Tom Ward at Warsaw

Dr Tom Ward was one of the speakers at the World Congress of Families in Warsaw earlier this month. He was speaking on behalf of the National Association for Catholic Families. The following is an extract from his speech:

The Rights of the Family
Pope John Paul taught us that loving the family means identifying the dangers and evils that menace it in order to have the knowledge, ability and confidence to overcome them. True optimism is based on realism. The United Kingdom is a nation in an advanced stage of the Culture of Death. Our policies have a pivotal role in the attack on families both in that quarter of the world which shares our Common Law Jurisdiction and in the European Union. As a family doctor of almost 40 years standing and as a founder of an association of families I now wish to highlight three dangers to our families.

Danger 1
The failure of many of those in authority in the Church to follow the unequivocal teaching of the Popes on the grave immorality of the artificial separation of the unitive from the procreative components of human sexuality in spite of the evidence of the damage done to marriage and young people from contraception, from the horrors of IVF and now the sinister homosexual revolution. It is urgent that the beauty of Humanae Vitae is now taught. Only such a recovery will bring great hope of a new spring -time to our dying continent.

Danger 2
In the United Kingdom a legal infrastructure has now been laid down for a massive attack on the Church and on our families. In particular the Sexual Orientation Regulations seek to privatise and penalise the Magisterial teaching of the Church on human sexuality, marriage and the family. The financial penalties are severe. The lives of our families are based on these God-given truths. We will respond to these threats to our families by continuing to joyfully announce these truths to all and by remaining totally faithful to our beloved Holy Father Pope Benedict.

Danger 3
The usurpation by the State of the right and duty of parents to be the primary protectors and educators of their children. The removal of this God-given inalienable right leaves their children without protection from pressures both for premature sexualisation and now homosexualisation.

So how better to respond to these challenges than with these words of Pope John Paul II?

‘Be not afraid - The power of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection is greater than any evil which man could or should fear…There is every reason for the truth of the Cross to be called the Good News.’

That is our hope.

Dr Thomas Ward
President, National Association of Catholic Families
The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima 2007

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Image
On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist. Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work”...
Read more

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Image
Gregorian Chant Hymns is a most helpful website that I mentioned in a post just over a year ago. As I said then, the site "[...] promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites." Work has continued at the site and there is now a section which makes available pdf (or .docx format) booklets for Vespers for every Sunday of the Year and a few major feasts. There is the basic booklet for ordinary Sunday Vespers which is supplemented by separate files for the Sundays after Pentecost which contain the Magnificat and Collect. Then there are booklets, for example for Advent and Lent, where the office is different from the regular Sunday Vespers with its antiphons. All of the booklets have texts and notation for Benediction and the Maria...
Read more