De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  Back in November, the  Catholic Unscripted team were invited to address the Catholic Man UK national conference at the historic Buckden Towers, Cambridgeshire. My talk was on the effect of fidelity - and infidelity - on family.

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There's no doubt that we Catholics are in an unenviable mess right now, a mess caused directly by the person elected to guide us and speak clearly about the faith which was deposited by Christ and His Apostles. But given the doctrines of Papal Primacy and infallibility, can we criticise the Holy Father? Perhaps Steve Skojek answered this question more eloquently and expansively in May 2015 after Pope Francis made the deeply questionable appointment Timothy Radcliffe to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Of course things have got a good deal worse since then, but his words are just as valid, especially that: "Being afraid to speak the truth in times like these is a very dangerous thing indeed." It strikes me as a most common Catholic reaction to ignore problems, especially problems like this. Perhaps we think that God will take care of it? Or that to admit there are issues somehow damages the Church? Personally I think this is not a healthy attitude...

Last Thursday evening I was privileged to be asked to speak at ' Soul Food ', a gathering of vibrant young Catholics for prayer and reflection. I was asked to speak about the reality of living a Catholic Marriage. It was the first time I'd delivered this particular talk so it was interesting to see how it "worked" in practice. I think if I do it again, I will know where to tweak it. I started off quite heavy on the theology, grounding the talk in Trinity as the exemplar for the interpersonal project (communion-in-love-without-rivalry) and how, if we are created in the image and likeness of God, this is what we need to set as our goal (we are, after all, called to be Saints). Trinity strikes me as a good starting point for any talk on relationship and Trinity is the centre and focus of theology; a rich mystery by which we can begin to understand so much about our humanity and how we relate to each other, but also what God is like and how our life will be in he...

Pope Francis arrives for the morning session of the synod on Tuesday (CNS) For me,  this articulates what is going on with the Synod perfectly. The scary thing is not that Church teaching will change; it can't and it won't (as everyone seems to be repeating ad nauseam, almost like some desperate mantra). The scary thing for faithful Catholics is that there are Ordained men ; bishops and priests, who have lost their faith to the extent where they are openly pushing for a sinful agenda. That's why the media are all in Rome; like vultures awaiting the final expiration of some great beast, they are circling, anticipating the capitulation of the Church to the world. As Michael Voris puts it: ...what is happening here is the appearance at least of the Church giving up the ghost, so to speak, and adopting the ways of the world with regard to divorce and homosexuality. At the end of the day, that's why the press is here in droves — no other reason. Most of the med...

I'm feeling on top of the world this morning, home from Mass and after a wonderful day yesterday at Ealing Abbey for the Guild of Our Lady & St. Joseph's day of Catholic study on The Family: The Fundamental Cell of Society . I was privileged to have the company of my son Mike and a couple of friends, Joao Pereira and Paul Abbot, and we all traveled up from Essex together. We got there in time for Mass with the Benedictines, celebrated by one Brother who was 60 years a priest on that day! Initially, the take up for this day was low. This wasn't a surprise; the day clashed with the Proclaim15 event in Birmingham and the LMS AGM at Westminster Cathedral. We also did not have any "star speaker", the last Guild Day I attended in Soho, we had Bishop Phillip Egan, who no doubt drew a crowd just to see him. Despite these issues, we received a good number of registrations in the week running up to the event and quite a number of people showed up on the day. B...

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes Lifesite News carries the story that Cardinal Cordes has rebuked the head of German bishops: We can’t ignore Christ’s teaching on marriage (Lifesite's report in red with my emphasis [and comments]): German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, who headed the Papal Council Cor Unum until 2010 and was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, has publicly opposed the words and direction of the German Bishops' Conference . In a Letter to the Editor to the German newspaper Die Tagespost on March 7, 2015, Cardinal Cordes contradicts the words of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops' Conference, as well as Bishop Franz-Joseph Bode (Osnabrück). After the Bishops of Germany had had their conference in Hildesheim, Northern Germany, Cardinal Marx said words that provoked the resistance of Cardinal Cordes. The latter cardinal has responded out of concern that Marx caused confusion among the faithful. First of all, Cardinal Cordes rebuked Cardinal...

…and happy Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God! And so a New Year dawns and calls us all to renewal and rebirth. I have always loved that sense of freshness; of turning the page that we especially get with the New Year's celebrations. At this time of year, I often remember the feeling of getting ready to go back to school as a child, perhaps with some new writing implements or notebooks; gifts from Christmas. The overall feeling of promise; that the new year would bring with it opportunities to shrug off past failures and try harder; to be better; to achieve more. New Year is a time when anything seems possible, anything seems achievable. The last few days of the old year seem tired and fleeting, as if the year is rushing to shed its old skin and begin anew. This year more than any other I can remember, I feel the old year dying and the new one approaching with a green sense of possibility. And it is true that we can indeed change things and start again; something I have exp...

