The appointment of Cardinal Nichols to head Vatican dicastery on laity family & life would endanger families worldwide

Voice of the Family noted recently reports from credible sources that Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, is being considered as a candidate to head a Vatican’s new dicastery, which will be responsible for Laity, Family and Life.

Voice of the Family further notes that:

"Cardinal Nichols’s approach to Catholic teaching on human sexuality has caused the pro-life, pro-family movement grave concern for many years. Serious questions have been raised about his approach to issues as diverse as abortion, contraception, the rights and status of the embryo, sex education, homosexual unions and the reception of Holy Communion for the 'divorced and remarried'."

The appointment of Cardinal Nichols to head a Vatican dicastery on the laity and family and life would endanger families worldwide. I invite visitors to my blog to consider the Voice of the Family's plea:

"Voice of the Family asks all our readers to pray that the Holy Father will appoint a courageous witness to Catholic teaching on life and the family to this new position. The family today is under sustained attack. The victims of this crisis – unborn children, the disabled, the elderly, children at risk from corrupting sex education, parents struggling to bring up their children according to the moral law – need a strong voice to speak on their behalf. This will not be provided by the appointment of a steadfast opponent of orthodox Catholic teaching."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page

I am interviewed on BBC's Today programme about Family Synod

Yesterday morning I was interviewed by James Naughtie on Radio Four's Today programme about the Family Synod:



Prior to the interview, in the small hours of yesterday morning, I made notes on the key issue on which I was to be interviewed: Voice of the Family's response to the final report, in particular the section dealing with the civilly divorced and remarried. I thought it might be helpful to visitors to my blog to share with you the notes I prepared - including my explanation as to why a pro-life leader finds it necessary to engage with the issues considered by the Family Synod in Rome which has just concluded:

Catholic teaching on marriage and the Holy Eucharist and its reception

1. Catholics believe, because Jesus Christ Himself taught, that marriage is indissoluble and, Jesus taught, if someone divorces or puts away their spouse and marries another, he or she commits adultery - which is considered a mortal sin, the kind of serious sin by which one cuts oneself off from God's love. (Matthew, 19)

2. Catholics believe, because Jesus Christ Himself taught, that in going to Holy Communion we receive the body of Jesus Christ, God Himself: we receive life and the promise of eternal life. (John, 6:54)

3. Finally, Catholics believe the teaching of St Paul that if a person eats and drinks the body and blood of Jesus Christ unworthily, we don't receive life or grace, we eat and drink judgement to ourselves "not discerning the body of the Lord". (Corinthians: 1,11.29)

Mercy

4. Catholics believe that the whole of the teaching of Jesus Christ is about mercy including the demands of the Gospel: God's commandments which Jesus announced or confirmed. Catholics believe that Christ's message is not just for a select few. We believe that everyone receives from Christ the grace to live in the way God wants us to live.

5. Catholic teaching is not that following Christ is easy. Christ taught that we have to carry our cross and He promises that He will give us the help we need to carry that cross.

6. I know lots of ordinary Catholics both in my family life and through my work. I know women and men who've been deserted by their spouse for another person and either left alone with children or left alone without their children. If that deserted spouse were then to see their wife or husband with a new partner, receiving the Body of Christ in Communion, that sends the message to everyone, including the children, that marriage is not indissoluble after all. This is destructive of the truth about marriage. It's also damaging psychologically and spiritually, not least for the children.

7. Jesus Christ told the woman found in sin, who was perhaps caught up very deeply in a way of life which appeared to be impossible to escape: Go and sin no more.


The Pope

8. I believe, as all Catholics believe, that the Pope is Peter, the rock Christ chose on which to build His Church. The Pope serves the unchangeable truth of Christ's teaching. The Pope is not the master but the servant of the truth. The difficulty for Catholics with this particular document from the Synod of Bishops is that it doesn't properly reflect Catholic teaching: It's ambiguous and confusing.

Other aspects of the final report

9. The Church teaches that certain actions are wrong in themselves - or "intrinsically evil" as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it: such things as contraception or in vitro fertilisation. This is not made unambiguously clear in the Synod document. This shows a lack of mercy because it denies Catholics the truth about right and wrong. It denies Catholics the knowledge they need to exercise true freedom, freedom from sin.

Text agreed by the Synod on Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried

10. Paragraphs 84 - 86 are not clear and the way is left open to bishops opposed to Catholic teaching in this area to give the green light to sacrilegious communion. The paragraphs refer to "exclusion" practised in liturgy and of priests accompanying interested parties on a path of discernment according to the teaching of the church and the orientations of the bishop. Catholic teaching, however, is that the truly merciful opening to Holy Communion with all mortal sins, not just sins against marriage, is repentance and a firm purpose of amendment. Confession does not provide Catholics with a license to sin: it provides grace to repent and amend one's life


Why is pro-life leader engaging in work on the Family Synod?

11. Many pro-life campaigners are Catholics, many are not Catholics. Whether or not we're Catholics evidence indicates that two things most protect unborn children: those are laws against abortion and the institution of marriage. Goverment data show that unborn children are 4 to 5 times less likely to be killed by abortion if they are conceived within marriage. Catholic teaching, the teaching of Jesus Christ, upholds the indissolubility of marriage. We must defend our Catholic faith against all ambiguous or misleading representations in order to defend the human and Divine institution which most protects unborn children.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page

Pope must address crisis of trust within Church in wake of Synod

SPUC is a co-founder of Voice of the Family. For most of the past month I have been with the Society's Voice of the Family team here in Rome. The following is the press statement we put out Saturday night as the Synod on the Family draws to a close:

ROME, 24 October 2015: “There’s a crisis of trust regarding the family between faithful lay Catholics and those in authority at the highest levels of the Church – and only the Pope can restore that trust” according to Voice of the Family, a coalition of 26 major pro-life and pro-family organisations from five continents formed just before an Extraordinary Synod on the Family which took place in Rome last year.

As this year’s Ordinary Synod on the Family closes at the Vatican, Voice of the Family is saying to the Pope: “Holy Father, enough is enough”.

John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family and chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)in the UK, explained:

“Paragraphs 84 – 86 of the final report published today can be interpreted as providing a number of clear openings to the reception of Holy Communion by those living in public adultery, and thus to the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament and the scandalising of the faithful, not least our children and grandchildren.

“One is mindful of the words of Our Lord:

‘he that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea’ (Matthew 18:6)

“Trust between the Catholic lay faithful and the Church authorities in Rome was breached this year by the Synod’s working document, the Instrumentum Laboris, which undermined Church doctrine on contraception, parents as the primary educators of their children, fornication, adultery, homosexuality and on other fundamental issues.

“The laity’s trust was further weakened by the Pope’s special appointment to the Synod of leading prelates who have demonstrated support for positions contrary to the teaching of the Church on family or life issues.

“The crisis of trust between laity and Church authorities became still worse last week when Pope Francis told a gathering of bishops during the Synod that he ‘felt the need to proceed in a healthy decentralization of power to the Episcopal Conferences’, a power which he said earlier in his papacy would include ‘genuine doctrinal authority’.

“In view of openly heterodox positions adopted by presidents of Episcopal conferences in particular countries, ‘decentralisation of power’ on doctrinal matters would risk obscuring the universal nature of the one true faith.

“Will sanction for homosexual unions and adultery be granted by bishops’ conferences in one country and denied in another? Spouses, parents and families would be abandoned to the wolves by any such fudged arrangement,” John Smeaton said.

