Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Tell your MEPs to vote no to pro-abortion report

SPUC is calling on all pro-lifers to contact their MEPs, asking them to vote against a forthcoming report to be debated and voted on in a European Parliament plenary session, either between 18-21 November or 9-12 December.

The report is called “Draft Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”. This report comes from the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. The Rapporteur is Edite Estrela MEP.
As ever with such reports, there are a few good sections, but the vast majority is deeply harmful and must be rejected.

Below are some of the very harmful sections that attack unborn children, school-aged children, the family, and the right of conscientious objection.
  • “G. whereas access to safe abortion is banned, except in very narrow circumstances, in three EU Member States (Ireland, Malta and Poland) and remains widely unavailable, though legal, through the abuse of conscientious objection or overly restrictive interpretations of existing limits”
  • “10. Recommends that, as a human rights concern, abortion should be made legal, safe, and accessible to all.”
  • “11. Underlines that even when legal, abortion is often prevented or delayed by obstacles to the access of appropriate services, such as the widespread use of conscientious objection, medically unnecessary waiting periods or biased counselling; stresses that Member States should regulate and monitor the use of conscientious objection so as to ensure that reproductive health care is guaranteed as an individual’s right, while access to lawful services is ensured and appropriate and affordable referrals systems are in place.”
  • “15. Calls on Member States to ensure compulsory, age-appropriate and gender-sensitive sexuality and relationship education for all children and adolescents (both in and out of school).”
You can find out who your MEP is on the SPUC website.

European Dignity Watch has written an article with some background information about this report if you would like to know more.

Also, here are some arguments for you to use when writing to your MEPs about the report.
  • Abortion is the killing of innocent unborn children between conception and birth. No UN convention or EU treaty recognises killing unborn children as a human right. Britain, despite its liberal abortion law, does not recognise abortion as a human right. At a minimum the EU Commission states that it has no competence in this area, leaving it to EU Member States to decide on the issue of abortion. This position is also seen in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, although court decisions have been used to pressurise countries like Ireland and Poland into legalising and liberalising abortion. As such it is deceptive and totalitarian to include human rights language concerning abortion in an EU parliament report. Various UN conventions recognise that the child has a right to life before and after birth. All people are created equal and all have the inherent right to life. EU Member State Malta recognises and protects the right to life from conception, so that all abortions are prohibited. Malta also has one of the best maternal health records in the world.
  • Conscientious objection is a basic human right, as seen in UN conventions, the Nuremberg principles, the EU Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and resolutions of the Council of Europe. It is an important right, especially for medical professionals. It’s ironic how the pro-abortion lobby want to invent new human rights yet restrict and curtain legitimate human rights like conscientious objection. Attacking conscientious objection under the guise of monitoring and regulation will simply mean doctors and nurses being forced to perform and participate in abortions directly or via delegation, or face losing their jobs. This can be seen in the ongoing SPUC legal case concerning the two Glasgow midwives.
  • Compulsory sex education is a favourite hobby horse of the pro-abortion brigade. Arguments that compulsory sex education educates children and lowers the rate of teen pregnancy have proved groundless; in fact the opposition is the case. In practice sex education sexualises children, exposes them to sexually explicit material and deviant sexual practices, and primes them for sex, backed up by easily available contraception and abortion referral, under the cover of confidentiality so that parents don’t find out. SPUC has long since campaigned to protect children and the rights of parents via the Safe at School campaign.
Please remember to forward any replies you receive from MEPs to SPUC's political department, either by email to political@spuc.org.uk or by post to SPUC HQ.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2013

An anencephalic baby is not a 'dead body'

Top story:

An anencephalic baby is not a 'dead body' [Belfast Telegraph, 14 October]

Abortion is not a compassionate response to fatal disability says SPUC Northern Ireland
Abortion is not a compassionate response to cases of fatal disability in unborn children, says SPUC in Northern Ireland. SPUC Northern Ireland was responding to the case of 'Sarah', a woman who contacted the BBC to say that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland had forced her to travel to England to abort a child diagnosed with anencephaly. Liam Gibson, SPUC Northern Ireland's development officer, commented: "Abortion is not a compassionate response to the diagnosis of fatal disability. Babies with fatal disabilities are no less human than other children and share the same right to life as all other human beings. [SPUC, 9 October]

Related item:
Other stories:

Abortion
Euthanasia
Sexual ethics
General
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Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Abortion is not a compassionate response to fatal disability says SPUC Northern Ireland

SPUC Northern Ireland has responded to the case of 'Sarah', a woman who contacted the BBC to say that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland had forced her to travel to England to abort a child diagnosed with anencephaly

Liam Gibson, SPUC Northern Ireland's development officer, commented:
"Abortion is not a compassionate response to the diagnosis of fatal disability. Babies with fatal disabilities are no less human than other children and share the same right to life as all other human beings. The law in Northern Ireland respects that right, while the British Abortion Act has led to the situation where it is lawful to kill a disabled child up to birth.

