Nigerian bishops give great example of resistance to abortion

The Good Shepherd Catholic newspaper from Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, has reported on the solid opposition of Nigeria's Catholic bishops to abortion. Their opposition to the African Union's pro-abortion Maputo Protocol was reiterated by John Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, at a press conference.

The newspaper says that the bishops have described the protocol's paragraph 14; 2C, entitled "Health and Reproductive Rights", as

"a blank cheque for abortion to be committed saying it is completely unacceptable to all religious communities in Nigeria"

and as

"obnoxious"

adding that

“as Africans we must cherish our culture that respects life.”

Archbishop Onaiyekan urged Nigerians

"not to succumb to abortion in any guise"

calling it

"murder"

It is encouraging to see bishops in the developing world giving solid pro-life catechesis, especially at a time when a certain Vatican official in the developed world has misled the faithful about the absolute wrongness of all procured abortions.

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Please pray ahead of next Thursday's European court abortion judgment

Next Thursday 16 December, the European Court of Human Rights is to hand down its ruling in the case of three women seeking to overturn Ireland’s constitutional protection for unborn children. Please pray that the right to life of children continues to be protected in the Republic from conception.

Patrick Buckley, of European Life Network Ireland and of SPUC, told the media today:

“The importance of this case cannot be exaggerated. The Court must acknowledge the right to life of the weakest and most vulnerable members of the human family if it is to retain any credibility in defending the most fundamental right of all human beings.

“While no international treaty has ever recognised access to abortion as a human right, the European Court has in previous cases failed in its obligation to uphold the right to life of children before birth. This case was instigated by the international abortion lobby because it has failed to persuade the people of Ireland to legalise abortion. But success in the European Court would also be a stepping stone towards the creation of an internationally recognised human right to abortion on demand.

“The rule of law must be based on both justice and reason – and creating a right to kill children in the womb is irrational. If you can kill children before birth, why not after birth? Do children acquire the right to life only in the process of birth? That makes the right to life into a spell that is cast by the magic of the midwife. We call upon believers and non-believers alike to reject such mumbo-jumbo. In the days left before the court hands down its ruling, we call upon believers in particular to pray for the court and to pray that the our judges will not permit the killing of innocent unborn children in the name of human rights. We must pray that no matter what the court decides, unborn children who cannot defend themselves will be safe in Ireland.”

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Child sexualisation review should cover lurid sex ed

SPUC has responded to the announcement by Sarah Teather (pictured), the children's minister, that she has commissioned an independent review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media earlier today:

"Sarah Teather's review of the commercialisation and sexualisation of children addresses some of the deepest concerns that parents have today. But SPUC is concerned that the review should include a look at ways children are sexualised in schools - by explicit and lurid sex lessons for instance. This is more insidious than sexualisation in other spheres and it drives up the abortion rate, especially as secret abortions for girls (including minors) are now arranged through schools, despite the emotional and physical risks to the girls involved. The terms of reference of the review do not make any specific reference to schools.

"Children spend a great part of their lives in the school environment, and are taught to respect school as a moral authority. If schools teach children that under-age and pre-marital sex, STIs and abortion are the norm, they can do more harm than commercial operators promoting 'sexy' clothes or using sexualised images to sell goods.

"The government is right to emphasise the importance of supporting parents in protecting their children. Schools should be encouraged to sever ties with anti-life and anti-family groups, and to engage with parents to ensure that they have confidence to talk about sexual matters with their children."

The recent Jomeen/university of Hull report found that 13-16 year olds preferred parents as a source of useful information about sexual matters above teachers or any other adult.

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Kenya's Catholic bishops confirm that condom use "remains as always unacceptable"

Last week all the Catholic bishops of Kenya issued a strong statement, reaffirming Catholic teaching on condom use, in the wake of the manipulation of Pope Benedict's recent comments. The bishops say:

First we would like to clear the air and to clarify to all the people, and to the Catholics, regarding the position of the Church with regard to the use of condoms for the peace of mind and proper guidance.

We reiterate and reaffirm that the position of the Catholic Church as regards the use of condoms, both as a means of contraception and as a means of addressing the grave issue of HIV/AIDS infection has not changed and remains as always unacceptable.

