teresa who said in her acceptance speech: ""[T]he greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion" will prevail over the values of Nobel Prize Winner, Barack Obama who has called for abortion on demand to be legalized throughout the world. Through our work in the years ahead, the dignity and inviolability of every human life will once again be reflected in people's consciences and national law, just as it's deeply entrenched in universally-binding human rights agreements. On the other hand, the values of the pro-abortion, pro-human embryo research lobby, reflected in the callous rhetoric of choice which tramples on human lives, born and unborn, will be consigned in the not so very distant future to a tragic chapter of human history.

The acceptance and implementation of the prophetic teaching of Humanae Vitae will only be possible if there is a radical change in the nomination policy of Bishops throughout Europe. The nominations of bishops who do not have a sustained and genuine track record of fidelity to the teachings of the Magisterium on the transmission of human life (Humanae Vitae) must stop. Such nominations must stop because the cost in babies' lives is simply too great.

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BREAKING NEWS: Pro-abortion lobby routed at Council of Europe in debate on conscientious objection

An attack on the right of conscientious objection to abortion was defeated this evening in the Council of Europe.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted on a report, the original text of which recommended a crack-down on medical personnel who refuse to be complicit in the provision of abortion and other unethical procedures.

Ronan Mullen (pictured), the Irish senator, and Luca Volonte of Italy, led the assembly in passing amendments which totally reversed the report, from a pro-abortion attack on conscientious objection to a defence of conscientious objection. Christine McCafferty, the report's British author and her fellow pro-abortion assembly-members were therefore forced to vote against their own report.

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the media earlier this evening:

"This evening witnessed an incredible victory for the right of staff in medical institutions to refuse to be complicit in the killing of unborn children and other unethical practices.

"SPUC is immensely grateful to the large number of our supporters who lobbied the assembly in recent months, as well as to Senator Mullen, Mr Volonte and the assembly-members who supported them."

In the debate Senator Mullen pointed out that:

• the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises the rights of unborn children;
• there is no human right to abortion, whereas conscientious objection is a basic principle of human rights;
• the report's original text was in reality a furtherance of pro-abortion agenda.

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Help us protect children against TV condom adverts

SPUC is taking up the fight against TV condom adverts targeted at children, to protect all children and promote a culture of life.

Your children or grandchildren are being targeted. These are the dangers they face:

• Showing condom advertisements at times when most children watch TV is priming them for teenage sex. This is wrong and harmful.
• Condom campaigns don’t protect teenagers. Promoting condoms over the past 20 years has proved to be ineffective in reducing abortion, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV among teens.
• We have shamefully high rates of teenage STIs and abortions, leaving our children with long-term physical and mental health problems. For example, the rate of chlamydia, which can cause infertility in girls, doubled among 16–19 year olds between 2000 and 2008.
• Condoms create a false sense of security among teenagers. Studies show that greater access to contraceptives and abortion leads to increased risk-taking behaviour among some teenagers.
• Children watch TV. They talk about TV. They copy behaviour on TV. They want what’s on TV. Please support our campaign to stop TV condom adverts.

Please:

• order copies of SPUC's new flyer "Protect children against condom TV adverts" (sample image) The flyer's reverse side contains a mini-petition, as well as suggestions for other ways to support SPUC's campaign.
• order copies of our full-length petition to Ofcom, the official regulator for broadcast advertising (sample image)
• read (and order copies of) SPUC's briefing on condom TV adverts. Among other things, this will help you write to your MP about the issue.

You can order this material by contacting SPUC:

• by email to orders@spuc.org.uk
• by telephone to (020) 7091 7091
• by post to SPUC HQ, 3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street, London, SE11 4AB.

Can you promote the petition in local churches, or on the high street, or door to door? If you would like the help of other SPUC supporters in your area to do this, please let us know where you live, and we will put you in touch with others.

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Health minister should end public funding of abortion advocates

SPUC in Northern Ireland is urging the health minister to end the public funding of the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association (NI FPA). The call comes on the eve of a conference organised by the FPA and which is aimed at training doctors in the medical and surgical techniques of abortion.

Speaking about the conference in the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa in Co. Down, later this week, Liam Gibson, SPUC's Northern Ireland development officer, told the media earlier today:

“This conference is not merely part of the FPA’s campaign to overturn legal restrictions on abortion in Northern Ireland, it is principally intended to instruct doctors here in the actual procedures used to kill children before they are born. Many of the speakers are themselves experienced abortionists working for Marie Stopes International or the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

“While this conference presents abortion as a medical procedure it is, in fact, an elective procedure and presumptively illegal in Northern Ireland. It is also illegal to help procure an abortion here. In Britain, it is almost always carried out for social reasons and actually endangers the health of women. Abortion is identified with numerous risks but has no documented health benefits. Research shows that a high percentage of women are likely to have some symptoms of post-traumatic stress after abortion, with at least a six times higher risk of death from suicide compared to women who carried their children to term.

“It is not the job of the FPA to tell doctors in Northern Ireland how to perform abortions. The Northern Ireland health department is presently drawing-up guidance for doctors on abortion law and clinical practice here. It is outrageous that abortion providers, such as the FPA, should disregard the consultation process by promoting abortion practices which are incompatible with the law in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Gibson.

“The FPA receives a substantial amount of funding from the Northern Ireland health budget. It is therefore, reasonable to ask if public money should be used to support a group that organises an event of this kind. In light of the difficult financial climate we face in Northern Ireland, it is time the funding of the FPA was re-examined. We are calling on Minister of Health to end the funding of a group that has shown nothing but contempt for the law.”

The First All-Ireland Conference on Abortion and Clinical Practice organised by FPA will take place Friday 8 October 2010 at the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa, Newcastle, County Down BT33 0AH.

Notes:

1) For figures relating to suicide after abortion, see Gissler M, Hemminki E, Lonnqvist J. Suicides after pregnancy in Finland: 1987-1994: register linkage study. British Medical Journal 1996; 313: 1431-4.

2) Numerous studies have linked abortion with preterm delivery (less than 37 weeks) in subsequent pregnancies. The largest European study of this subject showed an even greater risk of early preterm birth (less than 32 weeks). Martius JA, Steck T, Oehler MK, Wulf K-H. Risk factors associated with preterm (<37+0 weeks) and early preterm (<32+0 weeks): univariate and multi-variate analysis of 106,345 singleton births from 1994 statewide perinatal survey of Bavaria. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 1998;80:183-189

3) Early preterm infants constitute the majority of those children born with serious physical and mental disabilities, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, lung infections, and cerebral palsy. Escobar GJ, Littenberg B, Petitti DB. Outcome among surviving very low birthweight infants; a meta-analysis. Arch Dis Child 1991;66:204-211.

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SPUC's bioethical consultant publishes important new book on reproductive ethics

Fr John Fleming, SPUC's bioethical consultant and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has published a new book entitled: "Dignitas Personae Explained: The Church's teaching on reproductive and related technologies". In December Fr Fleming had provided me with a brief review of Dignitas Personae, an Instruction issued by the Congregration for the Doctrine of the Faith. Here is the blurb of Fr Fleming's book courtesy of the publishers:

"Infertility and the suffering associated with it has always been a tragic part of the human experience. This is especially true today. Various medical remedies have been developed to deal with human infertility, with artificial reproductive technologies being widely used. There are many treatments for infertility which are approved by the Catholic Church. But the use of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and related technologies have been condemned as contrary to the natural moral law. This book provides both an account of Church teaching and why the Church teaches what she does in a way that is accessible to the interested layperson.

'Dr John Fleming reflects on, and amplifies, this new teaching document of the Church to make it all the more accessible to those who ought to benefit from it: not only those in the pew but also those in the laboratory who are not even religious.' Dr John Hass, from the Foreword.

Dr John Fleming is an internationally renowned expert in bioethics with a past career in the mainstream media. He is Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (Adelaide, South Australia), and a Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican). Dr Fleming was a foundation member of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee which worked on producing international law in relation to human rights and the human genome."

The book is available via Connor Court Publishing and priced at Aus$18.95. Do please buy a copy and recommend it widely.

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Norman Wisdom, my boyhood hero, dies

I was saddened to hear today that Norman Wisdom, my boyhood hero, has died. Some of my happiest memories are laughing till I cried with my dad, Jack Smeaton, watching Norman Wisdom's latest film at the cinema. (My late mum and dad are my lifetime heros. Their example, lobbying against the Abortion Act 1967, led me into the pro-life movement.)

I don't know what youtube video gives me more pleasure - the first, below, from Trouble in Store, made in 1953, or the second, below, showing him still entertaining audiences in 2007 in the care home where he lived.




Thanks Norman for all the pleasure you gave to so many during your life. Rest in peace!

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