De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I'm struggling a bit with the sudden crescendo of rage over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Yes there are rules about chemical weapons, yet before chemical weapons were outlawed by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, the British government approved the use of poison gas against rebel tribesmen in Iraq and Afghanistan.  All these rules and regulations about which weapons are allowed are simply a means to alleviating and preventing the humanitarian suffering that we've been seeing - in this instance - for seven years now. Also these rules apply to cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, and explosive weapons in populated areas, as well as chemical weapons. According to the highly reputable organisation Airwars , the UK has declared 1,280 air-strikes in Iraq & Syria dating back to 2014. Airwars have tracked 1,700 alleged Coalition civilian deaths for this March alone! Let that sink in for minute! I don't know why people seem to be suddenly screaming for action ...

Since I have started paying attention to such things, it has become very obvious that the Catholic Church, like pretty much every organisation in the world, has good leaders and bad leaders. bishops who do what they are supposed to do and some other bishops who do not. I think many, many (the majority?) of faithful Catholics today would bemoan the dearth of solid teaching from Bishops of England and Wales, to the extent that, when one of these bishops does actually say something Catholic, there tends to be much publicity. Of course there is, we aren't used to hearing them say anything much, let alone something as scandalous and revolutionary as the teaching of the Church! It is my own opinion that this lack of connection with the important and challenging truth taught by the Church—let's say on Contraception in the context of the goods of Marriage and the importance of children and family—leads to a tacit condoning of sin which stands in direct contravention to fundamen...

What horrible news we are hearing about the tragedy of those persecuted in their own lands, by ISIS or Boko Haram, who then risk and often lose their lives in a desperate bid to escape the slaughter. For these brave individuals, the only option is to board a flimsy craft over-loaded with similarly desperate people trying to escape the carnage in their own countries. Carnage which, I find myself realising, we are largely responsible for in Britain. Especially with regards to Libya, from where the people are fleeing as a direct result of Britain & France's intervention and lack of any cohesive plan as to what to do once Colonel Gaddafi had been deposed. The current conflict in Syria has caused the worst humanitarian crisis this century. More than 3 million people have fled the country and many are making the perilous journey to seek safety overseas. A large number of those trying to get to Europe by boat are Syrians. Amnesty International has some of the individual storie...

I am re-posting this notice from the NLM Blog which Dr Kwasniewski put up several days ago as a reminder of the FSSP’s initiative to keep today, August 1st, as a day or prayer especially for persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Friday, August 1, 2014 is the day chosen by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) for a worldwide day of Public Adoration of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in supplication for our persecuted brethren in Iraq, Syria, and the Middle East: The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter asks all of its apostolates around the world to dedicate Friday, August 1 to a day of prayer and penance for the Christians who are suffering terrible persecution in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. August 1 is the First Friday of the month and the Feast of St. Peter in Chains, which is celebrated as a Third Class Feast in FSSP houses and apostolates. It is the feast in which we read of the great power of the persevering prayer of me...

On the 7th September, the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent, Sarah Teather, announced she would not be standing for Parliament in the next General Election. Sarah is a Catholic and has featured on my blog before because of her eloquent polemic against Same-Sex-Marriage  which bravely flew in the face of the bigot label, since her track record is one of defending the rights of people with homosexual tendencies. I was initially disappointed, because I feel that we need more politicians like Sarah, not less. Rather than simply towing the party line on SSM, she voted, and argued, for what she believed to be right. Her arguments are intelligent and well reasoned, and can only add to a proper debate. I do not agree with her position on every issue; I believe she is a member of ACTA  for example. She has also been part of a call for more contraception and sex education in response to higher rates of teenage pregnancies in some parts of the country. Whilst on the whole, I agre...

“Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remains standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.”  ― John Paul II John Paul II was my Pope in lots of ways. He was Pope from when I was 7 years old, to his death when I was 34. When I went through my questioning years, it was John Paul II who brought me back, through his writing in Crossing The Threshold of Hope . When the Iraq war was mooted, I felt the motivation was ludicrous. Reading whatever I could, it seemed very clear that the justification given was paper thin. I was not sure of the true motivation, but President Bush was attending to some unfinished business without regard for international law, or the facts as I understood them.  I felt incredibly proud when my instincts were backed up with the most public and serious condemnations of the invasion of Iraq, which came from Pope John ...