Some people may believe that an abortion in case of fatal disability helps women carrying such babies but in fact this is not true. The evidence demonstrates that women who abort their babies for such reasons experience serious psychological suffering. One study in the Netherlands found that, four months after their abortions, 46 per cent of women showed pathological levels of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The tragic nature of this case highlights the desperate need for perinatal hospice care in Northern Ireland. Women with access to perinatal hospice care have a much better prospect of coming to terms with their grief. A perinatal hospice gives parents of babies with a fatal diagnosis the chance to be parents. To hold their child, care for them and share whatever time they have no matter how short. Those experiences help parents cope with their grief in a way that is simply impossible with abortion.

Last year MLAs were given the opportunity to hear about the benefits of perinatal hospice care from Dr Bryon Calhoun, a world class expert in this field. It is time that the health department looked at ways to provide greater support and care for women and their unborn babies in these difficult and tragic circumstances."
Cliona Johnson, an Irish woman, has recounted movingly her experience of choosing to give birth to an ancephalic child in this YouTube video.

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Must-read pro-life news-stories, Wed 9 Oct

Top stories:

SPUC criticises new reason for non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion
SPUC has criticised the new reason put forward today for the non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion. SPUC was responding to the statement issued by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England & Wales. Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, commented: "Keir Starmer, the DPP, has now contradicted the earlier announcement by Jenny Hopkins of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which said that the decision not to prosecute was reached on the basis of the CPS public interest test. Now the DPP has said that it is essentially for lack of evidence that they are not going to proceed with any prosecution. The issue has clearly embarrassed the prosecuting authority. That embarrassment arises ultimately because the Department of Health under successive Secretaries of State not only refuses to ensure that doctors implement the grounds in the Abortion Act - providing abortions only when the grounds are met - but actually encourages doctors to offer abortion to any woman who says she wants one." [SPUC, 7 October]
Related stories:
Blind Dutch woman granted euthanasia
A blind Dutch woman has been granted her request for euthanasia in The Netherlands. The Daily Mail newspaper reported that: "Medics have killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not cope with becoming blind. In one of the first cases of euthanasia for a disability, the 70-year-old was deemed by doctors to be ‘suffering unbearably’. Anthony Ozimic of SPUC told the Mail: "It is medical negligence of a high order for the doctors in this case to have gone along with her suicidal ideas, rather than find effective means of managing whatever psychological issues may have been causing her to consider suicide. The Netherlands is a wealthy country which can  support people with blindness. Wherever euthanasia or assisted suicide has been allowed, so-called 'exceptional circumstances' are quickly becoming the norm and the criteria for death are expanding. Millions of people around the world are blind, yet these doctors in their callous arrogance have deemed that at least some blind people should be killed rather than treated. This is what is in store for the UK if Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald get their bills through parliament." [Mail, 8 October]

Other stories:

Abortion and pregnancy
  • Remarkable new 3D images of unborn children [Mail, 8 October]
  • Marie Stopes International head-hunts top salesman to repeat its abortion business successes [SPUC youth blog, 8 October]
  • Babies born to smoking mums 'have smaller brains and are more anxious and moody than other children', suggests study [Mail, 7 October]
  • Pro-life Catholic vigils this month in Maidstone and Stratford [John Smeaton, 4 October]
Embryology
Euthanasia
  • European rights court to rule on assisted suicide [Expatica, 8 October]
  • Hans Kung, renowned dissident theologian, considering suicide for Parkinson’s [LifeSiteNews.com, 3 October] Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "It is one of the tragedies of modern Church history that Hans Kung did not become a great defender of life as his fellow peritusat the Second Vatican Council, Joseph Ratzinger. Unlike Kung, Ratzinger saw that the Western cultural revolution which started in the late 1960s was an anarchic rebellion against the principles which safeguard civilisation. Voluntary self-destruction is also a form of rebellion against such principles. However, it is not too late for Kung to see the light of the Gospel of Life, as the testimony of many repentant former abortionists will attest."
  • St Thérèse and the victory over assisted suicide [John Smeaton, 3 October]
Population
Sexual ethics
General
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Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Blind Dutch woman granted euthanasia: SPUC's Anthony Ozimic comments for Daily Mail

A euthanasia kit
The Daily Mail and other news-outlets have reported that a blind Dutch woman has been granted her request for euthanasia in The Netherlands. From the report by Simon Caldwell:
"Medics have killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not cope with becoming blind.

In one of the first cases of euthanasia for a disability, the 70-year-old was deemed by doctors to be ‘suffering unbearably’.

They granted her wish to die after she had previously tried to commit suicide several times."
...
"The unnamed woman had been born with poor eyesight which had deteriorated into blindness as she entered old age.

She had lived alone since her husband died.

Health specialist Lia Bruin told a Dutch newspaper that the case was ‘exceptional’.

