Why SPUC is concerned about reception of Holy Communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics

I am occasionally asked: Why is SPUC, through Voice of the Family, engaging in the Family Synod; and, in particular, why is SPUC so concerned about the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics?

SPUC is a non-confessional human rights organisation which has in its ranks members of all faiths and none. In common with virtually every other pro-life group in the world, many, if not most, of our members are Catholics.

All members of the Church enjoy the freedom to share their views with members of the hierarchy and with each other. In fact all Catholics have a duty to do so in certain circumstances. The Code of Canon Law states:

According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons. (Canon 212)

The Church has always taught that marriage is an indissoluble union of one man and one woman, which ends only with one of the death of one of the spouses. If a person “remarries”, without the first marriage being declared null by the Church, they are guilty of adultery. They cannot therefore receive Holy Communion until they have confessed this sin and resolved to amend their lives. This has been very clearly taught by the Church throughout her history and Catholics at every level of the Church have a right and a duty to defend this teaching.

This doctrine has been authoritatively restated numerous times in the last few decades including in the following documents:

- Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 22 November 1981

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of the Faithful who are Divorced and Remarried; 4 September 1994

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Concerning some Objections to the Church’s Teaching on the Reception of Holy Communion by Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful, 1st January 1998

- Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Declaration concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of the Faithful who are Divorced and Remarried, 24 June 2000

- Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsum to the question "Can a confessor grant absolution to a penitent who, having been religiously married, has contracted a second union following divorce?"22 October 2014

You will note that the most recent decree was promulgated by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith during the pontificate of Pope Francis and since the Extraordinary Synod. In other words, the position adopted by SPUC is exactly that of the Church’s magisterium, both past and present.

Nevertheless the question remains: Is it in SPUC 's remit to campaign on this issue?

In November 2011 SPUC’s Council, our policy-making body which is elected by our grass roots volunteers, adopted a motion that the Society should “to do its utmost to fight for the retention of the traditional understanding of marriage in the history, culture and law of the United Kingdom, namely the exclusive union of one man with one woman for life; and accordingly instructs its officers and executive committee to conduct a major campaign to this end...” The defence of the traditional understanding of marriage is therefore now clearly part of SPUC’s remit. The vote of Council on that occasion in support of the resolution was unopposed.

The reason why marriage is so important is because all aspects of sexuality, marriage and the family are closely interconnected. In his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II taught:

“It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, "manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love". The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life.”

I am convinced that we cannot defeat abortion if our society does not value marriage as the exclusive and indissoluble union of one man and one woman. I have had the privilege of speaking about this topic at conferences in various parts of the world. Marriage is the natural habitat of unborn children, the place where God intends them to be conceived, educated and nurtured. When we destroy the habitat we end up destroying children too. The statistics bear this out; four out five aborted children are conceived outside of marriage. If an organisation that worked to protect orang-utans refused to do anything to protect the rainforest they would be generally considered to be failing in their duty. Similarly any organisation fighting to defend unborn children must defend their natural habitat, which is the family founded on marriage. It is for this reason that SPUC will continue to fight for the traditional understanding of marriage.

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My promise to African Catholic bishops at Ghana bishops' pro-life conference this month

A quiet moment with Fr. Nicholas Afriyie 
Secretary General of Ghana's
Catholic Bishops' Conference

In a talk earlier this month in Accra, Ghana, at a pro-life conference organised by the Ghanaian Catholic bishops' conference I explained how African families are gravely threatened by western governments, international agencies as well as by Vatican departments.

A little earlier this year, in June, a consultative meeting of African prelates had been held in Accra which culminated in the 45 bishops and 5 cardinals who represented episcopal conferences across the continent expressing their intention to present a united determination to defend Church teaching about marriage and family at the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Family.

I therefore finished my talk with a promise that my family would be praying for them. I said:

Thank God for the African bishops. My family and families throughout the world will be praying for you in the coming months – that you continue to be courageous apostles of the unchanging and unchangeable Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of the family, the Gospel of life.

Ghanaian Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Conference 7th and 8th August

The conference was entitled Protecting Life and Family Values in the continuing Culture of Death. It was a two day event and the first day was held in a building in the grounds of Holy Spirit Cathedral, Accra. 13 of Ghana’s 20 bishops and archbishops attended for most of the event, with a few leaving in the afternoon. The seven bishops who did not attend were either out of the country, on holiday, or ill.

Uju of Culture of Life Africa addresses conference

The second day of the conference was directed at young people who heard excellent talks, including unambiguous teaching from two bishops, and an inspirational address from Obianuju Ekeocha (Uju for short), founder of Culture of Life Africa, who also addressed the bishops and their guests on the first day..

Uju told the bishops' conference: "IPPF has recently started a campaign to promote vasectomies in Ghana. This is an egregious attack on the African societies and can easily be seen as the castration of men and we reject that. The recent scandal involving planned parenthood in America reveals to the world the true barbaric nature of the culture of abortion. Africans have been called primitive for our dark history of human sacrifice but today the "modern" abortionists are killing unborn babies and then harvesting their organs. This is primitive and barbaric and it is happening in our time."

