tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22648521496115984852024-02-19T03:25:50.598+00:00JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUCA blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the <a href="http://www.spuc.org.uk">Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)</a>, the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. I wrote this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work. I retired from my post on 31st August 2021 and will therefore be adding no further posts.John Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comBlogger2390125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-15063253281796538292020-04-03T17:30:00.000+01:002020-04-03T17:30:15.872+01:00Northern Ireland bishops must not back unethical compromise making church complicit in radical abortion regime<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<strong>The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has
called on the bishops of Northern Ireland not to back an unethical
compromise which makes the church complicit in a radical abortion
regime.</strong><br />
<br />
On 31 March, the London Government’s new framework for legal abortion
in Northern Ireland came into effect. On the same day the Catholic
bishops of Northern Ireland issued a statement in which they abandoned
the robust position opposition to the new abortion regime they expressed
in December last year.<br />
<br />
The bishops’ new statement says:<br />
<br />
“The Regulations themselves can be debated by the Assembly and
insofar as they exceed the strict requirements of the 2019 Act, new
Regulations can be enacted by the Assembly. We intend to make these
points in writing to our MLAs in the coming days and encourage others to
do likewise.”<br />
<br />
<div>
The British Government’s new abortion regime includes:<br />
<ul>
<li>Abortion on demand for babies up to 12 weeks and up to 24 weeks on
unspecified “health” grounds, such as claims about the mother’s
“financial, relationship or housing issues which impact on the
continuance of the pregnancy”.</li>
<li>Abortion up to and during birth on grounds of disability. In
Britain, this has led to the abortion of nine out of 10 babies with
Downs’ syndrome and abortions for conditions like cleft lip or clubfoot.</li>
<li>No limit for self-induced abortions. A woman who kills her child
while giving birth will not commit a criminal offence. And doctors who
selectively kill a disabled twin or triplet just before or during
delivery will not be prosecuted.</li>
<li>Schools will become conduits for the abortion industry, directing
even underage girls for abortions without the knowledge of their
parents. This will facilitate the exploitation of girls and help to
cover-up cases of child sex abuse.</li>
</ul>
Liam Gibson, SPUC’s Northern Ireland political officer said:<br />
<br />
“The response of the Northern Ireland Catholic Bishops to this
development has come as a great disappointment for many in the pro-life
movement and especially the members of the health service who are
required to facilitate the provision of abortion in this new regime.
Only last December they expressed their unequivocal opposition to the
forthcoming abortion legislation in these terms:<br />
<br />
‘…we the Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland wish to make clear that
the new abortion law established under the provisions of the Northern
Ireland Act 2019, is an unjust law. …this law cannot be regarded as
possessing any authentic juridical validity or any morally binding
force. ‘As a consequence,’ they argued, ‘no one is obliged in conscience
to cooperate with any action permitted by this law which directly and
intentionally leads to the killing of an unborn child. Indeed, everyone
is morally obliged to oppose this law by conscientious objection.’<br />
<br />
“So in December” Liam Gibson continued “they said the Act must be
opposed, but now the bishops are calling for the amendment of the
regulations ‘insofar as they exceed the strict requirements of the 2019
Act’.<br />
<br />
“As a matter of urgency, the bishops need to reaffirm their commitment
to defend all unborn children without exception. Anything less than the
repeal of the abortion provisions in the 2019 Act will abandon the
youngest, weakest and most vulnerable children to the abortion
industry.<br />
<br />
“They must make it clear that they will not allow the London Government
to promote abortion in Catholic schools. They must be prepared to defend
the rights of all health service personnel, who refuse to have any
involvement in abortion, including pharmacists and ancillary workers.<br />
<br />
“The bishops warn politicians that they must ‘not meekly acquiesce’ to
the regulations. Sadly, it will seem to many that this is exactly what
they themselves have done in failing to maintain the position they took
just three months ago.”<br />
<br />
John Smeaton, SPUC Chief Executive, added:<br />
<br />
“By encouraging the British Government, UK parliamentarians and Northern
Ireland Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to back regulations
which permit abortion for various reasons, the Northern Ireland bishops
will involve the church in an unethical compromise which would make them
complicit in the radical abortion regime authorised by the Act. There
is a crucial moral difference between, on the one hand, limiting, in an
ethical way, the harm of pro-abortion legislation, and, on the other
hand, advising legislators on how to go about legalising abortion in
certain circumstances.”<br />
<br />
* 17 Dec 2019 Response to the Consultation on ‘A New Legal Framework
for Abortion Services in Northern Ireland’ from the Catholic Bishops of
Northern Ireland<br />
<br />
<u><a href="https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2019/12/17/response-to-the-consultation-on-a-new-legal-framework-for-abortion-services-in-northern-ireland-from-the-catholic-bishops-of-northern-ireland/">https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2019/12/17/response-to-the-consultation-on-a-new-legal-framework-for-abortion-services-in-northern-ireland-from-the-catholic-bishops-of-northern-ireland/</a></u><br />
</div>
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-19848670150503323982019-09-16T13:37:00.000+01:002019-09-16T13:37:06.558+01:00Vatican's and Catholic bishops’ promotion of dangerous teaching on sex education will add fuel to the raging fire of child abuse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHpuxSho95Y-hSRHo1I5k-X6HsB1py_uHcUoratJyTCAgrJhAYVH5d1F3qVhrzFONA46GOwBFPXpZEpcm2jq4pnMKHRAFTzStmel2NLwzOwkozHW1UpTAnywkKf3FHMMXWFyuicoFiIsU/s1600/41346544054_c8d609f736_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="1023" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHpuxSho95Y-hSRHo1I5k-X6HsB1py_uHcUoratJyTCAgrJhAYVH5d1F3qVhrzFONA46GOwBFPXpZEpcm2jq4pnMKHRAFTzStmel2NLwzOwkozHW1UpTAnywkKf3FHMMXWFyuicoFiIsU/s320/41346544054_c8d609f736_b.jpg" width="320" /></a>We must pray for the Pope, and for Catholic bishops in Britain and elsewhere. Catholic pastors in Britain and in many parts of the world, including in Rome, are supporting programmes of relationships education and sex education in educational institutions which constitute child abuse involving immeasurably greater numbers of young people than the cases of clerical sex abuse currently afflicting the Church.<br />
<br />
During a flight to Rome from Panama, last January, Pope Francis told reporters that bishops did not know what to do about the clerical sex abuse scandal. He said: <br />
<br />
“We felt the responsibility to give … catechesis on this problem to the bishops’ conferences”.<br />
<br />
Significantly, the Pope went on to say:<br />
<br />
“I believe that we must provide sex education in schools”.<br />
<br />
Pope Francis then mentioned parents in connection with sex education, but in a somewhat negative way. The Pope said “the ideal” is “to begin at home, with the parents.” But, he added, this is “not always possible,” “The school makes up for this,” he said, adding that if sex education is not provided the “void” will be “filled by any ideology.” <br />
<br />
The first thing to say about these words of Pope Francis is that they contrast sharply with the teaching of previous Popes:<br />
<br />
Pope Leo XIII taught in encyclical Rerum Novarum[1]<br />
<br />
“ …The contention … that the civil government should at its option intrude into and exercise intimate control over the family and the household is a great and pernicious error…<br />
<br />
“Paternal authority can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State; for it has the same source as human life itself.”<br />
<br />
And Pope Pius XI taught in his encyclical Divini Illius Magistri[2]<br />
<br />
“ …Far too common is the error of those who with dangerous assurance and under an ugly term propagate a so-called sex-education, falsely imagining they can forearm youths against the dangers of sensuality by means purely natural, such as a foolhardy initiation and precautionary instruction for all indiscriminately, even in public …”<br />
<br />
Which Pope is right? Are Pope Leo XIII and Pope XI right? Or is Pope Francis right when he says: “I believe that we must provide sex education in schools” because, he suggests, there are parents who can’t do it? Is he right when he says that “The school makes up for this” otherwise the “void” will be “filled with any ideology”?<br />
<br />
Allow me to reflect on the implications of what Pope Francis said:<br />
<br />
Firstly, worldwide experience indicates that school sex education is not confined to the children of parents for whom, in the words of Pope Francis, it’s not possible. School sex education is provided for all children regardless of parental wishes or competence.<br />
<br />
Secondly, when Pope Francis says “The school makes up for this” otherwise the “void” will be “filled with any ideology”, His Holiness ignores the fact that both Catholic and non-Catholic schools are currently communicating to children, through their sex education programmes, the ideology of the State and the ideology of the international pro-abortion lobby on matters relating to human sexuality, and His Holiness ignores the fact that both Catholic and non-Catholic schools are currently responsible for communicating images or ideas which represent psychological and spiritual child abuse on a worldwide scale.<br />
<br />
In countless Catholic primary schools in England and Wales, for example, children between the ages of seven and nine are being shown the video Living and Growing. The video is a cartoon depicting a naked couple chasing each other around a bed and engaging in sexual intercourse in numerous positions. An adult voice-over explains that sex is fun and makes people happy. A young girl's voice over exclaims that 'Yes, they do look very happy'. In this video there is no question of introducing the idea of marriage into the presentation of sexual activity. As Antonia Tully put it, the head of the Safe at School campaign run by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children: "Living and Growing puts sexual activity on the same plane as any activity that a seven-year old might normally be involved in. How will children deal with this information: is it a game? a joke? a worry? a fear? How will this affect your child?"<br />
<br />
Antonia Tully says that the evidence suggests that boys are likely to understand the information as a game or joke, while girls are likely to become distressed.<br />
<br />
Thirdly, the call from Pope Francis for sex education must be evaluated in the context of the Vatican’s own sex education programme called The Meeting Point. A few months after the promulgation of Amoris Laetitia, an apostolic exhortation in which Pope Francis called for sex education in educational institutions, the Pontifical Council for the Family introduced a sex education programme called The Meeting Point at the World Youth Day in Poland in July 2016.<br />
<br />
This programme, which is intended to be taught in schools, in mixed classrooms, adopts a secularised and secularising approach, and exposes children to obscene and pornographic images.<br />
<br />
Serious questions about the programme <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/exclusive-the-new-threat-to-catholic-youth-the-meeting-point" target="_blank">have been raised</a> by Dr Rick Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist and adjunct professor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, at the Catholic University of America. [He writes:]<br />
<br />
“ … in my professional opinion, the most dangerous threat to Catholic youth that I have seen over the past 40 years is the Vatican’s new sexual education program, The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual Education for Young People.<br />
<br />
“In a culture in which youth are bombarded by pornography, I was particularly shocked by the images contained in this new sex education program, some of which are clearly pornographic. My immediate professional reaction was that this obscene or pornographic approach abuses youth psychologically and spiritually.<br />
<br />
“Youth are also harmed by the failure to warn them of the long-term dangers of promiscuous behaviours and contraceptive use. As a professional who has treated both priest perpetrators and the victims of the abuse crisis in the Church, what I found particularly troubling was that the pornographic images in this program are similar to those used by adult sexual predators of adolescents”.<br />
<br />
A fourth consideration arising from Pope Francis’s repeated calls for school-based sex education is the fact that in various parts of the world Catholic bishops and Catholic bishops’ conferences have long been using their power and authority to promote programmes of relationships and sex education the content of which is explicitly anti-life, anti-family and anti-Catholic.<br />
<br />
The Catholic Education Service, a department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, have a long-established approach to sex education which reflects the policies of the pro-abortion lobby, the homosexual lobby and the British Government and which constitutes the sexual abuse and corruption of children.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrXrfTdbhcv_ipTiAF5Zw49-jMEcp6K7FHPf6hnh4NerkhWLOA8VxFFev7wew52EPKCYeowOyWv_xWOFiZ1gZxnNDxAERNGlnEqMA44JvrUsMe-D1RkaaHMy2dWF7EhwtDFBYVXkxpP8/s1600/Vincent_Nichols_2_2011-01-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1096" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrXrfTdbhcv_ipTiAF5Zw49-jMEcp6K7FHPf6hnh4NerkhWLOA8VxFFev7wew52EPKCYeowOyWv_xWOFiZ1gZxnNDxAERNGlnEqMA44JvrUsMe-D1RkaaHMy2dWF7EhwtDFBYVXkxpP8/s320/Vincent_Nichols_2_2011-01-15.jpg" width="219" /></a>From 1999 until 2008 the Chair of the Catholic Education Service was Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham (now Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster). Under his chairmanship the Catholic Education Service developed a policy which resulted in providing children in Catholic schools, including adolescents under the legal age of consent, with access to abortion and contraception services without parental knowledge or consent, through a state run confidential advice agency, named ‘Connexions’. <br />
<br />
In April 2010 the Catholic Education Service, under the chairmanship of Malcolm McMahon (then bishop of Nottingham, now Archbishop of Liverpool), appointed as deputy director, Greg Pope, a former Labour member of Parliament, who had an extensive anti-life, anti-family voting record. Greg Pope remained in that post until his promotion, in 2017, to be the Assistant General Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc5UYDzP78lGcLyDlDDqdvz31EFN4TcSHYihd6ROVQVU0hf0oO70O0XpnZzUDtQ605B9rp9BdXFjC_UiKLpRPVWbogTrICzrJBZRGRd0V6_9jaNyXSzN6i3XXz2OMHHHiErGqlN0vkDE/s1600/35369776676_4fc374c1b9_k.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1600" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc5UYDzP78lGcLyDlDDqdvz31EFN4TcSHYihd6ROVQVU0hf0oO70O0XpnZzUDtQ605B9rp9BdXFjC_UiKLpRPVWbogTrICzrJBZRGRd0V6_9jaNyXSzN6i3XXz2OMHHHiErGqlN0vkDE/s320/35369776676_4fc374c1b9_k.jpeg" width="320" /></a>In the Spring 2019 edition of Calx Mariae, Dr Tom Rogers, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s education manager, takes up the story of the role of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales and of their agency in England and Wales, the Catholic Education Service, in relation to the Children and Social Work Act (2107). Dr Rogers wrote: <br />
<br />
“In March 2017, the Government passed the Children and Social Work Act (2017) which <br />
(in England) made the new subjects of Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) compulsory in all secondary schools, including faith and independent schools. It was announced that the required content of these new subjects would be subject to public consultation, although from the outset Government ministers, including the Prime Minster, stated that Relationships Education would be ‘LGBT’ inclusive:[3] that is, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender inclusive. The Government stated that parents would be able to withdraw their children only from the ‘sex education’ parts of Relationships and Sex Education at secondary school.”<br />
<br />
Dr Rogers continued: <br />
<br />
“Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, chair of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, immediately issued a statement welcoming the Government’s announcement that it was acting to change the law. He said: <br />
<br />
‘ … We welcome the Government’s commitment to improving Relationship and Sex Education in all schools. Catholic schools already teach age-appropriate Relationship and Sex Education in both primary and secondary schools …<br />
<br />
‘We additionally welcome the Government’s commitment to protect parental right of withdrawal and involve parents in all stages of the development and delivery of RSE in all schools. It is essential that parents fully support the school’s approach to these sensitive matters …’<br />
<br />
“Despite the apparently strong statement with regard to parental involvement”, Dr Rogers wrote, “it is clear that Archbishop McMahon’s statement conforms, not to established Catholic teaching on sex education, but to the new secular orthodoxy and Government policy regarding this area of a child’s learning. The parent is simply granted an ‘involvement’ in the process, because ‘it is essential that parents fully support the school’s approach’. There is no reference in the Archbishop’s statement to the fact that the ‘right of withdrawal’ at this time was only for the ‘Sex Education’ parts of Relationships and Sex Education, and that the Government’s actual distinction between ‘sex education’ and ‘relationships education’ is most unclear.” <br />
<br />
Dr Rogers went on:<br />
<br />
“In July 2018 the Government issued its Draft Guidance and Regulations regarding the proposed content and delivery of the new subjects, and simultaneously launched a second public consultation on their acceptability. Overall the Government’s Draft Regulations and Guidance seriously undermined parental rights, and presented a completely modern secular view of human sexuality, marriage and the family which was seriously contrary to what the Catholic faith teaches. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbQSn20IK2NpVI7KLBQ6qZPBCjqfxYtDfAzaovNrVPYS4uHpw7q332r8vr98tcxKO3Stoe8d2_uPKBlIAhnla8_fsKTazLyPxzFhRqVNxb_Md7jpCsGfwSS2oCyLk-WDnl6449xOEUSY/s1600/love-vehicle-human-liberty-rights-support-1076625-pxhere.com.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1075" data-original-width="1600" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbQSn20IK2NpVI7KLBQ6qZPBCjqfxYtDfAzaovNrVPYS4uHpw7q332r8vr98tcxKO3Stoe8d2_uPKBlIAhnla8_fsKTazLyPxzFhRqVNxb_Md7jpCsGfwSS2oCyLk-WDnl6449xOEUSY/s400/love-vehicle-human-liberty-rights-support-1076625-pxhere.com.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
