Same Sex Marriage Passes Lords. Forget it and move on.

Now the Same Sex Marriage Bill will certainly become law, let's forget it and get on with the battles that really matter. The battle to save babies from abortion. The battle to protect the old from euthanasia. The battle to get rid of capital punishment throughout the world. The battle to protect the environment God gave us and we are destroying. Above all, the battle to win souls for Christ through the example of loving commitment, not least in Catholic marriage, which we show to our neighbours - gay or straight. 

Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!

Now that the Same Sex Marriage Act is likely to become law with the Third Reading in the House of Lords next week, would it not be a good idea if we Catholics got back to concentrating on proclaiming the faith of Christ crucified. Whatever else we may feel, this argument about secular marriage is not at the centre of the Catholic Faith. We are in danger of giving the impression that we only talk about sex when we should be be talking about love - the love of Jesus for all His children including those who are by nature not heterosexual. 

Insider Trading and Spying on Friends

So the US has been spying on its allies while carrying on trade talks. What would be illegal for its citizens and immoral by any measure, seems to have been a normal occurrence.  Perhaps Mr Snowden has a point!

SPUC still not blogging about unborn babies

Yet another day and more babies die while Mr Smeaton of SPUC carries on other campaigns, forgetting the one issue that SPUC is there for. It's increasingly clear that the Charities Commission should consider whether money raised to fight abortion is being properly used in a continued campaign against same sex marriage. It would be a pity if yet another row tears SPUC apart. Mr Smeaton should get off his hobby horse and on with his real job which is to save those babies. Others can fight the gay marriage battle. He should be working simply and solely for the noble cause for which he is paid.

Two more SPUC blogs - neither about the Unborn Child

John Smeaton has resumed blogging but again there's no resumption of the battle for the Unborn Child. Yet, that's what we give our money and time for. Back to the day job John - there's a battle to be won to stop babies being killed in their hundreds of thousands. You can leave the campaigns against French Justice and Same Sex marriage to others. You've a big enough job already and its looking neglected.

No Iraq repeat in Syria

Won't they ever learn. Outsiders can't solve Syria's problems. We're quite wrong to try to intervene. Iraq war was illegal immoral and plain stupid. Intervention in Syria could be worse. 

The Triumph of the Snail

East Angla ought to be thrilled with their new bishop. Bishop Hopes is an ideal man for the job. But why do we have to wait three years for the choice. Even the immigration service is quicker than the labarynthine process of appointing a bishop. This is one reform that could unite traditionalists and liberals alike. Leaving dioceses vacant is a dereliction of duty. We all need a Father in God.

PS Still no news from SPUC as to whether they're reverting to their campaign against abortion

Had SPUC given up fighting abortion?

Yet another blog from John Smeaton with no mention of the unborn child. It's time to get back to the day job and battle for the innocents. If he allowed comments on his blog he'd see how many of us want a single and effective campaign to stop abortion. Perhaps we need a new organisation that doesn't get distracted. 

Loving Gay People as Jesus Commands

We Catholics really must come to terms with the fact that gay people are only attracted to people of their own sex and not disorientated heterosexuals. That means that they should not be scapegoats but fellow children of a loving God. The constantly negative language of so many Catholics is a serious impediment to our witness to that central fact. Do we look loving to gay people or are we better defined as disapproving, carping, and condemning. The people of Jesus should never be characterised  in that way. 

Making the best of Same Sex marriage

Now that its passed by huge majorities in both Houses of Parliament, we know that Members have decided that our concerns are not real. There isn't any doubt now that we will have State same sex marriage.

How do we face up to this new world.? We have to represent Christian marriage as the life-long, indissoluble union that it is and contrast that with what the State offers. Our failing has been to try to link the secular form of marriage with the Christian sacrament. It hasn't been so connected since Henry VIII hijacked the institution to get a divorce.

Interestingly, there were many Catholics and other Christians who voted for the change. If we are to come to a sensible position which defends Catholic marriage while helping gay couples to seek and celebrate fidelity and permanence, we must try to understand why they thought it right to support the Bill.

The one thing that won't work is to dismiss those with a different view. It is particularly important that we remember that the young cannot understand the problem and that it is the old for who this is an issue.

Pray for the Murderers of Woolwich as well as the Victim.

That's the hard message of the Faith of Jesus. Even in the horror of so cowardly and unprovoked an attack we have to pray for those two deeply damaged young men. That does not excuse them in any way. It simply is the challenge of the Man who said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." He is our model and our guide. 

The scandal of Bishopless dioceses.

We believe in the Apostolic Succession and the three great orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons. We are not Protestants but Catholics, yet we condemn our dioceses to continue without a pastor for years on end as if it didn't matter. What is wrong with the system. Looks like incompetence to me and it wouldn't be tolerated in any human institution, except perhaps the Belgian Parliament. Does it happen everywhere or has England and Wales been singled out? 

Greeks really do Lent

I'm in Greece for the Greek Easter and my Greek friends are keeping Lent as only they do. No alcohol, no milk, no dairy products, no meat - they are seriously prepared for the last few days of Holy Week in a monastery near Athens. Makes my Lenten fast pretty pathetic. 

Hypocritical Canada attacks Sri Lanka

Canada has no right to criticise Sri Lanka for its record on human rights when Ottawa's repudiation of Kyoto is condemning states in the Pacific to annihilation as they sink beneath the rising sea water. Canada's refusal to help combat climate change makes her complicit in driving Bangladeshis from homes, threatened by the rising water; in the melting of the Arctic ice ; and in desertification in Europe and Africa. Yes, Sri Lanka has much to answer for but Canada has no right to criticise while she betrays many of the worlds most vulnerable people.

Sun at last!

Isn't it remarkable that, however urban we become, we are still creatures of the weather. After the long, cold, wet winter the sun has brought a new spring to our steps. There's nothing virtual about the weather - its influence is still direct and real and reaches even into the most dismal city street.

Teachers want to teach walking instead of reading, writing, maths, and religion

The Teachers Unions completed their disastrous conferences wingeing and blaming everybody else. When questioned about his objections to Mr Gove's determination to teach fundamentals, the deputy secretary of the ATL told the Guardian that children should have lessons in walking! Evidently being literate or numerate is much less important than knowing the difference between strolling and walking fast. Heaven help our children!

The rich and famous are braced for more revelations

Next week the Guardian and Le Monde will reveal more names of tax dodgers. Already the information is shaking the French government where top Socialists who have been inveighing against tax evasion have been caught with off shore bank accounts. Hypocrisy is specially hateful. Paying your fair whack towards the state's cost is a Christian as well as a social duty. However, sensible societies do not demand so much of a person's income that he sees no point in working. Get much above 40% and you begin to stifle enterprise and reduce the tax take. Evasion is never justified but governments that overdo their demands can't be surprised if people up sticks and move elsewhere. Hence 200,000 French people in England!

Second Coldest March ever recorded

Last year we were walking round the garden with a glass of wine inspecting the daffodils in full bloom. This year we scuttle to and fro to pull the baby leeks and cut the miraculously surviving salad leaves. Yesterday's sun cheered us. Today we're back in the gloom of days when the sky and the road are much the same colour. Thank God for Easter. The glory shines through the darkest of days.

Setting one Pope against another

The supertrads are busy creating division by suggesting a dichotomy between the teaching of Pope Benedict and that of his successor. Yet they ought to be the first to support and obey the successor of St Peter. Catholics are not called to believe what they think the Holy Father should teach, they are called to accept his authority even if they would have preferred someone who only washed the feet of men. That's not what the Holy Spirit gave them and they, of all people, should stop whinging and buckle down to it. The Faith remains constant, its presentation changes. Those who get hung up on the accidence of change miss the substance of continuity. Those who try to drive division substitute personal opinion for the teaching of the Church. It's surprising how close to Protestantism the supertrads get.