De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Archbishop Cordileone speaking at the Symposium on Advancing the New Evangelization in Kansas. Credit: Michelle Harrison/Benedictine College. CNA reports on the symposium in Kansas stating that the promise of the sexual revolution and contraception was total sexual freedom for everyone. “Sex is for fun and now women can have just as much fun without the consequences,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said about the claims of the sexual revolution in a recent talk. “That was the cry of the day, and yet somehow it didn’t work out that way,” he said. What went wrong? It’s a question that the archbishop and other presenters attempted to answer at a symposium on Humanae Vitae and the New Evangelization at Benedictine College in Kansas this past weekend. Cordileone was one of four featured keynote speakers, along with Dr. Janet Smith from Sacred Heart Major Seminary; Dr. Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia; and Dr. Je...

This morning on BBC TV Sunday Morning Live there was a good debate inspired by Melinda Gates (who identifies as Catholic) comments about the pope potentially changing doctrine on contraception. The Catholic contributors were Fr Paddy McCafferty, Clare Short and Obianuju Ekeocha. I think they did really well. Uju's direction is very interesting and easily wrong foots those who want to impose western ideas of morality on Africans in an imperialistic way. Interesting that the presenter agrees with her on this. Fr Paddy gave a great account of his experience as a priest. He was compassionate, realistic and honest, while upholding the value and importance of the doctrine. Clare said she had experience of both ways and the Catholic way is better by far. I thought that was awesome! I especially liked her focus on equality and bringing the responsibility of both husband & wife into the discussion. Watch out for the bit where the other lady says "Pope Francis has ind...

Cheers Charlie boy, the red hat is in the post! It's been a busy old week for Archbishop Charles Scicluna in Malta. Well there's lots to do when you are tasked with the dismantling of the Catholic Faith you know! This week the pint-sized prelate has: Capitulated on contraception   Welcomed Islam to Malta  in a manner which has even stunned the Muslims!  And was thanked by Pope Francis for his wonderful guidelines on Chapter 8 of Amorous lacivious  Footnote: Minions are small, yellow creatures who have existed since the beginning of time, evolving from single-celled organisms into beings who exist only to serve history's most despicable masters.

Christmas is almost upon us, and it is notable the way in which the BBC seem to ramp up their campaign of social engineering at this time of year, with a lovely little Christmas advert/ skit with two grown men kissing see here . I can't help but see an attempt to normalise homosexuality in this, another little push at the boundaries. And many people will see nothing wrong in that I am sure. I'm sorry, I do see something (a lot) wrong in it, and I also see it as a part of a constant barrage of attacks on morality which confuses children and promotes promiscuity. Meanwhile, Caroline Farrow draws attention to the utter insanity which is being promoted as normal these days here . As she states, "a transgender woman has an entirely different anatomy to the common or garden woman; certain things are missing and others have needed to be rewired." This in the context of a new show on BBC 3, (BBC again you'll notice). This week on the BBC appears to be contracep...

I'm not panicking about this, I think I'm getting the hang of it now. One think I know for sure is that leaders make mistakes, we shouldn't expect them to be perfect all the time, especially in unscripted interactions. I think the Pope gives us a lot to think about and meditate on in this latest interaction. Sure, it might initially seem a bit out of sync with 2,000 and odd years of Catholic thought, but that's because we often are completely prepared to accept/ expect/ think the worst. The press always want to couch anything he says in terms that say he is giving ground to the modern world, whereas the truth is that he is a loyal son of the Church. Pope Francis said some really interesting things about abuse in the Church and his meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch. You can read a full transcript here . I'm interested in all the issues he spoke about and I do think they are important. The Orthodox thing particularly interests me, but I'm going to ...