“The Government’s guidance made it clear that the children's programme of study is expected to be 'LGBT inclusive' throughout and to present homosexual relationships and family structures in a positive manner. In primary school, children must be made to understand and accept that families ‘sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are characterised by love and care for them’; and children must be taught that marriage, including same-sex marriage and civil partnerships, represent ‘a formal and legally recognised commitment of two people to each other which is intended to be lifelong.’ In other words, primary school children will have to demonstrate ‘respect’ for the idea and practice of homosexual relationships and not just for the people involved in them, and will be expected to agree that such relationships, including when they have children, are just as valid, positive and beneficial as those based on real marriage.<br />
<br />
Dr Tom Rogers continued: <br />
<br />
“In Relationships and Sex Education at secondary school teenagers will be further encouraged to ‘explore’ their developing ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’. Dangerous and immoral lifestyle choices are to be presented as equally valid as marriage. Abortion is presented simply as one of the available options during pregnancy and pupils will be signposted to contraceptive and abortion services, without any parental knowledge or consent.<br />
<br />
“The right of parents to withdraw their children from the ‘sex education’ parts of RSE, which the Government had promised to retain, was now removed and replaced only by a ‘right to request’ withdrawal, with the final decision going to the head teacher. Even this much compromised parental right is withdrawn altogether when the child reaches 15, when they will be allowed to overrule their parents’, as well as their head teachers’ wishes if they choose, as children are being given the right to have sex education provided to them by the school.”<br />
<br />
Dr Rogers went on:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqpQvSmnqCo8Ax0vJJ8rtjVEO4Nnzr9vMKTF5CefwvaWYMhWn5thA9TxeShC5Z2yA-_z5_xovgx5-lVE4k4JV3_Tbz1TItXFn0pyZBo_ycYyI3mW3n_3kdhwb4zohWqGSAIt1CvnF4yI/s1600/gay_pride_gay_gay_rights_parades_events_festivals_people_pride_day-978468.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="1014" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqpQvSmnqCo8Ax0vJJ8rtjVEO4Nnzr9vMKTF5CefwvaWYMhWn5thA9TxeShC5Z2yA-_z5_xovgx5-lVE4k4JV3_Tbz1TItXFn0pyZBo_ycYyI3mW3n_3kdhwb4zohWqGSAIt1CvnF4yI/s400/gay_pride_gay_gay_rights_parades_events_festivals_people_pride_day-978468.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br />
“Following the publication in July 2018 of this appalling Draft Regulations and Guidance, the Catholic Education Service issued another press release, again stating that the Catholic Church ‘welcomes’ the Government’s moves to ‘improve’ Relationships and Sex Education, as well as how ‘the Government had used the Catholic model curriculum as examples of best practice’. The Catholic Education Service also ‘welcomes’ how ‘the recommendations are clear that the right for parents right of withdrawal [sic] will be maintained’, even though the Draft Regulations only allow parents the right to request withdrawal, which the head teacher will have the right to refuse. The Catholic Education Service also welcomed that ‘schools with a religious character’ will be able to deliver Relationship and Sex Education ‘within the tenants [sic] of their own faith’.[4] However, the Children and Social Work Act (section 34:3 (b)), as well as the Draft Regulations, only stipulate that ‘the education is appropriate having regard to the age and the religious background of the pupils’, which is open to interpretation and a much weaker requirement than such teaching needing to be in line with the ‘tenets’ of a particular faith. OFSTED inspections have interpreted that to mean a school must clearly teach about active homosexuality and transgenderism in a positive light, so that children who may identify themselves by one of the ‘protected characteristics’ do not feel marginalised or discriminated against, and that children are adequately prepared for ‘life in modern Britain’.<br />
<br />
Dr Rogers’ article in Calx Mariae continues: <br />
<br />
“A further public consultation (July-Nov 2018) was announced regarding the Draft Regulations and Guidance for the new subjects. However, rather than initiating a campaign to encourage Catholics, and others who attend Catholic schools, to participate in this consultation, so that protections for parents could be genuinely safeguarded, the Catholic Education Service, instead, maintained its public relations campaign in support of Government policy, telling the public that the Government’s proposals were to be welcomed, that there was nothing to worry about, that Catholic schools already do a fantastic job teaching Relationships and Sex Education, and, falsely, that the Government is committed both to allowing faith schools flexibility to teach according to the tenets of their faith, and protecting the parents’ right of withdrawal.[5]<br />
<br />
“The Catholic Education Service, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, proclaims its confidence that authentic Catholic Relationships and Sex Education will continue to be taught in Catholic schools, even after 2020; however it is far from clear, judging by some of the recent publications of the Catholic Education Service that it either understands or believes in the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church on the truth and meaning of human sexuality.<br />
<br />
Dr Rogers went on to explain:<br />
<br />
“A guide for Catholic educators published by the Bishops of England and Wales in 2017, entitled Learning to Love, offers the following description of homosexual relationships. It states:<br />
<br />
‘Here we would like to emphasise that this exalted form of love exists just as powerfully in relationships between people of the same sex as it does in heterosexual relationships. We applaud the great progress that has been made in countering all forms of discrimination against homosexuality in recent times, and wish to collaborate with efforts to make such discrimination obsolete’ (p.17)<br />
<br />
Note that we are now talking about ‘discrimination against homosexuality’”, Dr Rogers points out, “as something that should be countered, as opposed to ‘unjust discrimination’ against homosexual persons as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches (2358). ‘Homosexuality’ itself has now been transformed from an ‘inclination, which is objectively disordered’ to what can be an ‘exalted form of love’; and what does it mean ‘to collaborate with efforts to make such discrimination obsolete’? To actively promote the LGBT and Pride agenda? To shut down freedom of speech on the issue and persecute Christians and others who try to speak the truth about homosexuality?”<br />
<br />
Dr Rogers continued: <br />
<br />
“An even more pernicious document is Made in God’s Image: Challenging homophobic and biphobic bullying in Catholic schools, a joint publication by the Catholic Education Service and St Mary’s University, Twickenham — first published in 2017 and which has even been given a second edition, without any major alterations, despite its deep and scandalous conflicts with the Church’s teaching being widely pointed out by commentators.[6] <br />
<br />
“Under the guise of ‘guidance’ for the ‘pastoral care of pupils’, Made in God’s Image is designed to intimidate Catholic schools into introducing a concerted LGBT indoctrination programme for children, in the form of an eight-lesson scheme of work. An example from the introduction illustrates the strategy being taken:<br />
<br />
‘The Church teaches that homosexual persons ‘must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2358). The School should be mindful that the Church teaches that homosexual inclinations are not sinful. For older pupils who may publicly identify themselves as such, Church schools should be havens of respect and custodians of the true dignity of each human being. They should be as attentive to the possibility of homosexual pupils being marginalized and bullied as they are to discrimination based on religion, gender, race or disability’”.[7] <br />
<br />
Dr Rogers explained:<br />
<br />
“Although the Church does indeed teach that involuntarily experiencing same sex attraction is not itself a sin, the Catechism also adds that the inclination itself is ‘objectively disordered’ (2358), and that authoritative Catholic teaching has also always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered’, ‘basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity’ (2357). The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith instructed bishops in 1986 that ‘although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.’[8] There is no mention of this in the document, or indeed any mention whatsoever of Catholic doctrine on marriage, or any attempt to present the true meaning and purpose of human sexuality between man and woman”. <br />
<br />
Dr Rogers’ Calx Mariae article continued:<br />
<br />
“Chillingly, Made in God’s Image even offers lesson material which encourages children to judge and challenge their own parents’ and families’ attitudes, based on provided examples of expressions of ‘homophobia’, including typical comments made whilst watching television programmes. It is ironic that a document purported to be concerned with ‘anti-bullying’ engages in a highly pernicious form of bullying against faithful Catholic children and their parents by labelling them ‘homophobes’ and ‘bigots’. <br />
<br />
“The Scottish Government has so far gone the furthest in Britain along this trajectory”, Dr Rogers continued, ‘having proudly announced recently that Scotland will become ‘the first country in the world to have lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) inclusive education embedded in the [whole] curriculum’ — not just in relationships and sex education.[9] Naturally if ideological indoctrination is to be truly effective then thought must be controlled at all times, and not just within the confines of certain lessons. Unbelievably this development was also ‘welcomed’ by Scottish Bishops, who added that they hope the “impact of these recommendations will be positive for all.”<br />
<br />
You can obtain a full copy of the article by Dr Tom Rogers from Voice of the Family.<br />
<br />
What then do Catholic parents do when Popes disagree on sex education and when bishops throughout Britain promote programmes of relationships and sex education which threaten to corrupt their children?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyCa5UFJwYNORNBJqi9TgXpYndU5D-3DBzZq4560vxeHweg-f7UUNiH9nqtQqomNU6MWKIqG2K8Akn_EUKg1Dbhzrv14cqS3bst3xYlynRp15xFVxv6klIs2JH7mq_V8YVAMtZrZGohE/s1600/default-7+2.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1035" data-original-width="1600" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyCa5UFJwYNORNBJqi9TgXpYndU5D-3DBzZq4560vxeHweg-f7UUNiH9nqtQqomNU6MWKIqG2K8Akn_EUKg1Dbhzrv14cqS3bst3xYlynRp15xFVxv6klIs2JH7mq_V8YVAMtZrZGohE/s400/default-7+2.jpeg" width="400" /></a>Parents must reflect on Catholic doctrine on faith and morals, as revealed in the scriptures, particularly in the Gospel, and as revealed by sacred tradition, that is the teachings of the Apostles, as transmitted faithfully from one generation to the next, at times infallibly, from the time of Christ.<br />
<br />
What a blessing it is for parents, then, to hear the words of Christ in St Matthew’s Gospel (Chapter 11, verses 25 and 26): “At that time Jesus answered and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father: for so hath it seemed good in thy sight.”<br />
<br />
Parents today are not for the most part theological scholars – and they never have been since the time of Christ. However, countless unlearned, but faithful Catholic parents both know and can confidently affirm, without fear of being contradicted by any authority in this world or the next, that God’s commandment “Honour thy Father and thy Mother”, reaffirmed by God the Son during his life on earth, establishes for all time that parents are the primary educators and protectors of their children.<br />
<br />
Faithful, unlearned, Catholic parents are also fully capable of understanding Christ’s words concerning giving scandal to children: “ … he that shall scandalize 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”. Catholic parents know, but must be reminded, that these words provide a terrible warning to those, including Catholic bishops, who allow the showing of pornographic images in the classroom to children of all ages and who encourage false ideas about human sexuality, including homosexuality, to be taught in the classroom.<br />
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Catholic parents have a moral obligation to resist Pope Francis’s and British Catholic bishops’ promotion of dangerous teaching on sex education. It will add fuel to the raging fire of child abuse. Parents must say loud and clear to Pope Francis, and to Catholic bishops in Britain: Sex education is not the solution to systematic child abuse and exploitation. Indeed, what the Vatican, the bishops of England and Wales and many other bishops around the world are promoting is child abuse, in the name of relationships and sex education, involving immeasurably greater numbers than the scandal of the cases of clerical sex abuse currently afflicting the Church.<br />
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[1] Issued on 15th May 1891<br />
[2] Issued on 31st December 1929<br />
[3] For instance, Nick Gibb MP, stated in response to a Parliamentary question (03 July 2017) that ‘we expect schools to ensure that all pupils, whatever their developing sexuality or gender identity, feel that relationships and sex education is relevant to them and sensitive to their needs. As part of our engagement programme, we will consider ways to ensure that our guidance and regulations are inclusive of LGBT issues. We plan to work closely with organisations such as Stonewall and the Terrence Higgins Trust, amongst others’. Prime Minister Teresa May affirmed her support for ‘LGBT inclusive’ RSE in English schools in her speech at the Pink News LGBT Awards 2017. <br />
[4] Catholic Education Service, ‘Catholic Church welcomes move to improve Relationship and Sex Education in all schools’, Press Release, 19 July 2018: http://catholiceducation.org.uk/component/k2/item/1003657-catholic-church-welcomes-move-to-improve-relationship-and-sex-education-in-all-schools <br />
[5] Catherine Bryan, ‘Why Relationship and Sex Education is a must for all Catholic schools’ [online article], Catholic Education Service, 20 June 2018; http://www.catholiceducation.org.uk/component/k2/item/1003652-why-relationship-and-sex-education-is-a-must-for-all-catholic-schools . The same article also appeared in The Catholic Times, 15 June 2018, p.28. <br />
[6] Catholic Education Service, Made in God’s Image: Challenging homophobic and biphobic bullying in Catholic schools, 2018 edn; http://catholiceducation.org.uk/images/CES-Project_Homophobic-Bullying-Booklet_JUN18_PROOF-9.pdf . For comment see, for instance, Deacon Nick Donnelly, ‘UK bishops’ group pushing radical LGBT propaganda in Catholic schools’, Lifesite News, 18 May 2017; https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/uk-bishops-group-pushes-radical-lgbt-materials-in-catholic-schools. Also, Bishop Egan of Portsmouth has commented on the ‘ideological colonisation’ at work in our schools, including the influence of Stonewall and LGBT Youth on the CES’s Made in God’s Image document. Deacon Nick Donnelly, ‘Interview: UK bishop questions LGBT involvement in Catholic schools’ sex-ed program’, Lifesite News, 22 May 2017; https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/interview-english-bishop-questions-lgbt-involvement-in-catholic-schools-sex <br />
[7] CES, Made in God’s Image (2018), section 2, p.5<br />
[8] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (signed by Cardinal Ratzinger), ‘Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Persons’, 1 October 1986; http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html <br />
[9] Scottish Government, ‘LGBTI education: Scotland will lead the way in inclusive education’, Press release 8th Nov 2018; https://www.gov.scot/news/lgbti-education/<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk<br />
Follow SPUC on Twitter<br />
Like SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-25246303347750446302019-04-12T16:56:00.002+01:002019-04-12T17:18:11.999+01:00In loco Rei Republicae: The government, not parents, are primarily responsible for the moral formation of children, insists Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State for Education<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9s-BY6HzolaVdSSWkHdJTOlhLYn-beVEfqVSDE5fWFZJTFmJzKaR0-_TssEAYbmhc-Kod6DNWbN5wHcc5BQ7AmsEXWv_J-S1f4DhxKHjKfD5S6aWJyhGy3JiD2qv0j-qaFk1NXSLm_g/s1600/Official_portrait_of_Damian_Hinds_crop_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9s-BY6HzolaVdSSWkHdJTOlhLYn-beVEfqVSDE5fWFZJTFmJzKaR0-_TssEAYbmhc-Kod6DNWbN5wHcc5BQ7AmsEXWv_J-S1f4DhxKHjKfD5S6aWJyhGy3JiD2qv0j-qaFk1NXSLm_g/s320/Official_portrait_of_Damian_Hinds_crop_2.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State for Education (in England) makes it crystal clear, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793973/Letter_to_NAHT_from_Damian_Hinds.pdf" target="_blank">in his letter</a> (9th April 2019) to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), that, in his view, the government, not parents, are responsible for the moral formation of children, not least in matters relating to relationships education to be made compulsory in schools in September 2020 (Relationships Education in primary schools and Relationships and Sex Education in secondary schools).<br /> <br />When I was a teacher in the early 70s, my colleagues and I understood very clearly that we acted in loco parentis [in the place of a parent]. According to Damian Hinds, this is no longer the case. Head teachers, firmly guided by government policy, and with the full force of the law, are to lead in the formation of children on the most fundamental moral issues – and parents will be relegated to second place.<br /><br />The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) states, Article 26, section 3, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children”. <br /><br />Nodding in the direction of the UNDHR, Mr Hinds’ letter to the NAHT refers to parents as the “primary educators” of their children. However, it quickly becomes overwhelmingly clear that this reference is PR of the worst kind. It’s a lie.<br /><br />It’s a lie because the one means through which parents can exercise their role as the “primary educators” of their children – to withdraw them from Relationships Education or Relationships and Sex Education classes – is either being completely denied to them (at primary school) or partly denied at secondary school where parents can “request” that their child be withdrawn from sex education lessons only, and with the final decision remaining firmly with the head teacher. <br /><br />And it’s a lie as the following extract from <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793973/Letter_to_NAHT_from_Damian_Hinds.pdf" target="_blank">Mr Hinds’ letter</a></span> makes perfectly clear:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">“Parents and carers are the primary educators of their children, and <b>it is right that they are involved in developing how schools deliver relationships education. Key to an effective consultation is space and time for parents to input, ask questions and share concerns</b>, and for the school to decide the way forward. <b>What is taught, and how, is ultimately a decision for the school.</b>”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">With or without my emphases in bold, above, the meaning of Damian Hinds’ words is as plain as a pikestaff: It’s the government’s job, according to Damian Hinds, to decide the policy which dictates the formation for children on the most fundamental moral and ethical issues.<br />In his letter Mr Hinds clearly explains how the Government’s policy will succeed in enforcing its policy in schools [my emphases added]:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">“In 2014, we introduced <b>a requirement</b> for all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">“In addition, schools are <b>required to comply</b> with relevant requirements of the Equality Act 2010 … They<b> must comply</b> with the Public Sector Equality Duty, which means, in making decisions, having due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a relevant <b>protected characteristic</b> and people who do not share it.” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">“Our policies on fundamental British values and relationships education, as well as the Public Sector Equalities Duty, complement and build on one another.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Government’s policies, to which Mr Hinds refers, are set out in its latest Guidance and Regulations regarding the proposed content and delivery of compulsory Relationships and Sex Education in schools. These policies include encouraging secondary school children to “explore” their developing “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”. They include dangerous and immoral lifestyle choices being presented as equally valid as marriage. And they include abortion being presented simply as one of the available options during pregnancy and pupils being signposted to contraceptive and abortion services, without any parental knowledge or consent. <br /><br />In his letter Damian Hinds stresses “his strong belief in school autonomy” and “allowing head teachers’ discretion” which responsible parents will rightly seize on in order to engage robustly with schools on what their children are being taught. The head teacher’s “discretion” provides a small opening for parents whose children attend schools where head teachers are unhappy themselves about the government’s policies. But the head teacher’s “discretion” is very much a double-edged sword, with head teachers allowed to introduce an LGBT agenda into the school if they are so minded. In such cases, parents’ wishes would be cast aside as head teachers have the full backing of the law to veto the outcome of any consultation with parents.<br /><br />“In modern diverse Britain”, to coin a phrase in his letter, it is very clear that parents are to raise their children in loco Rei Republicae. Sir Edward Leigh rightly warned, in 2017, in the House of Commons that parents would view these new compulsory school subjects as “a State take-over bid for parenting”<br /><br />Mr Hinds has gone far too far and he will continue to be strongly resisted by parents throughout England.</span></span><br />
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John Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-74973603101882898422019-04-11T15:24:00.000+01:002019-04-11T15:26:03.969+01:00"Brain death" is not death: Leading experts gather in Rome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.jahlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/braindeath_social_image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="800" height="208" src="https://www.jahlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/braindeath_social_image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
An important <a href="https://events.jahlf.org/brain-death-rome" target="_blank">conference</a> on brain death takes place in Rome next month. Its full title is "Brain Death" A Medico-legal Construct: Scientific & Philosophical Evidence and it's organised by the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family.<br />
<br />
Dr Joseph Seifert, president of the Academic Human Life and the Family, says:<br />
<blockquote>
"This Conference brings together top-notch philosophers, theologians, medical doctors, research scientists, and pro-life activists to spread the truth about both the momentous good of human life until true death and the great evil of taking human lives by extracting unpaired vital organs from the living."</blockquote>
Talks include:<br />
<ul>
<li>"Brain Death" is not death: clinical experience, from Paul Byrne M.D., a neonatologist, former clinical professor of pediatrics at University of Toledo, College of Medicine, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, who is also speaking on Consent Policy and “Brain Death”</li>
<li>"Brain Death" is not death: Philosophical and scientific evidence in brief, from Joseph Seifert, DDr. Phil. Habil., Austrian Catholic philosopher, former Dietrich von Hildebrand Chair of Realist Phenomenology at the International Academy of Philosophy and president of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family, who is also speaking on Fundamental Philosophical Errors and unThomistic Character of Lee and Grisez’s pro-“Brain Death” Rationale</li>
<li>Insights into Integration: What Makes an Organism a Whole? from D. Alan Shewmon, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatric Neurology at University of California, Los Angeles</li>
<li>Substance and Organism as a Whole Sed Contra to Moschella’s pro-“Brain Death” Rationale, from Dr Doyen Nguyen, a physician specialized in hematopathology and a moral theologian - who is also speaking on “Non-Heart-Beating” Donors, an Alternative to “Brain-Dead” Donors?</li>
<li>The "birth" of "brain death", from Dr Thomas Zabiega, a neurologist</li>
<li>Apnea Test Procedure versus Aggressive Therapy for Alleged “Brain Dead” Patients, from Dr Cicero Coimbra, a neurologist</li>
<li>Critique of the “Brain Death” Concept in the Writings of Robert Spaemann and Wolfgang Waldstein, from Fr. Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., Mag. Theol.</li>
<li>Truth, the Foundation of a Culture of Life, from Bishop Athanasius Schneider (a live video presentation)</li>
</ul>
Dr Anthony McCarthy, SPUC's director of research, said:<br />
<blockquote>
"It's good that serious scholars will be addressing the vexed issue of 'brain death' at this time. As well as supplying us with sound empirical evidence on the question whether brain death constitutes actual death, the all-important philosophical question of what counts as actual death will be addressed. The writings of the late Robert Spaemann on this subject constitute a powerful witness against philosophical systems which try to separate the human person from the self-organising bodily human individual. Such approaches undermine genuinely ethical approaches to vital organ donation and respect for our most disabled brothers and sisters."</blockquote>
Earlier this year, during an <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/england-passes-bill-allowing-govt-to-harvest-organs-at-death-unless-people" target="_blank">interview</a> with LifeSite on the Organ Donation presumed consent legislation passed by the British Parliament, Dr McCarthy raised his own concerns about the brain death concept, saying: " ... supposedly brain dead people (such as pregnant women who are given high tech medical support) can appear to survive for months while demonstrating integrated bodily activity of a kind that arguably indicates that life still remains."<br />
<br />
Please see conference details and programme <a href="https://events.jahlf.org/brain-death-rome" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-18342223394939019142019-02-22T16:52:00.000+00:002019-02-22T17:02:07.737+00:00New independent group of MPs are united in support of abortionI understand that the new independent group of MPs in the House of Commons are disagreeing on strategy and organization.<br />
<br />
It's a sad commentary on these politicians that one thing on which they are completely united is the killing of unborn children - despite the fact that even the most ardent public figures supporting abortion, such as Peter Singer, the philosopher, acknowledges that:<br />
<blockquote>
"there is no doubt that from the first moments of its exisetence and embryo conceived from human sperm and eggs is a human being"</blockquote>
- and despite the fact that numerous studies show that abortion is associated with the experience of mental health problems, including a substantially increased risk of suicide.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span lang="EN-US">Voting records on pro-life issues of the recently ‘defected’ MPs</span></span></div>
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-79575185024632768782019-02-21T09:54:00.000+00:002019-02-21T10:36:35.064+00:00Will there be any pastor who, like St Peter Damian dares to speak the truth to the Holy Father?During recent days, I have been in Rome. I have joined with other lay Catholics, from all parts of the world.<br />
<br />
We participated in a silent demonstration, either individually, or as representatives of our associations and journalistic groups, united by love for the Church, Her doctrine and Her institutions. We gathered for an event under the name of <i>Acies Ordinata</i>, a title which the Tradition of the Church reserves for the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who gathers together the army of Her faithful ones and scatters Her enemies: <i>terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata (Song of Songs 6:3,9)<i></i></i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtnJj3Iy5AtPqUHyQ7Q49qaWw3i-2kFd3lsvKnVCPIXRmWG4crfPeczPs-u8mcvfsQu6xg6YvbYoEpClLBXizOJtrawGaHYY7_xG9ls-lSAoWi6tUjT-rBhhehgZ0kskECVxWk_i_Ykw/s1600/Acies_Ordinata_demonstration_-_men_on_front_line_645_430_75.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtnJj3Iy5AtPqUHyQ7Q49qaWw3i-2kFd3lsvKnVCPIXRmWG4crfPeczPs-u8mcvfsQu6xg6YvbYoEpClLBXizOJtrawGaHYY7_xG9ls-lSAoWi6tUjT-rBhhehgZ0kskECVxWk_i_Ykw/s640/Acies_Ordinata_demonstration_-_men_on_front_line_645_430_75.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front line, Acies ordinata, Piazza San Silvestro, Rome, February 19, 2019, photo by Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews</td></tr>
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As children of the Church Militant, we joined together to profess publicly our Catholic faith, but also to break down the wall of silence: the sepulchral silence of the Pastors of the Church in the face of an unprecedented doctrinal and moral crisis.<br />
<br />
The Church of San Silvestro in Capite, in the piazza in which we gathered for our demonstration, contains the relic of the head of Saint John the Baptist. The Percursor of the Messiah was reduced to silence by Herod, but his mute tongue continues to speak to our hearts. We stood, in a respectful and ordered manner, to express symbolically the resistance of those who do not give in before silence. We held in our hands the Holy Rosary, and we read texts of the Catholic Tradition, because we fortify our resistance with prayer and study, convinced that only by recollection can one be prepared for action.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">100 Catholic laity assembly in Piazza San Silvestro, Rome on February 19, 2019. </td></tr>
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<br />
The summit of the presidents of the Bishops' Conferences of the world, which opens on Thursday, 21st February, in the presence of the Holy Father, is an historic occasion to confront not only the theme of the sexual abuse of minors but also the theme of moral corruption, which includes every violation of Divine and natural law, beginning with the widespread incidence and acceptance and promotion, by leading church officials, of homosexual relationships, including their promotion in Catholic schools with the encouragement of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales.<br />
<br />
On the subject of homosexuality, <i>Learning to Love, An Introduction to Catholic relationship and sex education (RSE) for Catholic Educators, </i>published by the Department of Education and Formation<br />
<br />
We are appealing to the silent bishops, asking that some of them may have the courage to break their silence. Will there be any Pastor who will by inspired by the example of St Peter Damian whose feast day is celebrated,Providentially, on 21st February in the liturgical calendar of the Church and on 23rd February in the traditional Catholic calendar?<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Book of Gomorah, St. Peter Damien, Piazza San Silvestro, Rome, February 19, 2019, photo by Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews </td></tr>
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According to the Catholic World Report in an interview with Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, the Catholic essayist, journalist and author:<br />
<blockquote>
Pope Benedict XVI, in his September 9, 2009 general audience, noted that the Benedictine monk, cardinal, and Doctor of the Church, St. Peter Damian (1007-72), was 'one of the most significant figures of the 11th century … a monk, a lover of solitude and at the same time a fearless man of the Church, committed personally to the task of reform, initiated by the Popes of the time.'<br />
<br />
Between 1049 and 1054, he composed the powerful book Liber Gomorrhianus, or “Book of Gomorrah”, addressing it to the new pope, Leo IX, who himself would eventually be canonized.<br />
<br />
[Matthew Cullinan Hoffman said:] 'The Book of Gomorrah is a letter written to Pope St. Leo IX around the year 1049 in response to an epidemic of sodomy among the priests of Italy, which Peter Damian feared would bring down the wrath of God upon the Church. This plague of sexual perversion was part of a larger crisis of moral laxity in the priesthood, including widespread sexual incontinency and illicit marriages, the simoniacal purchasing of clerical ordination, and the prevalence of a worldly and carnal mentality among the clergy. The laity were outraged by such behavior and were even beginning to rebel against the Church hierarchy in some places, such as Florence and Milan.'</blockquote>
Will there be any Pastor who will dare to speak the truth to the Holy Father, Pope Francis?<br />
<br />
The Church does not fear the Truth, because the Church announces to the world the Truth of her Head and Founder, Jesus Christ. And it is above all to Him that we addressed our symbolic action outside the Church of San Silvestro in Capite. We are asking Jesus Christ, that in these calamitous times, He may come to the aid of our weakness and with one single Word save the Church.<br />
<br />
Domine ne sileas (Ps 34:22) O Lord, do not be silent!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_urYRvS_w7TLAY_pXhCDDOSb9DcCtY3nIxW1PeEFIenjcR6fhF2JyP3gzDjnPSGj0Ef6_FBDUKFA20__5b_s6-LYLtxnEs19tQyfyspnCf-PAEXblbjisXogYyXGre7CbzB7t2QO3Aw/s1600/Acies_ordininata_-_Father_and_son_645_406_75.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_urYRvS_w7TLAY_pXhCDDOSb9DcCtY3nIxW1PeEFIenjcR6fhF2JyP3gzDjnPSGj0Ef6_FBDUKFA20__5b_s6-LYLtxnEs19tQyfyspnCf-PAEXblbjisXogYyXGre7CbzB7t2QO3Aw/s1600/Acies_ordininata_-_Father_and_son_645_406_75.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A father and son participate in Acies ordinata demonstration. Piazza San
Silvestro, Rome, February 19, 2019, photo by DianeMontagna/LifeSiteNews
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-3565557026106900092019-01-04T10:12:00.002+00:002019-01-04T12:01:13.142+00:00Population explosion theories to global warming & the brutal reality of the West's population control policies in developing countries<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://players.brightcove.net/665003303001/SJg0bzqkZ_default/index.html?videoId=5983184849001&usrPersonaAds=true"></iframe><br />
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The appalling consequences of brutal population control measures imposed by China, India, South Korea and other nations – but engineered by the United States, the UK, and other powerful western countries – are presented in chilling detail in an Al Jazeera documentary “The Politics of Population Control”.<br />
<br />
The documentary begins with the unbearably moving plight of Chinese parents Pang Zhengdong and Hu Aizhen whose three-year-old daughter has disappeared without trace. Kidnappings of little girls are linked to gendercide which is linked to China’s one-child [including forced abortion] policy and the preference for sons in China with the result that, in some Chinese provinces, 135 boys are born for every 100 girls.<br />
<br />
Al Jazeera’s statement about the documentary says:<br />
<blockquote>
“This gendercide is a result of politically motivated population control policies imposed more than 30 years ago by well-known scientists and extremely wealthy men like John D Rockefeller III who had access to the highest levels of the US government.<br />
“Their organisations, such as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Population Council, which still exist today, triggered worldwide fears of a population explosion, according to Professor Matthew Connelly, a historian at Columbia University in New York. He has researched in detail the development of this movement from its beginnings to its effects today. He said:</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘The Population Council saw its mandate not just to control the rate of population growth, but also to address problems in the quality of population. So they had an explicit mandate to try to do something about the growth of the fertility rates among people who they thought would eventually take over the world if something wasn't done to reduce fertility rates across the board. But especially among people who they thought would be poor parents that would have even more poor children.’</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The fear of poor people having children gained steam in American politics by 1966, where US president Lyndon B Johnson attached conditions to receiving development aid, one of them being that recipient countries must reduce their population.<br />
“This eventually led to the creation of the United Nations Population Fund, which actively channelled millions into population control campaigns in South Korea, China, and India - including forced sterilisations and the mandatory use of contraceptives by poorer segments of society.”</blockquote>
Professor Connelly expresses the worry that what was being done by the world’s wealthiest countries thirty years ago on the basis of population explosion propaganda is now being done by the world’s elite nations in the name of global warming – and, once again, the target is the poorest nations on earth, and the population controllers are setting their sights on Africa.<br />
<br />
Correctly, “The Politics of Population Control” identifies the malign worldwide political influence of Dr Henry Kissinger’s National Security Council Study – known, in short, as NSSM 200 – “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests”. The study was promoted and endorsed by Dr Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Advisor who pressed the need for “US leadership in world population matters” and urged for “strong emphasis” on motivating leaders of “key developing countries” to accept family planning activities.<br />
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The policies spelled out in Kissinger’s NSSM 200 led to western governments funding China’s forced abortion regime – and many other terrifying schemes resulting in some of the worst human rights abuses of the past century.<br />
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In an article I wrote for Human Concern in 1995, SPUC’s newspaper at that time, I said:<br />
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“Henry Kissinger and the other authors of ‘NSSM 200’ were very mindful of the outrage which would certainly be expressed by developing nations if it became clear that their populations were being targeted by the United States and they therefore made the following recommendation: ‘The US can help to minimize charges of an imperialist motivation behind its support of population activities by repeatedly asserting that such support derives from a concern with: a) the right of the individual to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of children … and b) the fundamental social and economic development of poor countries”<br />