“In the name of conscience, the Synod organisers and leading Synod Fathers appeared to be seeking to abolish the notion of intrinsic evil, that is sin: – on contraception, on cohabitation, on homosexuality and on other fundamental matters. How can parents hope to teach their children the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life when the notion of intrinsic evil is abolished? Certain Synod Fathers and Synod organisers are speaking the language of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and not acting as shepherds of the laity.

“Only the Pope can restore trust between Catholic laypeople and Church authorities in Rome. Confusion on fundamental doctrinal matters, which has reigned at the Family Synod, is only serving to assist powerful international bodies opposed to the family and to the sanctity of human life. Holy Father, enough is enough”, concluded Mr Smeaton.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo will be spinning in his grave to hear of Workshops held at the Pontifical Council for the Family

Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo

What would the late Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo think about recent events at the Pontifical Council for the Family, of which he was the President from 1991 till 2008?

I knew the late Cardinal personally.  He was one of the world's greatest defenders of the sanctity of human life and church teaching on the precious value of the family. He was SPUC's guest in Britain in 1996 and 1999.

In June 2005, he wrote to Archbishop Peter Smith, the then  archbishop of Cardiff, about the Pontifical Council for the Family's close working relationship with the Society. His Eminence wrote:

"We have seen that Mr John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, has undertaken a most laudable cause [sic] especially with the NGOs involved in promoting the values of family and life and he has been most helpful to our dicastery precisely in that field".

Reporting on Pope Benedict XVI's homily at His Eminence's funeral, the Catholic News Agency said:

‘“Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, whose motto was "Veritas in caritate", dedicated "his entire life to affirming the truth", said the Pope.’

How times have changed at the Pontifical Council for the Family (PCF)!

According to Catholic World Report, three separate Workshops have been held this year under the auspices of the PCF looking at “the possibility of an evolution of the ecclesiastical doctrine of marriage”. We read that the workshops, while perhaps not “secret,” were not publicized.

Catholic World Report states:

Among the participants was Father Eberhard Schockenhoff, professor of moral theology at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Father Schockenhoff also serves as an advisor to the German Bishops’ Conference ... In addition to Communion for the divorced and remarried, Father Schockenhoff urges approval of homosexual clergy and finds “stable” homosexual pairs to be ethical ... Support for the Schockenhoff’s position was offered by Father Gianpaolo Dianin, an expert on pastoral care of the family and a member of the Theological Faculty of Triveneto ... On the issue of the Eucharist and “irregular unions” it was noted by Father Dianin that today, given contemporary challenges that secularism has put on Catholic marriages, there are numerous pastors who wish to do “something” for their parishioners but feel constrained by Church discipline that “understands little” of the hardships.

These Workshops at the Council are not an isolated example of opposition to doctrinally sound care of the family now prevailing at the PCF. [See my blogpost of earlier today as to why SPUC is concerned about the reception of Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and my blogpost regarding SPUC's position on same-sex marriage entitled Children are being sacrificed on the altar of adults' sexual "rights"]

SPUC's representatives at a meeting about the Family Synod last January organised by the Pontifical Council for the Family were ignored in the report of the relator of the English speaking group when they sought to raise concerns about the omission of any reference to abortion in the Family Synod's final relatio. The relator preferred to draw attention to  a call for the church to address the "rights" relating to transgenderism.

Moreover, when SPUC's representatives joined fellow delegates to ask Archbishop Paglia, the current president of the PCF,  for his opinion on the proposal to admit the “remarried” to Holy Communion without amendment of life, he would not engage directly with their concerns. His Excellency told them not to worry and that a change in the discipline would only be for a small number of cases.

From my experience of Cardinal Trujillo, over many years, His Eminence will be spinning in his grave to hear of what is happening today at the Pontifical Council for the Family (established by Pope John Paul II in 1981 "for the promotion of the pastoral ministry and apostolate to the family, through the application of the teachings and guidelines of the ecclesiastical Magisterium, to help Christian families fulfill their educational and apostolic mission").

How tragically prophetic - in particular the last sentence below - are the words of a study signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, on 13th May 2006, and presented to Pope Benedict XVI under the title "The Family and Human Procreation":

It is true that the natural institution of marriage and the family has never been prey to such violent attacks as it is now. New models of the family have emerged from radical movements ... Homosexual couples claim the same rights as those reserved to husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption.

... It is not a matter of an alternative activity or one in competition with other sectors of pastoral care ... The centrality of the pastoral care of the family and of life in the Church's pastoral ministry thus characterizes her action. Today, the new evangelization in which the family is called to participate finds itself having to respond to challenges that it is not an exaggeration to call epochal. Those challenges more closely connected with the family concern the civilization of love and the service to life through responsible fatherhood and motherhood.

The Holy Father Benedict XVI said to the Bishops representing the Episcopal Commissions for the Family and Life of Latin America: "It is therefore indispensable and urgent that every person of good will should endeavor... to safeguard the fundamental values of marriage and the family. They are threatened by the current phenomenon of secularization"

It seems to me that the spirit of secularisation is alive and well and presiding now at the Pontifical Council for the Family.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Why SPUC is concerned about reception of Holy Communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics

I am occasionally asked: Why is SPUC, through Voice of the Family, engaging in the Family Synod; and, in particular, why is SPUC so concerned about the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics?

SPUC is a non-confessional human rights organisation which has in its ranks members of all faiths and none. In common with virtually every other pro-life group in the world, many, if not most, of our members are Catholics.

All members of the Church enjoy the freedom to share their views with members of the hierarchy and with each other. In fact all Catholics have a duty to do so in certain circumstances. The Code of Canon Law states:

According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons. (Canon 212)

The Church has always taught that marriage is an indissoluble union of one man and one woman, which ends only with one of the death of one of the spouses. If a person “remarries”, without the first marriage being declared null by the Church, they are guilty of adultery. They cannot therefore receive Holy Communion until they have confessed this sin and resolved to amend their lives. This has been very clearly taught by the Church throughout her history and Catholics at every level of the Church have a right and a duty to defend this teaching.

This doctrine has been authoritatively restated numerous times in the last few decades including in the following documents:

- Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 22 November 1981

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of the Faithful who are Divorced and Remarried; 4 September 1994

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Concerning some Objections to the Church’s Teaching on the Reception of Holy Communion by Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful, 1st January 1998

- Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Declaration concerning the Admission to Holy Communion of the Faithful who are Divorced and Remarried, 24 June 2000

- Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007

- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsum to the question "Can a confessor grant absolution to a penitent who, having been religiously married, has contracted a second union following divorce?"22 October 2014

You will note that the most recent decree was promulgated by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith during the pontificate of Pope Francis and since the Extraordinary Synod. In other words, the position adopted by SPUC is exactly that of the Church’s magisterium, both past and present.

Nevertheless the question remains: Is it in SPUC 's remit to campaign on this issue?

In November 2011 SPUC’s Council, our policy-making body which is elected by our grass roots volunteers, adopted a motion that the Society should “to do its utmost to fight for the retention of the traditional understanding of marriage in the history, culture and law of the United Kingdom, namely the exclusive union of one man with one woman for life; and accordingly instructs its officers and executive committee to conduct a major campaign to this end...” The defence of the traditional understanding of marriage is therefore now clearly part of SPUC’s remit. The vote of Council on that occasion in support of the resolution was unopposed.