Why is the Catholic Church's teaching on condom use (and dissent from that teaching) important for the pro-life movement? 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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May the world copy the example of Chile's culture of life

Dan Zeidler, who is well-known within the international pro-life movement as an authority on the fight for unborn babies in central and south America, has sent me a great pro-life video about Chile's culture of life. The video links the recent world-famous rescue of 33 trapped miners, government advertisements promoting protection for unborn children and Chile's pro-life laws. Dan writes:

"Chile’s pro-life policies have helped make Chile the safest place in all of Latin America for a mother to give birth. Chile has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the whole continent.

Chile’s new president, Sebastián Piñera, expressed a strong position against abortion during his campaign, and during his May 21st presidential speech to the nation, he announced a new government program called “Committed to Life” to offer help to pregnant women to carry their babies to term.

The government of Chile has also made strong declarations at recent UN meetings explaining that Chile is a pro-life country, and will not accept abortion."

Do watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo


Chile, the Miners, and Respect for Life from Dan Zeidler on Vimeo.

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Parents will not stop protesting until Connexions is removed from schools

James Preece, the stalwart pro-life/pro-family Catholic blogger, has written a very important reminder about the presence of the anti-life/anti-family Connexions service in Catholic schools. James writes:

"Our local Catholic school has five full time Connexions advisors. An agreement is supposed to have been made that they won't promote contraception or refer for abortion while in the school, which is useless, because the whole point of Connexions is that they believe in doing these things confidentially. "

The Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales, which employs the Catholic Education Service (CES), can be assured that the Catholic parents up and down the country will not quietly drop their protest against Connexions and the CES. We will never stop until Connexions and all other similar schemes are permanently barred from every Catholic school. And we will never stop our campaign for the CES to be radically reformed - starting with the appointment of Greg Pope, its deputy director - or abolished. In this work we will call down the strength of the Lord by praying with our Holy Father Pope Benedict his recently-composed prayer for the unborn:

Lord Jesus[,] Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,
make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb
the miraculous work of the Creator,
open our hearts to generously welcoming every child
that comes into life.

Bless all families,
sanctify the union of spouses,
render fruitful their love.

Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies
with the light of your Spirit,
so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect
the sacred nature of life, of every human life.

...

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,
in whose womb you took on our human nature,
we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior,
the strength to love and serve life,
in anticipation of living forever in You,
in communion with the Blessed Trinity. Amen

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Scottish euthanasia bill is defeated

2010 began with Margo MacDonald (pictured), a member of the Scottish parliament (MSP), launching a bill which would allow euthanasia.

The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill attacked the first human right - the right to life - and was a threat to all people with illness or disability.

Praise God that the year is ending with the demise of that bill. The death of the bill was announced by the End of Life (Scotland) Bill parliamentary committee as follows:

Disbanding of the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee - Wednesday 1 December 2010

This is to inform you that, following the Stage 1 debate on the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill on Wednesday 1 December 2010, the Scottish Parliament did not agree to the general principles of the Bill. The result of the vote on the motion to agree the Bill was, For: 16, Against: 85, Abstentions: 2. As a result of this decision, the Bill falls.

The motion which established the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill on 10 February 2010 set the duration of the Committee as being "until the Bill has received Royal Assent, falls or is withdrawn".

As a result of this decision, the Committee has now completed its work and is disbanded.

The transcript of the Stage 1 debate on the Bill is available on the Parliament website at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor1201-02.htm#Col31042

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Committee.

End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee

2 December 2010

SPUC Scotland, SPUC (UK), Care Not Killing (Scotland), the Catholic Church in Scotland, and others worked hard to defeat the bill. Congratulations to all.

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Image of the pregnant Mother of God will be displayed next weekend at Westminster Cathedral

Catholics in London and the Home Counties may be interested to know that "a unique relic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be on display in Westminster Cathedral from 12 noon on Saturday 11th December to 11:30am on Monday 13th December", according to Catherine MacGillivray, of the pastoral affairs department of the archdiocese of Westminster.

In a message to priests she writes:

Our Lady of Guadalupe is especially invoked in prayer for the sanctity of life as she is depicted as pregnant, and the image has been touring England and Wales over the past 9 months as a focus for pro-life events, Masses and vigils, as well as for general intercession. A summary of the places visited and further information about our relic image, the history of the apparition and its significance can be found at http://www.rcdow.org.uk/pastoralaffairs/dignityoftheperson/

I will be praying for a big turn-out at Westminter Cathedral and hope to pay a visit  during the weekend. Supernatural help in combatting the evils we are fighting is urgently needed for our pro-life work to be successful, in my opinion.