Little pro-life marcher + transport

The talks were followed by a pro-life march through the streets in which the bishops participated. A similar event took place in an outlying district of Accra in which around 500 altar servers from the archdiocese participated.

As Catholic News Agency reported, the bishops issued a powerful statement in which they said they would continue to resist:

“the persistent and pernicious attempts to impose population control on Africa by wealthy philanthropists, donor nations and international organizations who are pursuing this agenda subtly under the platform of sexual and reproductive and health rights.”

In addition, they reaffirmed that sacramental marriage was instituted by God as a permanent, indissoluble union of one man and one woman. The bishops rejected adulterous unions and same-sex unions as “inimical to the mind of the Creator” and as damaging to “the integrity of the human being and the family.”

The forces of the culture of death are very much in evidence in Ghana. I saw huge advertisement hoardings promoting the pill under the headline “Embracing the power of choice”; the Ghana Times on the day I arrived carried a full page story on a project funded by the Norweigan Development Agency promoting sexual and reproductive health (i.e. contraception and abortion) in poor urban and peri-urban areas of Ghana.There is no time to be lost and I believe Ghanas' Catholic leaders understand that.

However, Africa's Catholic bishops will need all the prayers they can get from our families! Last year a leading cardinal from the west caused great offence in Africa and throughout the church by telling the African bishops effectively to keep out of discussions at the Synod on doctrinal issues relating to marriage and the family saying " ... they should not tell us too much what we have to do."

And now I see that, according to Catholic News Agency, the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund and a major U.S. foundation have helped fund an LGBT activist project intended to counter West African bishops at the Catholic Church’s Synod on the Family. I see too that Bishop Felix Gmur of Basel, Switzerland is president of the Lenten fund’s foundation council, which oversees the NGO’s directors group. Will the Bishop Gmur disown this effort to undermine the witness of African Catholic bishops? We shall see.

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Don't be fooled by claims that China is easing its One-Child Policy

Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, whose aims are to combat forced abortion, gendercide and sexual slavery in China has written to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to complain about the coercive population controls used in China.

You may well wish to read Reggie's richly-annotated complaint in full. In the meantime, here's a brief summary:

The One-Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

The UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is complicit in coercive family planning in China. (The UK government, in 2013, gave over £174 million pounds in "core" and "non-core" contributions to UNFPA, as a list of their top donors worldwide shows.)

China has not 'eased', 'relaxed' or 'abandoned' the One-Child Policy, although it periodically tweaks it. These minor modifications are routinely exaggerated. For example, under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua News Agency reported that China would lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child, beginning on January 1, 2014. It was already the case that couples could have a second child if both parents, themselves, were only children. So this minor adjustment did not 'ease' the One-Child Policy. It merely tweaked it.

Noticeably absent from the Chinese Communist Party’s announcement is any mention of human rights. Even though it will now allow some couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception. The coercive enforcement of China’s one-child policy is its core. Instituting a two-child policy in certain, limited circumstances will not end forced abortion or forced sterilization.

Further, instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of data from the 2005 national census, in nine provinces, for 'second order births' where the first child is a girl, 160 boys were born for every 100 girls. In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born. This study stated, “sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.”

To say that China has 'relaxed' or 'eased' its One-Child Policy under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted. Because of gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry because their future wives were terminated before they were born. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery, not only in China, but in neighbouring nations as well.

In China, there are currently 117-118 boys born for every 100 girls born – the worst gender ratio in the world. Nor will the tweaking of the One-Child Policy have a significant impact on gendercide.

Littlejohn concludes that in her opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will never abolish the One-Child Policy, because the government is exploiting the One-Child Policy as social control, masquerading as population control. The One-Child Policy is enormously profitable for the Chinese Communist Party.

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Hunger and poverty not caused by "overpopulation" new data shows

I am grateful to Fr John Fleming, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who has written to me to draw attention to Population Research Institute's analysis of World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, prepared by the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division.

Fr Fleming writes:

In his excellent analysis of that report, Jonathan Abbamonte of the Population Research Institute, demonstrates the way in which the world has been seriously misled by population controllers. All the emphasis from international bodies such as UNFPA and USAID has been on encouraging and coercing developing countries to embrace their population control policies which have as their centrepiece “sterilisation and abortifacient contraception pills and devices with bribes and other methods of coercion”.

Abbamonte explains that the latest figures predict that world population will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. The default position of population controllers has always been that population growth has been and will be the single biggest cause of catastrophic outcomes for the planet:

1. Widespread famines as the world struggles to feed the people;
2. continuing low life expectancy in developing countries; and
3. high infant mortality rates among developing countries.

But, as Abbamonte points out, relying on the information contained in the new Report, the facts are actually these:

1. Despite the rapid rise in population over the last two and a half decades, “the percentage of people living with hunger in developing countries has actually dropped from 24% to 14% over the same time period.”
2. “World average life expectancy at birth in the early 1950’s was 48 years for women and 45 for men. Today those numbers are 73 for women and 68 for men. By 2100, life expectancy at birth will have risen to almost 85 for women and 82 for men worldwide and even higher in developed nations—92 years for women.”
3. Infant and childhood mortality are set to decline sharply worldwide. “By 2100, the rate of deaths among children under the age of five will fall as much as 82% in less developed nations and 80% in the world’s least developed countries.”

