Scottish bishop challenges hypocrisy of Pope Benedict's detractors

Philip Tartaglia (pictured), Catholic bishop of Paisley and president of the Scottish Catholic Church's National Communications Commission, has challenged the hypocrisy of Peter Tatchell, the homosexual lobbyist who's trying to destroy Pope Benedict's reputation because of his defence of the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the family.

In a press release, Bishop Tartaglia said that Mr Tatchell’s past statements, that "not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful" cast “huge doubt on [Mr Tatchell's] claim to be an expert on human sexuality or a credible critic of the Pope or of the Catholic Church”.

The bishop added that:

"[Mr Tatchell's Channel Four] programme shows conclusively that Mr Tatchell knows next to nothing about the real nature and mission of the Catholic Church."

Apart from expressing appreciation for the bishop's courageous intervention, I can only reiterate my exasperation that Vincent Nichols, Catholic archbishop of Westminster, is appeasing the homosexual lobby represented by Mr Tatchell.

Archbishop Nichols should listen more closely, not only to the recent statements by Pope Benedict and Bishop Tartaglia, but also to Peter Hitchens, the Anglican writer, who wrote in last weekend's Mail on Sunday:

"I’m rather grateful that Mr Tatchell, unlike most of his allies, is honest enough to discuss openly where the sexual revolution may really be headed.

"As the condom-wavers and value-free sex-educators advance into our primary schools it seems clear to me that shock, by itself, is no defence against this endless, sordid dismantling of moral barriers till there is nothing left at all. Yet when [ Pope Benedict, ] one of the few men on the planet who argues, with force, consistency and reason, for an absolute standard of goodness comes to this country, he is reviled by fashionable opinion."

Archbishop Nichols, through his own statements and his defence of the Catholic Education Service (CES), is playing a key role in assisting the "condom wavers and value-free sex-educators' advance into our primary schools".

* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Join SPUC's Facebook group
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy