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Showing posts with the label equality

Catholic Care wins case

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Mr Justice Briggs has ruled in favour of Catholic Care in its case in the High Court. (See: Catholic adoption society wins court battle over gay rights exemption ) I reported on this case a couple of weeks ago. The website of the Diocese of Leeds carries the statement of Bishop Arthur Roche . Damian Thompson has written on the case: Gay adoption: a setback for Labour in its vicious war against the Churches . George Pitcher has also taken up the story: Thank God for Catholic adoption agencies Warmest congratulations to Catholic Care and the Diocese of Leeds. This is a significant victory and calls into question the action of other Catholic adoption agencies which have either closed or transferred their adoption provision to a newly-formed non-Catholic charity.
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Catholic Care High Court hearing opens tomorrow

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The agency Catholic Care works on behalf of the Diocese of Leeds, offering a variety of services in the Yorkshire area, including adoption services. Since 2007, Catholic Care has been engaged in a legal battle to remain open as a Catholic adoption agency and operate in accord with Catholic belief in the face of the Equality Act which would require the agency to be open to placing children with homosexual couples. The other Catholic adoption agencies have either closed or transferred their adoption provision to a newly-formed non-Catholic charity. It is most heartening that three Bishops have made it clear that "Neither of these options is acceptable to us or to the Trustees of Catholic Care ." Bishop Roche of Leeds, Bishop Rawsthorne of Hallam, and Bishop Drainey of Middlesbrough issued a Pastoral Letter last weekend explaining these matters to the faithful and asking for their prayers. The Charity Commission refused to allow Catholic Care to change its objects so tha...
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Dominican essay on equality and the natural law

A few days ago I meant to put up a link to this excellent article by Fra Lawrence Lew OP on Natural Law and the Government's Laws in response to the media reaction against Pope Benedict's Address to the Bishops of England and Wales . H/T Anna Arco
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Cameron tells us what Jesus would do

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The gay magazine Attitude has recently published an interview with David Cameron in which he has tried to convince the gays that he has converted from being a diehard supporter of Section 28 to being a right-on "it's normal and harmless" guy. For what it's worth, they don't trust him: the magazine invites readers to make up their own minds about "whether his pro gay conversion is simply to win votes." The text of the interview is not available online and there is no way I am going to scandalise my devout and hard-working Hindu neighbours by buying a copy in their shop, so I am relying on quotations. Ruth Gledhill has helpfully focussed on his remarks on Christianity. (See: Cameron tells Rowan: Make your Church pro-gay ) Cameron effectively confirms that if a Conservative Government is elected there will be no change in the current drive to prevent "faith schools" from teaching Christian doctrine. In response to the loaded question 'Do...
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Double-think on equality

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Over the past couple of days, Stephen Hughes, Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England, has hit the headlines as a Catholic who has expressed indignant opposition to the Holy Father's comments on Equality legislation. Speaking at a meeting of socialists and democrats, Hughes said that he was appalled by what the Pope had said, and pointed to the duty of religious leaders to eradicate inequality. He protested that "Inequality is at the root of many social problems." One social problem for women in one part of the world has been that when they wanted to have a second baby, they have been forced to have an abortion. Other women in the same country have been subjected to forced sterilisation. The USA declined to continue funding programmes in countries which did this sort of thing. In 2001, the EU stepped in to make up the 33 million shortfall. In 2008, Amendment 134 to the EU budget was proposed: Community assistance shall not be given to any gove...
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Dave's Part supports the Pope

Well I suppose not quite, but interesting nevertheless. David Osler ("Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem.") writes a thought-provoking piece on his blog Dave's Part, about Pope Benedict XVI and UK Equality Law . Reading this, you need to exercise indulgence in ignoring some of the de rigeur socialist inverted snootiness about the Catholic Church and enjoy the fact that he highlights the inconsistency of the hated New Labour revisionism, as in: Well, New Labour in office has been adamant about its wish for ‘dialogue’ with ‘faith communities’, so it can hardly feign surprise when a religion with over 4m adherents takes it up on the idea. Again, leaving aside some of the bits we would all take issue with, just consider this from a left-wing commentator: Common sense alone dictates that the League Against Cruel Sports has no duty to be an equal opportunities employer in respect of illegal cock fighting aficionados. If you apply to be a Conservative parliamentary ...
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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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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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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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