This video is truly beautiful. I've said before that despite all my mistakes in life the one truly good thing I managed to do was to hold on to a true, Catholic understanding of marriage. I went into my marriage with utter commitment, to build a family and to be together always. To smile and suffer together, to sacrifice whatever needed sacrificing for this woman. Being married changed me. It added Louise's femininity to my masculinity in a way that rounded my rough edges; formed me for parenthood; it added to my whole in a way which could not have been achieved without that singular unification which we call marriage. Society tries hard today to diminish this institution today in so many ways, but the fundamental truth of our complimentary is integral to our very being and a part of the universe that surrounds us. There are some beautiful illustrations and deep understanding of that complimentary and unity here; especially like the couple that say "mathematically...

As we begin the Synod on the Family, my thoughts are largely focused in that direction. We must pray for the work of the Synod, and to that end, I implore all Catholics serious about the faith to subscribe to the Voice of the Family website . They are soon to begin distributing news and information which you will find invaluable. Simply add you email address in the box provided on their website here . Meanwhile, Thomas Joseph White, O.P., the director of the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C, has written this excellent article published on First Things . In it, he explains how the Sacrament of marriage is grounded in the twin principles of nature and grace. He looks at the issues to be discussed at the Synod and Pope Benedict XVI's idea that many Catholic marriages may be invalid through lack of faith, suggesting that "a radically “anti-modern” theology that claims that “only intentional Christians can truly get married integrally” i...

Have you heard about this? The Choose Life, Choose Love Conference on Catholic marriage and family life was held at St Patrick's Church in Soho in March 2014. Speakers at the two day event included Jonathon Doyle, Founder and Director of CHOICEZ Media in Australia, and testimonies from married couples present. It might be appropriate to refresh our memories about this event as we approach the synod. In addition, there were talks from Sr. Renee Mirkes OSF, PhD on exploring the themes of Humanae Vitae and the Domino Theory and John Henry Weston entitled "In the Service of, Men are called to Greatness". Sr. Renee is the director of the Center for NaProEthics [the ethics division of the Pope Paul VI Institute, Omaha, NE]. You can watch videos of all the talks here .

So, the lascivious, gossip-specialising, middle-classed hypochronicle known as The  Daily Mail is reporting that the world's only 'married' lesbian threesome are expecting their first child. Doll, Kitten and Brynn, from Massachusetts, were joined together in a marriage-style ceremony last August and are expecting a daughter in July. Kitten, 27, is pregnant after undergoing IVF treatment using an anonymous sperm donor, and the trio eventually plan to have three children - one for each of them. Obviously, us stiff, conservative, difference-hating, Christian folk find it disgusting on various different levels and are expressing our disgust vocally. I posted the article on my Facebook page without any comment, interested to see the variety of reactions, aware that I have a variety of friends, with very different perspectives. Here are some of the responses: In the spirit of Aristotle's assertion that "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to en...

Sometimes I think I am too easily swayed by other's opinions. I suppose on the internet, people read your thoughts and like to say you are either "x" or "y". People like to pigeon hole people, to put them safely in the right box so they can predict what they'll do next, so they feel safe about what that person thinks on any given issue. I'm sure most of you have pigeon holed me a while back, unless you know me in person. If you do know me, you'll know I am a bit of a contradiction in terms. At least I have often been told that, and still am regularly. Part of this character trait is that my mind is fairly malleable in regard to knowledge. I tend to hold on to good ideas, tried and tested theories, yet always be prepared to test them, in case new information proves superior. I see this as a humble attitude. To use a fighting analogy, experience has taught me that, despite my being big, strong, and well trained, there are lots of people out ther...

My Family, with Mary Therese's Godparents, Andy and Norah, on the occasion of her Baptism. I'm not sure why John is making the Vulcan 'live long & prosper' sign there, but anyway... The BBC  here  asserts that a new report on family breakdown says that a million UK children are growing up without a father in their lives. The Centre for Social Justice report says lone parent families are increasing by more than 20,000 a year and will top two million by the next general election. Some areas are virtual "men deserts" due to the high number of fatherless households, it adds. This is a shocking trend in our society which can only be furthered by a continued erosion of the building block of our society: marriage. As Sarah Teather recently pointed out , Once the concept of marriage has become established in social consciousness as an entirely private matter about love and commitment alone, without any link to family, I fear that it will accelerate ...