‘She was, for example, obsessed by cleanliness and could not stand being unable to see spots on her clothes,’ Bruin said."
Anthony Ozimic told the Mail:
"It is medical negligence of a high order for the doctors in this case to have gone along with her suicidal ideas, rather than find effective means of managing whatever psychological issues may have been causing her to consider suicide. The Netherlands is a wealthy country which can  support people with blindness. Wherever euthanasia or assisted suicide has been allowed, so-called 'exceptional circumstances' are quickly becoming the norm and the criteria for death are expanding. Millions of people around the world are blind, yet these doctors in their callous arrogance have deemed that at least some blind people should be killed rather than treated. This is what is in store for the UK if Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald get their bills through parliament."
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Monday, 7 October 2013

SPUC criticises new reason for non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion

Keir Starmer, DPP
SPUC has criticised the new reason put forward today for the non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion. SPUC was responding to the statement issued today by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England & Wales http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/dpp_abortion_case_fuller_reasons/

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media:
"Keir Starmer, the DPP, has now contradicted the earlier announcement by Jenny Hopkins of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which said that the decision not to prosecute was reached on the basis of the CPS public interest test http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/cps_statement_abortion_related_case/

Now the DPP has said that it is essentially for lack of evidence that they are not going to proceed with any prosecution:
'again it is obvious from this analysis that even on this narrow basis the evidence is not strong and prospects of conviction would not be high.'
The issue has clearly embarrassed the prosecuting authority. That embarrassment arises ultimately because the Department of Health under successive Secretaries of State not only refuses to ensure that doctors implement the grounds in the Abortion Act - providing abortions only when the grounds are met - but actually encourages doctors to offer abortion to any woman who says she wants one."
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Friday, 4 October 2013

Pro-life Catholic vigils this month in Maidstone and Stratford

Catholic readers will be interested in the two vigils detailed below this month in Maidstone and Stratford organised by the Helpers of God's Precious Infants. The Helpers say:
"Please join us – you really do make all the difference. And don’t forget, please try to bring someone with you. For those of you who are unable to join the procession, please be with us spiritually.
'A great prayer for life is urgently needed…prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil.’
Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life, p.100"
Maidstone: processional prayer vigil led by Father Stephen Boyle
The next vigil at Marie Stopes Abortion Centre, Brewer Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1RV, will be held on Wednesday 16 October 2013, from Grove House, 126 Week St, Maidstone ME14 1RH.

Times (approx.) are as follows:
  • 10.00am: Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at St Francis’ Church
  • 10.30am: prayerful and peaceful procession with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Marie Stopes abortion centre. Holy Rosary, prayers and hymns
  • 12 noon: return procession for blessing and refreshments in the parish centre.
Directions: South Eastern trains runs a direct line from Victoria to Maidstone East Station, which is opposite St. Francis Church. By road: The M20 – come off at Junction 6. Follow signs to Town Centre then to Maidstone East Station. There is a car park at the station and also 2 car parks in Brewer Street and 1 in Wheeler Street, both of which are accessed by Lower Boxley Well Road. The shaded areas on the map are pedestrian areas only.

For further information contact:
Helpers of God's Precious Infants
P.O. Box 26601, London, N14 7WH
Telephone: 020 8252 3109
E-mail: info@hgpi.co.uk Local Co-ordinator: Carole Smith
Web: www.hgpi.co.uk Mobile: 07502 109397

Stratford: processional prayer vigil led by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
The next vigil at the BPAS abortion centre, 32-36 Romford Road, Stratford, E15 4BZ, will be held on Saturday 19 October 2013, from St. Francis of Assisi church, Grove Crescent Road, Stratford, E15 1NS.

Times (approx.) are as follows:
  • 8.45am: Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at St. Francis of Assisi church
  • 9.30am: prayerful and peaceful procession to BPAS centre, processing with image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Holy Rosary and hymns
  • 11.45am: return procession with prayers and hymns
  • 12.15pm: break for tea and get together. Please bring packed lunch.
Directions: Maryland Rail stn. – National Rail (Richmond/Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction/Gospel Oak). Stratford stn. - Underground served by Central and Jubilee lines: Docklands Light Railway: Buses – 25; 69; 86; 158; 241; 257.

For further information contact:
Helpers of God's Precious Infants
P.O. Box 26601, London, N14 7WH
Telephone: 020 8252 3109
E-mail: info@hgpi.co.uk
Web: www.hgpi.co.uk

We are an international pro-life group founded by Msgr. Philip Reilly on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 1989. Our main apostolate is prayer vigils at abortion facilities and our Spiritual Directors are Msgr. Reilly and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Our Lady of Guadalupe is our Patroness and is also the Protectress of Life.

Our trained pavement counsellors are available to speak with those who are considering abortion or to offer healing to those who have had abortions, to evangelise and most importantly are supported by prayer groups at the sites.

Seven Cardinals and over 100 Bishops participate world-wide, including: Bishops Thomas McMahon (Brentwood), John Hine (Southwark), Arthur Roche (formerly Leeds) and Alan Hopes (formerly Westminster).

