De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Canada: land of tolerance, acceptance and liberalism. Unless you're Catholic. At a November 11, 2020 meeting of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), three trustees shouted down a reading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, condemned the Catechism's words as "dangerous", and warned the delegate to stop reading the Catechism.  Trustees publicly shouted down the Church's official teaching on homosexual acts, contained in paragraph 2357 of the Catechism. Cardinal Collins surely has a duty to speak with these trustees and explain what the Church teaches on this issue. The fact that the Church's moral teaching appears unacceptable to the culture of this school shows just how poorly we have done in passing on the teachings of Jesus. It must be the priority of those commissioned with teaching the faith to address this terrible imbalance and speak out against a liberalism which seeks to shut down every voice which presents a challenge to its false ...

Photograph: Paul F. Abbott Last Monday evening I travelled to St. Patrick's Church in Soho Square London to attend the presentation given by Bishop Mark O'Toole, Bishop of Plymouth for The Guild of Our Lady & St. Joseph . The talk Bishop Mark gave was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism and entitled “How to be a disciple making disciple - Prayer, Faith, Loving Service and the Sacramental life". I have bumped into Bishop Mark a couple of times since he was ordained Bishop. At Buckfast Abbey where the School of the Annunciation is based.  Indeed Bishop Mark drew attention to the blessing the school constitutes in his address: ...as the local bishop I want to say what a great blessing it is to our diocese. Theological reflection and expertise within the Catholic tradition, is a limited resource in the South West, and indeed more widely in the English speaking world. It is good for us to have the School among us. I first me...

Further to the recent terrible news of the shooting in Colorado at a screening of the new Batman film  there has been a considerable amount of discussion regarding whether the perpetrator, James Holmes, should face the death penalty or not. I became involved in a discussion with some friends, who were adamant that Homes should be killed for what he had done. Certainly I share their disgust at his crimes, but consider the death penalty to be something we do not employ in civilised society. As a Catholic, I also consider it broadly disconsonant with the fundamental dignity of all human life. I also think the Church teaches us that it is a broadly unacceptable course of action today. During the discourse, all kinds of arguments were employed to try and justify recourse to capital punishment, quoting the Council of Trent for example, and suggesting that the teaching of the Church does not change. This is correct of course, the Church's teaching does not change, but it does deve...