Huge pro-life and pro-family victory is won in British Parliament

In a significant victory for the pro-life and pro-family movement, the Government have agreed to delete their clauses on Personal, Social Health and Economic education (PSHE) contained in their Children, Schools and Families Bill.

SPUC had warned that the PSHE clauses in the bill would make sex and relationships education compulsory from 5 to 16 years and that government-backed resources for teaching primary school children, including some produced for Catholic schools, include explicit images of male and female sex organs, lessons on menstruation in mixed classes (boys and girls) and graphic details of sexual intercourse.

SPUC also warned that secondary schools, including faith schools, would face pressure to link sex and relationships education to contraception and abortion services. The government's advisers want confidential health clinics in all secondary schools so they can offer teenagers advice on contraception and abortion without their parents' knowledge. SPUC warned that the impact of this would be to damage teenagers' health, betray parents and destroy unborn lives.

Now that the election has been called, the Government have been forced to negotiate with the Opposition Parties in order to get as much of their legislation through as possible. This is known as the "wash up".

The Government Minister responsible for the Bill, Baroness Morgan (pictured) has now added her name to motions tabled by Baroness Verma (the Conservative spokesperson on education), Lord Alton of Liverpool - and co-sponsored by Baroness O'Loan - which effectively remove the offensive clauses in the bill.

This means that when the House of Lords passes the Children, Schools and Families Bill tomorrow evening, it will be minus the PSHE provisions. A huge pro-life victory.

Credit is due to all those who lobbied against a bill which SPUC has said would have been the biggest expansion of the culture of death through thousands of state schools in England - promoting abortion provision for children and simultaneously sounding the death knell for parents' right and responsibilities to be the primary educators and protectors of their children.

It seems that the Conservatives stood firm in their opposition to the sex and relationships education clauses in the bill, as did Lord Alton and Baroness O'Loan.

I would also pay tribute to over 100 Catholic headteachers and governors, three Catholic bishops and over three hundred clergy, both Catholic and from other denominations/faiths, who signed a letter to the Sunday Telegraph opposing the bill. The initiative was led by Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust. The massive support the letter received from leading Catholics showed just how out of touch the Catholic Education Service (CES) is with the concerns of the Catholics community in England and Wales. Tragically, as I reported over the weekend, Archbishop Nichols of Westminster said nothing in his Good Friday interview on BBC Radio to distance himself from the general support given by the Catholic Education Service ( acting on behalf of the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales) to the Government's plans on sex and relationships education. On the contrary. I will write more fully about this, later this week.

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I offered my Easter Triduum in reparation for archbishop's comments in BBC interview

Happy Easter!

Last Wednesday, I was contacted by the BBC to ask if I would take part in a radio discussion the next morning (Thursday) about Archbishop Vincent Nichols's interview to be broadcast on Good Friday morning on BBC Radio West Midlands. I said I would do so - provided the BBC supplied me with the text of the entire interview, which they would not do.

On Good Friday morning I listened to the Archbishop's interview (and again this morning when the interview was repeated). As a result of what I heard I decided to respond to the call from the National Association Catholic Families to offer up my Easter Triduum for what the archbishop had said and for the policy of some church leaders on the government's plans for sex and relationships education.

Archbishop Nichols's widely reported comments on contraception during the BBC West Midlands interview must be seen in the context of his seriously misleading remarks on the Government's plans for compulsory sex and relationships education in all state schools in England, including in Catholic schools. I will write more fully about this later this week.

Tragically he said nothing during the interview to distance himself from the general support given by the Catholic Education Service, on behalf of the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales, to the Government's plans. On the contrary. Our children, our unborn grandchildren, our nation's families, Catholic and non-Catholic, are being thrown to wolves. Legislation more completely opposed to the common good of British society would be difficult to devise.

However, I also offered my Easter Triduum in thanksgiving for the three Catholic bishops and over three hundred clergy of various denominations who wrote last week to the Sunday Telegraph as follows:

"Parents and guardians have the primary responsibility for bringing up their children in accordance with their own values and culture. They may entrust the task of formal education to a school of their choice, but the overall responsibility for the upbringing of their children remains theirs.

