Saturday 30 October 2010

The greatest achievement of the pro-life movement is that it exists!

In Ottawa, I welcomed delegates on behalf of International Right to Life Federation (IRLF) which was co-sponsoring (in a purely honorary way) Campaign Life Coalition's Congress. I was standing in for our IRLF president Dr Jack Willke (who arrived after the opening ceremony). I said:
The fact that the pro-life movement exists is far more important than any successes we may have enjoyed at the national or international level. Such successes are important – whether they are legislative successes, successes in the courts, or successes enjoyed by a pro-life counselling group or by pro-lifers giving witness outside an abortion clinic.

All such successes, of course, may result in human lives being saved and so their value is immeasurable.

However, what’s most important is that our pro-life movement is well-established and that it’s growing in many countries throughout the world. What’s most important is that our pro-life movement is passing on our expertise in pro-life work to the next generation; what’s most important is that we are passing on to the next generation our knowledge of the truth about the absolute sanctity of human life from conception to natural death and about how respect for human life is rooted in the unchanging truth about human sexuality, about marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman, and about the inalienable rights of parents and of the family.
During the past month - in pro-life conferences in Rome, Glasgow and Ottawa - I have certainly seen living evidence of "expertise in pro-life work" passing on to the next generation - with older statesmen and stateswomen of the pro-life movement sharing the platform with young, and some very young people, who are poised to become significant leaders in their own right.

One of the speaking stars in Ottawa has been Lia Mills, who's 14 (pictured right). As part of a school assignment for the 7th-grade, she chose to write a speech on abortion. In spite of being strongly encouraged not to pursue the topic, and threatened with disqualification on a number of occasions, she pressed on. The YouTube video of her speech has been viewed almost 1,000,000 times by people from around the world. Since then, Lia has worked on several other YouTube videos with the goal of helping educate people on the issue of abortion. She is the spokesperson for Teen Defenders, an organization whose goal is to help connect with youth on the abortion issue.

How fantastic it is that Lia Mills has been able to share the platform here in Ottawa with Dr Jack and Barbara Willke whose Handbook on Abortion was first published in 1971 and is now in its 7th edition. Jack and Barbara are 62 years married, they have 6 children, 22 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Other significant publications include: Abortion and Slavery, History Repeats and Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia, Past & Present and they have co-authored six other books on human sexuality which have been translated into 30 languages. Jack and Barbara are currently working on a history of the pro-life movement in which they have been actively involved as leaders at the federal and state level from the beginning. They have lectured (to date!) in 87 countries.

Jack and Barbara are pictured above at the Congress with Reverend Johnny Hunter, the president of Life Education and Research Network (LEARN), the largest African-American pro-life organization in the US, who inspired delegates with a stunning speech during last night's banquet. Under Reverend Hunter's leadership, the African-American community in the US has become aware of the devastating effects of abortion on their racial group - and he refers to himself as the pastor to the unborn.


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Tough archbishop participates in international pro-life conference in Ottawa

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the archbishop of Ottawa, joined us at the international Congress and celebrated Mass for Catholic delegates this morning.

Archbishop Prendergast is known in Canada for his no-nonsense stand regarding giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians. In an interview with Lifesite news he said: “The Church’s concern is for anyone who persists in grave sin, hoping that medicinal measures ... may draw them away from the wrong path to the truth of our faith”.

I am pictured above sharing a meal with the archbishop at the Congress, together with Kit and Fenny Tatad from the Philippines. Kit Tatad was for many years majority leader in the Philippines Senate. He addressed the congress today on the huge international attack on the Philippines constitutional protection for the unborn, led by pro-abortion Barack Obama's administration in the US. Kit and Fenny work closely with the Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Philippines in opposing the pro-abortion/contraceptive imperialism of the western world. The Philippines bishops and people are resisting these pressures with great courage. (They need our prayerful support - and they need pro-life campaigners, politicians and church leaders in the western world to expose and to denounce and oppose their governments’ pro-abortion imperialistic foreign policies towards the Philippines.)

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“I will fight abortion until the day I die” says Mother Teresa Award winner

During Campaign Life Coalition’s conference in Ottawa this weekend, Heather Stilwell, a pro-life activist, was awarded LifeCanada's annual Mother Teresa Award. She's pictured, right, receiving the award from Monica Roddis, acting president of LifeCanada, (who hails from Manchester, England!), and with Elizabeth, the youngest of Heather’s eight children.