The Catholic Herald reports that Pope Francis and members of the council of the Synod of Bishops met earlier this week to review input from around the world for October’s synod on the family and made their final suggestions for the synod’s working document. The office of the synod’s general secretary will incorporate the suggestions and have the document translated, said a statement issued after the meeting. “The publication will take place in a few weeks,” it said. The Vatican sent every bishops’ conference the conclusions of the extraordinary synod, along with 46 questions related to how well the Church supports families and how Catholics understand Church teaching on marriage, sexuality and family life. Bishops were to solicit responses to the questions, compile them at the national level and return them to the synod office. The Herald notes that, as the council was meeting with the Pope on Monday and Tuesday, the presidents of the bishops’ conferences of Germany, ...

I think this is a very important moment. It could see the turning of the media tide with regard to this Papacy, the moment when the secular world finally realises the Pope is Catholic. Pope Francis has spoken out at an address to families in the Philippines to praise Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical opposing contraception and affirming Church teaching on sexuality and human life saying Paul VI was right to warn against contraception. I'm not sure the Holy Father will understand how important his remarks are for all those concerned westerners who have been following every word of his papacy with concern, looking for him to re-affirm Church teaching. As far as he is concerned, there is no question regarding Church teaching, he seems completely oblivious to the maelstrom of concern that swirls around him, whipped up by the secular media, and that makes these comments all the more important in the context in which they are spoken. Speaking of Pope Paul VI, the author of t...

abc news reports today that The top legislative body of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. voted by large margins yesterday to recognise same-sex marriage as Christian in the church constitution, adding language that marriage can be the union of "two people," not just "a man and a woman." In a stunning break with more than 2,000 years of Christian Tradition, the amendment approved by the Presbyterian General Assembly requires approval from a majority of the 172 regional presbyteries, which will vote on the change over the next year. But in a separate policy change that takes effect at the end of this week's meeting, delegates voted to allow ministers to preside at gay weddings in states where the unions are legal and local congregational leaders approve. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia recognise same-sex marriage. The votes, during a national meeting in Detroit, were a sweeping victory for Presbyterian gay-rights advocates. The denom...

Deacon's Bench reports today that, twenty-three years ago, Bishop Glennon Flavin of Lincoln Diocese, USA, issued a letter to parishioners and physicians, decrying birth control as evil and immoral. He warned Catholic couples using contraception and the Catholic physicians prescribing it they were “committing grave sin.” On Tuesday, Bishop James Conley issued his own letter to parishioners reaffirming the Catholic Church’s stance prohibiting the use of all contraceptives, although his pastoral letter goes to greater lengths to explain the teaching in gentle tones. I think it is very powerful that every priest in the diocese has been asked to discuss the letter and talk about contraception during Mass this weekend. Wow! +Conley said: “We really live in a wounded world when it comes to the family,”  In a move that I think clearly demonstrates the reality of his gentle pastoral care for his flock, he explained how he chose to issue the letter during Lent ...

From Catholic Memes, too good not to share: “I remember, when I used go to Germany in the 1980s and ’90s, that I was asked to give interviews and I always knew the questions in advance. They concerned the ordination of women, contraception, abortion and other such constantly recurring problems. If we let ourselves be drawn into these discussions, the Church is then identified with certain commandments or prohibitions; we give the impression that we are moralists with a few somewhat antiquated convictions, and not even a hint of the true greatness of the faith appears. I therefore consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith – a commitment from which we must not allow such situations to divert us. ” – Address of his Holiness Benedict XVI, Thursday, 9 November 2006.

Right, now I have your attention... Caroline Farrow has written a really interesting reflection on the Catholic theology of the family and fertility. It raises many important points which will resonate with Catholics who are in engaged in the melee of family life. For example, the term Natural Family Planning could have negative connotations with contraceptive over-tones. Indeed, it is a fact that such secular institutions as the NHS and the BBC both refer to NFP as a method of contraception. Caroline points out that some non-Catholics consider that NFP is a method of contraception and to say it is not is merely to enagage in semantics. Of course, Catholics argue that there is nothing in any way contraceptive about natural family planning because a couple practicing NFP do nothing at all to prevent procreation or to render the act infertile either before, during, or after sexual intercourse has taken place . The sexual act may in fact be infertile (i.e. it may not be possib...