JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Catholic Education Service tells Catholics to "pull together"

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Catholic Education Service tells Catholics to "pull together"

It's difficult to know where to begin with the most recent reported statements from the Catholic Education Service (CES) on the appointment of Greg Pope, former Labour MP for Hyndburn, as its new deputy director. In a recent blogpost I gave a very full account of Mr Pope's lengthy and appalling anti-life and anti-family parliamentary record.

Oona Stannard says:

" ... At a time when as Catholics we particularly need to pull together, the undermining of Mr Pope saddens me ... "

She continues:

" ... His first line responsibility is the organisational management of CESEW but like all senior colleagues at CESEW he will be involved in policy work. In this and all aspects of his role he is required to uphold the Church’s teachings. This is a responsibility that he has willingly committed to undertake and I have every confidence that he will fulfil this expectation ... "

Can Oona Stannard explain, please, how the appointment of Greg Pope as deputy director of the Catholic Education Service, in the light of his lengthy and appalling anti-life and anti-family parliamentary record, helps Catholics to "pull together"?

Is Oona Stannard able to understand that Catholics and pro-life and pro-family campaigners feel that it is they who are being undermined and, I would say, oppressed by episcopal policy in England and Wales on sex and relationships education and, not least, through this latest appointment?

How does Oona Stannard reconcile Greg Pope's lengthy and appalling anti-life and anti-family parliamentary record with his responsibility in his new job "to uphold the Church's teachings"? When Oona Stannard says: "This is a responsibility that he has willingly committed to undertake and I have every confidence that he will fulfil this expectation ... ", on what basis does she have this confidence? Did he renounce those aspects of his parliamentary record to which I referred in my recent blogpost?

Greg Pope, for his part, is reported as saying:

“ ... I really want [to] look forward now to how I can serve the Catholic Church through its Education Service rather than debate the minutiae of previous voting tactics in the House of Commons ... "

Can Mr Pope understand why Catholics, pro-lifers and pro-family campaigners who've studied his lengthy and appalling anti-life and anti-family parliamentary record may not be content to allow matters to rest there?

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.