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Sadly, the Al Jazeera documentary betrays one major blindspot – the fundamental injustice of legalised abortion in the west which has claimed the lives of countless million unborn children and blighted the lives of countless millions of mothers, fathers, and their surviving children. Indeed, the populations of western nations have also fallen victim to the Kissinger-style propaganda and policies which continue to be visited so tragically on developing nations, not least the major target of the Gates Foundation: Africa.<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk" target="_blank">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-80434086956226999182018-11-09T14:40:00.000+00:002018-11-09T14:40:11.497+00:00SPUC wishes to appoint full-time Northern Ireland officerT<span id="goog_8203600"></span><span id="goog_8203601"></span>he Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) wishes to appoint a full-time Northern Ireland development officer, based at SPUC’s office in central Belfast. He or she will report to SPUC’s Northern Ireland and International director and will work closely with SPUC’s Northern Ireland Executive Officer, Liam Gibson. The development officer will travel throughout Northern Ireland with a view to developing the Society’s grassroots educational and political work. The candidate must be uncompromisingly pro-life. Contact Liam Gibson for a job description an application form at liamgibson@spuc.org.uk<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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The Department of Education is running a consultation on: “Changes to the teaching of Sex and Relationship Education and PSHE”<br />
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SPUC has produced <a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/respond-to-sex-education-consultation" target="_blank">briefing notes</a> to help you respond to the consultation.Please act now and respond<br />
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<ul>
<li>The Children and Social Work Act 2017 made Relationship Education in all primary schools a compulsory school subject and Relationships and Sex Education in all secondary schools. This legislation applies to England only.</li>
<li>This new legislation has been described as: "a state takeover bid for parenting".</li>
<li>On 19 December 2017 the government launched a consultation on what should be taught in these new compulsory subjects.</li>
<li>This is an opportunity to help shape what is taught to our children in school about these important matters.</li>
<li>All concerned citizens, and especially parents, grandparents and those working professionally in schools are encouraged to take part in this consultation.</li>
<li>This consultation closes at 11.45 pm on 12 February 2018</li>
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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Fr George Walsh, Cathedral Administrator at St Andrews Cathedral, Glasgow, has an excellent letter in The Times, yesterday:<br />
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Sir,<br />
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Janice Turner ("We need to be one nation on abortion abortion law", Juy 1) trots out all the hard cases where an emotional response of sympathy for the woman's plight is secured. Perhaps it is worth repeating the old adage that hard cases make bad law. Moreover, women can be deeply psychologically scarred by abortion and there is no quick fix for that.<br />
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In essence the issue is simple: are we hell-bent on killing unborn babies? And if so, can we still call ourselves a civilised society? The answer to the first question seems to be in the affirmative and to the second in the negative. People of faith and of no faith know that, given a chance, the embryo or foetus will become a baby. It is a chance that they don't get from the abortionists. Members of the pro-choice lobby would never be able to make any choice if they had not been allowed to be born<br />
THE REV JOSEPH WALSH<br />
St Andrews Cathedral, Glasgow"<br />
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Thank you for your leadership, Father.<br />
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<b>The weekend before last, I had the privilege of addressing the <i>Bringing America Back to Life </i>convention, organized by Cleveland Right to Life. My talk was entitled "The war against abortion: No exceptions! No compromise". This is what I said:</b><br />
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I want to begin by giving you my definition of the pro-life movement. I would define the pro-life movement as follows: “People of good will who adhere to the natural law written on their hearts and who organize themselves in one way or another to work to uphold both in law and in the consciences of mankind the value and inviolability of every human life” Amongst such people of good will, I would include, in particular, in my definition, in particular, faithful Catholics and faithful Catholic Church leaders. My reason for my singling out faithful Catholics and faithful Catholic leaders is as follows:<br />
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As I said in my address on same-sex marriage to the Cleveland Right to Life Convention two years ago, over the past forty to fifty years in Britain and throughout the world, the pro-life movement has had some important achievements, it has saved many lives and it has protected the welfare of countless mothers and fathers. However, the most notable achievement of the pro-life movement is that we exist. Yes, pro-life organizations have enjoyed successes and saved lives. But, brutally realistically, we’re tiny – compared with the overwhelming reach of the culture of death. Our international pro-life and pro-family movement cannot defeat the culture of death on our own –as the experience of so many countries all too eloquently and tragically testify, as, one after another, they succumb to pressure from the most powerful countries in the world to make abortion lawful for one spurious or unjust reason or another. <br />
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Pro-life organizations, our families and the wider community need urgently to be reinforced by the prophetic and unequivocal voices of Catholic Church officials, bishops and priests throughout the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ – for three reasons: firstly, because without Christ we cannot do anything; secondly, because the full Gospel message about the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life, teaching which is also part of the natural law written on all human hearts, is, as St Pope John Paul II put it in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “the source of invincible hope and true joy for every period of history” and priests and bishops, through the sacrament of ordination to the priesthood and episcopacy, have a God-given charism to proclaim that full Gospel message, a charism recognized by the faithful and by many in the secular world too. The sheep recognize true shepherds. Thirdly, the intimate connection between the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life is nowhere more fully spelled out than in Catholic teaching – and all people of good will are capable of understanding that intimate connection. <br />
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Therefore, the two top strategic objectives of the pro-life movement must be, firstly, to proclaim uncompromisingly the moral law on the sanctity of human life and on the truth and meaning of human sexuality and, secondly, to encourage and to assist bishops and priests who are prepared to act on their Christ-given mandate to lead mankind in that uncompromising proclamation.<br />
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The reason why bishops are especially needed in the proclamation of this Gospel, is that they, above all, are ordained for that role by Christ. As Pope John Paul II put it in Evangelium Vitae, number 82:<br />
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“Faced with so many opposing points of view, and a widespread rejection of sound doctrine concerning human life, we can feel that Paul's entreaty to Timothy is also addressed to us: ‘Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching’ (2 Tim 4:2). Pope John Paul II continues: “This exhortation should resound with special force in the hearts of those members of the Church who directly share, in different ways, in her mission as ‘teacher’ of the truth. May it resound above all for us who are Bishops: we are the first ones called to be untiring preachers of the Gospel of Life. We are also entrusted with the task of ensuring that the doctrine which is once again being set forth in this Encyclical is faithfully handed on in its integrity. We must use appropriate means to defend the faithful from all teaching which is contrary to it.”<br />
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To my good pro-life colleagues who argue that we should keep churches and, in particular, the Catholic Church, out of the pro-life battle, I respectfully put the question: “Have you truly understood our problem?” <br />
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Firstly, the destruction of human lives experienced during the past half century as a result of abortion alone is completely unprecedented in recorded human history. <br />
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Secondly, many of the moral principles by which people have lived throughout virtually the whole of recorded human history are being systematically outlawed by the legislatures of powerful nations and unjust laws are being all but imposed on less powerful nations and States worldwide, as Obianuju Ekeocha of Culture of Life Africa made clear in her stunning address yesterday. Think of the moral law that parents are the primary educators of their children; or of moral laws governing sexual behaviour; or of the increasingly successful efforts, in relation to the sanctity of human life, to outlaw medical professionals’ conscientious objection to abortion and euthanasia.<br />
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Thirdly, those same moral laws are being rejected in ordinary families worldwide, and the code of morality by which the overwhelming majority of people have lived throughout the history of Christendom is being transformed, including within our own Catholic communities and families, especially on matters relating to the sanctity of human life and sexual ethics: Think, for example, of the widespread acceptance amongst our Catholic families of cohabitation, of the acceptance or refusal to criticise homosexual relationships, of the acceptance of birth control including abortifacient birth control, of the acceptance of legalised abortion in certain circumstances, of the acceptance of explicit sex education in schools, and of in vitro fertilisation and euthanasia.<br />
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There is no way, humanly speaking, that pro-life groups on our own can reverse or move on from this great paradigm shift in our culture and from the culture of death in which our children live and breathe. Pro-life groups urgently require uncompromising moral leadership and teaching authority and all kinds of human and spiritual resources far greater than our own. This is a time of great hope for America and for the world. You have a president who appears to be absolutely committed to appointing judges to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v Wade. What a tragic, historic error it will be for America and for the world if pro-life leaders and church leaders do not use this miraculous moment to proclaim in their statements and policies support for State-wide legislation which seeks to defend, equally, the sanctity and dignity of every human life conceived, whatever the circumstances. My reading of President Donald Trump is that he hasn’t exactly been fainthearted in proclaiming his various policies, whatever anyone may think of this policy or of that policy – and as far as I know, he’s not believed by some to be a plaster-cast saint. Now that President Trump has put himself out there for unborn children and for their mothers, this is not the time for pro-lifers and church leaders to be fainthearted in the war against abortion in proclaiming the moral law and the full truth about the sanctity of human life.<br />
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However, there’s a problem. The very body which by divine gift possesses that power of moral leadership and teaching authority to proclaim this message, the Catholic Church, is currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis of faith itself which is resulting in terrifying confusion on even the most fundamental Catholic doctrines – such as the Real Presence, the sanctity of life and sexual ethics.<br />
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Arguably our top priority, therefore in the war against abortion, is to work to dispel this apparently almost overwhelming crisis of faith – including amongst the Church’s most senior pastors – and the resultant moral confusion which obscures the Church’s beautiful teaching even more. <br />
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No less a person than St Pope John Paul II declared this to be a top priority – in Evangelium Vitae, number 95, when he said:<br />
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“We need to begin with the renewal of a culture of life within Christian communities themselves. Too often it happens that believers, even those who take an active part in the life of the Church, end up by separating their Christian faith from its ethical requirements concerning life, and thus fall into moral subjectivism and certain objectionable ways of acting. With great openness and courage, we need to question how widespread is the culture of life today among individual Christians, families, groups and communities in our Dioceses.”<br />
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What Pope John Paul II is clearly saying here is that we are living at a time in history when we need to question what is happening in the Church courageously, openly, and with love, including the need, clearly, to correct our pastors.<br />
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In raising our concerns regarding our pastors, of necessity sometimes publicly, we are fulfilling our duty as clearly laid out in the Code of Canon Law, which states:<br />
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“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 §3)<br />
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In charity, as I say, we need to correct our pastors, including, at this particular time in history, our Holy Father, with reverence and with attention to common advantage and the dignity of persons. <br />
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On 1st September 2016, in a message to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Francis has said that he was “gratified” by the Sustainable Development goals. These goals call on member states to “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health” by 2030. The term “sexual and reproductive health”, as generally defined, includes access to contraception, including abortifacient methods, and, often, other forms of abortion. In a message entitled “For the celebration of the world day of prayer for the care of creation” Pope Francis stated that he was “gratified that in September 2015 the nations of the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, and that, in December 2015, they approved the Paris Agreement on climate change”.<br />
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The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, agreed by nation states in September 2015, consist of 17 goals and 169 targets, which will determine the direction of international aid and action until 2030. These goals were endorsed by the Paris Agreement on climate change.<br />
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The Sustainable Development Goals call on member states to: “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programs” (Goal 3 Target 7)<br />
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In addition, the Vatican has recently published a sex education programme to be used in educational institutions. This programme appeared after Pope Francis’s blunt call for sex education in his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The Vatican programme is appalling and plays straight into the hands of the pro-abortion lobby who are using sex education programmes worldwide to introduce our children and our grandchildren to the culture of death and to entrench abortion on demand for another generation.<br />
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I want therefore to move straight on to the matter of the sex education lobby because the war against abortion not only depends on the unambiguous proclamation of the full Gospel message on the sanctity of human life and its implications, it also depends on our building an ever clearer understanding of how the culture of death develops its reign of darkness in the world.<br />
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In particular, we need to understand that, through the sex education lobby, our pro-abortion opponents are seeking to darken the consciences of the young generation on matters relating to the sanctity of human life. They are doing this through the classroom and through a worldwide effort to destroy people’s understanding of Catholic teaching and of the natural law, also embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on parents as the primary educators of their children.<br />
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For example, in 2011, at the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Population Council and other pro-abortion groups held a meeting to launch worldwide a massive programme of so-called comprehensive sex education entitled: “It’s All One Curriculum". The curriculum shows itself to be nakedly polemical rather than educational. It states:<br />
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“People can support or join movements for social change at the global level. For example: ...youth-led networks for sexual and reproductive rights and services." (p.231) <br />
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“Reproductive rights and services” is defined by IPPF and by western governments worldwide as including the right to abortion and contraception – unrestricted by the values or the faith of the teacher, and unrestricted by parents. Note carefully that international powers are not only opposing parents as the primary educators, they are seeking to manipulate young people so that young people see themselves as the educators of their parents.<br />
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And on page 61 of their curriculum guidelines they advise educators: “Certain social movements promote greater equality and dignity within marriage. These include: movements to legalize same-sex marriage" <br />
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In the same document, International Planned Parenthood Federation tell teachers of young children that sexual self-abuse is a human right. They say:<br />
“Sexuality may be expressed by oneself ... Sexuality — expressed alone...can be a source of pleasure and meaning in life. (p.84) “ ... Masturbation is an important way that people learn about their bodies and sexuality ... Masturbation is a safe sexual behavior. It is neither physically nor mentally harmful." (p.99)] <br />
And in a thinly-veiled warning to teachers that they must not obstruct children’s so-called sexual rights but that they must obstruct parents as the primary educators of their children, IPPF states on Page 81 of “It’s All One Curriculum”: "An educator’s own values should not interfere with teaching about sexuality ... Use respectful terms...particularly in regard to same-sex attraction, sexually active girls, and young people who do not conform to conventional gender norms ... Teachers must...respect their confidentiality."<br />
