The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Not having put candles in my ear before, I was intrigued by this sign in Chislehurst advertising Hopi Ear Candles (with the promise of more.) Now people often deride Wikipedia because of the edit wars that go on over entries concerning politicians or celebrities; but the relentless drive for citations and neutral point of view does have its advantages when it comes to an objective assessment of such things as ear candling . Reading the entry over dinner was most entertaining. In the "therapy" of ear candling, a cylinder or cone of waxed cloth is placed into the ear and lit, creating "negative pressure" (that sounds scientific, doesn't it?) Supposedly it thus draws wax and debris out of the ear canal. In fact, the material that results has been found to be residue from the burnt cloth. The FDA in America has warned that the practice is dangerous, for the eminently sensible reason that, "the use of a lit candle in the proximity of a person's face woul...

Above you can see the full coverage of Anjoum Noorani at the BBC website as of 3pm 10.45pm today. ( click to enlarge )

I wrote this in my parish newsletter this weekend (I have put in hyperlinks for your convenience): Pope’s letter to Irish Catholics There will be much comment in the media this weekend concerning the Pastoral Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict to the Catholics of Ireland . The Holy Father apologises to victims of abuse who have suffered the “grave betrayal” of these “egregious crimes”. Pope Benedict also refers to “grave errors of judgement and failure of leadership” on the part of some Bishops. May I encourage you to read the letter itself: the text is available at the Vatican website. If you have difficulty finding it, there is a direct link in the “Rosary News” blog which can be found at the parish website . There is also a shorter official summary of the letter . Please remember in your prayers all those who have been victims of abuse. The Holy Father encourages the Irish Catholics to offer up their Friday penances for the coming year to Easter 2011 to beg for God’s me...

Yesterday's visit by the Holy Father to the Great Synagogue of Rome was a great success. The Vatican website has an English translation of his address . The Holy Father spoke sensitively about the Shoah "that tragically reached as far as Rome" and about the Bible. He highlighted the ten commandments as "a common ethical message of permanent value for Israel, for the Church, for non-believers and for all of humanity." Pope Benedict made particular reference to the family, highlighting an area of concern both to the Church and to Jews: The "Ten Commandments" call us to preserve and to promote the sanctity of the family, in which the personal and reciprocal, faithful and definitive "Yes" of man and woman makes room for the future, for the authentic humanity of each, and makes them open, at the same time, to the gift of new life. To witness that the family continues to be the essential cell of society and the basic environment in which human v...

I just had a chance to listen to Dr Alcuin Reid on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Programme which was broadcast last Sunday morning. Dr Reid gave a measured and sensible series of responses to some of the wilder imaginations about Vatican II in relation to the Holy Father's recent generous offer to Anglicans who have asked for an arrangement whereby they might come into the Church whilst preserving some of the aspects of liturgy and life which are a part of their own tradition. You still have four days left to listen to the item . Dr Reid's section is at about 36.30.

Just a quick link for you to Fr Ray Blake's justifiably annoyed reaction the BBC's Sunday programme yesterday: BBC: "As if the body of a dead nun were not enough..."

Alcuin Reid was on Radio 4's "Beyond Belief" programme broadcast yesterday. The subject was the lifting of the SSPX excommunications and its various implications. He was put in a contest against two opponents and came out of it very well. There is much in the piece about Vatican II and Alcuin manages to give some good clarification under fire about the different levels of assent required for different kinds of documents. Since I am sometimes rather negative about the BBC, I should say that the presenter, Ernie Rea, was quite fair and balanced.

I listened to the radio this morning. Yes, I know, not something really earth-shattering to put on a blog but for me it is unusual. I had heard that Radio 4 were going to do a piece on the lifting of the SSPX excommunications and I wondered who was going to be in the firing line. Fortunately, they had got Alcuin Reid. He was put against Elena Curti of the Tablet but also had the familiar BBC set-up where his second opponent was the presenter. He had hostile questions throughout the item - I'll listen to it again but I don't recall any hostile questions to Elena Curti. In these circumstances, Alcuin did very well to make some good points about the interpretation of Vatican II and to defend the lifting of the excommunications as an act of charity bringing about a new relationship with the SSPX. You can listen to the piece on the BBC iPlayer page for today - about 36 minutes in.