From my experience of the Cathedral, it's open till about 7 p.m. on Saturday; from 7.00 a.m. till 7 p.m. on Sunday; and from 7 a.m. on Monday; but ... to be sure: contact edmundadamus@rcdow.org.uk or telephone 020 7798 9363

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Pope Benedict's words on homosexual unions are a lifeline for Catholics in England and Wales

Pope Benedict's forcefully reminded the world this week (in an address to the Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See) that "The church cannot approve legislative initiatives that imply a valuation of alternative models of the life of the couple and the family". His words are a lifeline for Catholics and people of good will in Britain struggling to protect their children from the culture of death in a country where leading Catholic bishops assist the government in imposing the "alternative models" to which the Pope refers.

The Catholic World Report this month reminds its readership about the opposite position* adopted by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, which includes:

• Archbishop Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, who said on BBC TV that he did not know "whether the Catholic church should one day accept the reality of gay partnerships"
• Archbishop Nichols who said on BBC TV, the day after Pope Benedict left Britain for Rome, that the Catholic Bishops of Conference of England and Wales "did NOT oppose gay civil partnerships, we recognised that in English law there might be a case for those. We persistently said that these are not the same as marriage"
• Bishop McMahon, the bishop of Nottingham, who is open to headteachers of Catholic schools being in same sex unions and who says the Church is not opposed to civil partnerships (Bishop McMahon is chairman of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales)
• Archbishop Nichols who, questioned about his support for the provision of Masses for homosexuals who openly dissent from Catholic teaching, told those who oppose what's going on to "hold their tongue".

We won't hold our tongues of course because, through this kind of scandalous abuse, and through Archbishop Nichols's and his fellow bishops' support for British government policies promoting unethical programmes of sex and relationships education, he is helping to impose on our families the corruption of our children and grandchildren.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, gave strong support to Catholics who refuse to hold their tongues about such matters. He said:

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity ... 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 ... "

Pope Benedict told the new ambassador from Hungary last Thursday:

"Marriage and the family constitute the decisive foundation for a healthy development of the civil society of countries and peoples. Marriage as a basic form of ordering the relationship between man and woman and, at the same time, as basic cell of the state community, has also been molded by biblical faith. Thus marriage has given Europe its particular aspect and its humanism, also and precisely because it has had to learn to acquire continually the characteristic of fidelity and of renunciation traced by it. Europe will no longer be Europe if this basic cell of the social construction disappears or is substantially transformed. We all know how much risk marriage and the family run today -- on one hand, because of the erosion of its most profound values of stability and indissolubility, because of a growing liberalization of the right of divorce, and of the custom, increasingly widespread, of man and woman living together without the juridical form and protection of marriage, on the other, because of the different types of union which have no foundation in the history of the culture and of the law in Europe. The Church cannot approve legislative initiatives that imply a valuation of alternative models of the life of the couple and the family. These contribute to the weakening of the principles of the natural law and, hence, to the relativization of the whole of legislation, in addition to the awareness of values in society."

* 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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SPUC steps up outreach to women patients as health department contradicts itself on abortion

SPUC is intensifying its campaign to inform women-patients and their doctors about the dangers of abortion, in response to a government proposal to increase access to abortion.

The Department of Health's white paper, “Healthy Lives, Healthy People” (pictured), published today, proposes “easy access” to abortion (section 3.43):

“We will work towards an integrated model of service delivery to allow easy access to confidential, non-judgemental sexual health services (including for sexually transmitted infections, contraception, abortion, health promotion and prevention)."

The proposal contradicts last month's claim (House of Commons, 2 Nov) made by Anne Milton, the public health minister, that:

"For me and for the Government, reducing the abortion rate is an absolute priority"

Paul Tully, SPUC’s general secretary, told the media this afternoon:

"Easy access to abortion will mean high abortion rates and consequent damage to women’s health and happiness. The previous government’s teenage pregnancy strategy, which promoted easy access to abortion and contraception, saw an increase of 2,000 abortions a year in England and Wales among teenagers. It is time for something different.”

In recent months SPUC has been sending information to GPs, briefing them about the reality and dangers of abortion, so they can in turn inform their patients who are pregnant and who may be considering abortion. SPUC will now intensify that campaign in the light of the government's proposal.