"The Children, Schools and Families Bill undermines this principle and seeks to impose a particular ideology by means of statutory sex and relationships education from the age of 5 (which primary schools do not currently have to teach). We would therefore urge Parliament decisively to oppose it ... "

I believe that history will judge these bishops' and priests' intervention as a significant moment for the churches.

The BBC reports that Archbishop Nichols is expected to say today: "Talk of sin is not always popular - unless we are talking about other peoples' sins.

"In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about.

"For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness."

Today and in the decades to come I believe that we must make reparation for the policy of those church leaders in England today who give general support to the British government's plans, through its sex and relationships education policies and legislative plans, to abuse and corrupt our children of all faiths and none.

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Listen to a beautiful pro-life song from Majella McKendry

Late last year I blogged on the time I prayed with my fellow Catholic po-lifers in the Helpers of God's Precious Infants in Sydney, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. I am delighted to read of their recent successful 40 days for life campaign. 

As part of the worldwide 40 Days for Life initiative, the group prayed continuously for 40 days, a total of 960 hours, outside of Sydney's largest abortion clinic.

The procession which began the 40 days of prayer, was led by Bishop Julian Porteous, auxiliary Bishop of Sydney.

One of the remarkable things to emerge from the campaign was the opportunity for the group to record, very professionally, two pro-life songs.  One that I found particularly moving was a cover of Regina Spektor's hit, 'The Call'.  The vocals are supplied by 14 year old Majella McKendry, the daughter of Scott McKendry, the 40 Days for Life Sydney director.  I include the video for the song below.



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SPUC International Student Conference goes from strength to strength

Joe Lee, the SPUC Scotland branch development officer, has sent me a report on SPUC's international student conference, held last month in Clydebank. 

The 160 young delegates left the 3rd International Youth Pro-Life Conference on Sunday 21st March with the hope that a change in our culture towards respecting all human life is a real possibility.

Lucy McCully, event organiser and SPUC Scotland’s Education Officer, said “This year’s conference really has set the benchmark for future youth pro-life conferences, not only in Scotland but world-wide. The event has gone from strength to strength since 2008 and we are sure that it will continue to do so. Planning has already started on the 4th International Youth Pro-Life Conference, scheduled for March 2011.”

The Conference was held at the Beardmore Hotel, Clydebank, last weekend and brought together speakers and young people from all over the world to explore the theme "I exist, therefore I am". Delegates from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, the US, Canada, Portugal, Germany, France, Australia and the Congo listened to an in-depth exploration of the concept of personhood in relation to embryo experimentation, abortion and euthanasia.

The two keynote speakers at the conference were the Rev. Arnold Culbreath, director of Protecting Black Life in the US, and Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Rev. Arnold said that “abortion is the leading killer of Black Americans, more than all major diseases, crime and accidents put together,”…[a total of] 37 per cent of all abortions in America are performed on African American women, yet African American women represent only 13 per cent of the population… abortion is literally destroying the African American population.”

In spite of the serious nature of his subject matter, he left the delegates with a sense of hope that the situation can and will change, as more young people educate themselves.

Mr Schadenberg, focused on examples of how euthanasia and assisted suicide are practised in Oregon and Holland. He said that “these laws specialise in using vague language to hide exactly what their intentions are.”

He also addressed the threat of euthanasia in Scotland with regards to Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill. “This bill is a recipe for the abuse of elderly people,” he said. “We’ve seen it in other countries and it will happen in Scotland too [should] assisted suicide and euthanasia become legal.” He urged all of the young Scottish delegates to write to their MSPs to register their opposition to these proposals.

Another speaker, Mattei Radu, from Philadelphia, USA, offered an excellent analysis of the links between abortion, the holocaust and the slave trade. Mr Radu said, “to claim to uphold the rights of all citizens, yet deny the unborn any legal protection is an act dripping with hypocrisy”.

Sr. Roseann Reddy of the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative in Glasgow and Eileen Reilly, a consultant obstetrician, were also among the extensive list of speakers that addressed the conference.

Delegates also enjoyed light relief with the Saturday night ‘Salsa Fiesta’ encouraging everyone to dance.

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