"In fact, scientists calculate that Obama has four years in which to save the world." From a short piece in which Newsnight's Science Editor Susan Watts talks about "the environmental challenges President Barack Obama faces." (The Watts What blog has much of the piece transcribed with other comments.) This piece is a true classic from the BBC. Obama is going to save the world from destruction unlike that nasty President Bush who ignored scientists and listened to religion instead, leading him to oppose stem-cell research and thereby encouraging people not to accept science but to believe in the bible instead of evolution. But the scientists are now free again. Huzzah! Some helpful points: President Bush did not have a distaste for stem-cell research. He opposed embryonic stem-cell research which involves the destruction of human embryos. You do not have to be a religious person to oppose embryonic stem-cell research, simply a person who does not agree with th...

When I wrote about the BBC bias in reporting World Youth Day, I had not seen the article by Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB in the Times: The Pope, negative press and World Youth Day, Sydney . He says: The Australian ran a leading article saying that the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC were guilty of ‘squalid myopia’, urging Australians to be proud of hosting WYD in Sydney. Surprisingly, the BBC correspondent in Australia appears to be following the ABC agenda, so BBC reports are heavily weighted towards the clerical abuse agenda. Stunning images of joyful young people lining Sydney harbour were accompanied by a commentary on clerical abuse. Cynical as I am about the BBC, the only word I would disagree with here is "surprisingly." Congratulations to Abbot Jamison for getting this article published in the Times. It is important for Catholics not to remain silent about this unjust treatment in our "public service" broadcaster. On a positive note, let me quote the way ...

This morning, one of my Deacons told me that he had been glued to EWTN for much of the past three days, watching coverage of the World Youth Day. I advertise EWTN (free) in my newsletter every week and have been encouraging people to watch it for what I knew would be "wall to wall" coverage of the World Youth Day events. I did so because I suspected that it would not get very good or balanced coverage in the British media. My Deacon confirmed my suspicions when he said that he had from time to time watched the BBC news which had focussed almost exclusively on the Holy Father's apology for sexual abuse by clergy. Fr Ray Blake fills out the picture: WYD: but the BBC.... Apparently, the BBC did not focus only on the apology but gave space to report on the homosexual activists handing out condoms. Viewers relying on the BBC to find out what is happening in the world would gain the impression that the World Youth Day was an act of a defensive and beleagured religious leader...

Yesterday, John Smeaton, the Director of SPUC asked Archbishop Nichols to correct and clarify his statement on the value of embryonic human life . The problematic words were: "What is the value that we give to human life in its first beginnings. Now clearly it's not the same as we would give to another adult sitting next to me." I agree with John that this needs to be corrected and clarified since we do not give a higher value or a lower value to human life on the basis of age, whether before or after birth. John has quite rightly quoted the relevant passages from Donum Vitae and Evangelium Vitae . It is fair to say that Archbishop Nichols was put under pressure during the programme on BBc 4's World at One yesterday. Most of the time was given to a "catholic" doctor who made a passionate case for a saviour sibling for his own child. After an extensive and entirely unopposed presentation, the Archbishop was immediately dumped right into the mire; "Very...

Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, was speaking at Westminster Cathedral last night on "Faith in the Media." (At the website for the Cardinal's Lectures, there is a transcript of the lecture .) One of the central points of the lecture was a post-modernist approach to the content of what is broadcast: Not only do you never know who is going to see, or hear, or read what. More importantly, you can never predict what they’re going to make of it. The same words, the same programmes provoke diametrically opposing reactions in different people. They can mean, they can signify utterly different things. Hence broadcasting cannot have a direct, on-to-one influence on what people think. Perhaps not at that level and consistency but I would be surprised if this claim was meant to deny that the broadcast media have an influence on public opinion - or indeed to deny that there is any possibility of achieving at least an inter-subjective effect by the way that material is edit...

No surprise there, then. H/T to Mulier Fortis for the idea.