Apart from taking on leadership roles in politics and in the pro-life movement, she became a school board trustee and was famous for her opposition to sex education, abortion and the promotion of homosexuality in schools. In 1997 Heather was involved in a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the decision to allow in Catholic elementary schools three children's books which portrayed same-sex parents.

Two years ago the Heather was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and various treatments but recently decided that the cancer had become too aggressive and she decided to stop all treatment. It was her wish that she would be able to attend the 2010 international congress in Ottawa, involving a 7 hour trip from her home in British Columbia. Receiving the award, Heather told us that she would fight abortion till she day she dies. I have rarely been so moved.


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Canadian writer and painter gives advice on spreading pro-life message

One of the most thought-provoking presentations at this weekend’s Campaign Life Coalition Conference in Ottawa Building a Global Culture of Life was from Michael O’Brien (pictured). Michael is a painter, novelist and essayist. 

Responding to an eloquent young man’s question as to how he should transmit the pro-life message to his peers, Michael O’Brien said: “Be who you are. You are already a light to the world. You are already the salt of the earth. And take the blows you receive from people who attack you or undermine you and convert those blows into a prayer for those who are striking you.” 

His paintings hang in churches, monasteries, universities, community collections and private collections in the US, Canada, England, Australia and Africa. He is the author of several books, notably a seven volume series of novels: the first volume, Father Elijah, has sold more than 40,000 copies in hard cover.  His most recent novel is Theophilus, the story of the man to whom St. Luke addressed his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.  Michael and his wife Sheila have six children.

 
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Campaign Life Coalition is led by a man of vision

My snapshot (right) expresses for me what real pro-life leadership is all about. It's Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition and my fellow vice-president of International Right to Life Federation. He's bringing in extra chairs to a congress hall overflowing with delegates.

Over 30 years ago, Jim sacrificed a successful business career to establish the pro-life struggle in Canada which he's led ever since. Apart from leading one of the world's toughest pro-life political battles with great skill and legendary good humour - unborn children in Canada have no legal protection whatsover -  Jim's vision and generosity have resulted in pro-life initiatives whose positive impact is being experienced worlwide - including Lifesite news and Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

John-Henry Westen, co-founder and first editor of Lifesite news, is pictured here on the conference platform in Ottawa with Deborah Gyapong, a TV, radio and print journalist for over 20 years. John-Henry has become one of the world’s leading pro-life witnesses. Earlier this month at the World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome he spoke powerfully about his conversion experience to life and to family values, inspired by the example of his father (who, John-Henry tells me, was, in his turn, inspired by the leadership of Jim Hughes). John-Henry’s Lifesite news articles now appear in hundreds of publications worldwide. He and Dianne, his wife, have seven children.
Deborah Gyapong belongs to the traditional Anglican communion and she now reports on religion and politics principally for Roman Catholic and evangelical newspapers. In 2005, the manuscript for her suspense novel The Defilers won the Best New Canadian Christian Fiction Award. The prize included publication. The Defilers was released in May 2006.

Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and Susan, his wife, have six children. Alex has just returned from a speaking tour of Australia - and he's pictured (right) at the Ottawa conference where, with Peter Ryan, a moral theologian, he addressed us on euthanasia. The goal of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is to help in building around the world well-informed, broad-based, groups in order to establish an effective social barrier to euthanasia and assisted suicide.


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Friday 29 October 2010

Pope Benedict puts abortion at centre of Brazilian presidential election campaign

Pope Benedict could not have been more blunt about abortion, euthanasia, and the forthcoming presidential election in Brazil, according to Dr Talmir Rodriguez, a member of Brazil's federal parliament. He is chairman of the Brazil parliament's (over 200-strong) pro-life group of elected representatives.

Talmir (pictured here across the breakfast table!) and I met this morning during Canada's Campaign Life Coalition Congress in Ottawa at which we are speaking this weekend. We were discussing the Pope's address yesterday to Brazil's national conference of bishops (its north east region). The bishops were in Rome for their 5-yearly "ad limina" visit. Talmir told me:
"The Pope told the bishops that Brazilians must not vote for a clearly pro-abortion candidate to be Brazil's president, a candidate who belongs to a party, officially known to be pro-abortion, indeed a party which will not accept politicians who refuse to vote for abortion".
Pope Benedict said:
"First, the duty of direct action to ensure a just ordering of society falls to the lay faithful who, as free and responsible citizens, strive to contribute to the just configuration of social life, while respecting legitimate autonomy and natural moral law.