The reason why marriage is so important is because all aspects of sexuality, marriage and the family are closely interconnected. In his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II taught:

“It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, "manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love". The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life.”

I am convinced that we cannot defeat abortion if our society does not value marriage as the exclusive and indissoluble union of one man and one woman. I have had the privilege of speaking about this topic at conferences in various parts of the world. Marriage is the natural habitat of unborn children, the place where God intends them to be conceived, educated and nurtured. When we destroy the habitat we end up destroying children too. The statistics bear this out; four out five aborted children are conceived outside of marriage. If an organisation that worked to protect orang-utans refused to do anything to protect the rainforest they would be generally considered to be failing in their duty. Similarly any organisation fighting to defend unborn children must defend their natural habitat, which is the family founded on marriage. It is for this reason that SPUC will continue to fight for the traditional understanding of marriage.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal Nichols' misleading statement at Chrism Mass

Cardinal Nichols holds press conference on synod, 21 October 2014

I was astonished to read in the Catholic Herald that Cardinal Nichols used his sermon at the Westminster Chrism Mass to claim that it is wrong "to think or speak of this Synod as a battle, a battle between contesting sides."

I was present in Rome during the Extraordinary Synod, working with representatives of other pro-family organisations as part of the Voice of the Family coalition. It was plainly evident to us, after numerous meetings with prelates on both sides of the divide, that a battle was taking place over crucial aspects of Catholic teaching and discipline relating to marriage and the family.

George Cardinal Pell, Prefect for the Economy, publicly stated that "radical elements" within the hierarchy were attempting to use the synod to undermine Catholic teaching on questions such as cohabitation and homosexual unions. They were, he said, using the issue of Holy Communion for the divorced and "remarried" as a "stalking horse" to help pursue these wider changes. 

These attempts to undermine the doctrine of the Church were strongly resisted on the floor of the synod hall, resulting in a partial reversal of the radical agenda outlined in the now notorious interim report. The final report remains gravely flawed however, as outlined in Voice of the Family's in-depth analysis.

This serious division between leading prelates is widening as the Ordinary Synod approaches. Cardinal Marx, Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, has claimed that the Church in Germany is not “a subsidiary of Rome” and that each bishops’ conference must “preach the Gospel in its own, original way.” Cardinal Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has called this idea “absolutely anti-Catholic” and another German, Cardinal Cordes, has accused Marx of false mercy, “theological blurriness” and language better suited to the “counter of a bar”. Furthermore Swiss-German Cardinal, Kurt Koch, has stated that the dissenters are trying to adapt the faith to the world after the manner of some German Christians under the Nazi regime.

This sounds like a battle to me.

Those interested in knowing what really happened before and during the Extraordinary Synod will benefit reading from the detailed narrative overview produced by Voice of Family.

I found Cardinal Nichols' comments particularly surprising because he himself has taken part in the current battle over Church teaching. I wrote last week about his disappointment that language about homosexuality placed in the heterodox interim report was removed from the synod's final report. He has also expressed his openness to the admission of those in public and unrepentant mortal sin to Holy Communion, which would contradict twenty centuries of Catholic teaching.

I have previously documented many of Cardinal Nichols' statements and actions relating to homosexuality and homosexual unions.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal Nichols' criticism of faithful priests is deeply disturbing

Cardinal Nichols conducting dialogue on the Synod via the press

I am deeply disturbed by Cardinal Nichols' criticism of the 461 brave priests who signed a letter upholding the unchangeable teachings of the Catholic Church on marriage and Holy Communion.

In the letter, which was published in the Catholic Herald yesterday, priests from all over England and Wales pledged to remain faithful to Catholic teaching and to offer true pastoral care to all those who find themselves in difficult situations.

A statement made by Cardinal Nichols' spokesman said:

“Every priest in England and Wales has been asked to reflect on the Synod discussion. It is my understanding that this has been taken up in every diocese, and that channels of communication have been established.”

It continued:

“The pastoral experience and concern of all priests in these matters are of great importance and are welcomed by the Bishops. Pope Francis has asked for a period of spiritual discernment. This dialogue, between a priest and his bishop, is not best conducted through the press.”

I find this statement astonishing for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Cardinal Nichols has himself used the press to indicate sympathy for views being promoted by the "radical elements" (to use Cardinal Pell's phrase) who want to dismantle Catholic teaching on marriage and the family.

I drew attention yesterday to the press conference at which Cardinal Nichols undermined Catholic teaching on the reception of Holy Communion by the divorced and "remarried".

The Cardinal also used the press to express his disappointment that the final report of the synod did not include controversial phrases originally placed in the notorious interim report. He told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme:

“I didn’t think it went far enough, there were three key words as far as I was concerned … ‘respect’, ‘welcome’ and ‘value’. I was looking for those words and they weren’t there and so I didn’t think that was a good paragraph.”

He added:

“I didn’t think it was a good text because it didn’t include those words strongly enough so I wasn’t satisfied with it.”

Secondly, it is hardly surprising that priests faithful to Catholic teaching would lack confidence in the "channels of communication" that are claimed to "have been established." I also mentioned yesterday that the official document produced by Bishops' Conference of England and Wales for clergy seemed nothing other than an instrument for intimidating priests who wish to remain faithful to the Church's traditional doctrine and discipline.

Is it any surprise that these brave priests would wish to speak directly to the Catholic faithful rather than trust "channels of communication" established by the same people responsible for this truly disgraceful document?

Indeed, in their press statement an anonymous priest was quoted who alleged that priests involved in the project had been intimidated by "senior churchmen."

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, how can any Catholic bishop object to priests using the media to express their loyalty to the teaching of Christ and their desire to give true pastoral care to all who need it?

Catholics should be very disturbed by the Cardinal's comments; very disturbed indeed.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

“Senior churchmen” accused of intimidating clergy faithful to Catholic teaching on marriage

I was greatly encouraged to read this morning the press statement released by the co-ordinator of the “Support Marriage Letter”, which reveals that 461 priests from across England and Wales have signed a letter urging those cardinals and bishops attending the Ordinary Synod to uphold Catholic teaching on the nature of marriage and to affirm the unchangeable doctrine and discipline of the Church regarding the reception of Holy Communion by divorced persons living in invalid civil unions.

The priests’ letter says:

“We affirm the importance of upholding the Church’s traditional discipline regarding the reception of the sacraments, and that doctrine and practice remain firmly and inseparably in harmony.”

I was however greatly concerned to read in their press statement the accusation that there “has been a certain amount of pressure not to sign the letter and indeed a degree of intimidation from some senior Churchmen”.

It should be shocking to us to hear that senior clerics are intimidating priests who simply wish to remain faithful to the unchanging teachings of the Church. Unfortunately, I was not surprised by this allegation.

Back in December the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales published a document that insinuated that priests who remain faithful to the Catholic doctrine and discipline of the sacraments are guilty of an attitude similar to the fourth century heresy of Donatism. It is difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to intimidate clergy who are unwilling to go along with the radical agenda being pursued by senior clerics, particularly with regard to the reception of Holy Communion by the divorced and “remarried”, and with regard to attempts to undermine the teaching of the Church on homosexuality and same-sex unions.

The President of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, indicated his openness to the reception of Holy Communion by the divorced and “remarried” at a press conference on 21^st October 2014 despite authoritative and irreformable Church teaching to the contrary.

Cardinal Nichols’ views on, and approach towards, homosexuality and same-sex unions have been documented many times on this blog:

• Pope Benedict is being shepherded into a political correct broad church of England, 4 July 2010
• Archbishop Vincent Nichols goes along with prevailing ideas on sex and relationships education, 21 April 2010
• Archbishop Nichols’ shows remarkable political prescience, 21 July 2010
• Families will not “hold their tongue” about bishop protected dissent on pro-life/pro-family issues, 9 September 2010
• Archbishop Nichols’ comments on gay unions endanger the souls of my children, 11 September 2010
• Pope Benedict contradicts Archbishop Nichols on “gay unions”, 13 September 2010
• Archbishop Nichols undermines Pope Benedict on gay unions the day after his return to Rome, 23 September 2010
• A reflection on Archbishop Nichols’ earlier comments on gay unions, 24 September 2010
• Archbishop Nichols should stop causing confusion regarding homosexuality, 12 January 2011
• Archbishop Nichols' Pastoral Centre to host conference for dissenting Catholic gays, 14 July 2011
• Concern grows regarding Cardinal Nichols’ views on compulsory sex education, 4 April 2014

Please write to the following bishops who will representing the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and inform them that you expect them to faithfully promote and defend the Catholic faith:

His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster
Archbishop’s House
Ambrosden Avenue
London
SW1P 1QJ
cardinalnichols@rcdow.org.uk

Rt Rev Peter Doyle
Bishop of Northampton
Bishop's House
Marriott Street
Northampton
NN2 6AW
bishop@northamptondiocese.com

Rt Rev Philip Egan
Bishop of Portsmouth (substitute if one of the above cannot attend)
Bishop's House
Bishop Crispan Way
Portsmouth
PO1 3HG
bishop@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk

Please also write to your own bishops to state your expectation that they will remain faithful to Catholic teaching on human life, marriage and the family and their intimate and intrinsic connection to the doctrine of the sacraments.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Over 2 million IVF embryos killed since 1990

frozen embryos at risk

Over 2 million IVF embryos killed since 1990
The number of embryos killed in the UK has increased almost every year since records began, now amounting to 170,000 a year, according to new figures. The same figures also show that 2,053,656 embryos have been killed since 1990. The figures are held by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and were released in a parliamentary answer to Lord Alton. [Catholic Herald, 11 Mar]

France considers "deep sleep" bill
A bill to allow patients to halt treatment and be given general anaesthesia until death will be debated in the French parliament tomorrow. Jean Leonetti of the UMP party said: "The patient has to be at the end of their life and suffering despite the treatment given...When these elements are present, I (the doctor) am obliged to start sedation that is deep and continues until death". Representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in France have opposed the legislation. [France 24, 10 Mar]

Dublin rally challenges media's pro-abortion bias
A rally in Dublin against the media's basis against the pro-life cause was attended by 300 demonstrators in Dublin last week. The rally, entitled "33 to 1: Challenging Media Bias" was organised by the Pro-life Campaign. Wendy Grace of the Pro-Life Campaign told The Irish Times that the title of the rally was chosen because 33 pro-abortion articles had been published in the Irish media compared to just one pro-life article within a period of two weeks. [Irish Times, 11 Mar]

Pro-abortion buffer-zone campaign is money-driven and anti-women
The abortion industry's "Back-Off" campaign is a money-driven exercise designed to stop women receiving help to avoid abortions. Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, said: "The campaign against these pro-life counsellors is being supported and run by private abortion clinics and others with financial interests in abortion. They do not want women getting help to avoid abortions." [SPUC, 4 Mar]

Other stories:

Abortion

• Pro-life group calls for end to use of term "incompatible with life" [TheJournal, 9 Mar]
• Mass takes place in a former abortuary [Catholic World Report, 6 March]
• Another Irish MP launches bill to allow abortion of terminally-ill children [Clare FM, 5 Mar]
• UN committee targets Ecuador over abortion restrictions [LifeNews.com, 3 Mar]

Embryology

• Scientists call for halt on embryo modification research [Reuters, 12 March]
• Woman gives birth to her own son's IVF baby [Mail, 5 Mar]

Euthanasia

• Australian Medical Association expels Philip Nitschke [Mercatornet, 12 Mar]
• Victory in Canadian court against euthanasia by omission [Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, 3 Mar]

Population

• Chinese mothers travel to US to give birth [Vice, 10 March]
• Chinese regime says: no further adjustments to population control policy [EU Reporter, 5 Mar]

Family issues

• Polish Bishops’ Conference rejects Holy Communion for divorced and "remarried" [Voice of the Family, 17 Mar]
• Catholic authorities' platform for Fr Radcliffe is a grave betrayal of trust [John Smeaton, 16 Mar]
• Catholic bishops of Ireland urge serious reflection on SSM referendum [Zenit, 11 Mar]
• Same-sex marriage: Children are being sacrificed on the altar of adults' "sexual rights" [John Smeaton, 11 Mar]
• Cardinal calls for saint-like love in defence of marriage [Voice of the Family, 9 Mar]
• Three Thai homosexuals 'marry' in Buddhist ceremony [New York Post, 27 Feb]

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal calls for saint-like love in defence of marriage

Release by Voice of the Family:

Cardinal calls for saint-like love in defence of marriage

9 March 2015: A prominent Cardinal of the Catholic Church has called for Catholics to imitate the Christian martyrs in defence of marriage and human life.

His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke made the call this past weekend in addresses for Voice of the Family http://voiceofthefamily.info/ and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) www.spuc.org.uk in Chester and Southport, north-west England.

On Friday evening in Chester there was standing-room only as the Cardinal spoke on the theme “Remaining in the Truth of Christ on Holy Matrimony” [full text: Cardinal Burke Chester 20150306]. Bishop Mark Davies, Catholic bishop of Shrewsbury was present, as were many priests, journalists and families who had travelled from all over the UK. Cardinal Burke said: “Today, for example, we sadly find the need to speak about ‘traditional’ marriage, as if there were another kind of marriage. There is only one kind of marriage as God has given it to us from the Creation and as Christ has redeemed it by His saving Passion and Death.”

He continued: “Even within the Church, there are those who would obscure the truth of the indissolubility of marriage in the name of mercy, who condone the violation of the conjugal union by means of contraception in the name of pastoral understanding, and who, in the name of tolerance, remain silent about the attack on the very integrity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

The cardinal said that the faithful must be ready to suffer, as Christians have suffered down the ages, to defend the sanctity of Holy Matrimony.

Many people attending the address asked Cardinal Burke to autograph their copies of “Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church”, the popular Ignatius Press book co-authored by the cardinal on authentic Catholic teaching on marriage and the Sacraments.

On Saturday evening Cardinal Burke also addressed 150 young people at SPUC’s annual youth conference in Southport on the theme of “The New Evangelisation of the Fallen Christian West“. He started his address by saying that he had long admired SPUC, its work and John Smeaton, its chief executive.

Cardinal Burke described the family home as “the cradle of life” and lamented the wholesale destruction of the baby in the womb. He asserted that there is no such thing as ‘alternative sexualities’, only sexuality as enshrined by God in human nature.

On Sunday morning he celebrated Pontifical Low Mass in the traditional Roman rite at the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul and St Philomena, New Brighton. In his homily on the Gospel text of the Mass, Cardinal Burke said that our Lord warns the faithful to be aware of those things which lead them into repeating sins, such as those of lust.