The spirituality of the Helpers is one of solidarity with Jesus in the person of the unborn child: "Whatever you do for the least of these my brethren, you do for Me." Matt.25:40

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Thursday, 3 October 2013

St Thérèse and the victory over assisted suicide

St Thérèse on her sick-bed
This week Catholics have been celebrating the feast of St Thérèse of Lisieux (1st October in the 1970 liturgical calendar, today in the 1962 calendar). One of the lesser-known aspects of her celebrated life is her temptations towards suicide during her fatal battle with tuberculosis - I recommend reading the short essay "Suicide: Insights from St. Thérèse of Lisieux" by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm. Fr Ryan writes:
"The thought of suicide comes to most people at some time in their lives. For the majority it may be only a fleeting thought that is fairly quickly dismissed. But for others it can be a real temptation that must be strenuously fought. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower (d.1897), would seem to belong to the second category. Even though she was an enclosed Carmelite nun in a French provincial town, who died at the age of twenty-four, she has something important to say to people seeking to tackle the problem of suicide."
So I recommend that my Catholic readers pray to St Thérèse for the defeat of legislation for assisted suicide in the UK (such as the bills proposed by Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald), in St Thérèse's native France, in Europe and worldwide.

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SPUC's Anthony McCarthy comments on donor-conceived children

Anthony McCarthy, SPUC's education and publications manager, gave an interview recently to The National Catholic Register, a leading Catholic journal in the United States, on the subject of donor-conceived children. You can read the full interview on the Register's site, which includes contributions from other interviewees, but below I reproduce Anthony's contributions.

From "The Commodification of Children and the Insensitivity of the Culture" by Leslie Fan, National Catholic Register, 1 October 2013:
Shouldn’t offspring of third-party conception be some of the “least of these” that pro-lifers and Christians work to protect? Anthony McCarthy is a former fellow at the Anscombe Bioethics Centre and currently serves as the Education and Publications Manager at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the United Kingdom. He told me via email recently that consumerism effects even those of us who are strongly pro-life. “I think we have become very sentimental in this age, which is the flipside of our cynical consumerism,” he said. “Perhaps this explains why even pro-lifers find it hard to think carefully about justice and think only of the loveliness of a child’s existence without thinking about sex and marriage and commitment and how they relate to that child and what he or she deserves.”

...

McCarthy said IVF lends itself to commodification. “The very language of the IVF procedure is an inegalitarian one of producer over product, of controller over controlled,” he said. “This is radically opposed to the idea of unifying committed sexual love in which a newly conceived child — for those lucky enough to conceive one — is ‘received’ as a gift and at no stage treated in a sub-human, ‘product-like’ way.”

...

For his part, McCarthy pointed to the use of “therapeutic” abortions many abortion supporters advocate as further evidence of child commodification. “Abortions for disability may sometimes be chosen out of misplaced kindness but are often based on a view of the child as a rejectable, and replaceable, product. The language of choice, appropriate for the supermarket and purchasing of goods, is applied here to a unique and very special bonded relationship,” he said.

In addition to new and available technologies, what else is behind this commodification? “Economic systems based on usury and contempt for labor already encourage the idea that people are commodities and nothing more,” according to McCarthy. “Children, as the most vulnerable members of any society, are particularly prone to commodification. The institution that has always protected children from being regarded as mere commodities in a marketplace is the traditional married family. That natural institution is based around the welfare of children, understood as bringing together biological and social bonds as part of a lifelong commitment — an affirmation of the irreplaceable nature of all members of the family.”

...

"McCarthy told me he thinks we need to understand the culture before fighting it. “It’s worth seeing how different aspects of commodification support each other,” he said. “On the economic front we see contempt for marriage in terms of taxation, contempt for the family in terms of wages paid or hours of work required. This undermining of the family fits well with the destruction of marriage, and the replacing of the idea of husband and wife with a kind of genderless consuming individualist as the paradigmatic ideal for people to aspire to."

He added that strengthening our family lives, cutting out TV propaganda, getting involved in our local schools and parishes and connecting with other families are key in rejecting commodification. "And of course, for Catholics, prayer and recourse to the sacraments are the most perfect way to resist the very real temptations of commodification."
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Priest resigns from Dublin hospital over abortion law

Top stories:

Fr Kevin Doran resigns from Mater Hospital board following its statement on compliance with abortion legislation
A member of the board of a leading Irish hospital has resigned after it announced that it will comply with Ireland's new abortion law. Fr Kevin Doran, a prominent priest in Dublin, said that the Mater hospital had a duty to give witness to the Gospel value of the sanctity of human life. The Archbishop of Dublin is seeking clarification of the hospital's announcement. [Pat Buckley, 2 October]

"Schools have no right to dictate what parents must teach their children about sex", says Safe at School campaign to Hounslow parents
Parents in Hounslow met yesterday evening to hear how they can best protect their primary school children from explicit sex education. The meeting was held in response to growing concern among parents that some local schools are telling parents that their children must attend sex education classes and any parents withdrawing their children will be told by the school what they must teach their children. Antonia Tully, national co-ordinator of SPUC's Safe at School campaign, said: "This is an outrageous development. Sex education is not compulsory and it has never been a statutory part of the science curriculum. Schools have no legal or moral right to dictate what parents must be teach their children about sex." [SPUC, 2 October]

