De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The Daily Mail reports that, in a speech to London school leaders last month, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told an audience of head teachers that pupils may question their identity, but schools could not ignore the sex they were born into. According to the Mail he said children were not simply individuals who could do as they liked, but were part of a wider community that had ‘firm points of reference’. In his speech Cardinal Nichols – Chair of the Bishop's conference for England and Wales – appealed to a ‘common sense of humanity’ to counter a growing individualism in relationships, family life and sexuality. He said:  ‘At a time of great confusion about the rules of sexual behaviour, about exploitation and abuse in every part of society, some firm points of reference already built into our humanity at its best are of vital importance. 'In an age of fluidity, even in gender identity, and at a time when the response to “difference” is to become closed in a self...

Following numerous posts on this blog and elsewhere regarding the scandal of the Catholic Education Service issuing guidelines for schools which carried a clear and blatantly anti-Catholic anthropology which they have admitted was copied directly from websites which support an LGBTQI lifestyle, a petition has been raised to ask for clear guidance from the bishops. Please consider adding your name to this! Caroline Farrow writes: A number of concerned Catholic parents all over the country have been writing to me, expressing their worry that their child's Catholic school is embracing transgenderism and adopting an approach of validating children's gender dysphoria. As well as being a potentially devastating approach for the individual children experiencing this, it's also affecting other children who are being co-opted into accepting that gender is fluid and forced to share changing rooms and facilities. A petition has been launched to encourage the bishops to issue ...

Well I do hope the CES are proud of themselves! Any human being with any iota of common sense would be appalled at the treatment of Nigel and Sally Rowe the parents of a six-year-old boy who have removed him from his primary school after another child in his class began wearing a dress to school. The couple said under the school's bullying policy their son faced being disciplined for misidentifying the gender of the six-year-old pupil. They've been subjected to this sort of madness on television: "What gender are your children?" LGBT rights campaigner Jane Fae challenges parents who withdrew 6yo son from school with transgender child pic.twitter.com/pTSEEupfUz — Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) September 11, 2017 And also from the likes of Stella Creasy and Anna Soubry. It is incredible to see MPs detracting and abusing an ordinary couple who just want the best for their child. So sad to hear parent teach their child to hate like this- hope th...

I think this post on the Muniment Room has some really important and necessary insights. It really joins together the dots so that you can see how things fit together. It begins by examining the position of Catholic Voices , how much authority does the organisation  have to speak on catholic issues? Who guarantees their Catholicity? These are questions which were voiced at the organisation's inception. Officialy, the authoritative source about Catholicism in the UK is the Catholic Communications Network (CCN) of the CBCEW. Catholic Voices then, is a conduit; a simple way for a media outlet to find an "every day Catholic" to comment when it needs somebody who isn't an official spokesman for the Church (mind you, when was the last time you saw any "official spokesperson for the Church"?). However, Ttony reports "that any call to the CCN asking for a Catholic comment on an issue of the moment gets forwarded routinely to CV and that, furthermore,...

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...

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...