Today the cardinal is making a pilgrimage to the Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate to pray for England. During his visit the cardinal urged the faithful to turn to the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham and the many English martyrs and saints, especially St Thomas More as a martyr for uncompromising obedience in conscience to the moral law. The true understanding of conscience (recognition of truth) is held by the Church, in contrast to the world’s false understanding (relativism), he said. In public life, only being true to the natural moral law can serve the common good.

For more information, please contact Voice of the Family:

• email enquiry@voiceofthefamily.info
• telephone: +44 (0)20 7820 3148 (UK landline)

Follow Voice of the Family via:

• email subscription via the website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• RSS

About Voice of the Family:
Voice of the Family is an initiative of Catholic laity from major pro-life/pro-family organisations.> Find out more

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal Baldisseri is undermining Catholic teaching

Patrick Buckley, SPUC's international
envoy, speaks out at Vatican conference

Voice of the Family*, a coalition of leaders of 23 pro-family and pro-life groups worldwide, has issued a statement criticising Cardinal Baldisseri, the organizer of the forthcoming Synod on the Family, saying that his comments last week have further undermined Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. SPUC is co-founder of Voice of the Family.

The cardinal was speaking at an international conference in Rome organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Voice of the Family reports:

[Cardinal] Baldisseri defended the right of Walter Cardinal Kasper to assert that divorced persons living in unions not recognised by the Church should be permitted to receive Holy Communion. Baldisseri, in response to a concerned pro-family advocate, told delegates that we should not be 'shocked' by theologians contradicting Church teaching.

The Cardinal said that dogmas can evolve and that there would be no point holding a Synod if we were simply to repeat what had always been said. He also suggested that just because a particular understanding was held 2,000 years ago does not mean that it cannot be challenged.

Patrick Buckley (pictured), international envoy for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, commented: “The Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage is founded on the words of Jesus Christ. These words may have been spoken 2,000 years ago but for Catholics they remain nothing other than the unchanging commands of God.”

Patrick Buckley and Philomena, his wife, are the parents of seven children and they have twenty grandchildren.

*Voice of the Family is an initiative of Catholic laity formed in support of the Synod on the Family 2014 - 2015.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Synod’s final report “fails to resolve confusion”, says pro-family coalition

The final report issued by the Extraordinary Synod on the Family fails to resolve the confusion caused by the Synod, says Voice of the Family http://voiceofthefamily.info an international coalition of pro-family groups.

Paragraphs containing controversial ideas on sexual morality remain in the published document, even though these paragraphs did not receive the required two-thirds majority of Synod members. The Vatican’s spokesmen made clear that these paragraphs remain subject to discussion at next year’s Ordinary Synod. Although the final report contains some significant improvements on the original draft, the voting numbers reveal that most Synod Fathers remain open to proposals contrary to Catholic teaching, such as Holy Communion for Catholics in invalid ‘second’ marriages.

Maria Madise, Voice of the Family’s coordinator, said:

“The architects of the Extraordinary Synod are responsible for deepening the confusion that has already damaged families since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. This confusion will now continue from today through to next year’s Ordinary Synod.

There has been much talk about ‘welcoming’ and ‘accompanying’ people, but this is impossible without the clarity of the truth.

Several Synod Fathers protested openly in the past days against manipulation by liberals among the Synod’s officials, such as Archbishop Bruno Forte. Gratitude and admiration is due to those Synod Fathers who – despite manipulation – voted to uphold Christ’s doctrine on Holy Matrimony and sexual purity.

We thank the many concerned Catholics who have told us that Voice of the Family is speaking up for them. We urge all those concerned to defend the family to join us as we start the long preparation for next year’s Ordinary Synod on the Family.”

 Related press releases by Voice of the Family:

• Synod’s Message ‘weak and ambiguous’, say family groups
• Pro-family Catholics reject Synod mid-way report, calling it ‘a betrayal’

Follow Voice of the Family via:

• email subscription via the website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• RSS

Voice of the Family is an international lay coalition of major pro-life and pro-family organizations that has formed to offer expertise and resources to leaders of the church, the media, NGOs, and governments before, during, and after the Catholic Church’s Synod on the Family.

Voice of the Family consists of 18 member organizations from nine nations on five continents. Members include:

• Alfa Szövetség/Alpha Alliance
• Campagne Québec-Vie
• Campaign Life Catholics
• Campaign Life Coalition Canada
• Catholic Democrats
• Catholic Voice
• CENAP
• Culture of Life Africa
• European Life Network
• Famiglia Domani
• Family Life International NZ
• Hnutí Pro život ČR
• Human Life International (HLI)
• Liga pár páru ČR
• LifeSiteNews.com
• National Association of Catholic Families (NACF)
• Profesionales por la Ética
• Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)

The following truths are at the heart of Voice of the Family’s work:

• Sacramental marriage, binding parents together in an indissoluble union, is the greatest protector of children both born and unborn.
• The artificial separation of the unitive and procreative dimensions of the sexual act is a major catalyst of the culture of death.
• Parents are the primary educators of their children and it is through the education and formation of parents, and future parents, that the culture of life will be built.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Bishop Philip Egan addresses SPUC's national conference

Bishop Philip Egan

This morning SPUC's national conference 2014 was privileged to be addressed by the Rt. Rev. Philip Egan, the Catholic bishop of Portsmouth, on the forthcoming Synod on the Family and the Sensus Fidei. Here are the main points from Bishop Egan's address.

What is a Synod?
An "Ecumenical Council" means a 'gathering of all', in order to discuss and decide about important matters. Ecumenical Councils are rare. A synod is a smaller gathering of bishops, such as bishops across a region or a province.

In preparation for a synod, the synod's secretariat sends out a scoping document for dioceses. The responses are sent back to Rome; and from those responses the secretariat draws up an Instrumentum Laboris, a 'working document'.

A synod is an advisory body. The Pope participates in the synod, and following the synod he issues an Apostolic Exhortation in response to the synod.

The synod on the family to be held in Rome in October is an Extraordinary Synod. The last Extraordinary Synod was in 1987 on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This year's Extraordinary Synod is also unusual, in two ways:
1) it will be followed by an Ordinary Synod next year. The Apostolic Exhortation will be the Instrumentum Laboris for the next year’s synod
2) The 39 pre-synod questions were circulated widely throughout the Church so as to put forward concerns.

Why the family?
Pope Francis announced the synod on the family at the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio. The Pope said that today many young people do not want to get married. Also, people get married lacking maturity. This is where pastoral care needs to comes in. The pastoral care of the family is very complicated, including issues such as annulments, divorce, and access to Holy Communion. Pope Francis said the family is in crisis worldwide. The topic needs two synods to give an adequate treatment.

Instrumentum Laboris
Instrumentum Laboris, to me, is a remarkable document. It unambiguously restates Catholic teaching on the main family issues. At the same time, it emphasises God’s mercy and the need to spread it; highlights the lack of faith and lack of sufficient catechesis. The beginning deals with the Gospel of the Family, which is the term I especially like. The crisis of faith leads to a crisis of relationships and families. The Instrumentum Laboris ends with the prayer of the Holy Family.

In summary the Instrumentum Laboris deals with:

• how to communicate Church’s teaching more effectively?
• how to support those in need more mercifully?
• how to support families in teaching about openness to life?

Crisis of faith
In Britain the crisis of the family is bound to the crisis of the faith. Secularism separates Church and State. The result is moral relativism. Nothing is solid.

