The Government Abandoned Marriage and Now It is a Dirty Word

Sex, condoms, the language of sex...are no longer 'dirty words'. Poor children! The vision of the Government's teaching on sex education. Strongest Supporters. Is the Government's survey of young people's attitudes to sex. Teachers would do well to teach:

• Biology of sex and reproduction (92 per cent)
• Physical aspects of puberty (92 per cent)
• Contraception (87 per cent)
• STIs (80 per cent).
• Skills for coping with relationships (21.4 per cent)
• The enjoyable and good things about sex (34 per cent)
• Messages from the media about sex and relationships survey who identified themselves as transgender,lesbian or (positive and negative)(36 per cent) gay or who reported having a physical disability felt their feelings and emotions that we experience in relationships
• SRE was bad or very bad 56, 55, 54 and 50 per cent and sex (37 per cent).

Topics discussed in the Government's survey on sex education with 16-25 year olds touched on sensitive issues such as:

• How our bodies change as we grow up and in puberty
• Our feelings and emotions when we are growing up
• The feelings and emotions that we experience in relationships and sex
• The biological things about sex and reproduction (including how our bodies and sexual organs work)
• Different types of relationships and families
• Understanding what is good and bad in a relationship
• Skills for coping with relationships
• Dealing with pressure from friends and other young people
• Making decisions about having sex and knowing if you are ready
• Sexual identities, including gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
• Contraception
• All the choices you have if you get pregnant (including abortion, adoption and parenting)
• HIV and AIDS
• Sexually transmitted infections
• Where you can go if you need help with sex and relationship problems
• The enjoyable and good things about sex
• Messages from the media about sex and relationships (both good and bad)
• Influences from family, community and religion about sex and relationships
• The law about sex, including the age of consent, abuse, violence and rape

Did I miss something? Or was marriage not mentioned once during the survey. I guess it was not, but then, culturally, children and young adults are not growing up in an environment in which marriage is deemed sacred, beneficial, sensible or beautiful or life-giving. Therefore it is not a surprise the young people didn't mention it. I guess, putting children and young adults in charge of sex education policy is the latest Government fad. But it doesn't seem very wise.

Marriage and the teaching of the Sanctity of Marriage, or, at least, for State schools too scared to mention God, the practical benefits of marriage, emotionally, physically and mentally and societally, is surely the best way to counter the rise in teen pregnancy, abortions, adoptions and the sad fact that schools are being flooded with contraceptives. But the Government has abandoned marriage...so, it is scared to mention it. Like God, it doesn't believe in it. It believes that marriage is a 'thing of the past'...like religion is a 'thing of the past', to be swept away with the 'old order'. Oh! What a brave new World this is! How much happier, will the nations children be in 10 years time, thanks to the Government and its wilful destruction of the institution of marriage! What a silly human invention marriage was! This is my third post on this today...I'm furious because this Government has taken leave of its senses totally. They really do not care one jot for the nation's children!

A Society of Broken Relationships Teaches Children: How to Have Broken Relationships

I've been on the Guardian columnist's website, having it out with someone called Spoonface. Of course, on a Guardian column, the writer of the article on 'sex ed for kidz' was bound to find many friends agreeing that 'faith schools' should 'shut the **** up' about sexual morality.'

It strikes me that the greatest threat to the State in the UK isn't anarchists or terrorists. Really, it is religion, and not just Christianity, but any religion that doesn't agree with its atheistic, secular world-view. When it comes to certain issues, such as abortion or the scandalisation of the child, Muslims, Jews and Christians should really be able to speak out together more and especially with regard to State interference in 'faith schools'.

The idea of God clearly terrorises the Government more than anything else. The idea that people believe in God and have a faith and try to live by that faith is to the Government, a great annoyance, because it means that the State cannot rule supremely over people's minds and hearts. What the State says is not the final word on the matter, even if it were to pass all the discrimination laws in the World. Faith schools, thank God, were given an opt out clause for the Government's sexualisation of children programme, sorry, and it is a very sorry, sex education programme.

In a strange way, even though the programme is scandalous and criminal, I feel rather sorry for the Government, because it is helpless to deal with the rising tide of teen pregnancies, abortions, STDs and the like. Utterly hapless, is the Government, because the Government cannot appeal to a moral law higher than itself. They seem intent on legislating moral relativism into the very fibre of the country's being. It has done so for a long time...Yet, that means that when there is something of a crisis in morality, such as children having sex with children and making more children, the Government doesn't have a moral leg on which to stand. It has consistently undermined the Moral Law, eroded it, legislated against it. Deep down, perhaps, what the Government really wants to say to young teenagers is, "Stop shagging, you little rascals and have some self-control!" or, "For the love of God, wait until you're married! Sheesh!" or "You're just kids! You can't do that! Anyway, it's illegal!"

But it cannot. Every tenet of social cohesion has been broken and pulled down, every taboo smashed on the floor of the Commons. Political correctness is now the religion of the day. Secularism is sacred, and woe to anyone who thinks otherwise. The cat is out of the bag, meaowing frantically, chasing mice, ripping up the curtains, crapping in the corner of the room and it won't go back in. So, it is not surprising then, that the nations children are so wayward. But then, the Government response is so cowardly as well.

Children, according to the UN, in the UK, are among the unhappiest in the entire World and the Government's sex-plan speaks of that unhappiness quite profoundly. UK children are coming from broken homes and broken relationships, homes where they feel unloved, homes where they haven't been taught what love is, homes where trust disappears and fidelity is abandoned. They then have to process that experience and of course suffer for it, feel guilty for it, feel they are to blame for their parents miseries.

They've been shown neither love, nor prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, nor forgiveness, that most sublime of Christian virtues, nor trust. They have been witness to the selfishness that comes from our sins and seen their family rent asunder, the spiritual womb of the home torn apart recklessly. Many were shown no love, so go looking for love where they can. They equate love with sex and sex with fun and many teachers merely agree.

Children have been shown no morality and so have no morality. They have been taught Godlessness and so believe no longer in God. Broken homes, broken relationships have formed broken children...and then, the Government come along and tell them that broken relationships are the only way...To children they say, "You cannot trust in God any longer. You cannot wait for someone who will love you who you will marry and cherish each other as the deepest of friends. What you experience from your parents now, you will repeat. There is no other way. You are not worthy of purity or chastity or virtue, but only self-debasement from an early age, squandered love, broken hearts, unbridled passion, but wounded, battered souls, many partners, all unfulfilling..."

The Government says, "You do not belong to God. You are now an object of sexual enticement and sexual satisfaction. The gift of sexuality, by our acquiescence and our blessing, by our promotion of sex, sexual licence and selfishness, you will live out in our plan. We shall not teach you that sex is a gift for marriage, for union, for nothing is holy nor special, and were it so, you are not worthy of it..."

"No, we shall teach you that sex is like having a cup of tea or going to the cinema. It is not sacred or special. The immorality and recklessness of your parents who wounded you, you shall repeat. Here, we expect nothing better of you, not virtue, not fidelity, not love, not devotion. Here, take these condoms and if they don't work or you forget, or are too drunk, here is some advice about abortion, the most undignified, horrendous and personally traumatic thing you will ever do."

"You are a commodity, not special, not loved and we shall not show you the alternative...the alternative taught and the alternative tried to live, by those annoying people...the people of God."

For this message to children, I have no doubt...this Government will pay...bigtime!

Condoms to be Rebranded

A new Government initiative has decided to re-name and re-package condoms in a bold attempt to make people think about what contraception is really doing to their human relationships.

They are to be renamed: 'I DON'T TRUST YOU' for men and 'I CAN'T TRUST YOU' for women.

From now on, when sexually active couples, ranging from young teens to mature adults need condoms, they will say in heated moments, 'It's okay, I brought some 'I don't trust yous with me', and, 'Have you got the I can't trust yous?'

"Sex Education is a Right!" Says Guardian Columnist

Andrew Copson of The Guardian defended the Government's sex (re)education programmes, which will introduce sex education to children as young as 5. Join me, Laurence England, as I attempt to ridicule his brazenly aggressive, anti-Catholic argument, with bold, orange font. His argument goes something like this: "Sure, you can be a Faith School, you can be a Jewish school, a Muslim School, or a Catholic School...but you cannot teach your faith. You must teach atheism."

"No parent or school should be able to prevent a young person receiving good, high-quality sex and relationship education." (That is, no gravely irresponsible parent or school...) Typical, some would say, of the view of humanists and others who believe that sex and relationships education should be an entitlement for all our children, and are often accused as a consequence of riding roughshod over the rights of some religious parents and the "rights" of religious schools. (See, reader, how he despises the idea of religious freedom and claims that the right to religious liberty, really, should not exist at all...but the right to 'high quality sex education' is sacrosanct, maybe even a God-given right!)

But this is not the voice of your stock strident secularist, but a 16-year-old, speaking as a representative of the Youth Parliament today. (What do we want? Sex! When do we want it!? As soon as humanly possible! How many hormones do we have coursing through our veins!? Millions!)

Young people themselves are some of the strongest supporters of sex and relationships education, (highly plausible!) and recognise that it will improve their ability to deal with the emotional, moral and practical difficulties of adolescent and adult life. The Youth Parliament has been a key leader in the drive for compulsory sex and relationships education, and has called not just for all state schools – including religious schools – to be legally obliged to teach it, but for parents not to be able to opt their children out of it. (Excellent, excellent...16 year olds to run the country. Where Gordon Brown has failed, 16 year olds will succeed! It is possible!)

It's not a surprise that young people want this education. (Nope!) We know that the sexual health and wellbeing of young people is improved by sex and relationships education. (Do we? Who are we?) We also know that teaching only abstinence in schools has no effect on the likelihood of teenagers to have sex (they are just as likely to do so – it simply means they are less able to take the proper precautions and negotiate complex relationships). Young people have a right (See how the language of human rights only applies to his beliefs, not those of the Church...)to expect that we as a community will provide it for them – and when we say that young people have a right to such education this is in fact literally true. As Article 13 of the convention on the rights of the child says, "The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers … " (Cracking! Oh that is priceless! I can't believe it! He's actually invoking human rights law for sex education for young people! Every time we do that for the unborn we are derided too!)

In the face of overwhelming evidence that sex and relationships education improves the lives of young people, (Statistics, please? Last I heard, the UK has the unhappiest children and young people in the entire World! Quite an achievement...) what right do we have to deny them it? (Rights again! We have no right to deny 'high quality sex education' to children. Young people have the inalienable, inviolable right to learn about sex from an early age) If we know that sex and relationships education of an objective sort improves young people's health and wellbeing (and we do) (Do we? Really?) and if we accept that it is the right of the child to receive information of all sorts (which it is) (Well, if you say so, but then you could argue that every child has the right not to be scandalised from an early age and to be sexualised as soon as they turn 5!) and if we go on to conclude that the responsibility of society is therefore to ensure that all our children receive this entitlement, then why allow state-funded religious schools to do something different? (Aha! I see! The heart of the matter! You want your perverted view of children's education to be universal and for the right of religious liberty to be removed, because it doesn't fit your scandalous, atheistic world-view, which is, namely, that all children should be indoctrinated by the State to embrace a life of sexual licence...)

Why in particular, as has been announced today, should the religious character of a school (which may or may not be shared by the school's pupils or their parents) be allowed to skew the sex and relationships education that children receive? (Why? Well it is a new concept called religious liberty. Read about it. It is because in Catholic Schools at least, such matters should be discussed at the appropriate time, responsibly, wisely, prudently and in line with the teaching of Christ and His Church, rather than in such a way that the innocent are scandalized, or in such a form that sexual activity outside of marriage is actively promoted...)

In PSHE, as in RE, pupils should have the opportunity to learn about and engage with a range of different perspectives on relationships. Many different views do exist in society (Yes, please respect them!) and sex and relationships education should engage them – as it does. But above all else, we need to be honest with young people, not withhold from them knowledge of the full range of human sexuality that does exist in reality, which they will encounter and engage with in the world outside school and which they need to be prepared for. (So many people children can have sex with...other children, adults, young people of the same sex, animals...sex is just like being in a sweet shop and children should all have that approach to sex, because God knows, sexuality and morality are just old fashioned beliefs that got us into the mess of teen pregancies, soaring STD rates among the young and 15 year olds having abortions!)

In sex and relationships (re)education, more than in any other area, we must place the child – not our own prejudices (read, morality) – firmly at the centre of our thinking. Young people want this education, they need it, (Yes, sex education is like food and water) it is their right to have it, and if we withhold it from them on grounds of our own ideologies, ('We must renounce our Christian values! We must promote sex to children!') we will only be doing harm. (In conclusion: "Let us show young people the Gates of Hell, and encourage them to walk right on through".)

Singapore Says Inviting Nitschke In Would Be Suicidal

"Are you vulnerable, depressed, lonely, elderly or mentally ill? Well, I have just the thing for you..."

Ben Bland on his Asia File blog has reported that he's 'just heard' from Dr Philip Nitschke, the Australian euthanasia campaigner sometimes known as 'Dr Death', that the police have pulled the plug on his planned seminar in Singapore, less than two weeks before it was scheduled to take place in the National Library building. (Yes!)

The police have refused to grant Nitschke's organisation, Exit International, a public entertainment licence on the grounds that his talk "may promote the commission of criminal offences in Singapore, of which euthanasia is one". (Eat that, you homicidal maniac!)

Nitschke said that the decision was "immensely disappointing" ('I become depressed when I can't kill people') and that he was talking to lawyers about the possibility of an appeal.

He had earlier insisted that he had no intention of breaking the law in Singapore and that his seminar would focus on existing legislation surrounding voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. (Give him an inch and he'll take a yard...) He explained that he would not be offering the sort of information about effective suicide methods that he provides in talks in the UK and Australia.

Nitschke also claimed that he had initially received permission to hold the talk from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower over a month ago, although this was always conditional on the police granting a public entertainment licence.

Following increasing publicity and online chatter about Nitschke's planned seminar in Singapore, Khaw voiced his opposition to the talk earlier this week.

"A workshop to teach the terminally ill how to commit suicide, and in fact, break our law, is not welcome here," he told the Straits Times, adding that "euthanasia, which means helping the patient to commit suicide, is not what the Ministry of Health is promoting". (Put that in your pipe and smoke it 'Doctor'! I hope our Government tells you to go spin as well!)

Until a Non-Hispanic Death is Confirmed...

For more on this story click here.

'The first swine flu death in the United States has been confirmed, but the victim is a Mexican toddler who caught the illness in Mexico before traveling to Texas. Serious questions must now be asked about why a virus that has spread across at least 10 countries and is suspected in many others has only killed hispanics, and whether a race-specific bio-weapon is being beta-tested.

Scientists are still baffled as to the contrast between the lethality of the virus in Mexico compared to the rest of the world. Despite the virus being confirmed in the United States, Canada, the UK, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, Costa Rica, and Austria, with probable cases also occurring in France, South Korea and Slovakia, the virus has killed only Mexicans.

We are also told that the virus which sickened students at a school in Queens is the same strain as the one found in Mexico.

How can it be that the only fatalities are Mexican hispanics nearly a week into the outbreak?'

Hmm...a flu that can only kill Mexicans...You couldn't make it up, could you? Well, I suppose you could if you invested millions of dollars in biological warfare progammes. That'll stop the Mexicans coming in to the US, won't it!?

New and Deadly Strain of Flu

In the aftermath of the latest news on Swindle Flu, another, new, lethal and deadly strain of flu has emerged. The new variant, '1Flu-2SwamBut-3RemainedStanding' strain is transmitted by the media and can only be caught by coming into contact with the media, either by TV, radio, internet or reading newspapers.

One man in Lincolnshire has been rumoured to have being infected by teletext, but confirmation of this is still awaited, as it had long been assumed that people had stopped using teletext years ago.

The origins of the new strain are said to be in the offices of BBC and Sky News in London, where 'media-types', known by some as 'media swine', known to be vulnerable to the transmission of moral panic viruses and scaremongering diseases, had gathered in large numbers.

The virus mutated and can now be spread from the media to humans. Whether it can be passed from human to human is another matter altogether. It is reported that it is possible that the 'media flu' can be passed human to human if people go around saying, "Crikey! This flu is everywhere! What to do!? I think its time we all shat ourselves and ran around telling everyone to panic!"

Symptoms to look out for include periods of inexplicable moral panic, constant and beyond parody coverage of 'new developments' of the flu and the highly repetitive use of the words, 'global,' and 'pandemic', to create a heightened state of fear, not seen in such intensity since the weeks preceding the Iraq War, when the repetitive use of such loaded phrases as 'war on terror', 'terror', 'terrorism' and 'weapons of mass destruction' was employed by both Government and media.

The World Health Organisation, so named because whenever they are on TV, the public think, 'WHO on earth are you?', advise that should you be infected with the new strain of 'media flu', the most sensible advice is to stay in and continue to become more paranoid, while watching the chief spokesperson of the WHO ratchet up the 'emergency-apocaylptic-rabid fear-mongering' level to 7.

Other more independent health sources advise you turn off your TV and go out for a walk in the fresh air.

Cleaning Job Application

I'm currently doing a book-keeping course and need time to do it, as well as blogging furiously, being a conservative Catholic, reacting to news stories with audible phrases such as, 'I don't believe it...Shocking...Well, I never...', such is the life of a 30-something reactionary. Also, I want to get a gardening business off the ground but its recession time and everybody's indoors with swine flu and haven't got the money. So, I just called up a firm because they had some part time hours for a cleaning job, just something that could bring in some money for fags and food and perhaps a glass of beer.

The application went something like this...

Cleaning Firm: "Hello, Amateurs Cleaning Firm, Jeff speaking, how may I help?"

Me: "Oh, hello, I saw your advert on the jobs centre website looking for a cleaner."

Cleaning Firm: "Oh, okay, well what is your first name?"

Me: "Laurence"

Cleaning Firm: "What is your second name?"

Me: "England, like the country."

Cleaning Firm: "Do you have a passport, drivers licence or a birth certificate."

Me: "Yes, I do."

Cleaning Firm: "Can I take a phone number?"

Me: "Sure, it is....."

Cleaning Firm: "Okay, well, we will let you know within 14 days if you have been successful in your application."

Me: "What? That's it? How do you decide who gets the job? What is it? Lucky dip or something!?"

Cleaning Firm: "I can't tell you how we operate our recruitment policy but if you've been successful you'll know within 14 days."

Me: "Okay, thanks, bye then!"

I must say I am beginning to wonder if my reputation precedes me!

Germany Endorses Child Sexual Abuse and Incest

I hope to God this story is not true, but nowadays, it would hardly be surprising. H/T to Cranmer. Germany are clearly one step ahead of the UK, who are just legislating to teach sex to children aged 5 upwards. The word scandalous, does not do the developments justice.

This booklet, entitled ‘Body, Love and Playing Doctor’ emanates from Germany’s Ministry for Family Affairs, and it encourages parents to ‘sexually massage’ their children as young as 1-3 years of age. There is a sequel for children aged 4-6 years of age which recommends teaching them the movements of sexual intercourse...

Astonishingly, the booklet advises: ‘Fathers do not devote enough attention to the clitoris and vagina of their daughters. Their caresses too seldom pertain to these regions, while this is the only way the girls can develop a sense of pride in their sex.’

And the rationale for this? ‘The child touches all parts of their father's body, sometimes arousing him. The father should do the same.’ There are no plans yet for the teenage edition.

According to Michael O'Brien, this amounts to ‘state-encouraged incest, which in most civilised societies is a crime’. The development is, he suggests, ‘a natural outcome of the rejection of the Judaeo-Christian moral order’.

He observes: "The imposed social revolution that has swept the western world is moving to a new stage as it works out the logical consequences of its view of man's value. It is merely obeying its strictly materialist philosophy of man. If man is no more than a creature created for pleasure or power. If he is no more than a cell in the social organism, then no moral standards, no psychological truths, no spiritual truths can refute the 'will to power' and the 'will to pleasure'.

"The wiser and deeper position of most civilizations recognised that children need a period of innocence. Now the state, the German state, is encouraging destruction of this state of innocence. This is consistent with the materialist philosophy that sees all moral norms and all truths about human nature as repressive. Pleasure and their distorted concept of freedom are their only guiding principles."

It is reported that use of these booklets is not only obligatory in nine German regions, but that they are used for training nursery, kindergarten and elementary school teachers. Inexplicably, and quite bizarrely, it is recommended by organisations tasked with fighting paedophilia.

That which would constitute child pornography in the UK features on Germany’s billboards and television advertisements with impunity. The age of consent is 14, permitting teenagers to be routinely displayed in sexual positions and sexualised from their earliest pubescent years. The European age of innocence is being eradicated as the Christian foundations of morality are set aside and society degenerates into a hedonistic cesspool of psychological egoism...

It is to be observed that Germany has taken central control of the education of their children, outlawing home-schooling (to ‘protect’ the children) in order to inculcate them with the ‘new morality of the secular materialist establishment’.

GK Chesterton: ‘When men cease to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing anything.’

Vertigo

So, Vertigo. This is my second viewing of the film widely considered Alfred Hitchcock's magnum opus, and my reaction remains largely the same: underwhelmed. It's certainly easy to see why Vertigo gets so much critical acclaim: Hitchcock is at the top of his creative game, it features an extraordinary lead performance by James Stewart, and the movie deals with a fascinating subject matter. Unfortunately, much of Vertigo's 129 minutes is a slog, well-made but laboriously paced, with the real meat of the film not coming until the last half hour or so.

John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) is a police detective who quits the force after his acrophobia (fear of heights) leads to the accidental death of a colleague. Struggling to recover from his injuries physical and mental, he's recruited by an old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) to investigate his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), whose increasingly erratic behavior has led him to believe she's been possessed by a malevolent spirit. Scottie and Madeleine fall in love, but their romance is short-lived, as Madeleine commits suicide during one of her trances - leaving Scottie even more distraught and guilt-ridden. Scottie, however, meets Judy (Novak), whom he obsessively makes over into the spitting image of his departed love - only to discover belatedly that she was the Madeliene he knew, both pawns in Elster's elaborate plan to murder his wife.

Vertigo's biggest problem is its story structure and pacing. The film shifts gears from a study of guilt to sexual obsession two-thirds of the way through. The early sections of the film is driven primarily by Scottie's sense of guilt - first in allowing his police colleague to die, and then Madeleine. The early scenes of his investigation of Madeliene are very slow, very talky and ultimately a drag - Hitchcock at his worst, without much of his virtues aside from gorgeous photography and art direction. The movie's complete lack of humor, dark or otherwise, is also an odd flaw; Hitchcock excels in inserting humor into even the darkest of his movies, but there's not a trace of his usual wit to be had here, other than the brief scene with Scotty's friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). Towards the end, the movie takes a sharp left turn towards an examination of sexual neuroses, where it becomes really interesting - but it seems only marginally connected to the previous sections of the film, with Scottie's overwhelming guilt complex being sublimated by something even more disturbing.

Indeed, the meat of the movie is its dealing with male sexual obsession - in that regard, it's fascinating and more than a bit disturbing. Scottie slowly falls in love with Madeleine, the archetypical cool, calm and distant Hitchcock blonde - or rather, the image of her, rather than the person herself. Scottie has the pretty, smart and affectionate Midge, his ex-fiancee, right under his nose, but he's too wrapped up in Madeleine to pay her any attention, ultimately driving Midge away for trying to make him see how ridiculous the whole thing is. Scottie would rather accept the fantasy of Madeliene, unable to realize its illusory nature, thanks to the acquiescence of Judy. This does have an interesting biographical tinge, considering Hitchcock's personal life, but in doing so reflects the perversity of male sexuality and the gender roles. Unfortunately, the film takes it time getting to this point - it's not until after Madeleine's death that this part of the story really takes hold, and thus it's the better part of 80 minutes before the story finds its real focus and point of interest.

Certainly, Hitchcock has rarely made a more artistically impressive film. Aside from the cheesy dream-sequence two-thirds of the way through, the movie shines technically, with impressive art direction/set design, wonderfully creative cinematography, and gorgeous use of San Francisco and California locations - no studio sets or painted backdrops here. Bernard Herrman provides a wonderfully dramatic and atmospheric score which adds immeasuribly to the film's atmosphere.

James Stewart gives perhaps his best screen performance as Scottie. Stewart had already radically departed from his pre-World War II nice guy image, with increasingly dark and neurotic characters in films like Winchester '73, Rope, and The Naked Spur, but Vertigo provides perhaps the ultimate seperation from his Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/The Shop Around the Corner persona, exploring the depths of neuroses lurking beneath Scottie's nice guy exterior. Kim Novak does a wonderful job balancing both sides of Judy's character, the icey blonde romantic fantasy and the average girl caught between a rock and a hard place. The supporting cast is largely non-descript, aside from Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge, tragically unable to connect with her increasingly distraught friend.

I'm not going to condemn those who acclaim Vertigo as Hitchcock's finest work and a cinematic masterpiece. But the movie has severe narrative and structural flaws that prevent me from giving it that title. A second viewing only confirmed my initial feelings: that Vertigo is a frustratingly disappointing film that is more interesting than entertaining. If it seems I'm being unduly negative in a review of a 7/10 film, it's only because of the film's reputation as a flawless masterpiece.

Rating: 7/10 - Recommended

Holy Father Meets Prince Charles and Camilla in a Mantilla

Courtesy of The Telegraph

'Prince Charles warned Holy Father of the prospect of the World moving into a 'new Dark Age', should the World not act on 'climate change' TM. The Prince of Wales gave Pope Benedict 12 ceramic dessert plates decorated with hand-painted flowers from his estate at Highgrove. In return he received a copy of a 500-year-old etching of St. Peter's.'

What is it with heads of state and royalty giving the Holy Father crap presents. I suppose its a case of, 'I don't know. What do you get someone who's got everything!?'

If I ever meet the Holy Father, I'll kiss his hands and feet and say, "Your Holiness! I don't have much in this world! All I can give you is my unbridled loyalty, neigh verging on fanatical devotion and prayers...and if you want, you can have this book on the Golden Age of Spanish Painters I found outside a house in my street! The pictures are nice!"

We're Not Turning Our Backs On You...

...just if we faced you throughout Mass, we'd be turning our backs on Him!

The answer to the false religions of the 'New Age'...The Tradtional Latin Mass. I'm not joking either. The fact that new age religions are on the rise demonstrates that our hunger for spirituality is very real. That is, interestingly, why it is becoming less surprising to see younger people at TLM at St Mary Magdalen. The World doesn't satisfy us...only Christ can satisfy our hearts. Only Christ can answer the deepest desires of the human heart.

'Security Drill' in Preparation for Papal Trip to Holy Land

Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem and Papal Nuncio in Israel, Archbishop Antonio Franco

According to 'Thoughts from an Oasis of French Catholicism', 'The Israeli Security Services have warned the Holy See that the Popemobile will afford insufficient protection to the Holy Father during his imminent trip to the Holy Land, particularly in Nazareth where some Islamist groups have threatened demonstrations and possible attacks on his person. The Holy See is reported as considering the situation but as yet it seems, noone has suggested a safer alternative to the Popemobile. The same report admits that Israel is badly prepared to receive the Holy Father. Government funds which were promised for the sites he will visit have not been released. '

Badly prepared? So badly prepared YNET News covered the extraordinary 'security drills' the Israeli forces are conducting in preparation for the Papal visit...

Northern District Police held a drill on Tuesday ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled visit to Israel in May.

Some 100 police officers, firefighters and Magen David Adom emergency services personnel took part in the exercise, as Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jeraisi and representatives from other northern municipalities looked on.

During his visit the pope is expected to hold a public Mass at Nazareth's Mount Precipice, where, according to tradition, a mob pursued Jesus and tried to throw him from a cliff. He is also expected to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Jordan River and the Church of the Annunciation, also located in Nazareth.

The exercise focused on dealing with a number of possible scenarios, including a fire during the mass at Mount Precipice, a terrorist attempt to reach the site via a glider from the east [imaginative, aren't they!?], an attack using a truck laden with hazardous materials, the detonation of a car bomb near the pope and a terrorist infiltration of the Church of the Annunciation. [Good Lord...Looks like they've got all the angles covered! Let's pray for him...]

Northern District Police chief Shimon Koren said thousands of officers will secure the pope's visit. Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation of police officers and Foreign Ministry officials left for the Vatican Tuesday in order to make the final arrangement for the pope's visit.

Meanwhile...

Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross. The pope wears a cross in all public appearances and is slated to visit the Western Wall on May 12 after a meeting with Muslim religious leaders at the Dome of the Rock. Rabinovitch“My position is that it is not fitting to enter the Western Wall area with religious symbols, including a cross,” said Rabinovitch in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post Monday. “I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a church.”

Pray for the Holy Father's upcoming Pilgrimmage to the Holy Land

The Emergence of 'New Age' Gurus

Benjamin Creme, occultist disciple of renowned occultists, Aleistair Crowley, Alice Bailey (Founder of the Lucis Trust, originally named, Lucifer Trust!) and long-standing herald of a New World "Teacher" to emerge when he's ready...a kind of anti-St John the Baptist.

Why is all this new age spirituality infecting the Church and the World a big problem?

The reason it is a problem is that people like this are around...

Courtesy of The Telegraph, December 2008

According to the Share International News Service, [Warning: don't read it or if you do, don't get roped in!] in a press release captioned Christmas Miracle, a "large bright star" will be appearing in the sky sometime over the next few days, or weeks, heralding the appearance on "a major US television programme" of the "new world teacher, maitreya", who will be ushering in a new age of peace, wisdom and understanding. And not before time, I hear you say. Share International is the organisation founded by Benjamin Creme, the Scottish painter and clairvoyant, and Britain's most redoubtable millenarian, who has been prophesying the coming of "maitreya" for the past 26 years.

Many now expect the return of their awaited 'teacher', whether they call him the Christ, Messiah, the fifth Buddha, Krishna, or the Imam Mahdi. Millions now know that the "teacher" who fulfills all these expectations is already living among us.

Share International website claims that, "maitreya", the "world teacher", has not come alone, but with a group of wise Teachers who have long guided humanity from behind the scenes. They are returning to the everyday world to help us solve our most critical global problems. "Maitreya" is not a religious leader, but an educator in the broadest sense.

He is here to inspire us to create a new era based on sharing and justice, so that all may have the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, health care, and education. His open mission in the world is about to begin. As "maitreya" himself has said: 'Soon, now very soon, you will see my face and hear my words.'

Hmm...Interesting! What's this crackpot-Aleistair Crowley-enthusiast-occultist-sorcerer-type-glow-in-the-dark-satan-worshipper doing getting his message into established respected daily like The Telegraph?

Houston, or rather Euston...We may indeed have a problem! If what Benjamin Creme says is true, and according to the web, he was in Euston, London, this weekend saying it again, then a "New Age World 'teacher'" is about to step into the limelight. What is more, the true identity of the "maitreya" is...Well, it begins in 'Anti-' and ends in '-Christ.' He's been saying this for about 25 years. Seems he knows this 'guru' but nobody else does. Cue music from The Omen. Also, if you can stomach it, look at Project Bluebeam to see how the great deception on what Benjamin Creme describes as the 'Day of Declaration' might take place. Cripes...If I am found not breathing in mysterious circumstances, like Serge Monast, who alerted the World to NASA's project along with his mate from Free Press International were, pray for me!

And if you can stomach it, read one Catholic's experience of meeting Benjamin Creme.

Vatican Concerns over New Age Spirituality Raised in 2003

A part of the problem inherent in Freemasonry, which makes it a mortal sin for a Catholic to be an active Freemason, is that it kind of takes all the world religions, chops them up, puts them into a blender, makes them into a soup and then serves it for breakfast. At the heart of it, is a kind of New Age Religion which replaces all distinct religions with something else - a kind of gnosticism. Hence, rituals and secrets of the masonic sect are kept hidden. The so-called 'truths' of masonry or 'new agers' are always 'secret knowledge'. In the 1960s and 1970s parts of the Church seemingly embraced new age spiritualities such as the 'enneagram'.

Now, aside from the fact that on paper, the 'enneagram' looks like something utterly satanic, it is all about a kind of self-help, self-improvement, spirituality, from which Christ is all but removed. Ironically, The Tablet, who nowadays are always advertising retreat houses who run this kind of nonsense, highlighted the Vatican's concerns with the new age spirituality which has, I'm not going to shy away from saying it, 'infected' Holy Mother Church.

From The Tablet on 8 February 2003

A major new Vatican document on the New Age movement has warned that a number of Catholic retreat places, seminaries and religious formation houses are dabbling in New Age spirituality which is incompatible with Christian doctrine.

'It must unfortunately be admitted', say the authors of the booklet, which was released on Monday, 'that there are too many cases where Catholic centres of spirituality are actively involved in diffusing New Age religiosity in the Church.' This confusion, they go on, 'should of course be corrected' because 'it is not possible to isolate some elements of New Age religiosity as acceptable to Christians, while rejecting others'. The movement has to be judged as a whole.

The 90-page text, which has been several years in the making, does not name the retreat houses or their practices, reports Robert Mickens from Rome. But it identifies the enneagram - a system for understanding personality types developed partly by American Jesuits and Jungian depth psychology as elements of New Age, together with Feng shui, deep ecology, and practices such as tantric exercises and transcendental meditation.

Much of the early part of the document is taken up with an account of the genesis of New Age, a term which originates in the astrological belief that the Age of Pisces is drawing to a close and a new Age of Aquarius is beginning. Among the esoteric elements identified as making up the New Age movement are theosophy, spiritualism and anthroposophy, as well as early Christian gnosticism, Sufism, medieval alchemy, Renaissance hermeticism, Zen Buddhism and Yoga. Other influences include the Renaissance, the Reformation, the enterprise culture and the prosperity gospel.

Among those whose ideas have flowed into the contemporary New Age movement, the document names Carl Jung and his depth psychology. While it was true that Jung's psychology 'sheds light on many aspects of the Christian faith, particularly on the need to face the reality of evil', the report's authors say his image of God was confused and often indistinguishable from the psyche.

The report also identifies deep ecology, with its idea of Mother Earth or Gaia, as a part of the movement. Deep ecology believes that the Gaia is a 'divinity pervading the whole of creation' which 'is held to bridge the gap between creation and the transcendent Father-God of Judaism and Christianity'. As such, it 'removes the prospect of being judged by such a Being', the document points out, adding that 'the New Age shares with a number of internationally influential groups the goal of superseding or transcending particular religions in order to create space for a universal religion [the common good!] which could unite humanity'. Closely related, the document adds, is 'a very concerted effort on the part of many institutions to invent a Global Ethic'.

Despite its warnings and admonitions, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: a reflection on the 'New Age'' is an attempt to understand the phenomenon as well as to signal its incompatibility with Christian doctrine. Its authors, the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, describe the booklet as a resource for people 'engaged in pastoral work' which aims to help them 'explain how the New Age movement differs from the Christian faith'. The result of a Vatican working group on New Religious Movements that also included the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the booklet is pitched at a wider audience than most Vatican texts...

It is mainly New Age's spiritual understanding which exercises the document's authors, its 'vision of a closed universe that contains 'God' and other spiritual beings along with ourselves', a view which 'pervades all New Age thought and practice'. This 'implicit pantheism', it adds, 'conditions in advance any otherwise positive assessment where we might be in favour of one or another aspect of its spirituality'.

'Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life' urges Christians to offer seekers after the truth the example of Jesus' dialogue with the woman of Samaria at the well in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel. Jesus' approach 'could yield a rich harvest in terms of people who have been attracted to the water-carrier (Aquarius) but who are genuinely still seeking the truth', the document notes. It also suggests some 'practical steps' by which the Church could engage with the New Age movement, by making better use of the networks of its pastoral and spirituality centres, and inviting New Age representatives to come and speak. But it warns against New Age prayer groups. 'There is no problem in learning how to meditate', the document notes, 'but the object or content of the exercise clearly determines whether it relates to the God revealed by Jesus Christ, to some other revelation, or simply to the hidden depths of the self'.

