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Showing posts with the label consultations

Assisted suicide: how to get away with it

Today Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions published his interim policy on assisted suicide which further muddies the waters on the question of whether anyone will be prosecuted for helping someone to kill themselves. This is a significant step in the creeping legalisation of euthanasia in Britain. There is a twelve week consultation period and I would encourage you to download and complete the consultation document . The "Public interest factors against a prosecution" essentially provide a guide for people involved in assisted suicide so that they can work out whether they will probably get away with it. I expect that guidance might also be forthcoming in due course for medical professionals. After all, travelling to Switzerland could be a bit expensive and we don't want people messing things up at home, do we? John Smeaton also points out that the policy represents a legal downgrade of disabled people .
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Sex-ed consultation - respond by 5pm today

I have been remiss in not posting about the curriculum reform consultation by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency. Go to the consultation page for the link to register (you only have to give your name and email address) and they will send you a link to complete the questionnaire. The most important question is whether the Government should make sex education in schools compulsory and remove the right of parents to withdraw their children. The deadline is 5pm today so if you have a chance, do complete the consultation. Abortion Rights are pushing their people to respond so it wuold be good for pro-lifers to have their say.
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OFCOM consultation

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The UK Communications Regulator, OFCOM , has launched a consultation on their broadcasting code. Thre is more information on this at the Mediawatch-uk website. In the Plain English Campaign approved "Short Guide to what we do", OFCOM states that one of its legal duties is to ensure that: people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material This makes it clear that the "on-off" switch is not an adequate answer to harmful and offensive broadcast material. Here are some links for the consultation: Press announcement of the Code review Summary consultation paper Full consultation documents Online Response Form Mediawatch-uk commented: A news release issued today says: “Ofcom has in place a number of rules relating to offensive language and the watershed. Our rules are applied on the basis of Ofcom’s understanding of the attitudes of viewers and listeners, and this is underpinned by audience research”. In a pre consulta...
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Popular posts from this blog

Saint Gabriel

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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...
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Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

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In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,...
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Blessing of the New Painting of St Bede at Clapham Park

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This morning, the parish priest at Clapham Park, Fr Marcus Holden, blessed a new picture of the parish's patron, Saint Bede, painted by James Tildsley. It is sited over a recently installed side altar near the rear of the Church. The altar itself was acquired from Antique Church Furnishings . The website gives the information that the altar was built and carved by a nun in a convent near Liverpool. It is a beautiful piece of work and it is always a joy when such works of art find a suitable and dignified home. The inscription on the gradine is AMANS AMATUS AMOR. The sellers translate this as “Loving is the object of love” which is a reasonable stab at “dynamic equivalence”. Today the parish's relic of St Bede was exposed for veneration in its distinctive brightly-coloured reliquary. After the blessing, there was High Mass with Fr Holden as celebrant, Fr Littleton deacon, and myself subdeacon. That gave me the enjoyable task of chant...
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Plenary indulgences not impossible

Dilexit Prior in Letters from a Young Catholic asked some useful questions today about indulgences. I thought it would be best to do a post here especially to cover the controversial question of detachment from venial sin. But first the other questions: The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence Pope Paul VI set down a number of norms relating to indulgences at the end of Indulgentiarum Doctrina . Norm 7 states: To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfil three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial, except for the provisions contained in n.11 for those who are “impeded.” It is worth reading the other norms bec...
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Portiuncula indulgence tomorrow (and indulgences generally)

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Tomorrow, 2 August, you can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions ( see below ) by visiting a parish Church and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . This is called the Portiuncula indulgence and goes back to St Francis of Assisi. Fr Z has the details . Don't forget that you can also gain a plenary indulgence by visiting a Church on the day of the titular feast, and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . I made a list of other indulgences: please see the post Plenary indulgences for particular days which has a link to the list. The post has some background information which you may find helpful since indulgences are not well understood today - which is not surprising since indulgences are not included in most Catholic education curricula, and most priests never preach about them. Therefore many Catholics are left with whatever silly, half-baked, ill-informed nonsense about indulgences happens to be current. If you want to understand the theology...
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