It is no secret that many progressive Catholics look forward to changes in Church’s teaching and doctrine from the Synod. In contrast, Blessed John Henry Newman taught that Christian teaching tends to develop organically, like an acorn, with continuity. Doctrine develops rather than changes. Developments in doctrine must be consistent.

In history the Church has experienced major controversies. Today’s issue is the anthropology of a human being: what it means to created, fallen and then redeemed. The Sensus Fidei is the belief that the Holy Spirit endows each member of the Church, each baptised Christian, with an instinct to live in truth. Some members of the Church do not understand the Church’s teaching on marriage and family. Should the doctrine then be changed?

Bl. John Henry Newman taught observed that it has been the ordinary faithful who have passed on the Church's doctrine. Like others in the Church, the faithful should be consulted, not in a democratic way, but rather as a thermometer to check the weather. It is the doctrine that Christ wills for His Church. The doctrine is not always the balanced view, but it is the truth.

My personal hopes for the Synod:
1) A fresh, attractive, easy-to-understand idea of the Gospel of the Family. I would wish that the Synod requests from the Pope a presentation of the Christian understanding of birth, sex, death, male, and female. This would greatly assist religious education in our schools. I am actively considering appointing a couple in every parish as a ministry for marriage.
2) That the Synod will find a better way how to spread mercy for those in difficulties and irregular situations. Pope Benedict suggested we need a further study on the relation of faith and the Sacrament of Matrimony. Many people fall away from the Catholic Church because they fail to form a personal relationship with Christ.

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Report of my address to Nigeria's Catholic bishops

Below is SPUC's press release about my address last night to Nigeria's Catholic bishops:

Nigerian bishops give standing ovation for UK pro-life leader's tough words

Abuja, Nigeria, 6 June 2014: Nigeria's Catholic bishops have given a standing ovation for tough words in a speech last night given by a veteran UK pro-life leader.

John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) www.spuc.org.uk last night addressed (full text) the bishops at a dinner in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, following a pro-life march and conference organised by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (photographs below).

Mr Smeaton started by praising Nigeria's pro-family culture:

"Compared with Nigeria, Britain is a poor nation. I am not measuring wealth by the criteria of the International Monetary Fund ... Nigeria’s true wealth, compared with Britain’s, can be found in its fertility rate, which is more than five children per woman of child-bearing age, in contrast to the UK's rate of less than two. That’s why many politicians and institutions in powerful Western nations are afraid of Nigeria and want to interfere with laws and policies in [Nigeria] which affect women and children in particular."

Mr Smeaton also praised Nigeria's Catholic bishops:

"Nigeria's wealth is also reflected in the moral leadership given by Catholic Church leaders in Nigeria. Your opposition in 2010 to the African Union’s pro-abortion Maputo Protocol, led by His Eminence John Onaiyekan, the cardinal archbishop of Abuja, reverberated around the world ... Earlier this year, you, the Catholic bishops of Nigeria publicly thanked Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president, for signing into law the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill, 2011".

Mr Smeaton continued:

"As a pro-life leader, as a Catholic parent, I am very grateful to the Nigerian Catholic Bishops for your defence of our families. You are following the example of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions. Standing up against the worldwide homosexual agenda is crucial for the protection of children and it is a fundamental pro-life issue. Bishops around the world should follow the Nigerian bishops' lead and speak out for strong policies against the subversion of the truth and meaning of human sexuality."

Warning again about Western interference in Africa, Mr Smeaton said:

"British Prime Minister, David Cameron has threatened to withhold UK aid from poor countries that do not conform saying in connection with the homosexual rights agenda, and I quote: 'British aid should have more strings attached'." Just a few weeks ago, last April, Nigeria’s permanent representative at the UN, Ambassador Joy Ogwu, came under attack from International Planned Federation for opposing abortion on behalf of the Nigerian delegation at the UN."

Pointing out that "the pro-life movement cannot defeat the culture of death on our own", Mr Smeaton called for:

"pro-life organizations and the wider community [to] be fortified by unequivocal, unyielding voices of Catholic Church officials and bishops throughout the world. I implore all Catholic bishops throughout the world to speak out clearly and categorically that politicians who vote for and publicly support abortion legislation must publicly retract and refute the position they have adopted before receiving Jesus Christ in Holy Communion".

Mr Smeaton observed that:

"many leaders of faithful Christian and pro-life, pro-family organizations have found" absoluteness "severely lacking in Catholic leadership today ... In its place we have weakness and compromise."

This lack of absoluteness on the teaching of Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI's encyclical against contraception) has had a negative impact on the pro-life fight, because "the use of contraception undermines respect for the sanctity of human life from conception and makes abortion an option", said Mr Smeaton.

John Smeaton (centre, in white shirt) with student-delegates from Benin University:

Nigeria's Catholic bishops marching for life and family:

SPUC's communications department can be contacted on:

• email news@spuc.org.uk
• mobile 07939 177683
• direct dial landline 020 7820 3129
• Twitter @spucprolife

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

My interview by Michael Voris

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by Michael Voris, the great American Catholic apologist, on his Mic'd Up! programme on ChurchMilitant.TV. You can watch the interview below or on YouTube. I spoke about:

• the fine work of my colleagues at SPUC
• the successes and expertise of the pro-life movement
• the importance of Catholic Church leadership to winning the pro-life fight
• the geo-political significance of pro-life battle in English-speaking world
• the effect of international anti-life agencies on developing world
• the scandal of Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians
• the importance of marriage and families for protecting unborn children
• the need for Catholic Church leaders to speak out against contraception and abortifacient birth control
• the scandalous appointment of dissenters as Catholic officials

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Bishop Egan answers pro-abortion Catholic MPs

In a further interview published today, Bishop Philip Egan, the bishop of Portsmouth, has responded firmly to criticism from pro-abortion Catholic MPs who were appalled when he said political advocates of abortion and same-sex “marriage” should not present themselves to receive Communion.

“Those who do not accept the Catholic Church’s principle teachings on the value of life – as expressed in her teaching on abortion, on marriage and family life, on euthanasia, on eugenics and on assisted suicide – the main tenets of Christian anthropology – are rejecting Christ’s vision for the human person, whom he redeemed on the Cross,” told LifeSite News in a second interview.

“Abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, assisted suicide gravely degrade and undermine respect for the dignity and value of human life,” he said.

LifeSite put Bishop Egan's comments about the reception of Communion into context thus:

"Egan’s statements reflect those of American Cardinal Raymond Burke who recently called a priest’s refusal to give Holy Communion to a publicly dissenting Catholic politician a 'prime act of pastoral charity', since it helps the person in question to 'avoid sacrilege and safeguard[s] the other faithful from scandal.'”

You may wish to write to Bishop Egan to thank him for his clear, firm and loving pastoral leadership at bishop@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Summary and photos of SPUC's greatly successful youth conference

Last weekend's SPUC 7th International Pro-Life Youth and Student conference was a great success. For a full report, read "Want to see how good the 2014 SPUC youth conference was?" on SPUC's youth blog "Why I am Pro-Life". You can also see a full slideshow of photos on SPUC's new Flickr photostream. Below is a summary of all the talks taken from SPUC's live Twitter feed of the conference. We hope to post videos of all the talks and other parts of the conference on SPUC's YouTube channel in the near future.