SPUC's Anthony Ozimic comments on so-called "post-fertilisation contraception"
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, has commented on recent news that scientists are developing a monthly birth-control pill as an alternative to daily birth-controls pills and the morning-after pill. Such a pill would work by killing newly-conceived human embryos. Anthony told Simon Caldwell, writing for The Catholic Times this past weekend: "Firstly, it is both nonsensical and devious to speak of 'post-fertilisation contraception'. Contraception is something which prevents conception, which every embryology textbook teaches is the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm. The use of any drug to prevent a newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the womb, or to dislodge him or her from the womb, is abortion. Secondly, promoting chemical abortion outside of medical centres as preferable to surgical abortion inside medical centres is to promote a form of backstreet abortion. Lastly, the supposed 'benefit' of greater convenience will further fuel the already-rampant levels of promiscuity, abuse and disease which has been fuelled by mass promotion of both the ordinary contraceptive pill and the morning-after pill." [John Smeaton, 30 September]

Other stories:

Abortion
Embryology
Euthanasia
Population
Sexual ethics
General
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Wednesday, 2 October 2013

"Schools have no right to dictate what parents must teach their children about sex", says Safe at School campaign to Hounslow parents

Parents in Hounslow met yesterday evening to hear how they can best protect their primary school children from explicit sex education. The meeting was held in response to growing concern among parents that some local schools are telling parents that their children must attend sex education classes and any parents withdrawing their children will be told by the school what they must teach their children.

Antonia Tully, national co-ordinator of SPUC's Safe at School campaign told the media:
"This is an outrageous development. Sex education is not compulsory and it has never been a statutory part of the science curriculum. Schools have no legal or moral right to dictate what parents must be teach their children about sex."   
Mrs Tully told parents that they are the primary educators of their children on sexual matters. She urged parents to exercise their legal right to withdraw their children from sex education lessons if they were unhappy about the content of the lessons. She also explained that the new National Curriculum for primary school science makes it clear that human sexual reproduction is not part of the statutory requirements.

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Further texts for reflection on Pope Francis's interview with Jesuits

Last week I offered some texts of reflection in the light of Pope Francis's interview to Jesuit publications. Below I offer some further texts for reflection, including from Pope Benedict XVI.

From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."
Texts for reflection:
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 2007:
"...fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable. ... Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them."
Report of Pope Benedict XVI's sermon at the funeral of Cardinal Alfono Lopez Trujillo, 23 April 2008:
“The Holy Father spoke powerfully about Cardinal Lopez Trujillo’s zeal, passion and indefatigability in his promotion of marriage and the family and he spoke of the courage with which the cardinal defended the non-negotiable values of human life. He praised his tenacity in defence of family life, his love of the truth of the family and his love of the Gospel of Life. Pope Benedict stressed that the cardinal dedicated his life in Rome to the defence of the family and of life as a collaborator of the Holy Father."
Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 82, 1995: 
"To be truly a people at the service of life we must propose these truths [of the Gospel of Life] constantly and courageously from the very first proclamation of the Gospel, and thereafter in catechesis, in the various forms of preaching, in personal dialogue and in all educational activity.
...
Faced with so many opposing points of view, and a widespread rejection of sound doctrine concerning human life, we can feel that Paul's entreaty to Timothy is also addressed to us: "Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching" (2 Tim 4:2). This exhortation should resound with special force in the hearts of those members of the Church who directly share, in different ways, in her mission as "teacher" of the truth. May it resound above all for us who are Bishops: we are the first ones called to be untiring preachers of the Gospel of life."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently."
Texts for reflection:
Pope Benedict BXVI, message to the bishops of Brazil, 9 March 2011:
"[T]he first ecology to be defended is 'human ecology'. This is to say that, without a clear defence of human life from conception until natural death; without a defence of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman...we will never be able to speak of authentic protection of the environment."
Pope Benedict XVI, address to diplomatic corps, January 2010:
"If we wish to build true peace, how can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn? It is in man’s respect for himself that his sense of responsibility for creation is shown. As Saint Thomas Aquinas has taught, man represents all that is most noble in the universe (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q.29, a. 3)."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else."
...
"[T]he proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives ... The message of the Gospel, therefore, is not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ."
Texts for reflection:
Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 82:
"To be truly a people at the service of life we must propose these truths [of the Gospel of Life] constantly and courageously from the very first proclamation of the Gospel, and thereafter in catechesis, in the various forms of preaching, in personal dialogue and in all educational activity."
Pope Benedict XVI, address to German ambassador, 7 November 2011:
"Today, however, certain basic values of human life are again being put into question, values which defend the dignity man possesses simply by virtue of being a man. It is here that the Church sees she has a duty, over and above her faith, to defend truths and values that are under threat."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"I also consider the situation of a woman with a failed marriage in her past and who also had an abortion. Then this woman remarries, and she is now happy and has five children. That abortion in her past weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would like to move forward in her Christian life. What is the confessor to do?"
Texts for reflection:
Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 1988:
14. ... "How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy, when the man, the child's father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? And besides the many "unwed mothers" in our society, we also must consider all those who, as a result of various pressures, even on the part of the guilty man, very often "get rid of" the child before it is born. "They get rid of it": but at what price? Public opinion today tries in various ways to "abolish" the evil of this sin. Normally a woman's conscience does not let her forget that she has taken the life of her own child, for she cannot destroy that readiness to accept life which marks her "ethos" from the "beginning"."
Pope John Paul II, Letter to women, 1995:
2. ... "Thank you, women who are mothers! You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail. This experience makes you become God's own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child's first steps, who helps it to grow, and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"We must...investigate further the role of women in the church."
Texts for reflection:
Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 1988:
"18. ... Th[e] mutual gift of the person in marriage opens to the gift of a new life, a new human being, who is also a person in the likeness of his parents. Motherhood implies from the beginning a special openness to the new person: and this is precisely the woman's "part"."