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***UPDATE: Worksop meeting CANCELLED due to weather conditions*** Parents to be warned about pornographic sex ed in primary schools

Extracts from a controversial sex education programme will be screened at a public meeting being held UPDATE: CANCELLED due to weather conditions in Worksop, Notts., to alert parents to the dangers of explicit sex education.

The programme under scrutiny is “Living and Growing”, produced by Channel 4. Used by Worksop primary schools as a resource to teach sex and relationships education (SRE), “Living and Growing” includes a cartoon of sexual intercourse, showing girls how to locate their clitoris and telling them that it feels nice when you touch it. This material is for children of seven to nine years of age.

Antonia Tully, the organiser of SPUC's Safe at School campaign, will advise parents that primary schools are under no legal obligation to deliver SRE, nor are they compelled to take advice from local authorities in their choice of programme for SRE. Antonia will speak at a public meeting organised by SPUC in Worksop on Wednesday 1 December, 7.30 pm, at The Crossing Church and Centre, Newcastle Street, Worksop.

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Pope Benedict thanks the pro-life movement and confirms the personhood of the human embryo

Pope Benedict, in his homily at Saturday night's vigil for all nascent human life, said [my emphases in bold]:

"Dear brothers and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken up this invitation and those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in different situations of fragility, especially in its early days and in its early stages."

“[T]here is no reason not to consider [the human embryo] a person from conception.”

"I urge the protagonists of politics, economic and social communications to do everything in their power to promote a culture which respects human life, to provide favorable conditions and support networks for the reception and development of life."

Pope Benedict echoed his vigil homily this morning in his address to the bishops of the Philippines on their ad limina visit. In a clear reference to the Reproductive Health bill which the bishops are fighting, Pope Benedict said [my emphases in bold]:

"Thanks to the Gospel's clear presentation of the truth about God and man, generations of zealous Filipino clergymen, religious and laity have promoted an ever more just social order. At times, this task of proclamation touches upon issues relevant to the political sphere. This is not surprising, since the political community and the Church, while rightly distinct, are nevertheless both at the service of the integral development of every human being and of society as a whole".

"At the same time, the Church's prophetic office demands that she be free 'to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine ... and also to pass moral judgments in those matters which regard public order whenever the fundamental human rights of a person or the salvation of souls requires it'. In the light of this prophetic task, I commend the Church in the Philippines for seeking to play its part in support of human life from conception until natural death, and in defence of the integrity of marriage and the family. In these areas you are promoting truths about the human person and about society which arise not only from divine revelation but also from natural law, an order which is accessible to human reason and thus provides a basis for dialogue and deeper discernment on the part of all people of good will.”

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Teaching young people about contraception may be abuse, says Maltese bishop

Malta, listed by the BBC as prohibiting abortion in all circumstances, has a clear-minded bishop, it seems, in Bishop Mario Grech, the bishop of Gozo (pictured).

He says that the education system may be abusing young people when it teaches them about contraception. (We have such abuse in schools here in Britain, including Catholic schools where it's taught  with the co-operation of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales through their agency the Catholic Education Service and where children are also given access to abortion "services").

If Malta has other bishops like Bishop Grech, who are clear-minded and outspoken, they have a far better chance of maintaining their law on abortion.

As Pope John Paul II taught in Evangelium Vitae [13]:

Indeed, the pro- abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected [My emphasis]. Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill".

But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion are practised under the pressure of real- life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.

There is hard evidence for Pope John Paul II's teaching, as I have mentioned before. Professor David Paton, who holds a chair in Economics at Nottingham University, has shown in a paper entitled "The economics of family planning and underage conceptions" (this paper is not available free online, but if you would like a copy please contact me) that family planning, and increased access to it, increases the likelihood that teenagers will engage in sexual activity. Prof. Paton says: "I find no evidence that greater access to family planning has reduced underage conceptions or abortions. Indeed, there is some evidence that greater access is associated with an increase in underage conceptions..."


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Beware a new "independent" commission on assisted dying

Anyone concerned about the real threat of dying as a result of euthanasia in Britain should read Peter Saunders's informative post about a new "independent" commission on assisted dying. (Peter is pictured right.) He writes:

"The fact that an ‘independent’ commission on ‘assisted dying’ is to be chaired by a peer who just last year tried to relax the law on assisted suicide, is being funded by a celebrity novelist who is passionately pushing for a change in the law and was dreamt up by a leading campaign group will certainly raise eyebrows."

