Damian Thompson gives a clear description of the line of questioning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Fortunately for my blood pressure, I was already at school by the time of the interview, and so didn't get to hear it myself. I was appalled to realise that no-one was there to put the Catholic point of view across.
I feel a deep sense of betrayal - the shepherds have left the sheep to fend for themselves in the face of the wolves descending on the fold. In fact, given the attitude of the CES, I suspect that some of the shepherds have been too busy grilling lamb chops...
I missed this post from the Pastor Emeritus, who suggests that Bishop McMahon and Oona Stannard ought to be called to account.
Laurence England goes even further, pointing out that Bishop McMahon's predecessor is Archbishop Nichols, and the CES rot is at least partly the result of his stewardship; he also provides the text of a letter he sent to the Archbishop calling for decisive action.
Fr. Ray Blake has a very good suggestion: why don't we just jack the whole thing in, and put more effort (and money) into solid catechesis.
7 comments:
The BBC did their usual and scambled around to find an uber liberal Jewish rabbi who the interviewer had to cajole into defending religion at all.
At least Cardinal O'Brien did what the E&W bishops should have done, details here - http://how-the-west-was-lost.blogspot.com/2010/02/cardinal-obrien-systematic-and.html
The opinion from a few years ago of my ex PP in Faith magazine...
"We need decisive action. Either we support, re-equip and offer within the state system an educational service that is unequivocally Catholic in its foundation and content, or if that is no longer possible or desirable, we should pull out and throw our energies into parish based catechesis. The worst of all worlds is to go along with the state agenda, drifting further and further into anonymous secularism until the loyalty and money of the people of God has all drained away and state funded Catholic education disappears in any case. We must not allow inertia and indecision to erode any further our uniquely valuable Catholic voluntary education system. "
You know I'm with you largely on this one, but something I found out a while ago was that when Channel 4 interviewed Joanna Bogle over AIDS in Africa (and she basically flipped her lid and made us all look daft), they had refused the representative of the CBCEW who was actually an expert on Africa! Make of that what you will, but my point is that the BBC might well have done the same thing. The CBCEW are, however, so tied up in their policy of discretion and their frantic anxiety over our disloyalty, that they will never tell us!
Hi Mac, what a day for Catholic Education in E&W.
I've left this comment on Fr Ray's Blog:
"WHAT A SELL-OUT!!!!!!
This from today's LifeSite.news -
Ed Balls said,
“They must give a balanced view on abortion, they must give both sides of the argument, they must explain how to access an abortion, the same is true on contraception as well,” Balls said. Balls backed up his insistence that faith schools will be forced to abandon their religious beliefs, in a letter to the London Times.
Balls went on to thank Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the head of the English Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and the Catholic Education Service (CES) for their support of the bill. It was revealed by the government last week that the CES had actually assisted in drafting the legislation.
Balls said, “To have the support of the Catholic Church and Archbishop Nichols in these changes is, I think, very, very important, is a huge step forward… The Catholic Church, which I really welcome, is supporting, for the first time, compulsory sex education with an opt out at 15 [years].”
I'm totally exasperated, gob-smacked and saddened by this pack of lies, because on the face of it society at large (which probably cares not a hooot anyway) will now think that this IS the Catholic viewpoint!!!!! And that simply is not true!
We Catholic parents thank Archbishop Nichols, thank our Bishops, thank the CES - for being so true to Catholic Teaching. I'm sure Heaven will thank you too in the fullness of time.
Full story here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10022306.html
What else to say........"
24/2/10 10:00 AM
My grandfather died fighting for Britain. I have paid taxes and my TV license most of my life. Yeserday I learned from the BBC News 24 that Catholic schools teach children to hate homosexuals. And it would appear that catholic schools produce more pregnant schoolgirls than state schools because they do not teach them safe sex. We were almost comparable to the Taliban, with our hatred. Speaker after speaker came on to be interviewed and there was no attempt by the BBC to give any balance to the programmes. I complained three times during the day but nothing happened. While the Catholic Church and Catholic Schools were being hammered in this way the Bishops were cowering in some corner and the Catholic Education Service members went into hiding. I had to make a complaint this morning again when one pronouncer raised again the exemption of Fatih schools in a way that suggested that Faith schools were made up of stupid people who allowed girls to get pregnant. She was not having it. I suggested to the BBC that she was guilty of a hate crime. I am getting tired and I am sure many other ordinary catholics are of speaking up for the bishops. It is time orthodox catholics had an ordinariate in this country.
God allows evil so that good can come from it. We need to fight in whatever way we can to save our schools but we must also Trust God not knowing how God is going to accomplish what needs to be done and not knowing when He will do it. We always say, “God is never late,” but He is generally not early either.
The reason is that He is teaching us lessons in trust! Trust is not inherited; it is learned! We learn to trust God by going through various experiences that require trust. By seeing God's faithfulness over and over, we let go of trusting ourselves, and gradually begin to trust Him.
Isn't it traditional, in penal times, to send/take the bairns to France, Italy or Spain to be educated?
Worth examining?
Sound catechesis sounds brilliant, every parish should start to hold such classes.
But just one problem, who is going to teach it??
Although, I guess, what ever is taught can only be better than what is NOT being taught now!!
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