 "27. ... By defending the dignity of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those women who - faithful to the Gospel - have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs, virgins, and mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of the Gospel."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"It is amazing to see the denunciations for lack of orthodoxy that come to Rome. I think the cases should be investigated by the local bishops’ conferences, which can get valuable assistance from Rome. These cases, in fact, are much better dealt with locally."
Texts for reflection:
Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, interview, 21 September 2013:
"The CDF is responsible for the whole world in the interests of the papal Magisterium. Bishops lead local Churches. The papal and the episcopal office are legitimised by divine law. That is something that bishops' conferences are not. They are work groups but do not have a competence to teach of their own over and above that of an individual bishop's mandate. So they are not a third authority between the Pope and bishops."
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Monday, 30 September 2013

SPUC's Anthony Ozimic comments on so-called "post-fertilisation contraception"

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, has commented on recent news that scientists are developing a monthly birth-control pill as an alternative to daily birth-controls pills and the morning-after pill. Such a pill would work by killing newly-conceived human embryos. Anthony told Simon Caldwell, writing for The Catholic Times this past weekend:
"Firstly, it is both nonsensical and devious to speak of 'post-fertilisation contraception'. Contraception is something which prevents conception, which every embryology textbook teaches is the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm. The use of any drug to prevent a newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the womb, or to dislodge him or her from the womb, is abortion. Secondly, promoting chemical abortion outside of medical centres as preferable to surgical abortion inside medical centres is to promote a form of backstreet abortion. Lastly, the supposed 'benefit' of greater convenience will further fuel the already-rampant levels of promiscuity, abuse and disease which has been fuelled by mass promotion of both the ordinary contraceptive pill and the morning-after pill."
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Saturday, 28 September 2013

Young pro-life women stand their ground at pro-abortion Goldsmiths University

Top stories:

Young pro-life women stand their ground at pro-abortion Goldsmiths University
On 25 September Daniel Blackman, SPUC's campaigns & education officer, and a group of five brave young women went to Goldsmiths University in London to hand out leaflets to new students. The level of hostility and harassment was appalling. What began as some simple leafleting ended with us being followed by a group of 15 aggressive pro-abortion students chanting, swearing at us, blocking us with placards, and then being followed several hundred metres down the road. [SPUC youth blog, 26 September]

Safe at School campaign to address Hounslow parents concerned about sex education in primary schools
Worried parents in Hounslow have invited Antonia Tully of SPUC's Safe at School campaign to talk to them about their rights as parents and how they can protect their children from explicit sex education. The meeting will take place on Tuesday 1 October, 7-9 pm at Wellington Day Centre, Staines Road, Hounslow, TW4 5BA. Mrs Tully said: "I will be telling parents in Hounslow that they are the experts in their children's lives. Only a parent knows when a child is ready to hear about the intimate details of human sexuality. This should be done in the privacy of the child's home, not publicly in the classroom. I will be showing parents how explicit sex education materials sexualise their children."  [SPUC, 27 September]

Protest outside abortion meeting during Labour's Brighton conference
A pro-life protest took place outside a meeting to promote abortion, during this past week's Labour's Brighton conference. 18 members of SPUC formed a silent chain of placard-holders outside a fringe meeting organised by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), one of Britain's largest chains of abortionists. Judy Law, a local SPUC activist, said: "Many post-abortive mothers are badly affected by abortion. It is vital that BPAS, the Labour party, and the people of Brighton were reminded of this sad situation. [SPUC, 25 September]

Other stories:

Abortion
Euthanasia
Population
Sexual ethics
General
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Friday, 27 September 2013

Safe at School campaign to address Hounslow parents concerned about sex education in primary schools

Worried parents in Hounslow have invited Antonia Tully of SPUC's Safe at School campaign to talk to them about their rights as parents and how they can protect their children from explicit sex education.

Antonia told the media today:
"Parents have approached me because they are receiving confusing messages from both their children's schools and from the local authority.  For example they are being told that sex education is a compulsory part of the science curriculum. This is not true. The current science curriculum does not specify that sex is to be taught to children, a point confirmed last year by former schools' minister Nick Gibb.
Schools are interpreting the national curriculum to include sex in science lessons. Parents are understandably concerned. Their rights to withdraw their children have been stripped from them. Parents are the primary educators of their children in sexual matters, not the school or the local authority."
Safe at School, a campaign of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) www.spuc.org.uk has welcomed the new national curriculum for science at key stages 1 and 2. This makes clear that children are not expected to identify genitalia or be taught about sexual intercourse in science lessons.