New Age is attractive, the authors accept, 'mainly because so much of what it offers meets hungers often left unsatisfied by the established institutions'. Its appeal raises a challenge to the Church. 'People feel the Christian religion no longer offers them' or perhaps never gave them 'something they really need', the booklet acknowledges, adding that people are led to New Age by 'a genuine yearning for a deeper spirituality, for something that will touch their hearts, and for a way of making sense of a confusing and alienating world'. The Church's members, say the authors, need to 'understand the often-silent cry in people's hearts' which attracts them to the New Age.

But there is never any doubt in the document that New Age is incompatible with and hostile to the core beliefs of Christianity. 'At the heart of New Age', says the document, 'is the belief that the time for particular religions is over.' New Age rejects 'tradition in the form of patriarchal, hierarchical, social or ecclesial organisation' and is a 'conscious search for an alternative to Western culture and its Judaeo-Christian religious roots'.

New Age spirituality, it says, derives from 'esoteric and theosophical roots, and is basically a new form of gnosis' in which access to the divine is via knowledge of hidden mysteries. Its beliefs run 'counter to Christian revelation' and the Judaeo-Christian view of creation and the universe, while withdrawing the possibility of 'a relationship to a personal God revealed in Christ'.

A long section of the document compares the spiritual practices of New Age with the tradition of Christian prayer. The 'spiritualism' of New Age is described as 'immanentist' and 'Pelagian' in that it offers an 'essentially human enterprise on the part of a person who seeks to rise towards divinity by his or her own efforts'. Much New Age literature shows the conviction that there is no divine being 'out there' or 'in any way distinct from the rest of reality', the document notes, concluding that 'New Age practices are not really prayer, in that they are generally a question of introspection or fusion with cosmic energy, as opposed to the double orientation of Christian prayer, which involves introspection but is essentially also a meeting with God'.

The document's reference to the enneagram, a personality type indicator which makes use of an ancient nine-point symbol, is brief but damning. The enneagram reached California via esoteric circles and was developed by New Age practicioners. But it was also adapted by Jesuits as a tool of spiritual discernment for use in formation and retreat houses, where it is has proved popular. But the document refers only to Helen Palmer, a secular practioner, while ignoring Catholic authors such as Richard Rohr OFM and Suzanne Zuercher OSB who emphasise the primacy of grace in spiritual development. 'When used as a means of spiritual growth,' the document says, the enneagram 'introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of Christian faith'.

The document ends with a comprehensive glossary of some 37 New Age terms, including feng-shui, holism, planetary consciousness, and shamanism, and a brief summary of the key tenets of New Age, along with a wide-ranging bibliography in a number of languages. It also lists three 'key New Age places' Big Sur in California, Findhorn in Scotland, and Monte Verit' in Switzerland. In describing the latter, the Vatican document adds 'It is fascinating to see the list of those who have gathered over the years at Monte Verit'.? Despite the usual suspects such as Carl Jung, Monte Verit's web site lists as former speakers luminaries such as the Jesuit cardinal and Vatican II expert Jean Dani'lou, the Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich, the Viennese Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, the Catholic patristics scholar Fr Hugo Rahner SJ, and the former provincial superior of the English Jesuits, Fr Martin D'Arcy.

Tony Blair's Issues with the One True Faith

St John the Baptist considers joining the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for the common good

Tony Blair's Speech at the Official Opening of the New Baptism Centre in Jordan. I don't mean to sound cruel, but while he did at least grant Our Blessed Lord, the title, 'Our Lord', he gives a hat tip to Mohammed as being 'the Prophet' as well. Am I being pedantic? Possibly...I know that his TBFF is about helping faiths to get along, which is a noble cause, of course, but St John the Baptist suffered for his witness to the Truth!

St Francis, though not martyred, preached Christ Crucified to all...he didn't hold back...This speech is indicative of a crisis in 'modern' Catholicism, whereby every faith and none is well, kind of equal and all are really talking about the 'common good'. This is utilitarianism, plain and simple. I did my political philosophy module at university, you know. I knew it would come in handy one day. 'The greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals...' It is Rousseau-ism, social contract philosophy, Enlightenment thought, which created the French Revolution, which was not a happy time for the Church!' Thomas Paine, defender of the causes of the French Revolution even wrote a book called, 'In Search of the Common Good.' Here is Tony Blair's most recent speech...

"So this is where John the Baptist, [Come now, at least give him his St. title!] in his garment of camel's hair, fed on locusts and wild honey, preached and worked and baptised Our Lord. John, who called the people to repentance, called them to change their ways, called them above all to return and be true to God,

Not to worship by words but by deeds; not to offer sacrifice by burnt offerings, but by relinquishing selfish desires and seeking the common good. [Not sure the 'common good' was top of St John the Baptist's agenda...more the Salvation of Mankind and the coming of the Christ'] This Baptism happened on these banks nearly 2000 years ago. A moment in time with a consequence in eternity. What was it that John in his ministry and Our Lord Jesus Christ in his, represented to the world?

First, that doctrine may be a support but can never be a substitute for the essence of faith which is: the demonstration of God's love; of its power; of its mercy; of its plea to us to break free of the narrow confines of daily living and to discover the meaning of life [...] His Ministry was not bounded by race, or tribe; but boundless, a ministry of universal appeal and affection. His love reached out. It was not hoarded. It was freely given.

So here we are, 2000 years later, in this same spot. Except today, we are in a Muslim land. And a short distance from here lies Jerusalem and sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

It took courage and leadership for Jordan to allow us this site of baptism, here by this ancient river. But it took more. It took the same spirit that animated John and Jesus, and the Prophet Mohammed and all the Prophets of old. Each took the world as it was - alienated from God - and tried to make it how it should be - reconciled to God. Justice, mercy, compassion, the 'us' not the 'me', pure unselfish love. This is what they stood for. [Notice that Our Blessed Lord and Mohammed are starting to blend into a kind of holy soup of niceness and are really the same good teachers of the 'common good'. The common good...Hmm...Yes, now those disastrous policies of his tenure make more sense...Bomb Iraq: Why? For the common good. Vote pro-abortion: Why? For the common good...Drive home the 'Equalities Act': Why? For the common good!]

Back then, their world was small. But their message was not. And in the larger world we inhabit today, where we travel through continents and time zones, their message is the same message today, centuries later. Don't look inwards, but look outwards. Don't exclude, embrace. [Suddenly, behold! The wisdom! The esoteric knowledge! The message of Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha, Moses and Gandhi was the same! The common good! Crikey, maybe Our Lord and His Apostles established the Rotary Club, rather than the Church and we just hadn't realised!]

Don't argue about your differences, but understand what you share and fulfil a common purpose blessed by God. This site is not a place of archaeology it is a place that now, as in John's time, is a place for renewal.

When Moses shattered the golden calf and called on the people to worship the one true God, he renewed the idea of faith, removing it from the realm of superstition to the realm of belief.

When Jesus opened our eyes to the true will of God, he renewed the idea of faith not as legalistic ritual, but as love, love of God and love of our neighbour as our self.

When the Prophet Mohammed took the stone of Ka'aba and made it the place of Hadj, he transformed it from a place of pagan idolatry and transformed it into a testament of submission to God's will. [Crikey...He knows his world religions and the texts doesn't he? Anyone could be forgiven for thinking he was a m- ...Better not say it!]

So, in dedicating this site, let us too renew. Renew our faith in our God [Go on, pick a God, any God!], in our Lord, and in his message: that true love is not measured in the receiving but the giving; and the giving, not limited by human prejudice but enlarged by the infinite possibility of the love of God."