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The battle over the lives and consciences of our children and grandchildren is well advanced and, tragically, our opponents have the support of many bishops and bishops’ conferences throughout the world as well as high level Vatican support in their efforts to undermine parents as the primary educators of their children worldwide, as I will continue to explain.<br />
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In November 2015 a workshop was organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences which discussed how to “use children as agents of change” in pursuing sustainable development and the environmental agenda. One of the participants was Jeffrey Sachs, who has played a leading role at Vatican conferences and workshops on these matters no less than ten times in the last few years.<br />
Jeffrey Sachs headed the Sustainable Solutions Network, which was involved in the process of drafting the Sustainable Development Goals which call for increased access to abortion and contraception worldwide, under the guise of calling for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights”.<br />
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Jeffrey Sachs has made a plea for legalizing abortion as a cost-effective way to eliminate “unwanted children” when contraception fails in his 2008 book Commonwealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.<br />
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The Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ workshop explicitly cited the papal encyclical Laudato Si, as the basis for its work and in truth such efforts seem to be endorsed by the encyclical in paragraphs 13 and in paragraphs 209-215.<br />
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I repeat: the subject of the Vatican Workshop last November was “using children as agents of change” in pursuing sustainable development and the environmental agenda – an agenda which puts access to abortion and contraception as a top priority to be implemented by nations worldwide.<br />
Laudato Si makes no reference to parents as the primary educators of their children. I foresee that using children as agents of change in pursuing sustainable development and the environmental agenda will very soon become a required part of school curricula throughout the world. Have no doubt that the worldwide population control powers-that-be, led by people like Jeffrey Sachs, will make their influence well and truly felt in shaping those school curricula.<br />
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We are seeing exactly the same pattern here as I noted in the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s sex education programme It’s All One Curriculum in which teachers are guided to manipulate young people in order that young people see themselves as the educators of their parents on making abortion and contraception freely available. <br />
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It is also gravely disturbing that the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia contains a subsection bluntly entitled “The Need for Sex Education”, which is found in the chapter entitled “Towards the Better Education of Children”. It is of similarly grave concern that neither this subsection nor the wider chapter makes any reference to the role of parents in the provision of sex education; rather reference is made only to “educational institutions”. The clear implication is that sex education is something to be carried out by “educational institutions” and not by parents.<br />
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A brief reference to the general rights of parents as primary educators of their children can be found in Amoris Laetitia but it is more than one hundred pages earlier, in an unrelated chapter, and makes no reference there to sex education. It is difficult to find a good reason to explain why this affirmation was not included in the twenty pages specifically about education, and particularly why such reference was excluded from the section on the “The Need for Sex Education”, given that it is in precisely this area that parental rights are both so endangered and yet so vital.<br />
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Tragically, all too many bishops and bishops’ conferences around the world have allowed or encouraged sex education programmes in Catholic schools which are designed to prepare young people for both access and use of the reproductive health industry.<br />
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The approach adopted in Amoris Laetitia is already having devastating consequences on real parents and children. Parents, I hear, were told by the diocese of Nashville, Tennessee that they could not withdraw their children from a pornographic and morally corrupting sex education programme in their Catholic school. The diocese turned to the “imperatives ... reflected in Pope Francis’ recent exhortation Amoris Laetitia” to provide grounds on which to defend their “presenting” what they call “a clear, accurate explanation of human sexuality in the context of theology class”. <br />
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There is in fact an urgent need today to reassert that sex education is, as Pope John Paul II taught in Familiaris Consortio, “a basic right and duty of parents” that “must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them.” <br />
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The pro-life movement, in its task of upholding the sanctity of human life in the consciences of mankind, must unite in mobilizing parents in defence of their children and in defence of their role as primary educators of their children. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the UK is seeking to mobilise parents to defend their role as their children’s primary educators through our Safe at School project – which works by directly alerting parents and encouraging them to check what is being taught in their local schools. We are also doing so through our work in Voice of the Family, an international coalition of 26 pro-life and pro-family groups, lending our practical support to courageous church pastors, bishops and cardinals of the church, who are prepared, like His Eminence Cardinal Burke, to follow Christ and the injunction of St Paul regarding unity: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians, 4:5)<br />
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What else must the pro-life movement do to succeed in the war against abortion. My dear pro-life friends, we must be radical. We must get to the roots of the worldwide culture of death catastrophe we are experiencing. <br />
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I believe that the pro-life movement need urgently to study the empirical evidence which shows that one of the greatest catalysts of the culture of death has been the abandonment of the natural law relating to human sexuality and sexual ethics.<br />
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In her book, Adam and Eve after the Pill – Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, Mary Eberstadt, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, describes the teaching of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae on the regulation of birth, published on July 25, 1968, as “perhaps the most unfashionable, unwanted, and ubiquitously deplored moral teaching on earth”. She then goes on to show that the teaching of Humanae Vitae is in fact the “most thoroughly vindicated” moral teaching on earth “by the accumulation of secular, empirical, post-revolutionary fact”. In this connection, Mary Eberstadt cites Nobel-Prize winning economist George Akerlof. In a 1996 article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Akerlof explains “why the sexual revolution, contrary to common prediction …[has] led to an increase in illegitimacy and abortion”. Mary Eberstadt in Adam and Eve and the Pill also says: “The years since Humanae Vitae have … vindicated the encyclical’s fear that government would use the new contraceptive technology coercively”. <br />
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In Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI prophesied that coercive birth control by governments would result from couples’ decisions in the privacy of their married lives to separate the procreative and unitive dimensions of the marriage act. When we consider the fulfilment of this papal prophecy, our minds naturally turn to China or to India or to other countries whose cruel policies are well known throughout the world. However, we should also think of our own countries: nations in which our pro-life movement has taken root – in the West, in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Once again, I refer to anti-life sex education programmes which seek to eliminate the role of parents as the primary educators and protectors of their children? These programmes are intended to be a form of coercion on our families, funded and backed by our governments, and also tragically backed by all too many Catholic bishops in various parts of the world, including I am sorry to say in England and Wales, and they are resulting in schoolchildren being given access to contraception and abortion including without the knowledge of their parents.<br />
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One of the world’s leading advocates of abortion, contraception and mass sterilization, Paul Ehrlich, was even invited to speak at the Vatican last month at yet another scandalous event held by the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Science.<br />
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After two billion abortions and rising, the greatest slaughter in recorded human history, it is necessary that our pro-life groups, church leaders and priests urgently review the extent to which the separation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the sexual act has been a catalyst for the culture of death which is advancing in every nation on earth:<br />
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This separation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the sexual act is advancing the culture of death through contraceptive drugs and devices which, other than barrier methods, according to the manufacturers, include very early abortion in their modes of action; <br />
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This separation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the sexual act is advancing the culture of death through in-vitro fertilisation, which involves the instrumentalisation of the human embryo and the destruction or loss of up to 23 human embryos for every one baby born alive; <br />
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This separation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the sexual act is advancing the culture of death through same-sex marriage which, amongst many other things, makes it virtually impossible for pro-life movements to oppose in-vitro fertilisation without being seen as the enemy of those with homosexual inclinations who demand the right to a child through IVF procedures; and <br />
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This separation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the sexual act is advancing the culture of death through sex education, so relentlessly promoted by powerful western nations, and by tax-funded non-governmental organisations, and, tragically and increasingly, by the surrender of the leadership of the Catholic Church – a surrender which is so completely devastating for our families.<br />
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The war against abortion, and in order to achieve lasting success for our pro-life political campaign, must be built on rock, on the natural law, a law which is written on the hearts of every man and woman, and a law which is confirmed by Catholic teaching and which binds human beings of all faiths and none. <br />
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Church leaders, local priests, Cleveland Right to Life and my group, SPUC, and our many fellow pro-life groups worldwide need also urgently to review the consequences of the abandonment of the natural law in relation to legislative campaigns and law-making. Indeed, I appeal to US pro-life leaders and church leaders radically to review strategic approaches to legislative campaigns and law-making. Given the scale of the catastrophe we are experiencing, in terms of the number of lives destroyed this past 50 years, the greatest catastrophe in the recorded history of humanity, we urgently do need to consider whether the more or less universal policy pursued by pro-life groups of campaigning for laws which expressly permit the killing of certain unborn children needs to be completely abandoned: for example laws which expressly permit unborn children to be killed in the case of rape, or disability, or before the human heart begins to beat.<br />
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Unjust laws which expressly permit the killing of babies for any reason contain the seeds of their own destruction. Neither the American people nor lawmakers will be convinced about the inviolability and sanctity of every human life if our witness to that is inconsistent.<br />
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In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II reminded the faithful that a law which permits the killing of certain unborn children is not a law at all. It’s an unjust law which, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas “ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act of violence” . Pope John Paul II, in this connection, cites the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and its 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion which states: “In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it" .<br />
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The meaning of this statement quoted in Evangelium Vitae, number 73, is 100% clear, and yet pro-life leaders, myself included in the past, have backed legislative changes which of themselves expressly permit abortion in certain circumstances on the basis that such legislative changes are an improvement on an existing law and will save lives. Campaigns for legislative changes of this kind send the message to friends and opponents alike that abortion can be the right thing to do. Is it not likely that one of the reasons why the evil of abortion is so overwhelmingly accepted in particular circumstances by our fellow citizens, including our fellow Catholics, is that pro-life groups have almost universally been prepared to accept legalised abortion ourselves in certain circumstances? <br />
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Many of us have justified our campaigns in support of unjust laws by quoting the very next paragraph of Evangelium Vitae, number 73, where Pope John Paul II famously wrote: “A particular problem of conscience can arise in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of authorized abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on … In a case like the one just mentioned, when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.” <br />
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For over two decades perhaps the majority of pro-life and church leaders have interpreted this paragraph as meaning that politicians may vote for, and campaigners may campaign for, laws which of themselves expressly permit abortions. But this is contrary to reason. In the paragraph immediately preceding this one, Pope John Paul II wrote: “In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is … never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it". <br />
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According to Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, “the principle (or law) of non-contradiction is the firmest.” Aristotle says that “without the principle of non-contradiction we could not know anything that we do know” . On the basis of the principle of non-contradiction, therefore, it’s not possible for this statement to mean both that one can vote for an unjust law and, at the same time, that one cannot vote for an unjust law – on the basis of one’s motives in doing so or for any other reason.<br />
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In other words, pro-life leaders and philosophers need to stop tying themselves up in knots trying to work out what Pope John Paul II meant when he wrote about limiting the harm of existing legislation; instead, we should simply recognise and follow the unchanging and unchangeable truth taught by the Catholic Church that an unjust law ceases to be a law at all and becomes instead an act of violence for which it’s never permissible to campaign or to vote.<br />
Imagine a member of a national legislature putting forward legislation to stop the killing of white children and doing so in a legal form expressly permitting the killing of black children. It would clearly be wrong to vote for such a law and to campaign for such a law, however many lives, allegedly, such a law might save. <br />
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I believe that the pro-life movement throughout the world should take careful note of the Stop Abortion Citizens’ initiative in Poland which was supported by nearly half a million Polish citizens and sought to make abortion in Poland completely unlawful.<br />
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In launching their initiative Ordo Iuris and their pro-life allies were seeking to implement Article Three of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which upholds the right to life.<br />
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Article Two of the UNDHR states “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” And Article Six states: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.” After the tragic experience of the Second World War and Nazi Germany, the drafters of the Universal Declaration wanted to ensure that legislators could never again treat a particular group of people as “non-persons”, such as unborn children.<br />
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The right to life of unborn children is also upheld in the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child and in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child which states in its preamble: “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth".<br />
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Currently Poland permits abortion in certain circumstances. The logical outcome of legalised abortion in certain circumstances is that abortion becomes available in all or any circumstances. The only thing which really protects society's weakest, most vulnerable human beings, are moral absolutes. Once legislators accept that it's OK directly to kill an innocent child in the womb, the defence against killing any unborn child is torn away.<br />
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What is being done in Poland by Ordo Iuris and their pro-life allies is to make the idea of stopping abortion completely in Poland completely normal - because it really is normal not to kill children. What Poland is doing, in its strongly pro-life culture, we must work towards doing in Britain, in America, in Ireland and everywhere.<br />
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The aim of the pro-life movement and Catholic Church and other Christian leaders must be openly to campaign for the end all abortion not only in our statements, but also in the legislative policies which we support.<br />
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Ordo Iuris with their Stop Abortion Initiative has done what virtually no-one in 50 years of the pro-life movement has done. They have put before the world legislative proposals and a vision, a realistic vision based on the moral law written on human hearts, in which every single human life is guaranteed his or her right to life by law. It’s a vision which future generations will take for granted. Future generations will look back at what is happening today with horror and utter disbelief.<br />