The truth is that euthanasia threatens all of us in Britain:

• The Mental Capacity Act, in certain circumstances, requires doctors to abandon their patients.
• There is a policy of silent euthanasia, not least through the Liverpool Care Pathway, as leading doctors have warned
• Disabled people are increasingly worried by extreme proposals being put forward by pro-euthanasia legislators
• Dame Mary Warnock, the anti-life philosopher in the House of Lords, argues that certain people with disabling conditions have a duty to die prematurely.  (She has said: "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service.")
• The Director of Public Prosecutions has published a prosecuting policy which effectively decriminalises assisted suicide in a wide range of circumstances.
• We have celebrity-led campaigns in favour of assisted suicide which get significant media coverage.
• We have high profile court cases which fill the airwaves and serious mainstream newspapers, like the Daily Telegraph, with anti-life propaganda.

You might want to bookmark Peter Saunders's post for future reference. We can fully expect the media, like the Daily Telegraph, to weigh behind the "independent" commission at its launch next Tuesday and when its conclusions are published in a report next October (2011).

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I address Pope Benedict in my speech in Poland

Today I am in the beautiful, historic city of Torun, Poland. I have been addressing the third international Congress organized by the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and the International Gilson Society (USA) at the Higher School of Social and Media Culture in Torun.

During my talk I spoke about the maelstrom of carefully created confusion in the mass media about Catholic teaching on condoms, generated by prominent opponents of the church's teaching, i.e. opponents within the Catholic Church (not least in Britain). I said:

This week especially, my heart breaks for my children and for my grandchildren; my heart breaks for the children of Britain and for children throughout the world. My heart breaks as I witness leading figures in the Vatican fomenting universal confusion on Catholic teaching on the use of condoms following Pope Benedict’s interview on that subject in the new publication: "Light of the World”.

In Britain, also, leading public figures in the name of the Catholic Church are misrepresenting its unchanging and unchangeable magisterial teaching on the transmission of human life. Opponents of Catholic teaching on the use of condoms are turning the clock back for humanity. They are turning the clock back to the Crucifixion when all of Christ’s followers and apostles deserted Him, except a few.

I address now the successors of the apostles, the Catholic bishops of the world. As the leader of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, the oldest pro-life organization in the world, I especially address you, Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and through you, the bishops of the world.

“Countless children, perhaps my own grandchildren, will be deliberately corrupted as a result of the exploitation and misrepresentation of your interview about condoms by opponents of Catholic teaching within the Catholic Church. As a result of the worldwide media’s perception of your interview, and as a result of policies and legislation enacted on the basis of a false representations of Catholic teaching, the corruption of young children and the destruction of countless children in the womb will go hand in hand. Countless women will be exploited by selfish or insensitive or brutal husbands and boyfriends, as a result of the confusion generated in the mass media by opponents, within the Church, of Catholic teaching on the use of condoms."

I reminded the Polish congress that last month Cardinal Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, told a pro-life conference in Rome:

“The attack on the innocent and defenceless 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 ... ”.

I explained that the world's rejection of the prophetic teaching of the church on the inseparability of the unitive and procreative elements of marital acts had led to the imposition, in Britain, on families, of access to induced abortion and birth control drugs and devices to children at school, including Catholic schools, without parental knowledge or consent. I explained that this was happening with the co-operation of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. "The artificial separation of the unitive and procreative elements of marital acts ... underpins today's culture of death", I said.

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White paper approach on sex ed is deeply concerning

The government's approach to sex and relationships education included in the White Paper on Schools issued yesterday is deeply concerning.

As Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media this morning:

"The Schools White Paper refers to 'high-quality' sex and relationships education, apparently ignoring the corrupting and depraved kind of lessons to which very many children are now subjected. Parents have recently condemned a widely-used primary school SRE programme as 'kiddie porn'. SRE has become yet another avenue for sexualising the culture in which children have to live, and SRE is a main vehicle for teaching young teenagers how to access abortion without reference to their parents. Parents must not let their sense of outrage at this be assuaged by bland assurances from politicians and well-meaning teachers. The lives of unborn children and the health and happiness of many thousands of young people are at stake.

"Furthermore, the government seems set to ignore the research which demonstrates the comprehensive failure of typical UK classroom sex education to improve outcomes like abortion rates. The evidence must be recognised, and the policies must be changed."