The British relief charity Oxfam currently has an advertising campaign running with the slogan "Say 'No' to Rubbish Presents!" I don't really like this way of speaking. I was brought up to understand that it is good manners always to show appreciation for a gift that is genuinely given as an act of love and friendship. The idea of dismissing gifts as "rubbish" seems to me an indication of the coarse selfishness that has overtaken modern Britain. The point of Oxfam's campaign is to advertise their " Oxfam Unwrapped " initiative. Instead of buying a present for someone, you buy something that will help the poor and then send your friend a card and a fridge magnet instead. One of the "fabulously funusual gifts" that you can order from the "positive pressies" section is condoms . Certainly the most rubbish Christmas idea so far this year. Of course it is good idea give to charity at Christmas. Here's an idea: select som...

There was a story on LifeSite News on Wednesday Man Behind Effort to Legalize Abortion in Nicaragua Gets 30 Years for Step-Daughter's Rape . A correspondent has kindly pointed out to me that this is the same man who was cast as a pro-choice hero on the notorious BBC programme "Sex in the Holy City", broadcast in 2003 ( BBC transcript ) I mentioned David Kerr's study of this programme earlier this year ( Can we trust the BBC - 1 ). SPUC attacked the BBC's misleading reporting and bias and Fiorella Sultana de Maria (now Nash) - pictured left - delivered a copy of their report Bias and the BBC . In one part of the programme, Steve Bradshaw looks at Nicaragua where abortion is illegal, and casts Cardinal Miguel Obando Y Bravo as the baddie who is influencing the government to retain the law. Then the underdogs are introduced: But earlier this year one family took the cardinal on, provoking a national row that split Nicaragua and capture the headlines for months. Ma...

Just a little indication. On the search engine for BBC News and Sport: Click here for your 23 pages of search results for "ramadan" Click here for your 7 pages of search results for "lent" (actually quite a few of those are for "lent" as in "lent money") H/T to Laban at UK Commentators

We are quite used to this sort of stuff but it is good to have support from fellow Catholics from elsewhere in the world who become aware of BBC bias in reporting on Catholic events. Here is an extract from a report by an eyewitness: BBC said there weren't throngs along the streets. Of course there hadn't been any plans or possibilities for such throngs and the streets were blocked by police, even the highway was lined by police. Every venue had a set number of tickets to give out, and all the venues were packed, despite the truly horrible weather. One could barely pass through the masses. BBC also wrote that only a few came to Mariazell on their own and somewhat snidely remarked that Church buses had brought in people. Yeah BECAUSE IT WAS CLOSED TO PRIVATE TRAFFIC ! One could only get in by train or bus. So yeah, the BBC is full of crap - and you can add all kinds of other news outlets. Either they don't do their homework or they are deliberately lying. People stood in rai...

A kind commenter alerted me to an interview with Cardinal Cormac on the BBC's Sunday AM programme this morning. Here is a link to the transcript of the interview . Andrew Marr started by bowling an easy underarm question on migrant workers to which the Cardinal responded promoting the "Strangers into Citizens" initiative. He then asked about the Tony Blair's legacy, focussing on Northern Ireland to begin with, but then asking for a wider appraisal. The Cardinal said: Tony Blair's faith, his, his Christian commitment does help, yes. He's a man who prays. He's a religious man. He believes in God. He, he, in fact I'm quite sure that his religious commitment which he doesn't wear openly on his sleeve, but quietly and unobtrusively, I think that's had a very great effect ... Pushed on the rumour about his possible conversion to Catholicism, the Cardinal said that he anyone would be very welcome in the Roman Catholic Church who came for the right rea...

Fiorella has reminded me that she did some extensive work analysing the BBC programme Sex in the Holy City which I mentioned in the post Can We Trust the BBC - 1 . Her article is in pdf format and is downloadable from this page at the SPUC website . It looks particularly at: Allegations made, particularly the use of unreferenced figures and case studies The use of slanted language and interview tactics The omission of information The use of negative stereotypes It is incontrovertibly demonstrated that in this programme the BBC breached its own guidelines. The BBC's response to an initial complaint was: The BBC programme complaints unit concluded its response to SPUC by finding that “the programme supported its claims with properly researched and journalistically sound examples” and could “find no grounds for upholding your complaint against this programme.” There is a good example to illustrate Robin Aitken's claim that the BBC knows it can slough off complaints because it is ...