De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  Writing  in Lifesite  yesterday, Dr. Joseph Shaw makes a point that cannot be over-stressed regarding Catholic education. As the deadline for the introduction of new PHSE legislation draws ever closer, Dr. Shaw is speaking out, having tried to discuss the matter with bishops and even instigating a prayer vigil outside Westminster Cathedral . As any of us who have tried to engage have come to expect, the only received responses were formulaic & patronising telling Shaw and his co-enquirers that everything would be fine. The incoming legislation is deeply problematic. As Dr. Shaw writes , this "legislation is imposing a program of “Personal, Health, and Sex Education” (PHSE) that demands that choosing not to kill the child in the womb is just one acceptable option among others, and that Christian marriage is just one lifestyle choice alongside same-sex unions and every other possibility. We know from the lesson plans, produced not only by the government, but by t...

Anyone who knows the history of the decline of the Church in this country knows much of the genesis of the present situation can be traced back to one man: Derek Worlock. Worlock was appointed private secretary to Cardinal Griffin, and assisted successive cardinal-archbishops of Westminster for almost two decades. He attended every session of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965 when he was appointed Bishop of Portsmouth on 18 October. He was eventually appointed Archbishop of Liverpool in 1976 and by Christmas, Worlock had produced a master-plan for the Archdiocese which was not well received by many of the senior clergy, so Worlock launched a charm offensive on the younger clergy—and Fr. Vincent Nichols became his young protege alongside Fr. John Furnival who was ordained in 1976 and acted as his private secretary right up until his death in 1996.  Worlock instigated what became known as "The Magic Circle", a largely self-selecting small pool of...

I think this post on the Muniment Room has some really important and necessary insights. It really joins together the dots so that you can see how things fit together. It begins by examining the position of Catholic Voices , how much authority does the organisation  have to speak on catholic issues? Who guarantees their Catholicity? These are questions which were voiced at the organisation's inception. Officialy, the authoritative source about Catholicism in the UK is the Catholic Communications Network (CCN) of the CBCEW. Catholic Voices then, is a conduit; a simple way for a media outlet to find an "every day Catholic" to comment when it needs somebody who isn't an official spokesman for the Church (mind you, when was the last time you saw any "official spokesperson for the Church"?). However, Ttony reports "that any call to the CCN asking for a Catholic comment on an issue of the moment gets forwarded routinely to CV and that, furthermore,...

Further to the #CESScandal featuring in the Catholic Herald this weekend, Counter Cultural Father has posted an excellent summation of the points he, Caroline Farrow and Dr. Joseph Shaw  and myself have been trying to make about the issue. Although the Herald article concludes that "If this document is a mock exam for the CES, it may need to improve its game by the time the real tests begin" The general tone of the article appears overly benign and fails to draw attention to many of the very real issues with the CES document. As my pseudonymous associate asserts, these are numerous and manifest: The approach The overall thrust of this document is that we should not bully people who identify as gay or bisexual (or whose parents or carers do) because gay and bisexual people are just as good as us, but different. That is wrong. We should not bully them because we should not bully anyone - even if they (or their parents) are bad. The risk of the approach taken is t...

Society is changing under the influence of a highly organised and well connected lobby who are promoting homosexuality as the benchmark of a fair progressive society. Parents expect school to provide an education for their children, but would they accept their children being subjected gay propaganda? My experience is that even very progressive parents baulk at the idea of their children being subjected to detailed accounts of homosexuality as normative. And this is understandable on many levels. Homosexuality is not normative and has been consistently condemned throughout history by cultures all over the world. If you think there's nothing to be worried about, perhaps a first hand account of what it is to be homosexual might enlighten you , if you have the stomach. However, the Catholic Education Service seem to think the best way to deal with this aggressive attack on the family and, let's face it, objective reality, is to get into bed with one of the most aggre...

There's a rather weak article in The Catholic Herald today about the CES scandal . One might even say the publication is being leaned on by the CES? It says The Catholic Education Service has defended a controversial booklet on homophobic bullying in Catholic schools. Linking to CC Father, it also states: Critics have also suggested that there are similarities in wording in the document to that of materials produced by gay rights groups Stonewall and lgbtyouth Scotland. Errr no, critics have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the document contains exactly the same text as huge swathes of the Stonewall and lgbtyouth Scotland websites! Why would the Catholic Herald state that "critics have suggested.." when anyone could check and establish the facts for themselves on this? Surely it would be good journalism to do so and report the facts? The article quotes the CES as having made the following statement “How schools tackle homophobic bullyin...

The appalling Catholic Education Service document on homophobic bullying I blogged about here contains material directly lifted from Stonewall. Stonewall is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights lobby group in the United Kingdom. It is now the largest LGBT pressure group in Europe. It's sole purpose and agenda is to promote homosexuality, a lifestyle at odds with Catholic teaching. CES DOCUMENT STONEWALL This is hugely problematic. You can view the Stonewall website for yourself here and make the comparison - go to page 6 and you will see this is a direct lift  https://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/getting_started_-_a_toolkit_for_secondary_schools.pdf CC Father does a good job of highlighting the inconsistencies in the language of the document here . Asks if there is some sort of link between the CES & Stonewall that we don't know about here . Notes the plagiarism here . And makes some important points about academic integrit...