De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Further to the #CESScandal featuring in the Catholic Herald this weekend, Counter Cultural Father has posted an excellent summation of the points he, Caroline Farrow and Dr. Joseph Shaw  and myself have been trying to make about the issue. Although the Herald article concludes that "If this document is a mock exam for the CES, it may need to improve its game by the time the real tests begin" The general tone of the article appears overly benign and fails to draw attention to many of the very real issues with the CES document. As my pseudonymous associate asserts, these are numerous and manifest: The approach The overall thrust of this document is that we should not bully people who identify as gay or bisexual (or whose parents or carers do) because gay and bisexual people are just as good as us, but different. That is wrong. We should not bully them because we should not bully anyone - even if they (or their parents) are bad. The risk of the approach taken is t...

Society is changing under the influence of a highly organised and well connected lobby who are promoting homosexuality as the benchmark of a fair progressive society. Parents expect school to provide an education for their children, but would they accept their children being subjected gay propaganda? My experience is that even very progressive parents baulk at the idea of their children being subjected to detailed accounts of homosexuality as normative. And this is understandable on many levels. Homosexuality is not normative and has been consistently condemned throughout history by cultures all over the world. If you think there's nothing to be worried about, perhaps a first hand account of what it is to be homosexual might enlighten you , if you have the stomach. However, the Catholic Education Service seem to think the best way to deal with this aggressive attack on the family and, let's face it, objective reality, is to get into bed with one of the most aggre...

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth Diocese has issued a Pastoral Letter (14th May 2017) entitled God is Calling You . In it, he discusses vocation and challenges us all to pray for vocations, and offers some important questions which we can put to those who are seeking election to Parliament in June. I found an interesting correlation with this and Dr Joe Shaw's most recent post on Fatima  which talks about the potential of Catholic Social teaching, properly lived out, to fundamentally change the world for the better: As a former active and senior member of the Communist Party, both in the Spanish Civil War and in industrial Glasgow, Fraser was particularly interested in the connection with the conversion of Russia. He goes on to argue that, quite aside from any spectacular supernatural intervention, Russia's conversion would be inevitable if the Church's social teaching was manifested in the daily lives (including the work lives) of Catholics around the world. P149 I...

A friend found this amazing homily from Bishop Mark Davies from March and we wondered, is the man a seer? Given the CES debacle that has unfolded over the last few days, what is completely clear is that Bishop Mark is fully aware of the issues. In it, Bishop Mark warned that Catholic schools may increasingly become "the focus of ideological groups demanding the acceptance of their agenda" under such ostensibly noble banners as equality, respect and the prevention of bullying and unjust discrimination. Here is the full homily of Bishop Davies  with my added emphasis: Homily at the Diocesan Primary Head Teachers' Conference 2nd March 2017 A week ago, I was driving westwards on the M56 in the face of Storm Doris. Rocked by sudden squalls and with visibility obscured, I had to trust the road I was following and the vehicle in which I was driving. Today, I want to suggest the same is true for our Catholic schools, which I am privileged to visit around the Diocese...

There's a rather weak article in The Catholic Herald today about the CES scandal . One might even say the publication is being leaned on by the CES? It says The Catholic Education Service has defended a controversial booklet on homophobic bullying in Catholic schools. Linking to CC Father, it also states: Critics have also suggested that there are similarities in wording in the document to that of materials produced by gay rights groups Stonewall and lgbtyouth Scotland. Errr no, critics have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the document contains exactly the same text as huge swathes of the Stonewall and lgbtyouth Scotland websites! Why would the Catholic Herald state that "critics have suggested.." when anyone could check and establish the facts for themselves on this? Surely it would be good journalism to do so and report the facts? The article quotes the CES as having made the following statement “How schools tackle homophobic bullyin...

The appalling Catholic Education Service document on homophobic bullying I blogged about here contains material directly lifted from Stonewall. Stonewall is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights lobby group in the United Kingdom. It is now the largest LGBT pressure group in Europe. It's sole purpose and agenda is to promote homosexuality, a lifestyle at odds with Catholic teaching. CES DOCUMENT STONEWALL This is hugely problematic. You can view the Stonewall website for yourself here and make the comparison - go to page 6 and you will see this is a direct lift  https://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/getting_started_-_a_toolkit_for_secondary_schools.pdf CC Father does a good job of highlighting the inconsistencies in the language of the document here . Asks if there is some sort of link between the CES & Stonewall that we don't know about here . Notes the plagiarism here . And makes some important points about academic integrit...

This recent Gallup poll lists what appeals most to Church goers in the US. The top 3 reasons Catholics attend church are: 1) sermons are relevant to life; 2) spiritual programs for children & teens; and 3 - only 1 point lower than 2) sermons that explain Scripture. If you are engaging the faithful and hopefully future faithful, this is very interesting and serves as a reminder to meet people where they are - faith needs to matter to their daily life. Three in four worshippers say sermons a major factor in why they go Youth programs, outreach and volunteer opportunities also important Preferring to worship solo is main reason non-attenders eschew services While the rank order of priorities is similar between members of the two Christian branches, Protestants (including those who identify as simply "Christian") attach much more importance than Catholics to the content of sermons, as well as to the quality of music. Catholics and Protestants attach nearly the same l...