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Now is the time for the US pro-life movement and church leaders to rethink their strategies which expressly exclude certain babies for protection. I am thrilled that Cleveland Right to Life and your fellow pro-life groups in your newly-launched Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio have seized this historic moment for America, with a president apparently committed to appointing pro-life judges to the Supreme Court, and you have decided to pursue the war against abortion with no exceptions and with no compromise. You have decided to build your legislative strategy to defend unborn children on the rock of the natural laws and not the shifting sands of political deal making. I am reminded of the words of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 7, verses 24 – 27: <br />
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“Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shalle be likened to a wise man built his house upon a rock.<br />
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“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.<br />
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And every one that heareth these my words and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand.<br />
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And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” <br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-84525963145007482612017-01-15T09:33:00.000+00:002017-01-15T09:33:08.402+00:00Professor Scarisbrick''s incomparable work for unborn children and their mothers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/~/media/Images/SPUC/News-Stories/Jack-Scarisbrick.ashx?la=en" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://www.spuc.org.uk/~/media/Images/SPUC/News-Stories/Jack-Scarisbrick.ashx?la=en" width="200" /></a></div>
Professor Jack Scarisbrick who has stepped down after 47 years as Chairman of Life has been at the cutting edge of educational work about abortion in Britain. <br />
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His publication 'What's Wrong with Abortion' was what convinced me personally in 1973 that defending the lives of unborn children was the greatest human rights struggle of the 20th century. <br />
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I know that all of SPUC's supporters will join me in thanking and congratulating Professor Scarisbrick on his incomparable work for unborn children and their mothers. For over 45 years through the work of Life, Professor Jack Scarisbrick has built a compassionate and life-saving network of support for mothers facing hardship during pregnancy. His work has been a jewel in the crown of the pro-life movement in Britain.<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-22055074624674553382017-01-11T08:01:00.000+00:002017-01-11T08:01:44.458+00:00Spare a prayer for founders of SPUC which is 50 years old today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1lb4gQ060nD_sca52MT9ecrg-gKv1KHZaZ80lIZoVbtKRsIEzIgzhO27L0hvyQoO_2fK8rdH5Yvyc7ei86Dkk4tkafU4Rt6TJ7vcL6OfoMTJ1GInLxKo0zV5vPVPbDckRhGAZt2kf8w/s1600/20170111_072038_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1lb4gQ060nD_sca52MT9ecrg-gKv1KHZaZ80lIZoVbtKRsIEzIgzhO27L0hvyQoO_2fK8rdH5Yvyc7ei86Dkk4tkafU4Rt6TJ7vcL6OfoMTJ1GInLxKo0zV5vPVPbDckRhGAZt2kf8w/s640/20170111_072038_001.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
50 years ago today, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), was formally established at a meeting at the Wig and Pen Club, Strand, in London, the world's first pro-life group. Spare a prayer for the founding members including Alan Smith, who continues to be a member of SPUC's Executive Committee, and Elspeth Chowdharay-Best (née Rhys-Williams), who continues to be the redoubtable honorary secretary of <a href="http://www.alertuk.org/index.htm">Alert</a>, a body which campaigns against euthanasia.<br />
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Amongst those elected to serve on the Society's first executive committee was <a href="http://www.iandonald.org/lang/en/hakkinda/tarihce/" target="_blank">Professor Ian Donald</a>, who pioneered the use of diagnostic ultrasound in medicine.<br />
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Over 8.7 million children are missing from Britain since the passing of the Abortion Act 1967. We've got to stop abortion in our country. The job of the pro-life movement in 2017 is to make the idea of stopping abortion in the UK completely normal. It is normal not to kill children. <br />
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During 2017 SPUC has an ambitious programme to take the pro-life message to people throughout the country. Contact rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk to find out about SPUC's 50th anniversary events, so that you can be a witness to life and help SPUC help you save lives.<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-50907020380827987362017-01-02T17:16:00.001+00:002017-01-02T17:26:29.844+00:002nd Trimester surgical abortion reminds us why we must stop abortion in UK<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jgw4X7Dw_3k" width="480"></iframe> <br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"></div>SPUC Scotland's motivational message issued today via Twitter is: "The fight for the right to life is not the cause of a special few, but the cause of every man, woman and child who cares not only about his or her own family, the whole family of man" - the words of Dr Mildred Jefferson, Dr. Mildred Jefferson, a prominent, outspoken opponent of abortion and the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School who died in 2010.<br />
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How true! And yet, sadly how few people, including people we know personally, realise this truth.<br />
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2017 will mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the British Abortion Act, which has been responsible for the killing of around 8.7 million unborn children – with all the devastation that has involved for countless mothers, fathers and other family members. Let’s resolve to do much more to build our pro-life movement into a great, historic, really effective movement which <b>stops abortion in the UK</b>.<br />
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SPUC is launching this year a commemorative tour visiting towns and cities the length and the breadth of the country, taking with us our message and plan of action <b>stopping abortion in the UK</b>. If you want SPUC's commemorative tour to visit your area, contact katherinehampton@spuc.org.uk<br />
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Help SPUC to help you to <b>stop abortion in the UK</b>.<br />
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In February 2016, Live Action produced <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/he-performed-1200-abortions.-in-new-videos-he-wants-you-to-see-what-abortio?utm_content=buffer5a579&utm_medium=social&utm_source=lifesitenews%2Btwitter&utm_campaign=buffer">a compelling series of videos</a> which remind us exactly why <b>abortion must stop</b>. If you haven’t watched them, I recommend you do now. Dr Levatino, the former abortionist who features in the video, is speaking at <a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/get-involved/events/youth-conference-2017">SPUC’s youth conference</a> in Stone, Staffordshire (3 – 5 March). Any young person(16 – 35) wishing to attend should contact rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk as soon as possible.<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-36138425547794202882016-12-16T16:45:00.000+00:002016-12-16T16:45:40.976+00:00SPUC makes submission to Ireland's "Citizens' Assembly"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2_ZbLbLm1Cj1RExsyEl7L2Pb6IYG-Gm4aeAG3rAzRjR6MUmbiS05IqkyWSPW548hUhkCSkTAFYGa8shhLByAY6KbanXdMCEOSaZzZmR8V_KBtzXan1_maM8I3SRt3xQNw0PhcYhwHA4/s1600/Cherish+eighth+amendment.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2_ZbLbLm1Cj1RExsyEl7L2Pb6IYG-Gm4aeAG3rAzRjR6MUmbiS05IqkyWSPW548hUhkCSkTAFYGa8shhLByAY6KbanXdMCEOSaZzZmR8V_KBtzXan1_maM8I3SRt3xQNw0PhcYhwHA4/s200/Cherish+eighth+amendment.png" width="200" /></a>SPUC representatives in Ireland have today made a submission to the Citizens' Assembly - a body of 99 Irish citizens, selected by a polling agency - where the Eighth Amendment is being discussed. You can <a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/news/press-releases/2016/december/spuc-the-irish-citizens-assembly-should-reject-the-legalisation-of-the-killing-of-unborn-children" target="_blank">read the full press release on the SPUC website.</a></div>
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Video</h4>
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SPUC has also released a video, calling on Irish people throughout the world to rally to the defence of the nation’s unborn children. In Ireland children in the womb are currently protected from abortion by the pro-life Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution.</div>
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In this video, leading pro-life campaigners in Ireland, and from the Irish diaspora worldwide, explain why the Eighth Amendment must be preserved and defended. </div>
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Speakers include former presidential candidate Dana Rosemary Scallon, internationally renowned pro-life speaker Rebecca Kiessling, and former MEP and disability rights campaigner Kathy Sinnott. The video also features Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, a leading Catholic figure in the pro-life movement. I urge you all to watch and share this video and take action to defend the children of Ireland.</div>
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About the amendment</h4>
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This Eighth Amendment, passed in 1983, reads:</div>
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“The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”</blockquote>
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This amendment, which is estimated to have saved more than 100,000 lives since its introduction in 1983, is under sustained attack from international pro-abortion campaigners. The Irish government convened a Citizen’s Assembly to discuss proposals to repeal the Eighth Amendment and thus overturn constitutional protection for unborn children. The Citizen’s Assembly consists of 99 Irish citizens, selected by a polling agency, which has convened under the chairmanship of Justice Mary Laffoy. It is widely expected that the assembly will recommend that a referendum be held on the repeal of the amendment. This will probably be held early in 2018, though it is possible that it may be held during 2017.</div>
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Despite false claims, the Eighth Amendment simply recognises that unborn babies have a right to life equal to that of their mothers. Ireland's maternal health record, among the best in the world, also reflects the fact that Irish doctors are trained to treat a mother and her unborn child as two equal patients. </div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Comments on this blog? Email them to </span><a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk" style="text-align: center;">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-14499438838971043302016-12-14T17:06:00.001+00:002016-12-14T17:15:23.829+00:00Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, former SPUC Executive Committee member, dies<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOVgiZnuXao7NRdGy2mjlVaYhZ0alRKnq6aQNp7UcDvK50BquHHxlfjN1sYbVTTWhRVpQXtOKoZxYEfB0EpHE6_D6sLFn0ETPWKZTrYabg8TaPcnbiRu7nuW2dONpKwGADHy9y5wJHU4/s1600/Lady+Salisbury+and+JS+Westminster+Abbey+40th+anniversary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOVgiZnuXao7NRdGy2mjlVaYhZ0alRKnq6aQNp7UcDvK50BquHHxlfjN1sYbVTTWhRVpQXtOKoZxYEfB0EpHE6_D6sLFn0ETPWKZTrYabg8TaPcnbiRu7nuW2dONpKwGADHy9y5wJHU4/s200/Lady+Salisbury+and+JS+Westminster+Abbey+40th+anniversary.jpg" width="200" /></a>The whole of SPUC team and I are saddened to learn of the death of the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, who served on the Society's Executive Committee in the early 70s.</div>
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Lady Salisbury has been a consistent champion of the right to life of unborn children since the passage of the Abortion Act almost five decades ago. She served on SPUC's executive committee and was always a strong supporter of the Society's work.</div>
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In October, 2008, Lady Salisbury organised a Choose Life service of prayer and worship to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act. The service took place at the Memorial to Innocent Victims built into the pavement area immediately outside the West Door of the Abbey (the photo shows me talking to her at that event). In recent years, Lady Salisbury has been <a href="http://spuc-director.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/leading-bioethicist-warns-of-radical.html" target="_blank">a leading opponent</a> of euthanasia.<br />
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We give thanks for her life and her witness and our members and supporters will be praying for her family at this sad time.</div>
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John Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-11493995957100520552016-12-02T12:21:00.000+00:002016-12-02T12:21:06.016+00:00Paul Tully is a giant in British and Irish pro-life history and SPUC’s history<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Paul Tully leaves SPUC’s employment for pastures new today as a giant in SPUC’s history as well as British and Irish pro-life history, alongside other giants such as Elspeth Chowdharay-Best and Alan Smith (who founded the Society in late 1966/early 1967) and Phyllis Bowman, SPUC’s first director/chief executive (who forged the grassroots educational and political movement on which all our pro-life work is based).<br />
<br />
35 years ago almost to the day, Paul Tully started work for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children as SPUC’s membership registrar. He was responsible for managing the Society’s index-card member records from 1981 till 1983. During that period SPUC acquired a microcomputer and Paul transferred our records to a database system. Paul went on to undertake a number of important roles in SPUC’s employment, including head of research and representing SPUC in the broadcast media, until becoming SPUC’s general secretary nearly two decades ago, and deputy chief executive in more recent years.<br />
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I think that pro-life activists, especially young people in the movement, should study the work of Paul Tully – which you can begin to do by reviewing <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fspuc-director.blogspot.com%2F+%22Paul+Tully%22" target="_blank">his many contributions</a> to my blog and <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site:http:%2F%2Fspuc.org.uk%2F+%22Paul+Tully%22" target="_blank">his appearances/contributions</a> on the SPUC website. His knowledge and analysis of the medico-scientific, legal and political issues facing the pro-life movement are second to none – and Paul leaves a permanent legacy to Britain in the form of historic life-saving achievements in which he played a critical role, for example:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>In 2009 SPUC successfully took the Department of Health and Public Services to court to prevent them from introducing more widespread abortion into Northern Ireland by the back door – Paul’s knowledge and experience of fighting against abortion in the courts on behalf of SPUC was crucial in this victory which has saved countless lives.</li>
<li>In 2011, in what became known as the ‘bedroom abortions’ case, legal arguments submitted by SPUC’s lawyers helped to prevent a change in the law that would have allowed abortions to take place in the home. Mr Justice Supperstone, when making his ruling, cited the argument put forward by SPUC’s lawyers on the advice of Paul Tully.</li>
</ul>
<br />
In addition, Paul Tully’s expert briefings sent to SPUC’s tens of thousands of local activists played a critical role:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>In the overwhelming defeat of assisted suicide legislation in 2015</li>
<li>In the defeat of the (Labour) Government’s moves to make sex education compulsory throughout the school years in 2010</li>
<li>In stopping legislative proposals to remove virtually all legal protection for unborn children in Britain in 2010</li>
</ul>
<br />
And of course I must mention here Paul’s massive contribution to the Glasgow midwives’ case in which SPUC supported two brave senior midwives from Glasgow, Mary Doogan and Connie Wood, who fought to protect their right to conscientious objection to abortion. In April of 2013, Mary and Connie won a unanimous appeal court ruling which upheld that their right to conscientious objection was protected by law and Paul’s meticulous briefing of Connie and Mary and their lawyers, and his daily support of Connie and Mary, played an important role in achieving that ruling – tragically overturned by the Supreme Court in London the following year.<br />
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Katherine Hampton, Paul’s assistant, who has worked for SPUC for 23 years, reminded me of countless other lasting achievements in the work of Paul Tully which I do not have time and space to mention today – but I will return to this important subject.<br />
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On a personal level, I have worked closely with Paul every day of my working life for the past 35 years. He and Antonia, his wife, have been very good friends to me. I will miss Paul deeply and sorely. Whenever I have thought about Paul’s influence on my life I have been put in mind of the “just man” to whom the Bible refers in many places, including in Psalm 112:<br />
<blockquote>
Blessed the man who fears the Lord<br />
Who greatly delights in his commands …<br />
… It is good for the man gracious in lending<br />
Who conducts his affairs with justice.<br />
For he shall never be shaken;<br />
The righteous shall be remembered forever.<br />
He shall not fear an ill report<br />
His heart is steadfast trusting the Lord.<br />
His heart is tranquil, without fear<br />
Till at last he looks down on his foes</blockquote>
Thank you Paul. You are a true giant in SPUC’s history and in British and Irish pro-life history. Josephine and I will be praying for you and for your family as you go on to fulfil your long-cherished career ambition in which you are so eminently (including professionally) well-qualified. Your new employers and colleagues are very fortunate – and I would bet my bottom dollar that you will remain at the heart of pro-life work, not least because of the legacy you have left us, for decades to come.<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-35192768063644803582016-10-27T18:13:00.001+01:002016-10-27T18:13:48.284+01:00Mother Teresa's message to SPUC's rally, Christ's love, lives on in the work of Good Counsel Network and the pro-life movement<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4VBO7qmp3QE" width="480"></iframe> <br />
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33 years on since Mother Teresa's memorable address to SPUC's "Call to Humanity" pro-life rally in Hyde Park, London, her love - that is, Christ's love - lives on in so many aspects of the work of the pro-life movement. <br />
<br />
It lives on, for example, in the wonderful work of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's sister organisation, Good Counsel Network.<br />
<br />
Good Counsel Network simply never stops quietly and effectively saving babies' lives and protecting and supporting mothers every day of the week, 52 weeks of the year. They carry on doing so quietly and effectively in spite of <a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/news/press-releases/2016/october/attack-on-pavement-counsellors-ignores-women-says-spuc">media attacks</a> on their life-saving work - attacks which simply ignore the countless women who benefit from the caring work of Good Counsel Network.<br />
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To give you an example of what I mean, SPUC's "oldest" volunteer (he's been volunteering at SPUC's HQ for 42 years) came into the office today (27th October, the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act being passsed by Parliament) and told me the following:<br />
<blockquote>
"I have over the years been involved in the pro-life cause (SPUC, LIFE and the Good Counsel Network). Many times the cause seems to progress and sometimes something knocks you back, but usually it's all done with prayer and hope.<br />
<br />
"In my volunteering work for Good Counsel Network, we offer prayer, leafleting and education. We also offer leaflets to those going into abortion clinics explaining the start of life and development of the child. Those leaflets offer help and counselling during pregnancy and the offer of after-care.<br />
<br />
"I was made aware of how well others in our movement get through to people when a lady walked across to me and shook me by the hand. She wanted to tham me for the work of others in the movement. Not something I did especially, any more than what we all do in praying for those in all things to do with their baby.<br />
<br />
"She wanted to thank those of our organisation who guided and helped her through her pregnancy. She had intended not to continue with ther pregnancy. Her son encouraged her not to have an abortion.<br />
<br />
"She shook me by the hand. Gee whizz, that's worth more than money.<br />
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"You know what else? It happened on the annviersary of the passing of the Abortion Act."</blockquote>
(Today, SPUC put out <a href="http://www.spuc.org.uk/news/news-stories/2016/october/today-marks-the-49th-anniversary-of-the-abortion-act">a statement</a> on the 49th anniversary of the passage of the Abortion Act saying "Today marks the 49th anniversary of the passage of the Abortion Act. We need to make the idea of abortion being completely illegal normal- because it really is normal not to kill children.")<br />
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Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-47649824219517924952016-10-24T14:35:00.000+01:002016-10-24T21:19:55.076+01:00Poland's Stop Abortion Citizens' Initiative sought to uphold international law<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://wf3.xcdn.pl/files/16/10/20/983165_5hyO_IMG_6102_34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://wf3.xcdn.pl/files/16/10/20/983165_5hyO_IMG_6102_34.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>I have just returned from fact-finding trip to Poland with SPUC's international team where we were hosted by the Ordo Iuris team which led the recent Stop Abortion Citizens' Initiative supported by nearly half a million Polish citizens. Whilst in Warsaw, the SPUC team were invited to address a press conference convened in connection with our visit. This is what I said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">I am very disappointed that the Stop Abortion Citizens’ Initiative was sadly stopped in its tracks by the party leadership pressure in Poland including pressure on the Polish bishops. [The Stop Abortion Citizens’ initiative was supported by nearly half a million Polish citizens and sought to make abortion in Poland completely unlawful.]<br />
<br />
Today is the feast day of St John Cantius who was raised up by Providence to keep alight the torch of faith and the flame of Christian charity in the 15th century in Poland. The Stop Abortion initiative has been raised by Providence to keep alight the teaching of the Church on the inviolability of the sanctity of human life from conception and Christian charity in the 21st century by proposing legislation designed to defend the lives of the weakest, most vulnerable children in the world - those who are disabled and those who are conceived as a result of a crime such as rape, as well as providing for greater support for mothers to be facing difficult pregnancies.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">In launching their initiative Ordo Iuris and their pro-life allies were seeking to implement Article Three of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which upholds the right to life.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Article Two of the UNDHR states “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” And Article Six states: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.” After the tragic experience of the Second World War and Nazi Germany, the drafters of the Universal Declaration wanted to ensure that legislators could never treat a particular group of people as “non-persons”, such as unborn children.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The right to life of unborn children is also upheld in the 1959 Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1989 Convention on Human Rights which states in its preamble: “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth".</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Currently Poland permits abortion in certain circumstances. The logical outcome of legalised abortion in certain circumstances is that abortion becomes available in all or any circumstances. Imagine if in Poland you had legislation which permitted a particular racial or religious group to be killed. It's obvious that in such a situation everybody's human rights would be threatened because unequivocal respect for the dignity of human life had been removed from your statutes.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The only thing which really protects society's weakest, most vulnerable human beings, are moral absolutes. Once legislators accept that it's OK directly to kill an innocent child in the womb, the defence against killing any unborn child is torn away.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">What is being done in Poland by Ordo Iuris and their pro-life allies is to make the idea of stopping abortion completely in Poland completely normal - because it really is normal not to kill children.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Future generations will take that fact for granted and will look at what is happening today with horror and utter disbelief.</blockquote><br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://wf3.xcdn.pl/files/16/10/20/983165_5hyO_IMG_6102_34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://wf3.xcdn.pl/files/16/10/20/983165_5hyO_IMG_6102_34.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>John Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-9523146461233529122016-08-20T14:44:00.000+01:002016-08-20T14:44:50.930+01:00Abortions suspended at Marie Stopes: "Women are being channelled into the abortion industry funded by the Department of Health"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Tully SPUC's general secretary<br /></td></tr>
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Late on the afternoon of Friday 19th August Marie Stopes International (MSI) was reported to have suspended half of its abortion services following a report from the Care Quality Commission(CQC). These restrictions have immediate effect. According to other press reports these CQC concerns related to poor governance arrangements and to specific immediate concerns relating to the lack of assurance in MSI regarding consent and safeguarding and in training and competence in conscious sedation and general anaesthesia.<br />
<br />
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/19/marie-stopes-%20suspend-surgical-%20abortions-after-surprise-inspectio/">reaction</a> of the CQC to the dangerous and illegal abortion practices in private abortion clinics as inadequate, immoral and unlawful collusion in criminal activity. <br />
<br />
The law permits abortion only when there is a health risk meaning that continuing the pregnancy is more dangerous than an abortion. The department of health and the CQC disregard the law and thousands of women are mis-certified for abortion. 98% of abortions are certified on mental grounds when there is no real risk to her mental or physical health if she has the baby. These abortions are illegal. If abortion agencies had the welfare of women truly at heart, they would ensure that the illegal practices that Marie Stopes, BPAS, NHS hospitals and others follow were stopped.<br />
<br />
Paul Tully, SPUC General Secretary said: <br />
<blockquote>
"Pregnant women are suffering intolerably. The CQC is defending illegal government abortion policy which kills children and sometimes women too. Women are not being offered proper support when facing difficulties in pregnancy - they are simply being channelled into the abortion industry funded by the Department of Health.<br />
<br />
"Voluntary sector groups like the pro-life organisations, churches and family support groups struggle to provide real practical help but the statutory providers offer pregnant women nothing but abortion. The Departmental policy fuels abortion on an industrial scale - 550 abortions every day in Britain. Abortion is an inherently risky interference in the natural pregnancy process.<br />
<br />
"Women like Aisha Chithira who died after a Marie Stopes abortion in Ealing represent only the tip of the iceberg of women who are killed, injured or left with long term problems resulting from infection, extreme emotional distress or the dangerous hormonal changes caused by abortion which can affect breast physiology. Jade Rees who committed suicide 3 weeks after a 'legal' abortion last year shows how dangerous abortion is to women from a mental health perspective."</blockquote>
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-85460095062652550032016-08-05T11:17:00.003+01:002016-08-05T11:59:16.700+01:00Amber and Jenny, SPUC interns, provide hope for the future of the pro-life movement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Like me, you may be inspired to read the report from SPUC interns Amber Farquhar (left) and Jenny Wordley, both Open University students living in Wales.<br />
<br />
Jennifer Wordley is from Tenby in Pembrokeshire and is 21 years old. Amber Farquhar is from Llangadog in Carmarthenshire and is 19.<br />
<br />
The breadth and depth of SPUC's internship scheme is reflected in Amber's and Jenny's report, not least in their conclusion below.<br />
<br />
Young people interested in attending the SPUC youth conference (3 - 5 March 2017) or, perhaps, joining the Society's internship scheme next year should contact Rhoslyn Thomas, the Society's youth organizer, at <a href="mailto:rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk">rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk</a> or on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.<b><br />
</b> <b><br />
</b> <b>13-22 July 2016</b><br />
<b><br />
<u> </u></b>Report of the six week internship for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, detailing the different opportunities and work we were involved with, including pavement counselling, campaigning in Ireland with Youth Defence and against a Polish Medical Centre, debating prolife issues, and general administration work:<br />
<br />
<b>Pavement Counselling and Meetings</b><br />
The first few days of the internship involved looking at the methods of pavement counselling by Msgr. Reilly, to help distressed women seeking an abortion clinic to terminate their pregnancy. The first Wednesday, and the following Wednesdays whilst in London, we put these methods into practice at the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Whitfield street, where we witnessed and attempted to help a number of women entering and leaving the clinic before and after having an abortion.<br />
<br />
We attended a meeting organised by Anglican Mainstream, where speakers described their work and ideas to combat issues within the Protestant Church and to preserve their traditional family morals.<br />
<br />
We attended an excellent explanation and discussion of Humanae Vitae given by Fr. Romanus in Saint Anselm’s Church, Tooting. <br />
<br />
<b>Youth Defence</b><br />
We spent two weeks travelling Ireland and assisting prolife campaigners from Youth Defence on their annual national roadshow. We helped with door-to-door canvassing in certain areas, distributed leaflets and discussed and spread the prolife message on the streets. <br />
<br />
We assisted with the organisation and stewardship of the rally for life in Belfast. On our return we wrote a short anecdotal piece describing our experiences and encouraging others to join the movement for publication on Youth Defence’s website<br />
<br />
<b>Campaign against Tooting Medical Centre</b><br />
One of the main projects we focused on was campaigning against a Polish Medical Centre in Tooting which is performing abortions. Two weeks of the internship involved visiting some of the Polish centres in London, acting as a witness by praying outside the centre, and door to door canvassing, with the purpose of making the Polish community aware of the scandal and the ways in which they can help us to stop abortion from occurring in this Centre.<br />
<br />
<b>General Admin, Reading, Discussions</b><br />
We assisted with the updating of the database, sorting of mail, packaging mailings for postage, and other duties associated with the general running of the office. <br />
<br />
We were provided with a generous amount of academic articles, and analyses of surveys and information which focused on the various issues which SPUC address. This was supported by informative discussions with Rhoslyn Thomas, Dr Anthony McCarthy and other staff members, and practice sessions for effectively answering questions in favour of abortion.<br />
<br />
We had the opportunity to observe a talk given at St. John Payne’s school, and give a short presentation on why we ourselves are prolife to the students there. Afterwards we were able to take part in a short question and answer session.<br />
<b><br />
Conclusion</b><br />
This internship has given us the opportunity to experience the environment in which pro-life activists work. The reading provided gave us a deeper insight into all arguments used for abortion and other issues that SPUC deal with, and how to efficiently debate and defend our views.<br />
<br />
We have been able to see the different methods in which one should communicate the pro-life argument to many people, especially women, under different circumstances. This has also given us an insight into what is needed in the pro-life movement, whether it be office work, or outside campaigning, to ensure that our message gets across to as many people as possible.<br />
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-10053346538759585412016-08-04T17:25:00.002+01:002016-08-04T17:29:07.915+01:00Theresa May on Christianity, abortion, compulsory sex education: an interview with SPUC's Anthony Ozimic by the German Catholic press<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's director of communications, was <a href="http://www.die-tagespost.de/kirche-aktuell/bdquo-Sensibilitaet-fuer-lebensrechtliche-Anliegen-ldquo;art312,171184" target="_blank">recently interviewed</a> by <i>Die Tagespost</i>, a German Catholic newspaper, about Theresa May. They wanted to know the position of the new prime minister on issues of relevance to Christians:<br />
<br />
<b>Theresa May is the new Prime Minister of the UK. How Christian is she? And what is the role of her faith for her political work?</b><br />
<blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: As a secular, non-denominational organisation, SPUC cannot comment precisely on her religious faith. However, we can note that she is the daughter of an Anglican vicar; and we are aware of some comments that this upbringing had had some influence on her way of approaching politics. She describes herself as a One-Nation Conservative. One-Nation Conservatism was founded by Benjamin Disraeli, the Victorian Prime Minster and Anglican convert at the height of the Church of England’s influence. It has very similar bases to Anglicanism: paternalism, pragamatism, social conscience.</blockquote>
<b>Does her previous voting behavior give information about that? Where does she stand on Christian issues like Sunday Trading and assisted suicide and other Pro-Life issues?</b><br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: Mrs May’s voting record implies a sensitivity to pro-life concerns. In 2001 and 2008, she voted against various unethical embryo research proposals. She also voted to uphold a requirement that IVF doctors consider a child's need for a father and a mother. Also in 2008 and 2015, she voted with the pro-life lobby for amendments aimed at restricting abortion. Also in 2015, she voted against assisted suicide. For her record on Christian issues, please visit www.christian.org.uk<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Will she possibly campaign for example for an amendment of the British Abortion Act?</b><br />
<blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: I think this is very unlikely. As an individual MP, she may vote in a pro-life direction if a back-bench MP brings forward an amendment. She is, however, a pragmatist and is not committed to the pro-life cause, therefore I would be extremely surprised if she decided to ‘campaign’ to amend the Abortion Act.</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rumD4L8q2zM5yDDkWn1gAnYnuNgYkoMCG3BgyhhrNx4PUZQGKxMeWpUth2PeLlxvUvMeSkXrIA0Nydjobf0pWQVhAqPzcMLKHjXHNwSZVNDSEGizyb-rlcDi_GXjfPIhajGQwUcf5o8/s1600/Anthony+Ozimic+portrait+for+SPUC+website+20+April+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rumD4L8q2zM5yDDkWn1gAnYnuNgYkoMCG3BgyhhrNx4PUZQGKxMeWpUth2PeLlxvUvMeSkXrIA0Nydjobf0pWQVhAqPzcMLKHjXHNwSZVNDSEGizyb-rlcDi_GXjfPIhajGQwUcf5o8/s200/Anthony+Ozimic+portrait+for+SPUC+website+20+April+2015.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthony Ozimic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>In 2010 Theresa May told the BBC that she had changed her mind on same-sex adoption, after previously voting against the proposal to allow it. Recently, she said: “I will always stand up for the rights of LGBT people. (…) I supported Civil Partnerships in 2004, and was proud to sponsor the legislation that introduced full marriage equality in 2013 because I believe marriage should be for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. I didn’t believe the State should perpetuate discrimination and prejudice against LGBT people. That's why equal marriage was a hugely significant social reform”. What do you think about that?</b><br />
<blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: I think it reflects her pragmatic approach. The key is her use of the word ‘social reform’, which reflects One-Nation Conservatism’s approach of organic evolution of society. Elsewhere, she has spoken about how homosexuals ‘will make marriage stronger’. Although her comments about homosexual rights, discrimination, prejudice, etc. sound ideological, I doubt that she is ideologically committed to the homosexual cause. It seems that she has a tendency to use strong rhetoric in support of a position once she has switched to it.</blockquote>
<b>Will Theresa May make sex education compulsory in school?<br />
</b><br />
<blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: I think there is a real possibility of this happening because of the appointment of Justine Greening as Education Secretary, who has a poor voting record on moral issues. Ms Greening announced to this year’s London Gay Pride march that she is a lesbian. It is speculated that both Mrs May and Ms Greening support compulsory sex education.</blockquote>
<b>What will SPUC do to encourage the new cabinet to campaign for the Christian Agenda and Pro-Life issues?<br />