7 March:

Opening and introduction:

Dan Blackman

• 7th SPUC Int'l Pro-Life Youth conference, starting this eve in Telford and concluding Sun, is fully-booked. Live tweets of conf to follow.
• Good evening from start of the 7th SPUC International Pro-life Youth conference, Telford, England. Great venue, nice dinner & now 1st talk.
• SPUC's Anthony McCarthy introducing our youth conference. Conference serves youth, to educate them & help advance cause of truth. #prolife
• Robin Haig, SPUC's chairman, encouraging dialogue & networking between #prolife youth. New ideas, new friendships will result.
• Dan Blackman, SPUC youth officer, encourages #prolife youth to train as SPUC speakers in schools, using our modern presentation.

SPUC School's talk, given by Huda Alfardus:

Huda Alfardus

• Huda Alfardus, Nottingham student, now giving SPUC schools presentation. Slavery precursor of abortion: unborn deemed non-persons.
• Human beings genetically complete at conception (fertilisation); separate, unique, human. Heart, spine, limbs, brain etc forms very rapidly.
• "Foetus", medical term for unborn child at 9 weeks, is Latin for "little one". Movement in womb, taste, hair etc all develop quickly now.
• Facts from Langman's Medical Embryology, 2004. Despite these moving facts, 200k abortions in UK p.a. Abortion methods chilling.
• RU486 chemical abortion designed to kill baby & expel his/her body. Mother involved in whole process, which is very traumatic, admit makers.
• Abortion in Britain allowed in law up to birth since 1990, including of disabled babies. #discrimination
• Morning-after pill can cause early abortions. Makers say 1 mode of action is to prevent implantation, thus killing newly-conceived embryos.
• Mother's health & wellbeing harmed by abortion. Possible risks may incl. blood loss, infertility, breast cancer, emotional harm→suicide.
• Over 500 abortions every day in Britain. We never judge women who have abortions, but give them truth, support, alternatives. #LoveThemBoth
• Huda is Princeton-educated geneticist. Young, brave, educated #prolife woman.

Bumper Pro-Life Quiz

Now Bumper #Prolife Pub Quiz! Heavyweight speakers tomorrow.

8 March:

Good morning from 2nd day of 7th SPUC Int'l Pro-life Youth Conference, Telford, England. Great pub quiz last night and top breakfast!

Top Catholic academic Dr William Newton on 'Contraception and Abortion: Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae".

Dr William Newton

• Fact: Big increase in contraceptive use was paralled by big increase in abortion in Spain, Turkey etc.
• Contraceptive mentality is: more sex, no kids. Leads to unplanned kids being seen as unwanted, thus leveraging abortion.
• Contraception not practical solution to abortion, let alone moral solution.
• Contraception is a game-changer in how society thinks about sex, human life, the person, science and morality.
• Contraception trivialises sex by removing the profound aspect of it, which is procreation.
• Contraception leads to people taking risks with sex, and sleeping with people they wouldn't want to have children with. More teen pregnancy
• Contraception enculturates mentality that pregnancy is like a disease. If "drug" of contraception fails, one kills the "disease" (unborn)
• Contraception treats humans as if they are animals e.g. sterilising them if they breed too much. Tells people they can't control themselves
• Science increasingly uninterested in question of its relationship with common good. Contraception wants power to neuter (not aid) nature.
• In teaching of moral theology in most Catholic colleges, contraception is core issue which has corrupted thinking about moral absolutes.
• Connection of the virtues: Lack of temperance inherent in contraception leads to selfishness, removes motivation to be sexually selfless.
• Moral blindness caused by selfishness of contraceptive (i.e. loveless) sex, porn etc leads to failure to recognise humanity of the unborn.
• Deep logical links between contraception and abortion.

Dr Helen Watt of Anscombe Bioethics Centre on "Cooperation with evil: how to think about the issue"

Dr Helen Watt

• Pro-lifers must remember: ends don't justify means. All our intentions must be good, not just some. One area of concern: abortion law reform
• Regulation of legal abortion (as distinct from selective banning of some abortions) inevitably involves formal cooperation in evil. Wrong to tell women how to prepare for abortion, says Dr Watt
• Material (as distinct from formal) cooperation in evil often (but not always) wrong. Depends on how close and on goods/harms at stake.
• Avoiding scandal (e.g. giving impression of weak/absent opposition to abortion) requires prudence. Again, can depend on closeness/remoteness
• Matters what type of people we become through our actions. Aim to follow our vocation w/out wrongful cooperation in evil, concludes Dr Watt.

Q&A with Dr Newton and Dr Watt:

• Natural family planning (NFP) differs from contraception because NFP is open to life, simply making use of infertile part of cycle.
• Extra-marital sex endemic in today's world, partly due to contraception. Illicit sex common in some eras, but esp. rampant today.
• Contraception leads to dualistic view of human person, denying essential unity of soul and body.
• Contraceptive sex doesn't give full soul-body union to sexual partner. Also, gift of fertility to spouse different to other gifts to others.
• Dr Helen Watt: Men have everything to do with abortion because they have everything to do with how women get pregnant.
• Very important to provide emotional support to women considering abortion or post-abortion, says Dr Helen Watt.

RT @CCFather: Bernie reports from @spucprolife youth conference: excellent morning, esp William Newton.

Robin Haig, SPUC chairman, ex-chairman of Association of Lawyers in Defence of the Unborn (ALDU), dispelling myths re British abortion law:

Robin Haig

• Myths: all abortion banned before '67, when abortion legalised. Facts: some abortion allowed '40s - '60s, abortion still crime in law.
• Children of women who considered but didn't choose abortion have thanked SPUC for saving their lives. SPUC gave support, love. U can too.

Dr Thomas Ward on "Parents, the first pro-life teachers":

Dr Thomas Ward

• Pays tribute to SPUC as unrivalled in Europe in importance for pro-life
• UN Declaration of Human Rights upholds parents' rights as primary educators as safeguard vs child indoctrination e.g. Nazi schooling.
• Saul Alinsky was anti-family radical who dedicated book to Satan. Obama, Hillary Clinton are Alinsky's disciples.
• Other anti-family radicals: Karl Marx, Lady Helen Brook. Agenda: take away children from parents' influence and give them to State instead.
• Enemies of pro-life know that parents as 1st educators are bulwarks vs abortion agenda. Pro-life movement slow to catch-up with this fact.
• Unlike pro-aborts, pro-lifers slow to realise that culture of death is underlined by contraception and homosexuality as well as abortion
• Dr Tom Ward to young pro-lifers: don't make same mistakes of previous generations in ignoring role of parents.
• Apart from a few brave bishops past & present, most bishops have failed to protect parents, thus damaging individual families, says Dr Ward.
• In Germany, home-schooling families arrested, children taken away, forced into exile. Good parents just protecting their kids from bad ideas
• Parents will become victims of the very ideas which they treat with indifference. John Paul II: all policies for the family, not at its cost

RT @spucscotland: Project Truth stall @ the SPUC Youth Conference pic.twitter.com/KDwp6ohyIl

Project Truth stall

John-Henry Westen, co-founder & editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com, on "Sexuality: Communicating the truth with love"

John-Henry Westen

• Pro-abortion and anti-family movements have long been cooperating. Media totally misrepresenting prayer vigils as angry, condemnatory.
• Young pro-lifers called to be heroic, just like good people during the Holocaust. Abortion holocaust: 10s of millions killed every year.
• Both founders of LifeSiteNews.com used to live pro-abortion, sexually liberal lifestyle.Soon realised it was a narrow hell.
• Pro-life message of love for both mother and child is having beautiful effect.
• Women like http://www.rebeccakiessling.com have found love, healing, hope in #prolife cause. Pro-lifers using love to move beyond standard debates
• Pro-family movement is movement of love, though unpopular; gets false accusations of "hatred", "bigotry"; also anti-faith hostility.
• Satan attacks married love cos God has made married love the exemplar of Heaven.
• Cardinal Ratzinger told US bishops: pro-abortion politicians must be denied Holy Communion, out of love for their souls and truth re life.
• Love is the easiest way for pro-lifers to get through to our opponents, esp. those hurt by harmful lifestyles (abortion, homosexuality etc)
• Printers, sports presenters et al. in Canada being sacked for not going along with gay agenda. Some Catholic bishops complicit in agenda.