Antonia continued:
"I will be telling parents in Hounslow that they are the experts in their children's lives. Only a parent knows when a child is ready to hear about the intimate details of human sexuality. This should be done in the privacy of the child's home, not publicly in the classroom. I will be showing parents how explicit sex education materials sexualise their children."
The Safe at School meeting will take place on Tuesday 1 October, 7-9 pm at Wellington Day Centre, Staines Road, Hounslow, TW4 5BA.

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Bishop Egan of Portsmouth speaks out for doctors who respect life

Simon Caldwell, the veteran Catholic journalist, reports in this weekend's Catholic Herald that Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has spoken out in defence of doctors who respect life. The report reads:
"BISHOP Philip Egan of Portsmouth has accused the British Medical Association of favouring euthanasia by limiting doctors’ rights to conscientiously object to starving and dehydrating patients to death.

He spoke after revised BMA guidance told doctors that they would have the support of their union if they refused to withdraw food and fluid on religious or moral grounds – but only if they arranged for another medic to do it instead.

'It is immoral to bring about somebody’s death by withdrawing feeding and hydration,' Bishop Egan said. 'The BMA has shifted its position in favour of euthanasia rather than against it.'

He added: 'The underlying issue is that the law is out of sync with authentic morality.'

'The law in Britain is out of step with the moral foundations of caring legitimately for somebody in their last moments of life.'"
I wish to thank again Bishop Egan for preaching the Gospel of Life in the midst of Britain's culture of death.

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My letter on abortion in The Herald in Scotland

Yesterday The Herald, one of Scotland's main newspapers, published a letter from me about abortion. My letter was in reply to a column which used the incidence of backstreet abortion before the Abortion Act was passed in 1967 as an argument for legal abortion today. You can read my published reply online and my unedited original below.

The horror of abortion

The Herald, Thursday 26 September 2013

Sir,

Colette Douglas Home, in her column in the The Herald (24th September 2013), asks us to celebrate the end of the ‘horror’ of illegal ‘backstreet’ abortion.

Abortion, whether legal or illegal, is always a horror because it always results in the death of an unborn child and always carries a serious risk of physical and psychological harm to the mother.

Advocates of abortion have long exaggerated the number of women who died as a result of ‘backstreet’ abortion. During the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act MPs were led to believe that thousands of women were dying every year. In reality there were 32 tragic maternal deaths caused by abortion in 1966.

And these deaths still continue since the passage of the Abortion Act. Since 1968 at least 164 women have died following abortions. A recent heart-breaking case was the death of 19-year old Jessie-Maye Barlow, who died just before Christmas 2011, leaving behind a six-month old daughter. The recent horrific case of Kermit Gosnell, who is beginning three life sentences for crimes committed at his legal abortion clinic, shows well enough that women are not made safe simply because abortion is legally permitted.

All women deserve better than abortion.

John Smeaton
Chief executive
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
3 Whitacre Mews
Stannary Street
London

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Thursday, 26 September 2013

Some texts for reflection in the light of Pope Francis's interview

As most readers will know, Pope Francis gave a widely-reported interview recently to Jesuit publications, in which he addressed pro-life/pro-family issues and issues of church governance. His comments on these areas are similar to, and elaborations of, briefer comments he made during an in-flight press conference after World Youth Day. Below I offer some texts for reflection in the light of Pope Francis's interview, including words by Pope Francis himself. Quotations from the interview are in red;  texts for reflection are in blue.