UK pro-lifers concerned about the government's approach should email political@spuc.org.uk for more information and action points.


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Some more events for this Saturday's vigil for all nascent human life

Here are the details of some further events as part of this Saturday's worldwide vigil for all nascent human life, called by Pope Benedict. (Please see my blog-post of 15 November for similar related events):

Catholic Diocese of Hallam
Bishop John Rawsthorne will lead a Vigil Service for all Nascent Human Life on Saturday 27 November following the 6.30 pm evening Mass at the Cathedral Church of St. Marie, Norfolk Row, Sheffield, S1 2JB.

Catholic Diocese of Leeds
Vigil for all nascent human life will be held in the presence of the missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Leeds Cathedral, Great George Street, Leeds, LS2 8BE, on Saturday, 27th November, from 12.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. followed by Saturday vigil Mass at 6 p.m. celebrated by Bishop Arthur Roche

Catholic archdiocese of Liverpool
Sat 27 Nov: Holy Hour after the 6.15pm Mass, St William of York church, Edge Lane, Thornton, Liverpool.

Catholic diocese of Middlesbrough

Invoking the Lord’s protection over every human being called into existence. 3pm on Saturday 27th November at St Mary’s Cathedral with Eucharistic Adoration and Sacrament of Reconciliation
6.30pm Mass Bishop Terry Drainey will preside

Catholic diocese of Motherwell
Sat 27 Nov: all-night vigil from 7pm Sat until 9am Sun, in the Adoration Chapel of St John the Baptist church, Uddingston. In the same church on Sun 28 Nov: Rosary and Benediction, 4pm. Sister Roseanne Reddy of the Sisters of the Gospel of Life will speak at all weekend Masses.

Catholic diocese of Nottingham
Sat 27 Nov: Bishop Malcolm McMahon will celebrate Mass at 12noon in Nottingham cathedral.

Catholic diocese of Plymouth
Sat 27 Nov: Rosary and Vespers, 4pm, Cathedral of Ss Mary and Boniface, Plymouth.

Catholic diocese of Salford
Parishes of St. Kentigern, Fallowfield & St Edwards Rusholme, Manchester: Vigil for Life, Saturday, 8.30 pm - 9.30 p.m. using the US bishops' material, vespers, supplications and Benediction

Catholic archdiocese of Westminster
Sat 27 Nov: vigil, 4pm, St Theresa's church, 27 Boniface Walk, Harrow HA3 6PU.

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Jack Valero and Austen Ivereigh need remedial training in Catholic teaching on sexual ethics

Jack Valero (pictured) and Austen Ivereigh, the co-ordinators of Catholic Voices, have been busy sporting open-neck collars in a series of television interviews on Pope Benedict's comments on condoms, about which I blogged on Sunday morning. In those interviews, both Mr Valero and Dr Ivereigh claim that the Church has never spoken against the use of condoms outside of marriage. Mr Valero even made the ridiculous claim that:

“There isn't a specific teaching [by the Church] about condoms"

The Valero-Ivereigh claims are simply false as a matter of historical fact. I list below their false claims, and follow that with some statements from Church authorities throughout the ages. (Although some of those statements do not mention barrier methods of contraception such as condoms, they are all applicable to condoms as condom use is by its nature contraceptive.) The use of condoms (or other contraceptives) in extra-marital genital acts is an aggravation of the principle sin of engaging in extra-marital genital acts.

The fact that Mr Valero and Dr Ivereigh are publicly and repeatedly contradicting this truth of Catholic sexual ethics is one of a growing number of reasons why they should be disqualified from any representative position in any official or unofficial Catholic or pro-life/pro-family organisation. Readers should remember that these men deny that there is any such thing as a liberal bishop (Mr Valero) and deny that The Tablet is a vehicle for dissent (Dr Ivereigh).

Why is the Catholic Church's teaching on condom use (and the Valero-Ivereigh campaign misrepresenting that teaching) important for the pro-life movement? 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.

The false claim by Jack Valero and Austen Ivereigh that the Church has never spoken out against the use of condoms outside of marriage

Mr Valero, Sky News, 21 November:

"The Church never said to a prostitute, “Don’t use a condom”, the Church has said “Being a prostitute is not a good thing, ‘Don’t be a prostitute’. It didn’t say to people ‘Don’t use a condom if you are having sex outside of marriage, it said, ‘Don’t have sex outside of marriage’ ... There isn't a specific teaching about condoms."