RT @crismunozbe: Around 140 young adults attending the Youth Prolife Conference at Telford,England cc @spucprolife

Panel discussion on male & female perspectives on abortion. Fiorella Nash, John-Henry Westen, Robin Haig, Anthony Ozimic (chair)

Anthony Ozimic

• Many men hurt, angry, emasculated by partner's abortion. Women patronised by abortion lobby, as incapable of responsible motherhood.
• Abortion providers doling out operations, pills, drugs, devices which give men cover, excuses to abuse women further. Women deserve better.

Dr Helen Watt and Anthony McCarthy, mock debate on "Is abortion always wrong?":

• Dr Watt giving #prolife side. Pregnant women = mothers
• Society must change to accommodate fertility, not make women non-mothers to fit society's perceived needs.
• Anthony McCarthy giving (mock) pro-abortion side
• Pro-aborts argue not all human beings are persons. Right to life not in play for unborn cos not persons.
• Argument: direct abortions and double effect causing of miscarriage not really that different, so why not give jail time for both? Dr Helen Watt to reply
• Distinction between killing and letting die. Legitimate choices about resource allocation not intentional homicide.
• Mock debate now going through arguments around twinning, ensoulment. Aquinas good on soul-body but used now-outdated embryology
• Ethical use of double-effect re abortion requires strong justification. Is pregnancy a special case?
• Dr Helen Watt now answering question by rebutting Judith Jarvis Thompson's famous violinist scenario. Pregnancy very different situation.
• Abortion is a violent separation of child from mother, not simply decision not to support another's life. Abortion = deliberate bodily assault on child.
• If unborn was not a human being, it couldn't develop those capacities which are identifiably human. Mother's body welcomes human being.
• Argument that unborn human is parasite never used by scientists to describe unborn of animal species. Shows anti-human bias.
• Religious arguments not essential to show wrongness of abortion but can help give deeper, broader context for understanding wrongness.

Eve Farren

Now hearing from Eve Farren of the Alliance of Pro-Life Students; SPUC Scotland's Project Truth and pro-life roadshow.

SPUC's Pro-Life Chains on 27 April, anniversary of Abortion Act coming into effect. Call SPUC on 020 7091 7091 for more info.

RT @AdamCC92: SPUC conference has been absolutely amazing! They do such great work

Ceilidh (Irish dancing)

9 March:

Good morn. from SPUC's 7th Int'l Pro-Life Youth conference, Telford, England. Great dinner & dancing last nite, religious services this a.m.

Fr Tony Kiely

SPUC's Fiorella Nash on "Men and abortion".

Fiorella Nash

• Abortion centre staff have reported horror stories re reality of killing babies.
• RU486 is hit-and-run abortion, leaving women to deal with the appalling trauma of delivery & disposal of dead baby.
• Men suffering from partners' abortions of their children, mocked by pro-abortion feminists. Depression, substance abuse, helplessness.
• "Silent No More" help both men & women after abortion experience. One Army veteran: "I still grieve for [my aborted son]." Lost chances.
• Abortion leads to relationship breakdown, contrary to promises of abortion advocates. Denial of abortion loss common early-stage bereavement
• How should men work to stop abortion? Live life of personal integrity, not selective morality, don't sleep around, don't abandon women
• Be with women during crisis pregnacies; speak respectfully to and about women; be confident in giving pro-life opinion, show compassion
• Be concerned about common good; work with others; find common ground; don't be scared
• Be bold, be active, be compassionate, be a man.

RT @JackStukel: People like Fiorella Nash restore my faith in human sanity and compassion @spucprolife #fourthwave #feminism

Patrick Buckley on "Ireland and the Global Pro-Abortion Agenda"

Pat Buckley (right) with Irish delegates

• John Smeaton, SPUC's chief exec, now introducing Pat Buckley, SPUC's man in Ireland; with Peter C Smith, one of SPUC's representatives at UN
• Nuremberg trials declared abortion (whether voluntary or forced) to be "crime against humanity", "act of extermination"
• UN human rights declarations, conventions etc actually protect unborn children from abortion but pro-aborts at UN misrepresent them
• John Paul II, who lived thru Nazi occupation, said pro-abortion culture of death is more insidious & evil than Nazi culture of death
• Ruling of Euro Court of Human Rights in Tysiac v Poland case was used later in same court in A, B & C case to pressure Ireland over abortion
• PM Enda Kenny broke pre-election promise not to legislate to allow abortion. Pro-abortion lies re Savita case increased pressure on Dail
• New Irish abortion law allows abortion up to birth in some cases; forces medics & hospitals to be complicit in abortion.Pro-abortion, anti-family Estrela report in Euro Parliament was defeated cos it exceeded Euro Parl's competence, plus big pro-life push-back
• Pro-abortion lobby identifies Catholic Church, esp. Holy See delegation at UN, as main roadblock to advance of global anti-life agenda

Heartfelt thanks to Pat Buckley & Peter C Smith for their sterling work at UN for SPUC & helping Holy See et al. to fight for life & family

John Smeaton, SPUC's chief executive, on "The Pro-Life Battle"

John Smeaton

• Thanked youth delegates from Romania, US, Scotland. Youth part of pro-life movement much more advanced 2day
• Some pro-life orgs (incl. SPUC in past) wasted efforts arguing for wrong legislation e.g. compromise bills. Let's never make mistake again.
• As Dr William Newton showed, contraceptive mentality is at root (not merely fruit) of culture of death e.g. abortion.
• SPUC defended pro-life counsellors when they were spied upon & defamed by pro-abortion groups via media fellow-travellers.
• Right that SPUC concerned re what happens in Catholic Church b/c Church incl. some great clergy gives great strength to pro-life movement
• Obama made abortion promotion worldwide, incl. to schoolchildren thru sex ed, one of his 1st priorities. We need strong RC Church to help us
• Pro-life orgs can't defeat culture of death on our own. We need global strength & reach of Catholic Church leadership to back us solidly
• Theologians who dissent from Catholic teaching on abortion undermine pro-life fight. Failure of bishops to discipline them thus harms cause.
• Youth called 2 speak truth 2 power, secular or religious. Need 4 declaration of total resistance 2 abortion. Emergency calls 4 open prayer.
• Some courageous pro-life bishops: Davies of Shrewsbury, Egan of Portsmouth, Olmsted of Phoenix.
• "Work with the spirit you danced with last nite in the ceilidh and you'll dance with your grandchildren", John Smeaton to SPUC prolife youth

RT @nickmurf: Fantastic weekend at @spucprolife youth conference! Met great people who are paving the road toward a pro-life society.

Nick Murphy @nickmurf

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
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy