It was only a matter of time. The laws in the UK are becoming more and more antagonistic towards Catholics who actually take their faith seriously. With the Mental Capacity Act, living wills, SORs, the denial of conscientious objection for GPs and pharmacists in matters of contraceptive provision etc. etc., the writing has been on the wall for Catholics for some time. We assume that, sooner rather than later, Catholics will be put on trial for their beliefs, and the next step will be imprisonment.The Government has steadily increased its control of education and has made its "Every Child Matters" programme compulsory, including all the guff about how being "safe" and "healthy" means that children should be given sex education as soon as possible, contraceptives so that they can put the theory into practice without any "nasty" consequences, and the morning-after pill and abortion on demand when some of those consequences materialise.
Funny how, despite sex education being pretty explicit when I was at comprehensive school nearly three decades ago, and contraception being widely available (and free if obtained through a family planning clinic), The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. If I didn't know better, I'd say that all that sex education and contraceptive advice didn't actually work. But, of course, it must work, because the Government's answer to the rising teenage pregnancy rate is to have more sex education and more contraceptive advice. There wouldn't be any point in having more of something that was proven not to work, would there?
Anyway, Bishop O'Donoghue dared to produce a document for use in Catholic Schools which demanded that those schools promote Catholicism. Doesn't sound too unreasonable, does it? For Catholic schools to teach Catholicism? It's why they were built in the first place, using money from the collections taken in Catholic parishes... And they're still funded, in part, by the Church... But no, the idea that a Catholic school should promote Catholic ideas is unacceptable to our Government. All schools must promote the Government's ideas...
It seems that Bishop O'Donoghue is to pay for making such unreasonable demands. After sticking his head above the parapet, he has been asked to appear before the Commons select committee for Education, Wednesday 12th March, to defend his document "Fit for Mission for Schools."
Twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Paul Harrison, who asks that we pray for Bishop O'Donoghue.
Wednesday 12th March is the Feast of St. Gregory the Great in the 1962 calender, apostle of the English. Let us ask his intercession, or otherwise we will see a persecution that will be exceptionally ruthless.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I will offer our prayers during Holy Mass on Wednesday morning and ask for St Michael the Archangel's intercession for our good Bishop.
ReplyDeleteHow dare this government interfere in matters it patently knows nothing about! I trust that they have found Bishop O'Donoghue's document so oustandingly refreshing that they are calling this meeting to learn from him. Yep - that was pig that just flew overhead!
Bishop O'Donoghue should know that there will be many praying for him tomorrow. Let's remember that he will have the Head Teacher Himself beside him all day - nothing to fear, and indeed nothing to defend!
It's the government with their failed cranky educational policies and social experiments that have consistantly failed our children again and again over the years. It is they who should be on the defensive and the Bishop should go in with 'both barrells blazing'. I hope this ass-headed commons select whatnot committee for education shower get a good pasting tomorrow.
God Bless you Bishop O'Donoghue and let's get every headteacher of Catholic Schools in this country a copy of 'Fit for Mission' it is an absolutely brilliant document which should be the guiding light of every school.