Mr Valero, BBC News, 21 November:

“I think the Church never said to people who were having sex outside of marriage: ‘Don’t use a condom’, but ‘Don’t have sex outside of marriage’. It would say to a prostitute: ‘Don’t be a prostitute’, it wouldn’t say: ‘Don’t use a condom’ ... [T]here’s been no specific teaching [by the Church] about condoms.”

Mr Valero, BBC News, 21 November:

“[T]here isn’t actually a written-down doctrine [of the Church] on condoms ... [The Church has] never said that in a particular case it’s wrong to use a condom to protect somebody ... [The Church] doesn’t say to a man sleeping around: 'Don’t use a condom', it says: 'Don’t sleep around'
...
In the particular case which the Pope talks about in the book, he talks about a male prostitute ... [T]hough the act is bad in itself, not because of the condom – the condom itself may be a good thing...
...
[T]he way the Church looks after people is very good in Africa, you’ve got lots of nuns and priests and so on looking after people, and if in a particular case they think that a condom will protect then that may be OK, but they always look after people very well."

Dr Ivereigh, The Independent, 21 November:

"[There is a] misperception that the Church's message to an HIV-positive prostitute is that he, or her client, shouldn't use a condom under any circumstances. The Church has never believed that..."

Dr Ivereigh, Telegraph video interview, 21 November :

"[For] people who might be engaging in risky sexual behaviour, in other words, who aren't listening to the Church's message, actually [using a condom] might be the right and responsible thing to do in order to prevent infection
...
A lot of people have been saying - wrongly - that the Church says to any infected person, 'Never use a condom'. In fact the Church has never said that. People have wrongly interpreted the Church's ban on contraception as also applying in those circumstances."

Dr Ivereigh, BBC Today programme, 22 November:

"[T]he Church does not say to [serodiscordant married couples] ‘Do not use a condom’ nor does it say ‘Use a condom’. That is a very, very difficult ethical decision for that couple to make and the Church accompanies them in that...".

Statements by Church authorities throughout the centuries which rule out the use of condoms and other contraceptives outside of marriage (my emphases in bold): 

• Holy Office (now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), answer, 1853: "[C]ondomistic copulation [is] a thing intrinsically evil." (Enchiridion Symbolorum Definionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum n.2795, Q.2 and ad 2. ed H. Denzinger, A Schonmetzer, Romae, 1974)
• The bishops of the United States, 1976: "In contraceptive intercourse the procreative or life-giving meaning is deliberately separated from its love-giving meaning and rejected; the wrongness of such an act lies in the rejection of this value." In other words, contraception is wrong in itself, not only in the context of marriage.
• The bishops of France, November 1968, pastoral note on Humanae Vitae: "Contraception can never be a good. It is always a disorder..."
• Decretals of Burchard, an influential collection of canon law, A.D. 1020: "Have you done what some women are accustomed to doing when they fornicate...if they have not yet conceived they contrive not to conceive? If you have done so, or consented to this, or taught it, you must do penance for ten years on legal ferial days." (num. 19; PL 140, 972)
• Second Council of Braga, A.D. 572 : "If any woman...contrives to make sure she does not conceive, either in adultery or in legitimate intercourse...such women and their accomplices in these crimes shall do penance for ten years. (Canon 77; Mansi IX, 858).
• St Augustine, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 419: "[I]f he does not control himself, let him enter into lawful wedlock, so that he may not beget children in disgrace or avoid having offspring by a more degraded form of intercourse." (De Conjugiis Adulterinis 2, 12; CSEL 41, 396)
• St John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 390, referring to men who use prostitutes: "Why do you sow [w]here there are medicines of sterility? ... [F]or she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God, and fight with His laws? What is a curse, do you seek as if it were a blessing?" Professor John T. Noonan, author of a famous history of Catholic teaching on contraception, has written about this sermon: "[T]he reason given for condemning contraception is equally applicable whether contraception occurs in fornication or in marriage."
• St Jerome, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 384: "I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall...Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness." (letter 22 to Eustochium)

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Evil is being done in the name of the Catholic Church: the deliberate corruption of children

It's unacceptable, to put it mildly, that Bishop McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales (CESEW), and Archbishop Nichols, its former chairman and the archbishop of Westminster, continue to back the appointment last April of Greg Pope, the anti-life, anti-family former Member of Parliament, as deputy director of the CESEW.