</b><br />
<blockquote>
Anthony Ozimic: As the world’s oldest pro-life lobbying organisation, we will do what we have been doing for almost 50 years: we will mobilise our tens of thousands of grassroots supporters to lobby MPs, and through MPs try to influence the Cabinet. The believers among our members will also be praying for Mrs May and her ministers.</blockquote>
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk" target="_blank">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a>John Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-55304797703392368222016-07-22T15:17:00.000+01:002016-07-22T15:17:20.894+01:0050 years ago today MPs approved 2nd Reading of the Abortion Act 1967 on the basis of lies<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.spuc.org.uk/~/media/Images/SPUC/News-Stories/Lord-David-Steel-3.ashx?la=en" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://www.spuc.org.uk/~/media/Images/SPUC/News-Stories/Lord-David-Steel-3.ashx?la=en" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lord David Steel, formerly David Steel MP, <br />
the principal sponsor of the Abortion Act 1967</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fifty years ago today, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill [subsequently the Abortion Act 1967] passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons with a massive vote of 223 votes for and 29 against. <br />
<br />
SPUC calculates that, so far, 8,624,567 innocent lives have been lost under the 1967 Abortion Act.<br />
<br />
It's instructive to consider the the pro-abortion lobby’s claims in 1966 in the second reading debate and during subsequent debates on this tragic legislation:<br />
<ul>
<li>“…it is not the intention of the promoters of the Bill to leave a wide open door for abortion on request.” (David Steel, Hansard 5th Series, Vol 732, col 1075, 22 July, 1966)</li>
<li>“Nobody is advocating abortion on demand in this Committee or anywhere else…” (David Steel, Standing Committee F, 15 February 1967, col 250)</li>
<li>"It is certainly not a general licence to a medical practitioner to carry out an abortion on anybody who desires it.” (Lord Silkin, sponsor of the Abortion Act 1967 in the House of Lords, Hansard, 19 July 1967, col 263)</li>
</ul>
<b>What proved to be true was the following:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>As early as 1972, a report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) stated: “…there is no such danger of injury [to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman] in the vast majority of cases [of women seeking abortion], as the ‘indication’ is purely a social one.” (RCOG Report on Unplanned pregnancy. London, England: RCOG; 1972)</li>
<li>And (Lord) David Steel himself, formerly David Steel MP, has, over the decades, openly promoted abortion on demand: "If it's simply the decision of the mother then the limit should be 12 weeks" (BBC, 4 July 2004).</li>
<li>He has also written: "Incidentally, I was misreported in one Sunday paper as advocating a lower limit for "social" abortions. There should be no such distinction - proper medical care takes all social considerations into account…." (The Guardian 6 July 2004).</li>
<li>And, earlier this year, Lord Steel said regarding the state of the law in Northern Ireland that it was “simply ridiculous” and “absolutely extraordinary” that abortion is not widely available there.</li>
</ul>
<b>Back-street abortion claims</b><br />
<br />
The most widely promoted claim by the pro-abortion lobby in 1966, in Parliament and in the media, was that the Abortion Act was necessary to overcome back-street abortion and deaths associated with back-street abortion. The pro-abortion lobby’s estimates as to the number of back-street abortions rose to hundreds of thousands – but the evidence indicates a very different reality. <br />
<br />
David Steel MP, the principal sponsor of the Abortion Act, claimed in the parliamentary debate:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“I would not settle for any definite figure, but it is probably somewhere between 40,000 and 200,000 a year.” (David Steel, Hansard 5th Series, Vol 732 col 1071 22 July 1966)</blockquote>
<b>The truth was:</b><br />
<br />
In 1966, the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) showed that, in 1962, approximately 14,600 women in England and Wales had received hospital treatment for the consequences of criminal abortion. The RCOG Council commented: “It has been repeatedly stated that as many as 100,000 criminal abortions are induced in this country each year, and a more recent estimate is 250,000. These, and an earlier figure of 50,000, are without any secure factual foundation of which we are aware.” (Legalised Abortion: Report by the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists”, British Medical Journal, 1966; 1: 850-854.)<br />
<br />
In developed countries, the number of women dying from abortion started to fall significantly in the decades before abortion laws were liberalised. Numbers in England and Wales fell from 96 deaths in 1950 to 56 deaths in 1960, and to 32 deaths in 1970. (World Health Statistics Report, Vol.30, no.4, Geneva: World Health Organisation, 1977, p.322.; World Health Statistics Annual 1970, Geneva: WHO, 1973, vol.1, p.516.) (These figures include deaths from both legal and illegal abortions, as well as natural miscarriages.) Medical advances, such as the use of antibiotics, have been the most important factor in this trend.<br />
<br />
After the British Abortion Act was implemented in 1968, the overall trend in the number of women dying from all causes in their main childbearing years continued the steady decrease already in evidence, apart from a slight increase in 1968 itself. (Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom 1985-1987, London: HMSO, 1991, p.6.) In other words, there was no sudden, marked decline in women’s deaths which could be attributed to the working of the Abortion Act.<br />
<br />
The same pattern of exaggeration has characterised campaigns for legalised abortion all over the world. Former abortionist Dr Bernard Nathanson has admitted that he deceived people about the number of abortion deaths while campaigning for pro-abortion law in the United States. (Bernard N. Nathanson (with Richard N. Ostling), Aborting America, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1979, p.193.)<br />
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-87203079822507417462016-06-21T15:46:00.000+01:002016-06-21T15:46:19.790+01:00A new book which brings great clarity to sexual ethicsI very much encourage my readers to listen to a discussion just posted on <a href="https://youtu.be/jroxuJgqj-o" target="_blank">SPUC's YouTube channel</a> of a new book by Dr Anthony McCarthy, SPUC's Education Director, entitled <i>Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and Meaning</i> (<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Sex-Sexual-Choices-Meaning/dp/0929891171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466426063&sr=8-1&keywords=Ethical+Sex" target="_blank">buy on Amazon</a>). Introducing the book is Thomas Pink, professor of philosophy at King's College, London.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jroxuJgqj-o?rel=0" width="400"></iframe><br />
<br />
Why is this of interest? In short, because the book brings philosophical clarity to the difficult subject of sexual ethics - a subject of deep relevance to pro-life issues. Ideologies which undermine respect for the unique nature of human sexuality and fertility have grave consequences for the lives of the unborn insofar as they undermine the natural institutions which are their best protection.<br />
<br />
I would urge readers to <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Sex-Sexual-Choices-Meaning/dp/0929891171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466426063&sr=8-1&keywords=Ethical+Sex">buy</a> and study this ambitious academic book so as to strengthen their understanding of this crucial area of ethics.<br />
<br />
Here is what two leading philosophers have been saying about the book:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"McCarthy's book on sex and marriage is full of fascinating, creative and powerful arguments. It interacts with a broad base of philosophical, literary and theological reflection, from Aquinas and Shakespeare to a rich and diverse set of contemporary philosophers. All who want to have an informed view on traditional sexual ethics need to look at this work." Professor Alexander Pruss, Baylor University</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This splendidly and engagingly written book deserves wide attention and careful reading. It defends in an intelligent way - brilliantly debating views opposite to the author's own - a number of important and, I believe, very true theses about human sexuality and sexual ethics." Professor Josef Seifert, International Academy of Philosophy - Institute of Philosophy Edith Stein</blockquote>
Please take the time to listen to this interesting and valuable discussion which took place at the launch of the book this spring. The book is available for sale via <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Sex-Sexual-Choices-Meaning/dp/0929891171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466426063&sr=8-1&keywords=Ethical+Sex" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or through SPUC (telephone 020 7091 7091).<br />
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/SPUCProLife">Like</a> SPUC's Facebook PageJohn Smeaton, SPUC directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17816087952317602972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264852149611598485.post-27361338191329686082016-06-07T16:33:00.000+01:002016-06-23T12:30:25.700+01:00We have a duty to face up to what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Pro-life leaders and local activists need to face up to what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church.<br />
<br />
As <a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/" target="_blank">Voice of the Family</a> reported last week:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A representative of the Holy See [Monsignor Jean-Marie Musivi Mupendawatu, secretary to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers], in an intervention at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva last week, welcomed Sustainable Development Goal 3 and all its targets, despite target 7 calling for 'universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services.' These terms are defined as including abortion and contraception by many powerful governments and agencies ... " </blockquote>
... These powerful governments and agencies include the Obama administration, the British government, the United Nations Population Fund, International Planned Parenthood Federation to name but a few.<br />
<br />
The Voice of the Family report continued:<br />
<blockquote>
Mgr Mupendawatu made no reference to the statement of reservations issued by the Holy See delegation to the UN in New York after the approval of the SDGs by the UN in September 2015. In that statement the Holy See expressed some reservations regarding Goals 3.7 and 5.6, both of which refer to “sexual and reproductive health”. The text of the Holy See statement of reservations can be accessed here.</blockquote>
It might be argued that this was an isolated instance, a simple mistake as a result of inexperience, carelessness or human error. We are human. Mistakes happen. I accept that.<br />
<br />
However, whether or not a most regrettable mistake was made, the fact is, as the Voice of the Family report points out: " ... there has been extensive collaboration between other Holy See bodies and powerful proponents of abortion, contraception and population control during the current pontificate, under the guise of promoting sustainable development". A selection of Voice of the Family’s commentary on this collaboration can be found below:<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/pro-family-catholics-disturbed-after-reports-of-popes-comments-on-contraception/">Pro-family Catholics disturbed after reports of Pope’s comments on contraception</a>, 18 February 2016<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/climate-agreement-welcomed-by-pope-but-pro-lifers-concerned-about-language-that-promotes-abortion/">Climate agreement welcomed by pope but pro-lifers concerned about language that promotes abortion</a>, 22 December 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/cardinal-turkson-pope-francis-has-invited-people-to-some-form-of-birth-control/">Cardinal Turkson: Pope Francis ‘has invited people to some form of birth control”</a>, 10 December 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/sacrilege-catholic-leaders-react-to-vaticans-climate-change-light-show/">‘Sacrilege’: Catholic leaders react to Vatican’s climate change light show</a>, 9 December 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/synod-adopts-alarming-sociological-approach-in-place-of-clear-doctrine/">Synod adopts alarming sociological approach in place of clear doctrine</a>, 12 November 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/parents-are-the-primary-educators-of-their-children/">Voice of the Family statement: Parents are the primary educators of their children</a>, 15 October 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/synod-fathers-who-compromise-on-contraception-will-be-responsible-for-greater-abortion/">Synod fathers who compromise on contraception will be responsible for greater abortion</a>, 6 October 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/african-families-gravely-threatened-by-western-governments-international-agencies-and-vatican-departments/">African families gravely threatened by western governments, international agencies and Vatican departments</a>, 18 August 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/professor-schellnhuber-climate-science-and-the-population-problem/">Professor Schellnhuber: climate science and the population problem</a>, 26 June 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/launch-of-new-encyclical-by-head-of-catholic-agency-accused-of-funding-contraception-shows-urgent-need-for-reaffirmation-of-humanae-vitae/">Launch of new encyclical by head of Catholic agency accused of funding contraception shows urgent need for reaffirmation of Humanae Vitae</a>, 19 June 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/voice-of-the-family-statement-on-the-encyclical-laudato-si/">Voice of the Family statement on the encyclical letter Laudato Si</a>, 18 June 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/any-discussion-on-the-environment-must-stem-from-understanding-that-the-family-is-the-key-to-sustainable-development/">Any discussion on the environment must stem from understanding that the family is the key to sustainable development</a>, 21 May 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/vatican-endorsement-of-un-development-goals-threatens-unborn-children/" target="_blank">Vatican endorsement of UN Sustainable Development Goals threatens unborn children</a>, 29 April 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voiceofthefamily.com/leading-global-pro-abortion-advocates-speak-at-vatican-conference/" target="_blank">Leading global pro-abortion advocates speak at Vatican conference</a>, 28 April 2015</blockquote>
Like many other pro-life activists, I personally have a right and a duty to speak out about what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church:<br />
<br />
I have worked at national and international level for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for over four decades. In the 1990s, at United Nations conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, at the invitation of the Holy See, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups in a great united effort, under the clear moral leadership of Pope John Paul II, to stop the world's great powers from establishing in international law a right to abortion. Since 1994, SPUC has sent professional lobbyists to United Nations meetings in New York, Geneva and elsewhere, at the expense of our hardworking families throughout Britain who support our work, maintaining in co-operation with other pro-life groups of all faiths and none, the historic struggle against the "right" to abortion. Throughout that period SPUC's team has sought to maintain a close relationship with the Holy See delegation which is so critical in persuading delegates from supporting nations to support marriage, parents as the primary educators, and to oppose abortion.<br />
<br />
In raising my concerns, of necessity sometimes publicly like today, I am fulfilling my duty as clearly laid out in the Code of Canon Law, which states:<br />
<blockquote>
“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 §3)</blockquote>
<b>I do urge pro-life activists "with reverence" towards your pastors "and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons" to raise your concerns with your diocesan bishop and other relevant authorities in the Church about a situation which, I am advised, is unprecedented in the history of the Church. I believe that future generations will consider us answerable for our failure to do so. Whilst my appeal is primarily to fellow Catholics, I believe that everyone with concern for the common good has a duty to act.</b><br />
<br />
We are arguably experiencing the greatest catastrophe in the history of humanity. At a conservative estimate, since 1966, around 2 billion babies, made in the image and likeness of God, have been killed by abortion worldwide according to leading researchers from both the pro-abortion and pro-life lobbies. Moreover, the number of human embryos destroyed in the past 50 years by abortifacient birth control drugs and devices worldwide is simply incalculable; and in the UK alone, 2 million embryonic babies have been killed as a result of in vitro fertilisation procedures since 1990, according to the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; add to that the scores of other countries where IVF is practised and the number of human beings killed is once again incalculable.<br />
<br />
Estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout all of recorded human history range from 150 million to 1 billion. Even if the number were twice that higher figure, the last 50 years has witnessed the killing of more human beings through the “sexual and reproductive health” systems in our so-called civilised countries worldwide than in all the wars in recorded human history. In addition, during the past half century explicit sex education has destroyed the innocence of children, a sex education which provides children and adolescents with access to contraception and abortion. By removing parents as the primary educators of their children in the intimate area of human sexuality, powerful governments and the international birth control lobby funded by those powerful governments with our taxes, are establishing acceptance of contraception and abortion in the darkened hearts and consciences of future generations of adults.<br />
<br />
Pro-life organizations, our families and the wider community need urgently to be reinforced by unequivocal, unyielding voices of Catholic Church officials and bishops throughout the world because the full Gospel message about the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life, teaching which is also part of the natural law written on all human hearts, is the most important weapon known to man against the culture of death. The intimate connection between the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life is nowhere more fully spelled out than in Catholic teaching – and all people of good will are capable of understanding that intimate connection. <br />
<br />
This is not the time to be silent about what is happening at the highest levels in the Church.<br />
<br />
Comments on this blog? Email them to <a href="mailto:johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk" target="_blank">johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/spucprolife">Follow</a> SPUC on Twitter<br />
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