So it seems that the world is well placed to receive the predicted increased population.

Among other things, Abbamonte concludes: “Population alarmists would have us believe the world is overpopulated with too many people placing too great a strain on the environment and our resources. While it is true that we all share limited resources on this one planet we call home, hunger and poverty in the world today are largely the result of underdevelopment, civil strife or conflict, and poor distribution of wealth, not an excess in today’s population. Environmental degradation, although a pressing problem, has much more to do with an irresponsible disposal of waste, corporations cutting corners to meet their bottom lines, poor urban planning and excessive urban sprawl, and a culture of waste that has been fostered in developed nations.”

Abbamonte’s analysis of the new data provides plenty of food for thought.

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Family Synod documentation omits "greatest ever threat to man and human society"

Fr Mark Pilon

With the benefit of hindsight, the wisdom of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae – mocked by so many outside the Church and neglected by so many within it – comes ever more clearly into focus. Pope Paul VI warned that artificial contraception would increase marital infidelity and lower moral standards, that women would be treated as mere instruments to satisfy the desires of men, and that governments might even impose the use of contraception on their peoples. Whether we look at divorce rates, at the explosion of internet pornography, at the vast worldwide scale of the abortion industry, or at the imposition of contraception by individual governments and by international organisations, who can possibly maintain that he was wrong with any of these predictions?

Humanae Vitae was not, however, a one-off foray by the Catholic Church into the arena of sexual morality. As the late, great Fr John Hardon S.J. detailed, the Church's condemnation of contraception dates back to the earliest ages. In 1930, Pius XI's encyclical Casti Connubii referred to the intrinsically evil nature of contraception. More recently, both John Paul II (particularly in Familiaris Consortio) and Benedict XVI have reaffirmed the importance of this teaching. So the encyclical of Pope Paul VI was part of a continuum of Catholic teaching, given in recognition that “the Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings” (Humanae Vitae opening paragraphs).

Against this background, the absence of the topic of contraception from the documentation issued in preparation for this year’s Synod on the Family can only be a deliberate decision to shift the official stance of the Catholic Church, and is the more worrying for that reason. An excellent article by Fr Mark Pilon – a priest of the diocese of Arlington, Virginia – sets the omission in context. Fr Mark’s focus is on the questionnaire (lineamenta) sent out to prepare for the 2015 Synod and he observes:

“How strange it is, then, that a Special Synod called by the Pope precisely to counteract the contemporary negative forces undermining marriage and the family, and to strengthen the family as the basic institution of human society and the Church, should say little or nothing about the role that the virtually universal practice of contraception has played in causing this crisis. This virtual ignoring of the tremendous impact of contraception on married life and societal stability was confirmed by the absence of a single question in the 2015 Synod lineamenta which deals directly with the problem that contraception plays in the crisis facing marriage and family life in our day.”

The lineamenta led in turn to the Instrumentum Laboris, the working document produced by the Vatican for the forthcoming Synod. The manner in which the Instrumentum Laboris undermines the teaching of Humanae Vitae is explained in Voice of Family’s analysis of the document.

Fr Mark refers to the great magisterial teachings of many of the Popes, and refers specifically to the way that Paul VI and John Paul II “made it crystal clear how contraception, and the contraceptive mentality, damage marriage [and] undermine married love, family life, and human society”. In his article, which is well worth reading in its entirety, he examines the failures in passing on the Church’s teaching in seminaries and other Catholic institutions of learning. He discusses the reluctance of many members of the Church to speak out on these issues, even in the face of the demographic problems that universal contraception is causing (and is set to cause) in much of the western world. He notes the effect of smaller Catholic families on religious vocations.

Father Mark also observes how “contraception establishes a mentality that rejects life, seeing life as sometimes undesirable” and comments that “that mentality will unfortunately lead many to choose abortion as a last resort to eliminate a new life”. (One of the many false promises of last century’s sexual revolution was that freely available contraception would remove the 'need' for abortion. Subsequent developments have shown beyond all doubt that the demand for abortion actually increases sharply in societies where contraception is more freely available.)

Nor is Fr Mark afraid to name names when it comes to examining why the Church’s prophetic teachings have failed to take root as they should have done. And he is also very clear that moral norms have been watered down “to become just contingent, legalistic, voluntaristic ‘rules’ that can and must be changed with the times and cultural evolutions”.

In response to all these issues, Fr Mark argues that the forthcoming Synod “may well be the last practical chance to make a real contribution to the salvation of marriage and family life, and to western society in general”. All the more alarming, therefore, is his observation that:

“Those responsible for the preparation of the coming 2015 Synod, for some reason, chose not to submit a single study question in the lineamenta, directly dealing with the problem of artificial contraception. Obviously, these Church leaders did not see this moral and practical issue as a significant factor in the collapse of marriage and family life over the past half century. It was as if the extensive papal magisterium of Pope Paul, John Paul II, and Benedict—in brilliantly analyzing the devastating impact of contraception on married love and marriage stability, as well as on demographic survival of society—had never taken place.”

He concludes that contraception is much more than just one moral issue amongst others, and that the Synod “needs to confront this greatest ever threat to man and human society, for time is quite literally running out to reverse the social and moral chaos it has generated”.

(I am grateful to a SPUC supporter who kindly summarised Fr Pilon's erudite article for this blogpost.)

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Anglican bishop sounds warning on assisted suicide bill

SPUC has welcomed an Anglican bishop's warning about the assisted suicide bill due to be debated in Parliament at Westminster on 11 September.

Rt Revd Mike Hill, the Bishop of Bristol, has warned on his blog that the desire of the seriously ill 'not to be a burden' is "capable of ruthless manipulation".

Bishop Hill also said that "the Christian Church has a long and noble history of seeking to assist people to die well without killing them ... We need more palliative care provision rather than handing out the right in law to take life."

My colleague, Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the press today:

"We congratulate Bishop Hill for his courageous witness to the sanctity of human life. He has given a good example to his fellow Anglican bishops and clergy and to all Christians. Seeking to assist people to die well without killing them is both a Christian and a deeply-rooted British value. Christians throughout history are famous for establishing hospices amongst the poorest, whether it be in London in the Middle Ages or in Mother Teresa's Calcutta in the 20th century."

The "Assisted Dying" bill, introduced into Parliament by Rob Marris MP, mean that terminally ill, disabled and elderly people will become second-class citizens and doctors will be turned into killers. You can help stop this happening. If we don’t stop the bill, medical killing will inevitably spread more and more widely. Find out from SPUC's campaign page what you can do to help. Please don't delay. Write to your MP now.

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Children and parents betrayed by British birth control policies

Under the headline "GPs put 1 in 20 under-aged girls on the Pill" the Mail is reporting that one in twenty schoolgirls, some as young as twelve, are being prescribed the contraceptive pill by GPs without their parents’ knowledge.

Giving birth-control pills to under-age girls is uncaring towards children, undermines parents and exploits an uninformed public. It is uncaring towards children, because it ignores the fact that sexually-transmitted infections among teenagers have risen at the same time as increased provision of contraceptives. It undermines parents by denying them their right and responsibility to govern their children's behaviour. It exploits an uninformed public, because no-one is told that, according to the manufacturers, the ordinary birth-control pill can kill newly-conceived embryos.

In short, schoolchildren and parents are being betrayed by the birth control policies at work in Britain.

If you're a parent worried about what's going on in your children's school - and that includes Catholic schools - that is, you're worried about your children being given access to contraception and or abortion, SPUC's Safe at School is here to help you. Contact Safe at School on 020 8407 3463.

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We must oppose the Vatican's Instrumentum Laboris for the Family Synod to defend life and our families

As a parent and as a pro-life leader, I thank His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., for his merciful support for our families currently under merciless social pressure from the homosexual "rights" agenda and its supporters, including within Catholic Church structures.

Bishop Schneider, in an interview with Catholic Voice published yesterday, described some Irish clergy - including one bishop - as "false prophets who pervert the Word of God".

The Catholic Voice interview asked Bishop Schneider about some Irish clergy who "used the media to [also] encourage voters to redefine marriage" and one Irish Bishop who "stated that Catholics could in good conscience vote for this proposal and admonished them not to vote against it out of hate".

Bishop Schneider replied:

Those clerics who encouraged the faithful to vote for same sex marriage revealed themselves by this same fact as false prophets, as those who pervert the Word of God. They revealed themselves as public liars, to whom are fully applicable these words of Holy Scripture: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Is 5:20) ... To such priests and bishops the Apostle Paul without any doubt would say today these words: “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor 11:13). In order to remedy this situation it is firstly necessary that faithful Bishops teach clearly and unambiguously the truth of Christ and correct explicitly the teaching of these false prophets.

Let me explain just one way in which families, including Catholic families, are under merciless pressure from the homosexual "rights" agenda and its supporters.

As I said when I addressed the Rome Life Forum in May:

... a major way in which the so-called “homosexual rights” lobby is actively undermining the family and the culture of life, is through targeting its message at little children in their schools including, in the UK, in Catholic primary schools. I have little doubt that the same pattern is repeated in other countries too.

I am sorry to have to share with you that homosexual militants are being invited into schools in our country, including into Catholic schools with the blessing of the local bishop, to train teachers how to educate little boys as young as four years old that they might grow up to marry a man rather than a woman – and the same with little girls.

Catholic schools in Britain, and around the world, have long been complicit in the culture of death, providing access to abortion and contraception for the under 16s without parental knowledge. This is happening with the co-operation of the Catholic authorities.

The betrayal of families by leading clerics continues apace not least in the form of the truly scandalous Instrumentum Laboris, the working document produced by Vatican authorities for the forthcoming Family Synod. For the extent of the betrayal of our families at the highest levels in the Church see the analysis by Matthew McCusker, my personal assistant, recommended by Professor Roberto de Mattei on Rorate Caeli as "the excellent analysis by Mathew McCusker, on the site Voice of the Family."

Matthew's analysis concludes:

We urge Catholics not to be complacent or give in to a false sense of obedience, in the face of attacks on the fundamental principles of the natural law. Catholics are morally obliged to oppose the course being taken with the Synod

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Australia: governing coalition confirms opposition to same-sex marriage

Australia’s governing coalition has voted to confirm its opposition to same-sex marriage. Tony Abbott, Australia's prime minister, said the issue should be “put to the people” following the next election.  [BBC, 11 August] Dr John Fleming, a leading Australian bioethicist, said: “The Prime Minister is laudably keeping his pre-election promise that his government would not legislate for gay marriage.  The Labor Party will close off the 'conscience vote' for its MPs in the election after next.  The Prime Minister very democratically wants the people to decide the fundamental issue of what marriage means, while proponents of same sex marriage seem to think that the people can't be trusted to deliver the 'right' answer.”

To see a full news summary for 13 August 2015, click here.

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Christian teachers should be silenced using banning orders, says MP

A Conservative MP has called for Christian teachers to be subject to banning orders. Conservative MP for Sherwood Mark Spencer has called for Extreme Disruption Orders (EDOs) to be used against Christian teachers who teach a traditional view on marriage. Those who say that same-sex marriage is “wrong” will be subject to the tough new restrictions which were drawn up by  Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May in order to curb radicalisation by jihadists. [Telegraph, 3 August]

To see a full news summary for 6 August 2015, click here.

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The killing of a lion in Africa: Fr Fleming reflects

I am grateful to Fr Fleming for his reflection on the recent, widely-reported, killing of a lion in Africa:

An ancient proverb, attributed (wrongly?) to Euripides says this: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”

Nowhere is this madness more evident than among the self-appointed social and moral revolutionaries of our day. For these folks their new found morality (actually the old pagan immorality) is self-evidently true. They have no patience with those with whom they disagree. Rarely if ever do they look at their own moral inconsistencies. They either have not the wit nor the integrity or neither to allow themselves that kind of intellectual self-criticism.

So now a dentist kills a lion, a popular lion. The various celebrities (eg Ricky Gervais et al) have gone into emotional, psychological and moral meltdown. This wicked dentist is to be shunned, sent to prison, delicensed as a dentist, and otherwise publicly hounded and humiliated.

I don’t like what he did either.

But then I don’t like what other members of the medical profession do to children both born and unborn when they decide to kill them.

So let’s look for a moment at the lion killing. It seems that protesters have “placed animal toys outside Palmer’s River Duff dental practice in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis. The practice was forced to close as protesters staged a recreation of the hunt involving cuddly toys and water pistols.”

Now what does the mass media report when accurate replicas or models of the unborn, routinely killed in abortion, are made available for people (including school students) to see? They report the emotional, psychological and moral meltdown of those who have had these things thrust before them. People are, apparently, traumatised by the mere sight of such replicas or models. Not so the animal toys!

And what happens when pro-lifers stage a peaceful demonstration outside an abortion clinic? They are condemned, harassed, even arrested. They are forbidden to go within a certain distance of abortion clinics. Not so for the protesters outside this dental clinic. They are able to stage a hunt with their “cuddly toys and water pistols”, and protest in such a way that the clinic is forced to close. Not that there is any lion killing going on in the dentist’s clinic in the way that there is human being killing going on in abortion clinics.

Ricky Gervais is a good example of the self-righteous contradictory atheistic moralisers of our day. “It's not for food. It's not the shooting, or tin cans would do. It must just be the thrill of killing. Mental.” he tweets. Or is it bleats? This from the same man who advocates the killings of human beings in abortion, and is a eugenicist to boot!

On the 3rd February Deacon Keith Fournier said this:

"Ricky Gervais is also a eugenicist. He promotes mandatory sterilization. This was evident in an interview he gave to the London Sunday Times over the weekend. He called for the mandatory sterilization of those whom he called 'irresponsible parents'.

"This was not an off handed comment by a controversialist comic. The interview makes that clear. He told the reporter there were “too many unwanted children, too many people who are poor and struggling…. If they all had a good quality of life, no one would complain. What there is, is too many useless people. Too many people who shouldn’t have children.”

Same old problem with the bien pensants: they love humanity in the general but hate it in the particular.

So lions are to be protected from predatory hunters (and I would agree with that), but the unborn, and children with severe disabilities are not be protected against predatory doctors and nurses.

No wonder then that filmed evidence of Planned Parenthood in the US selling foetal body parts for profit is simply not being reported in the mainstream liberal media. Silence rules, OK. Such is the power of the media taboo where uncomfortable truths are brought to them, truths which undermine their facile and stupendously irrational belief that abortion is a matter of choice for the woman and affects no one else.

And the bien pensants now want to slay the messenger. They want to go after the ones who brought this evidence to public notice and sue them into oblivion. PPF is not only not to be defunded by the State, it is to be applauded for making good use of the waste products of a simple surgical procedure (sic).

“Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” Ye gods and little fishes!

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New NHS guidance instructs hospitals not to deny water to the dying

New guidance say doctors and nurses must provide water to the dying. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has drafted new guidance demanding that patients have access to fluids. The Liverpool Care Pathway which was withdrawn last year saw elderly and other vulnerable patients denied  food and fluids, often without their knowledge or consent, or that of their relatives. However such practices may still be going on, albeit under different names. Roger Goss from Patient Concern commented saying: “It is shocking that this has to be spelled out to doctors and nurses”. [Telegraph, 29 July] Antonia Tully of the Patients First Network said: “We are still seeing a lack of confidence among relatives about the way in which vulnerable patients are cared for. We are continuing to advise family and friends to maintain constant vigilance to make sure that those they love receive basic care, including food and water.”

To see a full news summary for 30 July 2015, click here.

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LBC Radio broadcasts apology to SPUC

Shortly after the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was passed, parents in Birmingham contacted SPUC's Safe at School about a programme called CHIPS (Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools) which had been introduced in their children's primary schools. This teaching programme, for children aged 5-11, is blatant promotion of same sex "families" and transgender behaviour.

Safe at School was advising and supporting Birmingham parents in their efforts to protect their children. On two occasions SPUC's Safe at School was prevented from holding a public meeting in Birmingham to inform parents of the content and nature of CHIPS.

As is well known, primary schools in Birmingham have been the subject of the so-called "Trojan Horse" plot - an alleged bid by hard line Islamists to take over some Birmingham schools.
During the annual conference of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), 1-3 May 2015, a headteacher of a Birmingham primary school said that the problems of Trojan Horse had "not gone away". This headteacher, who had been featured in the national press because CHIPS is taught in her school, made claims that teachers in Birmingham had received death threats and dead cats and dogs had been hung on school railings and thrown into some school playgrounds.

On Monday 4 May, the claims about dead animals and death threats made at the NAHT conference, were discussed on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) radio. The show's host, Nick Ferrari, asked Rob Kelsall of the NAHT who he thought was behind the incidents with dead animals. Mr Kelsall replied: “There is a group called the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child [sic] that has unfortunately been agitating parents in some parts of the communities in Birmingham.”

The meaning of Mr Kelsall's statement was clearly that SPUC was responsible for the activities described at the NAHT conference.

SPUC mounted a legal challenge to both LBC and the NAHT and an apology was broadcast on LBC on Friday 24 July as follows:

On my show on 4 May 2015 Rob Kelsall, an officer of the National Association of Head Teachers discussed the unlawful activities of some people in Birmingham opposed to the teaching of a local programme called “Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools. In that context Mr Kelsall named The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. Mr Kelsall wishes to clarify that he did not intend to imply that The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was responsible for or in any way involved in any unlawful activity as he entirely accepts that this is not the case and through me he apologises to the Society.

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Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum is right to link marriage with sanctity of life

As I blogged earlier today, Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum, the Chairman of the health department of the Ghanaian Catholic Bishops' Conference and Bishop for Koforidua Diocese, said earlier this week:

“as the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ghana, we the Bishops recognize that a grave responsibility is imposed on us by our apostolic mandate to reiterate the Church’s true and beautiful teachings on the sanctity of life, the beauty of love, the purity of marriage and family life and the dignity of human sexuality”.

I am delighted that the Ghanaian Catholic bishops' conference are clearly linking marriage (the permanent exclusive union of one man and one woman) to the protection of human life. Earlier this year I spoke at Cleveland Right to Life's Convention "Bringing America Back to Life" and, if you have time, you can view my talk entitled "Why the Pro-Life Movement must embrace the defence of marriage and the family or face defeat".

I also made it clear in my talk that pro-life victory can only be won when church leaders who can reach out to millions of faithful worldwide are working together with the pro-life movement in the unambiguous proclamation of the pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family message. That's why the forthcoming Family Synod in Rome is so critical. Please pray for its outcome.


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Ghana's bishops launch pro-life conference in context of Family Synod

Ghana's bishops launch pro-life conference

The Bishop in Charge of Health of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 launched a Pro-Life Conference, which is aimed at leading Ghanaians to a deeper reflection of the Gospel of Life and appreciating of the sanctity of life, purity of marriage and the dignity of human sexuality.

The two-day Conference (in which I will have the honour to participate on behalf of SPUC) will be held at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra from Saturday, August 7 to Sunday, August 8, 2015  on the theme: Promoting Life and Family Values in the Continuing Culture of Death.

In October 2014, the Holy Father, Pope Francis convoked an Extraordinary Synod on the family in Rome to enable the Church to reflect on the vocation and mission of the family in the contemporary world and to fashion a response to the very challenges that the family of today faces.

Bishops at the Synod observed that over the years, but most importantly in recent times, there had been an increasing encroachment of the proponents of the culture of death in almost every part of the world including Africa.

From African bishops the Synod discovered that the spread of the culture of death was evident in the persistent attempts by some international organisations, wealthy nations and philanthropists to limit, suppress and even destroy the source of human life among Africans.

Launching the Conference at the National Catholic Secretariat, Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum said that recognizing that Ghana is at the heart of the storm and struggle between the culture of life and culture of death in Africa necessitated the organisation of the Conference.

“Realizing the urgent need for the Church in Ghana to rise up and promote the Gospel of life in speaking against the emerging culture of death in Ghana,” was also one of the reasons for the conference, he added.

He noted that the Conference was to strengthen the witness of the faithful and other Christians to promote the dignity of life from conception to natural death; promote long cherished values of family life such as unity, indissolubility, openness to life and incorporating government, leaders and people in the project of building an authentic culture of life in Ghana.

He said that “The Catholic Church acknowledges the important role she has to play in concert with other like-minded Christian groups and Civil Society Organisations in renewing a pro-life mission in the world and calling on contemporary society to a deeper reflection of the Gospel of life.”

He said “as the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ghana, we the Bishops recognize that a grave responsibility is imposed on us by our apostolic mandate to reiterate the Church’s true and beautiful teachings on the sanctity of life, the beauty of love, the purity of marriage and family life and the dignity of human sexuality.”

Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum, said the Conference was aimed at teaching and training the faithful to understand the Gospel of life and to stand and defend the pro-life position of the Church.

In an interview after the launching, the Bishop said the unconditional respect for the right to life of every innocent person from the moment of conception to natural death is one of the pillars upon which every civil society stands and therefore the State has the primary duty to defend life.

To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of family values and the common good, he added, stating that there can be no democracy without the recognition of every person’s dignity nor can there be a guarantee of true peace unless life is defended and promoted.

He lamented that the culture of death was emerging in Africa in a form of population control measures being proposed and propagated in African Nations by some multi-national organisations which had implanted themselves in Africa as a Family Planning Organisations.

He noted that in reality, these organisations were promoting unnatural and artificial means of birth control such as abortion, sterilization, vasectomies, the use of condoms over and above the natural family planning the Catholic Church upholds.

Activities lined-up for the two-day Conference include, a prayer campaign had been declared in all parishes, rectorates and stations from July 22, 2015, lectures by both local and international speakers on August 7, 2015; a pro-life/pro-family match from the from the Holy Spirit cathedral through some principal streets of Accra on August 8, 2015 and the issuing of a communiqué and the encouragement of the mass-media to take up the pro-life campaign throughout the country.

The press launch was attended by members of the Ghana Medical and Ethics Commission, Staff of the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS), and Diocesan Directors of Communications.


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Children of homosexual couples oppose same-sex marriage

Like me, you may be interested in watching this video.

The video simply provides anecdotal evidence supporting the overwhelming case in support of marriage, the lifelong union of a man and woman which is open to children, as the best social context for children to be raised.

No other grouping offers such a high level of that security and stability that human beings need to flourish. Research shows overwhelmingly that children growing up within marriage do better in terms of health, educational success, careers and their own marriages. It is precisely because children matter, that real marriage between one man and one woman matters so much.

In the British context and no doubt elsewhere in the world, we should never tire of pointing out that Government statistics show that (in Britain) children conceived outside of marriage are 4 to 5 times more likely to be aborted than those conceived within marriage.

Tragically, last month, the US Supreme Court,ruled there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, which no state may deny. In doing so they may well have been misled by research from the American Sociological Association (ASA).

According to Dr Patrick Fagan:

The ASA has weighed in strongly supporting same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting with the potent claim that “the clear and consistent social science consensus is that children raised by same sex parents fare just as well as children raised by different sex parents.” This is a selective and dishonest reading of the research.

In a devastating critique, of the ASA, which can be read in full, Pat Fagan details four national survey reports that, through their sample size, give the lie completely to the ASA’s assertions.

We must do everything we can, without fear, if we truly care about children, born and/or unborn, to resist the march of the ideological footsoldiers of the homosexual "rights" lobby not least in their moment of triumph in the US and in Ireland.

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Another young man inspired to join pro-life fight

Ettore (Finaldi) is 15 and at St Thomas More school in Eltham, south London. He belongs to an Italian family and is the eldest of five children.

He came to SPUC's HQ in London to do work experience, and to learn about pro-life work, and he was very much impressed and inspired - as you will see from the letter of thanks received yesterday from Rhoslyn Thomas, SPUC's youth officer and Ettore's line manager whilst he was working for the Society.

Dear Miss Thomas,

I am writing to thank you for giving me a placement at SPUC. I really enjoyed it. I feel I have learned a great deal whilst I was here about the pro-life movement. I particularly enjoyed the trip to the Houses of Parliament and writing the blog. What I found most interesting was how we put the data [concerning new pro-life supporters] into a database. I have also loved working with the great staff.

This has given me an insight into the world of work and I have loved the independence, and using my time for a brilliant cause. Working in the pro-life field has shown me that I want to join SPUC in the future. I will definitely be going for the internship in three years’ time, I have also spoken to Elizabeth Foody about volunteering here in the near future when I have holidays! I would just like to thank you again for this great opportunity.

Yours sincerely

Ettore Finaldi

I don't know about you, but I love Ettore's vision, his sense of independence and his clear commitment to the pro-life cause. I hope he inspires you too ...

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SPUC speaks for unborn children at the UN

 SPUC's Pat Buckley at
the Human Rights Council in Geneva

One of SPUC's most important activities is to be a virtually constant presence at the United Nations where we battle for the right to life of unborn children.

Pat Buckley and Peter Smith are the Society's representatives at the UN - and they are there right now during the final stage of the ongoing negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets (of which more another day) ... Spare a prayer for them, if you would.

Between them, Pat and Peter have clocked up 35 years of patient lobbying of UN delegations from around the world. In great measure, it is thanks to their work (and the work of our international pro-life collaborators) that, for all their terrifying power, the pro-abortion lobby has failed to establish abortion as an internationally-recognised "human right".

SPUC’s UN envoy Patrick Buckley made a powerful intervention in defence of the right to life of unborn babies at the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva last week. The Committee is preparing a new General Comment for Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A discussion day on the Article gathered together key people and representatives of organisations worldwide on both sides of the debate. You can read below Patrick Buckley’s intervention made following SPUC’s written submission at the Human Rights Committee:

Honourable members of the Human Rights Committee,

My name is Patrick Buckley and I speak on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

We have submitted a comprehensive document setting out the reasons unborn babies deserve protection before as well as after birth, both from the point of view of international law and of relevant scientific research.

This Committee has afforded itself a once in a generation opportunity to consider the implications of Article 6 of the ICCPR but we remind the members that in accordance with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties they cannot reinterpret the provisions of the Treaty or expand its meaning.

The basic question is, will the Committee do the right thing and use this opportunity to protect the right to life of the most vulnerable human beings? Or on the other hand will the Committee bow to the ongoing demands of the abortion lobby and attempt to establish a right to kill the unborn rather than logically interpreting the International Bill of Rights and specifically the ICCPR in accordance with its provisions and in accordance with the provisions of the Vienna Convention?

Based on sound science, human embryos, from the moment of fertilisation, are new living human beings because of their unique genome and their ability to direct their own development. To use the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 we are all members of the “human family”. So we say that from the moment of fertilisation we all share a common humanity and that human embryos are equal members of the species homo sapiens. We also say that each stage of development is equal in value to every other stage.

There is a connection between the self-interest of certain communities and the line to be drawn between recognition of persons and non-persons. That self-interest may be driven by eugenic, economic, social or political factors such that those a society wishes to exclude are deemed to be non-persons. History is replete with examples of this phenomenon many of which have been set out in our detailed submission. This should not be allowed to happen.

However cleverly the arguments are presented the taking of a human life the killing of a human being is a heinous crime it is called murder. The killing of the defenceless, the most vulnerable human beings, the unborn baby is the most heinous of crimes and and we call on the Committee to outrightly reject it.

Denying embryonic and foetal human beings their inherent rights can only diminish the whole of humanity and hinder the search for truth that is the essence of the scientific and human endeavour.

Jus cogens (or ius cogens) is a peremptory norm of general international law from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character. The right to life of all human beings has the nature of an intransgressible norm already contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICCPR, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We call on the Committee to reject all practices that enable negative discrimination against human embryos and foetuses. Chief among these are the legalization of abortion and approval for all research that harms or destroys human embryos. Moreover, because human embryos and foetuses cannot consent, even research that is supposed to be directed to their benefit must only be considered with the highest degree of ethical scrutiny.

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Catholics and pro-lifers worldwide receive leadership from Africa's bishops

Culture of Life Africa, an international, Africa-centred, pro-life group is doing simply amazing work in Africa - as are the Catholic bishops in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and many other nations. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is proud of our association with their work.

As a Catholic, I am proud of the pro-life leadership being shown by Catholic bishops in Africa for the following reason ... they are showing themselves to be true shepherds of the universal flock of Catholics and the worldwide pro-life, pro-family movement in their prophetic opposition to abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage ideology being imposed on our children, and population control. This is happening at a time of unprecedented confusion evident at the highest levels in the Catholic Church.

Earlier this month, for example, the Catholic bishops conference of Nigeria issued a powerful resounding statement in the wake of the Irish referendum which had accepted same-sex marriage by popular vote and the US Supreme Court decision which had ruled that there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, which no state may deny. The Nigerian bishops wrote:

“Accepting this western trend by officially endorsing homosexual unions or “same-sex marriage” will be devastating and detrimental to our nation, Nigeria as it will lead to the inevitable deconstruction of the family and the society at large with other serious but negative implications.”

Watch this great video from Cameroon illustrating the pro-life message of the Catholic Archdiocese of Douala, Cameroon, as well as Culture of Life Africa, led by Obianuju Ekeocha (Uju for short) and supported by French-speaking, North East England based, Jean Fleron. SPUC was grateful to be invited by Culture of Life Africa to make a modest donation to their extraordinary, outstandingly generous, pro-life work in Africa, the good consequences of which are experienced by people and nations around the world.

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Nigeria: Catholic bishops advise President Buhari against legalising same-sex marriage

Nigeria: Catholic bishops advise President Buhari against legalising same-sex marriage [24/7 Nigerian News Update, 12 July]

To see a full news summary for 16 July 2015, click here.

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