Unfortunately, for Blair, every Article of Faith in the Church has to be set aside for 'the common good'. Now, who said this?

"The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good."

It was Barry Obama of course! No wonder these two are getting on so well!

In conclusion...No, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor. You should not join Tony Blair's Faith Foundation, because he's not interested in the Catholic Faith. He's only interested in the 'common good' and history suggests that people into the 'common good', usually have to bump off a few people to achieve it. But then the Cardinal, who is said to be in "two minds" as to whether to enter that bastion of Freemasonry, the House of Lords did recently say,

"Our life together in Britain cannot be a God-free zone and we must not allow Britain to become a world devoid of religious faith and its powerful contribution to the common good."

Has the Church Been Infected With Freemasonry?

Barry Obama...Catholic? No...but he sure looks happy to be attending the first-ever Masonic Inaugural Ball...Looks like they've got their man, and if they haven't yet, possibly will. Note the black hand embracing the white hand in the poster for the Ball. How very not racist!

Masons target the powerful and those in influence from town councils, the Police, the Law Courts to Parliaments, Prime Ministers and Presidents for reasons known only to themselves. Look who else the Inaugural Ball is in honour of...one Catholic Senator Joe Biden. Hmm...No conflict with being Catholic and voting pro-abortion, according to Joe. No conflict attending this either, Senator?

There can be no doubt that the 1960s and 1970s were turbulent for the Church and times are turbulent now that the Holy Father is trying to stem the tide of liturgical excesses which have caused damage to the Body of Christ. He's ruffling some feathers among those who don't see that things went a 'bit too far' in the wrong direction.

It is highly likely that the Church, during a publicly perceived relaxation of the law forbidding Freemasonry, absorbed an infection into Her of those who have sworn their loyalty to a secret society. The constant watering down of Church teaching by various clergy, the lack of firm conviction coming from certain Bishops to the Magisterium and a loss of the sacred are worrying signs of not only a secularisation of the Church, but also a pluralism of views. Also, I have no evidence for this whatsoever, but there is something vaguely masonic about 'The Tony Blair Faith Foundation'...which faith, Tony? All faiths?

It has always been an issue of severe concern for a Catholic to be a Freemason, since the Church has suffered at the hands of the Freemasons in history. It is a secret society and cannot be endorsed. To be an active Freemason and to be a Catholic is something that cuts one off from receiving the Blessed Sacrament. It is a mortal sin, since the society denies the Divinity of Christ and is most certainly, regarded by the Church as being, at its heart, anti-Christian, and anti-clerical.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

'After Vatican II the Church appeared to some to be easing its stance towards Masonry. In 1974 Cardinal Seper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed a document that stated, in part, that:

"The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith... has ruled that Canon 2335 no longer automatically bars a Catholic from membership of masonic groups... And so, a Catholic who joins the Freemasons is excommunicated only if the policies and actions of the Freemasons in his area are known to be hostile to the Church ..."

This advice led some Catholics to believe that the prohibition was no longer in force, and that the Church no longer had many of its traditional objections to Freemasonry.

In 1983, the Church issued a new Code of Canon Law. Unlike its predecessor, Canon 1374 does not explicitly name Masonic orders among the secret societies it condemns. It states in part:

"A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict."

This omission caused some Catholics and Freemasons to believe that the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons may have been lifted, especially after the perceived liberalization of Vatican II, and caused confusion in the Church hierarchy. Many Catholics joined the fraternity, basing their membership on a permissive interpretation of Canon Law and justifying their membership by their belief that Freemasonry does not plot against the Church. It is claimed that Catholic Freemasons in America ignore the 1983 clarification from the Vatican, looking to the 1974 pronouncement.'

The great problem with Freemasonry and members being members of the Catholic Church is that, at best, the society brings into its fold people of all 'faiths' and seeks to instil a 'brotherhood of man', in which all religions co-exist. They swear on all the different holy books and find within all an esoteric knowledge which is 'enlightening'. For a Catholic, the Divinity of Christ and the Magisterium is the most important aspect of Faith. The Articles of Faith, which are not a 'secret', of the One True Faith, are not 'negotiable'. Anything which co-opts faith in the Blessed Trinity, the Divinity of Christ and His Holy Catholic Church is certainly a threat to the faith of the Catholic and the Faith in general. It undermines it, erodes it and, Popes down the centuries have warned, destroys it.

Prayers: Swine flu empties Mexico City's churches

H/T to American Papist: Not Your Average Catholic

Catholics in Mexico City were unable to attend Mass today for fear of the swine flu (which Drudge has been reporting):

Churches stood empty Sunday in heavily Roman Catholic Mexico City after services were canceled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic. (AP)

Here is the communique from the Archdiocese of Mexico.

Let's pray for those who could not attend Mass today, and pray for a speedy end to this outbreak. Amen.

I would add, let's also pray for all the victims and their families and hope that this hasn't been concocted in a lab by anyone with nefarious intent.

New York Subway Buskers

How splendid! Shine on you crazy diamonds...and don't let the police stop you!

Bishop O'Donoghue Lambasts Cloning

Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones...Wooden acting and prophetic cloning theme. I do wish more of our Bishops would 'pipe up' a little about the issues of the day...

Bishop Calls Cloning Claims "Disturbing", Says Alleged Actions Are "Deeply Repugnant"

Courtesy of Zenit

A British bishop is calling the claims of an American researcher that he has created cloned human embryos and implanted them in four women "deeply disturbing."

In a statement released today, Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue of Lancaster warned of the increasing tendency to manipulate human life. He said that if Dr. Panayiotis Zavos has done what he has claimed, his "actions are deeply repugnant for the future of humanity."

The doctor made claims this week that he cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into four women. Although none of the embryos survived long enough to achieve a viable pregnancy, Zavos told the media that it will be possible to have a cloned human baby within the next few years.

His work is being carried out at a secret laboratory in an undisclosed country. It's a crime in most countries to transfer cloned embryos into a human womb. "Cloning entails manipulating human life in ever more invasive ways, and this will lead to 'making embryos to order,' as well as other more and more serious abuses," said Bishop O’Donoghue.

He noted that while it's widely held as unacceptable to transfer cloned embryos to the womb, "those who support destructive embryo research while criticizing Zavos are laying themselves open to a charge of hypocrisy."

"The approach that is often taken in Britain is to say firstly that embryo research should be allowed and secondly that it can be strictly controlled," said Bishop O’Donoghue. "This is wrong on both counts. Embryo research which entails deliberately killing human embryos should never be allowed, and experience shows that once this key ethical principle is breached, it leads in turn to relentless demand for more and more embryos to be used in ever more debasing ways."

The Bishop added that while most condemn the actions of Zavos as "irresponsible" because of the possibility of creating children with "serious physical, mental or psychological problems," a fundamental objection to cloning remains: "It [cloning] creates a dislocation in the human family; it removes the begetting of children from its true context -- the fruit of mutual self-giving in marriage -- and turns human children into a manufactured product."

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 2008 extended the permissible creation and use of human embryos in the United Kingdom, formally allowing the creation of “savior siblings,” cloned embryos for research (including embryo stem-cell research) and inter-species embryos.

It also removed the requirement that in-vitro fertilization practitioners should have regard to the child’s need for a father. The most recent instruction from the Vatican on the subject, "Dignitas Personae," re-stated the Catholic Church’s clear opposition to “assisted reproductive technologies” and the need to protect and promote the rights the human embryo from the time of conception.