Bishop McMahon has recently said in a letter to a correspondent on the matter:

“Mr Pope’s parliamentary voting record shows that for 62.5% of the divisions he voted in favour on life issues, and that for the remaining votes he was involved in tactical voting, often voting for the lesser of two evils”.

So let's look at Greg Pope's parliamentary record more closely, a fuller account of which I published earlier this year:

• He voted against pro-life Angela Watkinson MP’s Ten Minute Rule bill. Mrs Watkinson’s bill would have required doctors providing contraception or abortion ‘services’ to a child under 16 to inform his or her parent or guardian. His anti-life, anti-parents, vote on this measure alone disqualifies him to be deputy director of the CESEW.

• He also voted against pro-life Iain Duncan Smith MP’s amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill to reinstate the requirement for doctors to consider the child’s need for a father before a woman is given fertility treatment.

How can such votes, which are so hostile to a child’s best interests, be described as tactical votes or the lesser of two evils? They’re evil pure and simple.

Mr Pope describes himself as a “committed practising Catholic” who “very much” shares the Church’s opposition to abortion. His self-portrait, however, lacks all credibility in the light of the facts.

Quite apart from the votes mentioned above:

• Greg Pope signed parliamentary motions calling for increased funding for international pro-abortion organizations, the inclusion of “reproductive health and family planning” within the Millennium Development goals, terms understood by the government to include abortion, and he signed motions praising national condom week, world population day, and the Labour Government’s Civil Partnership Bill.

• He 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 ‘acceptablility of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’”.

I believe that in the years to come the position adopted by the Catholic bishops on matters relating to sex education, on which I have often blogged, will be regarded as co-operation with a type of child abuse. As Eric Hester, a retired headteacher, put it to me today: the deliberate corruption of children is "pure evil"  and, therefore, the support earlier this year from the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, via the Catholic Education Service, for the previous government's plans to make sex and relationships education compulsory from 5 to 16 years (with all that that involved) is also "pure evil".

Fortunately, thanks to a massive campaign by our supporters and by Catholic headteachers and clergy of various denominations, the previous government's plans, even with the Catholic bishops' support, were defeated. For the safety of our children, it's now essential that the Catholic Education Service is either reformed or closed down.


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The Ordinariate will help Catholic pro-lifers challenge the status quo

I am delighted by the news that five Anglican bishops and 50 Anglican clergy are in the first wave of people who wish to join the Ordinariate for former Anglicans established by Pope Benedict within the Catholic Church. As I said last December, I have no doubt that part of the impact of the Ordinariate will be greatly to strengthen Catholic witness on pro-life matters. Keith Newton, the Anglican bishop of Richborough, has been reported as saying that among his motivations for leaving the Church of England is that in the Church of England:

"There has been a more lax attitude towards moral issues. The whole question of blessing gay marriage – there is a lot of pressure for that to happen in the Church of England – abortion, and life and death issues."

I am particularly grateful for the pro-life witness of Archbishop John Hepworth (pictured), the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which has sought to join the Ordinariate. In July last year Dr Hepworth wrote:

"To procure the death of an unborn child is a heinous crime against the most defenceless person".

And in December last year, Dr Hepworth wrote, at the start of the Octave of the Holy Innocents:

"[L]et us take clear sight of the martyrs who are our Octave companions. Their echoes are all around us, in the destruction of innocent life, in the failure of episcopal teaching..."

I am unsurprised to learn that there is resistance within the Catholic establishment in England to the prospect of pro-life former Anglicans being given a special place within the Catholic Church. Tom Wright, the retired Anglican bishop of Durham, said in an interview earlier this month:

"Many of the Roman Catholic bishops that I know in England were not terribly happy at the thought that they might have to administer this kind of whole extra wrinkle on top of the complicated structure they've already got, and I did hear one Roman Catholic priest - how representative I don't know - saying we've got quite enough traditionalists in our own Church without having all yours as well."

Dr Wright's comment rings true. Catholic bishops in England and Wales sometimes leave the impression that are more like company managers concerned with admnistration than spiritual leaders concerned with saving lives and souls from the culture of death. As Cardinal-elect Raymond Burke said in his landmark speech in Rome last month, it is absolutely essential that the Catholic Church is led and run by bishops and priests who preach, teach and obey Magisterial teaching on pro-life and pro-family issues.

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