"Your duty as bishops, together with your clergy, is indirect because you must contribute to the purification of reason, and to the moral awakening of the forces necessary to build a just and fraternal society. Nonetheless, when required by the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls, pastors have the binding duty to emit moral judgments, even on political themes.

"When forming these judgements, pastors must bear in mind the absolute value of those ... precepts which make it morally unacceptable to chose a particular action which is intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity. This decision cannot be justified by the merit of some specific goal, intention, consequence or circumstance, thus it would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defence of the right to life from conception to natural end. When it comes to defending the weakest, who is more defenceless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or comatose state?

"When political projects openly or covertly contemplate the depenalisation of abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal (which is truly democratic when it recognises and protects the dignity of all human beings) is betrayed at its very foundations. For this reason, dear brothers in the episcopate, when defending life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, rejecting all compromise and ambiguity which would conform us to the mentality of this world."
In order to understand the significance of Pope Benedict's comments, we should bear in mind recently reported developments in the Brazilian presidential election campaign:

Dilma Rousseff, the Brazil Workers' party presidential candidate, had described herself as personally opposed to abortion. This prompted Archbishop Aldo Pagotto of Paraiba to accuse Brazil’s Workers' Party of 'misinformation and manipulation of consciences'.

Catholic News Agency reported:
"In a video released Oct. 11, the archbishop said the party’s actions on behalf of its candidate ... are aimed at 'deceiving voters' into believing that she does not favour any legalization of abortion in the country. However, in an internet video produced in 2007, she is shown arguing that, 'Today in Brazil, it is absurd that abortion has not yet been legalized’.

"The archbishop charged that since the 1990s the Workers' Party has been in league with international organizations that have financed the expansion of contraception and abortion in Brazil.

“'Ever since it rose to power, the Workers' Party agenda has been the complete legalization of abortion in Brazil', he said."
Whatever the outcome of the presidential election - and I'm told it's not looking good - these are exactly the kind of interventions the world needs from religious leaders. The last four decades have seen the greatest slaughter of human beings in the history of the world by abortion, abortifacient birth control, human embryo experimentation and, increasingly by euthanasia. Countless millions of human beings are being killed each year in defiance of international agreements which uphold the right to life for all members of the human family. The Pope's remarks to the Brazilian bishops have universal application:
" ...it would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defence of the right to life from conception to natural end."
Pope Benedict rightly recognizes the role of the lay faithful to work for the just ordering of society - but it falls to church leaders to provide "moral awakening". Let's pray that Pope Benedict has the strength, through such leadership, to turn the current strong tide of episcopal acquiescence to pro-abortion, anti-parents governments, especially in Britain.

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Jack Valero of Catholic Voices sells the pass again on Catholic Church teaching on condoms

Yesterday Jack Valero, speaking on behalf of Catholic Voices, was interviewed by the BBC World Service about the distribution of condoms by a Catholic church (pictured) in Lucerne, Switzerland (see full transcript below). He was interviewed alongside Mr Florian Flohr, a spokesman for the Lucerne church. Interestingly, the presenter said:
"We actually invited the Vatican to come on the programme and speak about this. They told us there was no need to, because the Catholic Church's view on this issue is already known."
Last week Mr Valero affirmed that he:
"totally support[s] the Magisterium of the Church as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all the relevant encyclicals (Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, etc)"
Yet yesterday Mr Valero again let down the pro-life/pro-family movement by once more misrepresenting and short-selling Catholic Church teaching on condoms. Mr Valero again made the false claim that "the Church is not against condoms", and again was silent on the primary reason why the Catholic Church is against condoms. The primary reason why the Catholic Church is against condoms is because condoms' use, by closing the marital act to the transmission of life, separates the procreative and unitive dimensions of sexual intercourse, contrary to the crystal-clear teaching of Humanae Vitae that:
"[E]ach and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life." (Humanae Vitae, 11)
Mr Valero merely described the Lucerne church's condom distribution as "a mistake". In this Mr Valero repeated his same woefully inadequate description of April's disgusting Foreign Office memo as just a bad joke. There is a world of difference in explaining things and in explaining away things.

Mr Valero's approach was entirely consequentialist, focusing on the effectiveness of Catholic campaigns against promiscuity and ineffectiveness of condom distribution campaigns respectively in reducing the spread of HIV. Even on that point Mr Valero misrepresented Catholic teaching, by claiming that the Church preaches both chastity ("abstinence before marriage, fidelity within marriage") and limiting promiscuity ("delaying sexual activity and reducing the number of partners"). The delay of sexual activity and reduction in partners is no different to what IPPF, FPA, Marie Stopes etc say is the benefit from their sex education programmes. So it is entirely unsurprising that the Lucerne church spokesman responded:
"Yes, I agree with my colleague [Mr Valero] that the main thing is not the condom ... We preach the same thing, the ABC rule, A is abstinence, B is be faithful, [C is use a condom if you can't abstain or be faithful]" [my emphases] 
Mr Valero was conspicuously silent on Mr Flohr's repeated claims that condom use is an open question for Catholics and that conscience and pluralism are more important than church authority. Mr Valero ignored a golden opportunity to uphold Catholic teaching on condom use, conspicuously failing to follow up the presenter's question to Mr Flohr that distributing condoms "flout(s) papal doctrine". Mr Valero also flatly spurned another golden opportunity when he was asked directly:
"Is this church breaking away from Rome?"
Mr Valero's reply:
"No, I don't think so, but on the other hand I don't think that in Switzerland we need condoms to fight AIDS. AIDS in Switzerland is under control."
Jack Valero has said that Catholic Voices' tactic in dealing with questions from the media is "re-framing". It seems that his idea of "re-framing" is actually to leave Catholic Church teaching out of the frame when it's convenient to do so.

"Swiss Catholic church hands out condoms in HIV/Aids campaign", BBC World Service, 28 October 2010, SPUC transcript:

Florian Flohr: "I think that we have to give a sign to the people that we are open to speak about all problems, and without taboos about this question of AIDS. It was not a question of distributing condoms as flyers for a pizza service but was always part of a discussion, and a good part of this action, I think."

Presenter to Flohr: "Well that's a very interesting point - how are you actually distributing these condoms? Is it on church territory, or are you out and about in the community with this?"

Flohr: "No. We had two parts of this action. The one part was an exposition on a truck in a place in front of the main station of Lucerne, and we were also at this truck, nearby, and we discussed with the people, with the young people about AIDS in Switzerland. There were very good talks. There was a 65-year-old woman who came to me and asked me for four condoms, and I was a little astonished, and she said: "They are not for me, but I have four grandsons, and I want to discuss with them about AIDS, and that's a very good sign to discuss with them."

Presenter to Flohr: "But nonetheless, this does flout papal doctrine, doesn't it? Have you been in contact with the Vatican? Did you ask them about this before you decided it, or have they been in touch with you?"

Flohr: "No, we decided the action, reflecting on the affair of AIDS, and looking at many statements of bishops around the world, the sentence that 'you can't speak about AIDS without speaking of condoms' of our bishop[s?] of Germany. So I think there is no one doctrine in the Catholic Church but there is a big discussion for years already, and we are part of this discussion."

Presenter: "We actually invited the Vatican to come on the programme and speak about this. They told us there was no need to, because the Catholic Church's view on this issue is already known. But let's bring in Jack Valero, who is press officer for Opus Dei, and a member of Catholic Voices, which is an organisation which provides the media with comment on major issues such as this. Jack Valero, what do you make of this decision by this Swiss church?"

Jack Valero: "Well, I'm not there, but from here, it's looks to me like it's a mistake. The Catholic Church has an approach about AIDS in Africa which works, which is based on behaviour change and education, and I think that's the emphasis. There are many agencies and governments distributing condoms in Africa. They have been doing so for 25 years and they haven't seemed to have worked; the pandemic continues. Behaviour change has been the one thing which has worked."

Presenter to Valero: "Many people would disagree with you on that, they would say that condom use and its free access has been the main thing that has worked."

Valero: "OK. If you take the statements by Edward Green of Harvard, who is one of the experts on AIDS, and he's in favour of using condoms but he thinks that condom campaigns haven't worked, the more condoms you've thrown [at the problem], the worse it has become. The Catholic Church has a different approach - it says, we preach behaviour change, fidelity, abstinence before marriage, fidelity in marriage, and even we preach delaying sexual activity and reducing the number of partners. These definitely work in saving lives, which is what we're all interested in. We have this approach because of this view which we have that sex is for marriage. We're not against condoms - we're against promiscuity, we're against sexual violence, against rape, prostitution; these are the things we're working against, these are the things that if we manage to control, then AIDS will end. The Catholic Church is doing very good work there, and I think that condoms, it completely misses the point of what the Church does."

Presenter: "Let's bring Florian back in on that again."

Flohr: "Yes, I agree with my colleague [Mr Valero] that the main thing is not the condom. We didn't preach to use condom and don't think about it. We preach the same thing, the ABC rule, A is abstinence, B is be faithful, but there are many situations and many people who can't live this, and for them, condoms is one possibility, not a miracle possibility, not the best one, but it is one, and we want to give this thing here because many people do think that the Catholic Church doesn't allow condoms, and I think that that's not true, and we want to say that we're open, discuss with us and discuss with each other because that's the most important."

Presenter to Flohr: "Florian Flohr, what do you think about local Catholic churches having more freedom to make these decisions about using condoms or talking to their parishioners about it, you know, churches in Africa for example where this is a real concern for lots of parishioners. Should local people, local priests have more say about whether or not to talk about condoms?"

Flohr: "I think that there are so many bishops who say this, that not speaking about condoms is unethical, that it's allowed for priests to do this, and it's not the affair of giving condoms, hundreds of condoms, but to make the people think about their behaviour, their sexuality, their responsibility, but not excluding the condom, and that's our message, I think the freedom is there."

Presenter: "Move away then from the church's hierarchy, from the hierarchical structure, from central control, a move away from that, you advocate?"

Flohr: "We think that in many questions, pluralism within the Church is good, is OK, because in this question there is no dogma. There are some preachers of the Pope, but there are also other bishops who say other things. So it's good that there is a discussion without being enemies but to demonstrate different points of view."

Presenter to Flohr: "What about the use of condoms for other reasons, not just for HIV/AIDS but for family planning for example?"

Flohr: "There we think that people are informed that condoms is not the most certain thing in this area and they also have to discuss this. I think the most important [thing] in the Catholic Church is the personal consciousness [conscience] and not what any priest or so said. Every person has to have his or her own opinion and listen to his own consciousness [conscience]

Presenter to Valero: "We're short of time. Is this church breaking away from Rome?"

Valero: "No, I don't think so, but on the other hand I don't think that in Switzerland we need condoms to fight AIDS. AIDS in Switzerland is under control. In Africa I'm sure that all the priests there look after every person who has AIDS there very well and gives them good advice. But I do think, and that it is the case that, in the main, the Catholic Church's message - which is not against condoms, which is against promiscuity, it's about behaviour change - is very helpful. There is no need. There's lots and lots of agencies and governments pushing condoms, there's no need for us to push them, we have our own message which works, and I'm sure that the priests in Africa do that very well."

END

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Thursday 28 October 2010

Vigil for the unborn outside Parliament marks Abortion Act anniversary

I am delighted to have been sent a report about yesterday's vigil for the unborn in London - to my temporary desk in a hotel room in Ottawa where I'm speaking at Campaign Life Coalition's annual Congress.

Dr Peter Saunders, the widely respected campaign director of Care Not Killing and chief executive officer of the Christian Medical Fellowship, is seen in the picture, above, addressing the Stop Think Choose Life Campaign Vigil outside Parliament yesterday.  It was an initiative of Christian Concern led by Andrea Williams. Peter drew attention to the 1967 Abortion Act and to the continuing legalized violence against unborn human lives and the dignity of mothers and fathers.


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Wednesday 27 October 2010

Pro-life leaders' family spans four generations

I've just arrived in Ottawa to join pro-life colleagues at an international pro-life conference entitled Building a global culture of life.

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) is organizing the conference which is co-sponsored by LifeCanada, International Right to Life Federation (of which I have the honour to be joint vice-president with Jim Hughes, CLC president) and LifeSite news.

The star speakers this weekend are, indubitably, Dr Jack and Barbara Willke who are pictured above at the Cincinnatti Right to Life Banquet which took place last Thursday. The picure reflects four generations of the Willke family: Jack and Barbara, Bob and Marie (Jack's and Barbara's daughter) Meyers, Steve (Bob and Marie's son) and Gina Meyers. The great granddaughter (Steve's and Gina's daughter) is Julia. Jack and Barbara have six children and 22 grandchildren (and one great grandchild).They are speaking on Saturday on the history of the pro-life movement.

Jack is the president of both International Right to Life Federation and Life Issues Institute.

Jack and Barbara Willke not only head a family spanning four generations. They are also authors of their fourth generation book, video, PowerPoint and slide set, Abortion, Questions and Answers: Why Can’t We Love Them Both. These succeeded the seven editions of their classic books, beginning with Handbook on Abortion in 1971, being the most widely read books in the world presenting the scientific case for the unborn. These have been published in 21 languages worldwide. He has also written Abortion and Slavery, History Repeats, and Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia, Past & Present. Dr. and Mrs. Willke are the authors of six other books in the field of human sexuality. Their works have been translated into 32 languages.

Let me know if you are interested in receiving a list of their publications.

I am most grateful to Brad Mattes, executive director and co-founder of Life Issues Institute, for sending me the picture-story above!

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Good news from Europe about protecting women and children from population control

CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education) has sent us the following good news:
"As every year, CARE helped promote an amendment to the European Commission's annual budget this week to prevent any funding going to family planning programmes in which coercion or compulsion is used. We are pleased to be able to report that an amendment to this effect (last passed in 2007, but rejected in 2008 & 2009) was adopted by a healthy majority of 372 to 279, with 21 abstentions. You can see which British MEPs supported the amendment here. Please consider writing to thank one or all of the MEPs in your region.
In addition, amendments to the 2011 budget were passed. These call for European funds - which support human rights campaigners in other countries - to be made available for combating forced abortion, sterilisation and even infanticide, which are used for example in China to enforce state family planning policies."
This good news from the European Parliament follows the good news earlier this month from another European institution, the Council of Europe. The council's parliamentary assembly rejected strongly a proposed crack down on medical staff who refuse to be complicit in abortion and other anti-life practices. Prior to that vote, SPUC had written to its supporters and contacts in the member-states of the Council of Europe.

These pro-life victories in the European institutions show that intelligent, organised and uncompromisingly pro-life lobbying is effective in protecting unborn children, their mothers and other vulnerable individuals.


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Support SPUC by ordering from our popular range of Christmas gifts

SPUC has a popular range of Christmas cards, Christmas gifts and other merchandise for sale online in our webshop Order early to avoid disappointment (for Christmas delivery order by 30 November):
  • 30 quality Christmas cards for only £5.90
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  • pro-life badges and stickers - great stocking fillers!
  • educational books, video and learning aids
  • pro-life t-shirt
  • all purchases covered by our money-back guarantee
You can also order by telephone on (020) 7091 7091 between 10am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

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Tuesday 26 October 2010

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

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

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

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Monday 25 October 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Money more valuable than human life, says Baroness Warnock

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

The motion of the debate was ‘Assisted Suicide should be legalised: the terminally ill should have the legal right to be helped to end their lives.’ Speaking for the motion was:
  • Emily Jackson, professor of law at the London School of Economics
  • Baroness Mary Warnock, moral philosopher, and
  • Debbie Purdy, the assisted suicide campaigner with multiple sclerosis.
Speaking against the motion was:
  • Lord Alex Carlile QC, barrister
  • Patrick Stone, Macmillan Reader in Palliative Medicine, St George’s University of London; and
  • Lord Richard Harries, former Anglican bishop of Oxford.
The debate was chaired by Sue Lawley, journalist and broadcaster.

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

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

before
  • for: 408
  • against: 110
  • don’t know: 117
after:
  • for: 406
  • against: 208
  • don’t Know: 34
So a large number of the 'don’t knows' decided to vote against against assisted suicide.

Dan also reports that Baroness Warnock said that, that unlike gold and platinum, life does not have value in itself. Her claim reminds me of Psalm 134:15-17, which reads:
"The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, but they speak not: they have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths."
I found Baroness Warnock's claim - which says effectively that money is more valuable than life - truly frightening. This is the same materialistic attitude that resulted in the lives of countless millions of slaves being sacrificed in the name of profit.

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Friday 22 October 2010

Jack Valero of Catholic Voices issues a statement about condoms

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

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

Regards

Jack
Jack Valero's statement is as follows:
"Some people who did not see the whole of my appearance on Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) in early September and only read what was selectively quoted on this blog may have misunderstood my views about condoms and AIDS. I would like to make it clear I totally support the Magisterium of the Church as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all the relevant encyclicals (Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, etc). Anyone who would like further clarification can easily contact me through Catholic Voices, Opus Dei, Facebook, etc."
Unfortuntately, Jack Valero's statement includes nothing which addresses the scandal caused by what he said on Sunday Morning Live in early September. Indeed it compounds that scandal by suggesting that his comments on Sunday Morning Live can be understood to be true to Catholic church teaching on the transmission of human life.

Here again is what Jack Valero said on behalf of Catholics:
Jack Valero: The Church is not against condoms the Church is against promiscuity

Julie Bindel: The Church is against condoms!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack Valero: But, but, we're talking here about HIV, no the Church is against contraception.
Jack Valero attempts to make a distinction between the use of condoms to prevent conception and the use of condoms to prevent HIV; and attempts to claim that the Church is not against condoms on the grounds that the Church is not against the use of condoms to prevent HIV.

Yet Humanae Vitae is crystal-clear in its prohibition of any action by a couple to close the marital act to the transmission of life:
"[E]ach and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life." (Humanae Vitae, 11)
As I said at the time, Mr Valero is providing a bridgehead for other Catholics in representative positions to adopt their own dissenting interpretations, not just of Catholic teaching on the use of condoms, but on other areas of Catholic teaching on life and family.

I say this, quite openly, in the spirit described as follows by Archbishop Raymond Burke, soon to be made a cardinal, in his address to the World Prayer Congress for Life earlier this month:
" ... One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "dictatorship of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities ... "
And on Humanae Vitae and the separation of the unitive and the procreative dimensions of sexual intercourse, Archbishop Burke said:
"... A second fundamental presupposition of my presentation is the essential relationship of the respect for human life and the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family. The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union."
And elsewhere he said:
" ... A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life."
Visitors may wish to make up their own mind about the nature of Jack Valero's comments by watching Sunday Morning Live for themselves.


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Thursday 21 October 2010

Why the pro-life movement must tackle contraception head on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Catholics scandalised by fellow Catholics must speak out says Archbishop Burke

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

To my mind, there are three essential documents to study for all pro-lifers and people of good will who are seeking to build a culture of life: the papal encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae, on both of which I have written frequently, and now, albeit at a different level, Archbishop Burke's speech to the pro-life congress in Rome "Catholic orthodoxy: antidote against the culture of death". Here are some extracts:
" ... The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union. The so-called "contraceptive mentality" is essentially antilife.Many forms of so-called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy, at its beginning, a life which has already been conceived ...

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

"The lack of integrity in obeying the Magisterium is also seen in the hypocrisy of Catholics who claim to be practicing their faith but who refuse to apply the truth of the faith in their exercise of politics, medicine, business and the other human endeavors. These Catholics claim to hold “personally” to the truth of the faith, for example, regarding the inviolability of innocent and defenseless human life, while, in the political arena or in the practice of medicine, they cooperate in the attack on our unborn brothers and sisters, or on our brothers and sisters who have grown weak under the burden of years, of illness, or of special needs. Their disobedience pertains not to some truth particular to the life of the Church, that is, not to some confessional matter, but to the truth of the divine natural law written on every human heart and, therefore, to be obeyed by all men.
Archbishop Burke went on to talk about "the scandal of disobedience to the Magisterium" - in words which can clearly be applied to the scandal of Greg Pope's actions as an MP, the same Mr Pope who has been appointed deputy director of the Catholic Education Service (CES) of England and Wales. I will return to this topic soon. I will do so in the spirit Archbishop Burke described in his address as follows:
" ... One of the ironies of the present situation is that the person who experiences scandal at the gravely sinful public actions of a fellow Catholic is accused of a lack of charity and of causing division within the unity of the Church. In a society whose thinking is governed by the "dictatorship of relativism" and in which political correctness and human respect are the ultimate criteria of what is to be done and what is to be avoided, the notion of leading someone into moral error makes little sense. What causes wonderment in such a society is the fact that someone fails to observe political correctness and, thereby, seems to be disruptive of the so-called peace of society.

"Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth with love. The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life. Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities ... "
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Tuesday 19 October 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That evening I looked up Club4U on the internet and found a number of "Help on the Web" links on their Think Positive page. One click on spunout on that page took me to another page where I clicked on sexual health where, lo and behold, Irish youngsters - maybe youngsters whose families go to Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception - can be introduced to the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) which is affiliated to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the largest abortion-promoting agency in the world. The IFPA is the organization which earlier this month held a conference in Northern Ireland entitled the 'First All-Ireland Conference on Abortion and Clinical Practice'. The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland has issued a statement "deploring" and "opposing" the conference, saying:
"This conference is clearly designed to undermine the rights and welfare of children in the womb and the consistently pro-life position of the majority of people on this island. It is an attempt to normalise what is unacceptable. We appeal to all those who cherish the inherent dignity of human life in all its stages to join us in expressing opposition to this event.

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

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

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

"No one should be forced to act against their conscience on a moral issue as fundamental as the right to life of the unborn. Employers and others must therefore uphold the right of every person to have their moral conscience and deeply held religious beliefs respected."
It breaks my heart that Ireland, whose history and whose people have repeatedly demonstrated their outstanding defence of Christian values and the sanctity of human life, should be targeted by the culture of death so aggressively. The promoters of the culture of death do not even stop at the door of the church as I found in Oughterard, County Galway, last month, in that most sacred place for the Catholic community - a Catholic church where the Blessed Sacrament is being exposed.

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


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Monday 18 October 2010

Please respond to UK government consultation seeking to promote abortion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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


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Saturday 16 October 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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Friday 15 October 2010

Pro-life lobby succeeds at the UN

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

Earlier this year, Pat Buckley, SPUC's chief lobbyist at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva,launched an appeal to church leaders and pro-life groups worldwide to oppose an extreme, "ideologically driven" pro-abortion report produced by Navanethem Pillay, the High Commissioner on Human Rights, being "bounced through the Human Rights Council. Pat said at the time:
"This report is being bounced through the United Nations forums, blatantly ignoring any evidence which disputes its conclusions and deliberately avoiding debate. The clear intention of the powers-that be is to use this ideologically-driven report's findings to influence the Millennium Development Goals Review later this year at the UN in New York."
At Pat Buckley's instigation, SPUC issued a worldwide alert in five languages warning that a right to abortion, under the guise of reproductive health, would be proposed at a United Nations (UN) summit in New York between 20 and 22 September 2010 and urging pro-lifers around the world to take action - in particular to contact the most relevant government officials in their countries objecting to the attempts being made to promote abortion under the guise of reproductive health.

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

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

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

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Thursday 14 October 2010

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

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

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

Amongst the report's appalling major recommendations, accepted by the government, were the following:
  • that all schools including faith schools must teach all aspects of sex and relationships education within the context of relationships in an anti-discriminatory way; they said that contraception, abortion and homosexuality are all legal in this country and therefore all children and young people should be able to learn the correct facts
  • that sex and relationships education should include explicit links to young people's advisory services and provision of contraception and sexual health services and young people should be taught how to access such services
The TPIAG report also commended the Government for its decision to make sex and relationships education compulsory for schoolchildren from 5 to 16 and they sai:
"We are very pleased that Church of England and Catholic Church are also supporting this move."
(Fortunately, in a significant victory for SPUC and for the pro-life and pro-family movement, the compulsory sex and relationships education clauses in the previous government's Children Schools and Families bill were defeate - in spite of the support of church leaders in England and Wales.)

The TPIAG, of course, were referring to the Catholic Education Service and to the Catholic Bishops' Conference and England Wales. As I mentioned at the time, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) taught (whilst Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith):
"We must not forget that the episcopal conferences have no theological basis, they do not belong to the structure of the Church, as willed by Christ, that cannot be eliminated ... No episcopal conference, as such, has a teaching mission: its documents have no weight of their own save that of the consent given to them by the individual bishops."
I do hope that the CES and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) will use the opportunity provided by the scrapping of the TPIAG to scrap their scandalous co-operation with the government on sex and relationships education which includes providing access to schoolchildren in Catholic schools to abortion and birth control drugs and devices without parental knowledge or consent. In place of such co-operation, the CES and the CBCEW should get its policies in line with the Catholic Church's key teaching document on sex education, The truth and meaning of human sexuality: guidelines for education within the family.

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

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

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