St Mary Magdalen in Liturgical Gloriousness

Catholic Directory for Church Hierarchy at Odds With Church Teaching 2009

Here it is. Read this website only if you have a strong constitution. If you are a Catholic and can bear to see your beliefs dragged through the mud, click the link.

It carries adverts such as 'Good Catholics Use Condoms' and 'It's time for a change - a See change'. The 'sexuality' page is 'under construction', as are the fabricated untruths concerning human sexuality that the website will doubtless promulgate. Founded in 1973 the organisation wants a World, 'Where life-saving health interventions (that'll be abortion, then) aren't blocked by sectarian interests (such as those who wish to protect the rights of the child)' It has a page where you can, 'Ask the Pope to lift the ban on condoms'...Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy...

And yes, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor is quoted and included in the list...sadly on the new website, Catholics for Choice.

So the same priests and bishops who have been absolving condom addicts, mea culpa, up until this day, now want to do away with the very moral law from which we have strayed and the falling away from which, those who need, seek God's forgiveness. Why? Heck, perhaps they wish to do away with the Moral Law completely...Wouldn't surprise me! The same organisation sent a letter to the Holy Father criticising Humanae Vitae, the single most prophetic papal document ever released!

The same website for Catholics for Choice says on the issue of abortion...sigh,

'The morality and the legality of abortion is an important personal and political issue throughout the world. Catholic support for legal abortion is grounded in core principles of Catholic theology, which respect the moral agency of all women. It is bolstered by respect for the religious freedom and rights of people of all faiths and no religious faith, by respect for plural and tolerant democratic societies and, most importantly, by adherence to the Catholic principle of standing with the poor and marginalized of the world who are disproportionately women.

Within this context, Catholics worldwide support the right of all women to follow their conscience when deciding about abortion.

CFC also believes that rights should be exercised responsibly, which includes personal responsibility for pregnancy prevention and society's responsibility to provide education, health care and economic security that will enable women to prevent pregnancy and have the children they want in a climate that welcomes all.'

The Catholic Bishops and Condoms: Statements and Actions Supporting Condom Use as Part of an HIV Prevention Strategy March 2009

Bishop Januário Torgal Ferreira, Portugal

In response to Pope Benedict’s comments denouncing condom use as a means to prevent the transmission of HIV, the bishop of the armed forces of Portgual, Januário Torgal Ferreira, stated that “from a medical point of view, I have no doubt that there are obviously circumstances where prohibiting condoms is to consent to the death of many people.” He went on to note that “the people who are advising the pope should be more cultured.”

Mario de Queiroz, " Africa: Pope on Condoms – Out in the Cold." IPS, March 24, 2009.
Bishop Manuel Clemente, Porto, Portugal

In response to Pope Benedict’s statement condemning the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV, Bishop Clemente of Portugal denounced the pope’s remarks stating that in the case of HIV, condoms are “not only recommended, they can be ethically obligatory.” He went on to say that "the great solution to the AIDS problem, like any other problem, has to be behavioral," but those living with HIV/AIDS "have a moral obligation to prevent and not provoke the illness." Finally, he added that the pope’s advisors “should be more learned.”

“Bishop Says Condoms Sometimes Needed.” Associated Press, March 29, 2009. March 2009

Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke, Hamburg, Germany

Pope Benedict’s deplorable comments, on a flight to Cameroon, opposing condom use to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS rightfully sparked a lot of opposition, including some from within the church hierarchy itself. Hans-Jochen Jaschke, a Catholic auxiliary bishop of Hamburg, Germany, spoke of the need for “no taboo on the condom issue.” He wisely declared that "anyone who has AIDS and is sexually active, anyone who seeks multiple partners, must protect others and themselves."

Philip Pullella, "Vatican Defends Pope Condoms Stand, Criticism Mounts." Reuters, March 18, 2009.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, Cape Coast, Ghana

Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Cape Coast in Ghana has advocated that priests take on more of a counseling role in discussing condom use with married couples in which one of the partners is HIV positive. Acknowledging the hierarchy’s teachings on conscience, he suggested “help[ing] the client to take the decision which [he or she] will be at peace with.” According to Turkson, the issue is being seriously debated by bishops’ conferences in Africa, but he has been slow to publicly support condom use from the pulpit, indicating that he “will only speak in person-to-person counseling, allowing those who can, to choose for love of their partner to abstain, and those who also for love of their partner may want to use this way [condoms].”

James Roberts, “African church leader advocates pastoral approach on condom use.” The Tablet, October 20, 2007.

For the full list of dissidents from the teaching of Holy Mother the Church and the Holy Father, click here.

It can also be read as a list of those Bishops and Priests who, on the appearance of the Antichrist, could possibly run over to him as Pope St Gregory the Great prophecised. On contraception, on human sexuality, on the family, on abortion, on nearly every arena of Catholic Teaching the website, Catholics for Choice puts up two fingers and says, 'No, you're wrong, we're right." The Catholics for Choice website has schism written all over it.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have Mercy on us and the Whole World!

Fat Tests for Hedgehogs

The Government, following new developments in public policy calling for 'fat tests' for the obese, has extended the policy to hedgehogs. The hedgehog on the right has a bad diet, smokes and doesn't do enough exercise. He has been told by his GP to 'sort it out' and go on a hedgehog fitness training programme in Ipswich. All hedgehogs are to face the 'fat test' to see whether they are to be accepted equally among hedgehog society or made to feel rubbish and be sent to a State Fat Camp.

The National Hedgehog Liberty Group, 'Hogwatch', have released a statement concerning the new proposal:

'We, the National Hedgehog Liberty Group, 'Hogwatch', are appalled by the Government's new scheme, because Hedgehogs shouldn't be forced to get fit for the Government's sake, or change their diet. While obesity among hedgehogs is a problem, and a health issue, we think the Government's fat tests for hedgehogs are far too draconian and cruel.

I learned last night a new animal fact from a man in the pub who knows many animal facts...The only predator that can kill a tortoise is the eagle, by the method of picking it up and then dropping it from 100 ft in the air. Then it flys back down and picks the poor dead creature to death. Aren't eagles horrid!?

Good Newly Discovered Blogs on Catholic Tradition

Kneeling Catholic has a good article on Communion in the hand/tongue, which he has found on the web by one Fr Frederick Heuser, on the excellently entitled Catholic Tradition website, 'Modern Church - Open Your Heart to God'!

'Imagine', Father Heuser writes, 'a bishop handing a container of Holy Chrism to a confirmation candidate so that he can anoint himself? Or someone baptising themselves? That is what is happening when people take Communion in the hand. They are not allowing the minister to administer.

They are self-administering. This refusal to allow oneself to receive a Sacrament communicated from another human minister attacks a fundamental truth of Catholicism, i.e. salvation comes to us through the ministry of a flesh-and-blood, identifiable, human organization known as the Church.'

A fellow Catholic and I laughed out loud, in the Presbytery after TLM, last night when we read an advert in The Tablet, who often have some rather 'new age' adverts in what is meant to be a Catholic magazine. One was offering a retreat in which the retreatant was promised time to 'relax with God' and the opportunity to 'minister to yourself'. 'Ministering to yourself', we decided, sounded like something one might like to bring the Confessional. 'Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have ministered to myself twice this week.'

The picture above, by the way, looks like St Pio receiving the Eucharist. Is it?