From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."
Texts for reflection:
Pope Francis, address to Catholic doctors, 21 September 2013:
"[A]ttention to human life in its totality has become in recent times a real and proper priority of the Magisterium of the Church, particularly for life which is largely defenseless, namely, that of the disabled, the sick, the unborn, children, the elderly."
...
"[A] mandate: be witnesses and propagators of this "culture of life". Your being Catholic entails a greater responsibility: first of all, toward yourselves, for the commitment of coherence with the Christian vocation; and then towards contemporary culture, to contribute to recognize in human life the transcendent dimension, the imprint of the creative work of God, from the first instance of its conception. This is a commitment of the New Evangelization which requires often going against the current, paying as person. The Lord also counts on you to spread the “gospel of life.”"
...
"Dear doctor friends, you who are called to take care of human life in its initial phase, all of you must remember with facts and words, that this is always, in all its phases and at every age, sacred and is always of quality. And not because of a discourse of faith, but of reason and science! ."
Pope Francis, address to Italian pro-lifers, March 2013:
"I invite you to keep the attention of everyone on the important issue of respect for human life from the moment of conception."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently."
Texts for reflection:
Pope Francis, address to Catholic doctors, 21 September 2013:
"[L]ife is...[the] primary value and primordial right of every man"
...
"'The first right of a human person is his/her life. He/she has other goods and some of them are more precious; but life is the fundamental good, condition for all the others'" (quoting Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion, November 18, 1974, No. 11).
Cardinal Raymond Burke, Inside Catholic, September 2009:
"The moral questions pertaining to the safeguarding and fostering of human life are all related to one another but they are not of the same weight."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else."
...
"[T]he proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives ... The message of the Gospel, therefore, is not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ."
Texts for reflection:
 Pope Francis, address to Catholic doctors, 21 September 2013:
"[Human life] is always, in all its phases and at every age, sacred and is always of quality. And not because of a discourse of faith, but of reason and science!"
...
"Each one of us is called to recognize in the fragile human being the face of the Lord, who in his human flesh experienced indifference and loneliness to which we often condemn the poorest, be it in developing countries, be it in well-off societies. Every unborn child, condemned unjustly to being aborted, has the face of the Lord, who before being born, and then when he was just born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every elderly person, even if he/she is sick or at the end of his/her days, bears in him/herself the face of Christ."
...
"'If personal and social sensibility is lost to welcoming a new life, other forms of reception useful to social life are hardened. The reception of life tempers moral energies and makes possible mutual help'" (quoting Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no.28).
Pope Francis, message to the Knights of Columbus, August 2013:
"Conscious of the specific responsibility which the lay faithful have for the Church’s mission, he invites each Knight, and every Council, to bear witness to the authentic nature of marriage and the family, the sanctity and inviolable dignity of human life, and the beauty and truth of human sexuality. In this time of rapid social and cultural changes, the protection of God’s gifts cannot fail to include the affirmation and defense of the great patrimony of moral truths taught by the Gospel and confirmed by right reason, which serve as the bedrock of a just and well-ordered society."
Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio (now Pope Francis), letter to Carmelites about same-sex marriage, July 2010:
"At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts. Let us not be naive: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"I also consider the situation of a woman with a failed marriage in her past and who also had an abortion. Then this woman remarries, and she is now happy and has five children. That abortion in her past weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would like to move forward in her Christian life. What is the confessor to do?"
Texts for reflection:
Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 99:
"I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life."
 From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"We must...investigate further the role of women in the church."
Texts for reflection:
Pope Francis, address to Catholic doctors, 21 September 2013:
"[M]aternity [i]s the fundamental mission of woman, be it in poor countries where birth is still risky for life, be it in those more well-off where often maternity is not adequately considered or promoted."
From the interview with Pope Francis, published 19 September 2013:
"It is amazing to see the denunciations for lack of orthodoxy that come to Rome. I think the cases should be investigated by the local bishops’ conferences, which can get valuable assistance from Rome. These cases, in fact, are much better dealt with locally."
Texts for reflection:
The Age, 21 September 2013:
"Dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays - the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne, he believes. The order comes direct from the Vatican, not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart... Archbishop Hart said Father Reynolds was excommunicated because after his priestly faculties were withdrawn he continued to celebrate the Eucharist publicly and preach contrary to the teachings of the church."
St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, Q. 33, A. 4:
"There being an imminent danger for the Faith, prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects."
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Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Protest outside abortion meeting during Labour's Brighton conference

A protest took place yesterday outside a meeting to promote abortion, during Labour's Brighton conference.

18 members of SPUC formed a silent chain of placard-holders (see photos below) outside a fringe meeting organised by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), one of Britain's largest chains of abortionists. The fringe meeting, entitled "The politics of motherhood", was addressed by Kate Green MP, Labour's shadow women and equalities minster, and was held at The Old Ship Hotel.

The SPUC placards read: "Women do regret abortion", "Abortion kills children" and "Is this a choice or a child?".

Judy Law, a local SPUC activist, said:
"Many post-abortive mothers are badly affected by abortion. It is vital that BPAS, the Labour party, and the people of Brighton were reminded of this sad situation. It's a situation funded largely by taxpayers' money which is used to pay for almost all abortions."
Trevor Stauss, another local SPUC activist, said:
"It is disingenuous of BPAS to use motherhood to further their radical pro-abortion agenda in this way. It is important that we offer a pro-life witness and denounce the evil of abortion in our local areas."
Daniel Blackman, SPUC's campaigns & education officer, said:
"BPAS has a dangerous agenda. Ann Furedi, the head of BPAS, has recently defended sex-selective abortion. We must offer continual resistance on behalf of unborn children, the ones who cannot speak up or defend themselves."

  


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Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Senior US cardinal laments the silence of Catholics on pro-life, pro-family issues

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the most senior US cardinal and head of the Catholic Church's highest court, has lamented the silence of Catholics on pro-life and pro-family issues. In an interview he said: "There is far too much silence — people do not want to talk about [issues such as same-sex marriage] because the topic is not ‘politically correct. But we cannot be silent any longer or we will find ourselves in a situation that will be very difficult to reverse." He said that pro-abortion politicians must be denied Holy Communion, honours by Catholic universities and public Catholic funerals. [LifeSiteNews.com, 19 September]

Other stories:

Abortion
Euthanasia
Embryology
General
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