Undermining our faith on Sunday

I was recently sent a copy of "Our Faith on Sunday", one of those ready-made newsletters that are given out in many parishes. In an article "Tony Blair and Catholic Politics", the author rejoices at Tony Blair's reception into the Church and what he calls Ann Widdecombe's "begrudging comment". The piece continues:
The burden of her reservation about Tony Blair was that he had not strictly followed the Catholic line on a variety of moral issues, notably abortion.
It then goes on to ask about the duty of Catholic politicians, asking "Should everything the Church believes immoral be made illegal?"

John Smeaton has an excellent post pointing out that of course, Catholic politicians are not bound to make every immoral act illegal (St Thomas Aquinas clarified that a long time ago) but that in the case of abortion, as Pope John Paul said:
In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it.
I encourage you to read John's article Tony Blair "did not strictly follow the Catholic line" on abortion! says Our Faith on Sunday.

As a parish priest, I would like to emphasise the damage that this kind of article does to the faith of ordinary people. By speaking about "not strictly following the Catholic line" and using the apparently clever but wholly misleading example of making adultery illegal, the article undermines ordinary people's trust in the Church's absolute commitment to the sanctity of human life from conception by implying that it is a kind of "party line" and that a celebrity convert might legitimately choose to ignore it

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