Monitoring the Monitor

Do these men believe abortion should be merely 'restricted' 'incrementally''?

As Catholics we are well aware that here in the United Kingdom, various laws established by Her Majesty's Government mean that we are as far from the St Augustine's vision of The City of God as we could possibly be. We know that this is no utopia.

We know that the scourge of abortion isn't simply going to end tomorrow. We know that there are too many vested interests involved in the abortion industry for that to take place. We know that because of Original Sin, our elected leaders continue to delude themselves that the choice of abortion that condemns thousands of innocent unborn children to death every year should continue to be made widely available. We know that mothers continue to choose death for their unborn child, over life, for many reasons, none of which are justifiable. We know that doctors and nurses continue to go against basic medical ethics in carrying out this evil, ghastly and monstrous procedure.

We know all of this. That doesn't, however, stop us wishing, hoping, writing, campaigning, petitioning and indeed praying for an immediate end to the grave and horrific injustice of abortion in the United Kingdom. As Catholics, we want abortion to end. When do we want it to end? Yesterday.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Voices Monitor blog, while making a really quite eloquent defense of the Catholic Society at the heart of a controversy involving the UCLU Student Union and its denial of the Society's freedom of speech, has suggested that, at least in the eyes of 'the Monitor', the Bishops of England and Wales take a more moderate and nuanced view on abortion and how it should be defeated.

'But in reality, Catholics on campus have nothing to fear. The motion contains no definition of "pro-choice"; if it means simply someone who accepts that abortion should be legal, most Catholics -- including the bishops of England and Wales, who advocate incremental restrictions, but not yet a total ban -- would fit that description.'

Now, I know that 'some Catholics' were hoping for a statement from the Archbishop of Westminster defending His Grace's flock at the UCLU, preferably in public. Unless someone can correct me, that has yet to happen. We know that the Catholic Voices project is not used as merely a PR operation for the Bishops of England and Wales, because that is what we are frequently told, so surely whoever wrote this anonymous Catholic Voices Monitor blog post either knows something about the Bishops' position on abortion which we hitherto did not, or he or she is presuming to know the minds of the Bishops of England and Wales without asking them and is, indeed, speaking on their behalf in a quite shocking and scandalous way.

I truly hope that whoever wrote that total misrepresentation of the Faith of the Church is sacked, because it is not just the mind of the Bishops that s/he is presuming to know, but indeed 'most Catholics'. Does the author of the blog post believe that the Holy Father, I wonder, falls into this category, because from what I have read of His Holiness's views on abortion, we can safely believe would be really rather happy for all Governments around the World to do what Hungary has just done and draw up a law protecting the rights of the unborn, I believe, without exception.

I don't accept that abortion should be legal. I do not believe that murder of the innocent unborn should be a 'right' in the United Kingdom. I do not favour 'incremental' restrictions, since who are we to decide who is worthy of living and who is worthy of dying at the hands of doctors and nurses? I advocate a total ban on abortion and I had always thought that nothing less than a total and immediate end to abortion in the United Kingdom would satisfy their Lordships because, as Successors of the Apostles, their Lordships are on the side of the defenseless unborn - on the side of Justice and on the side of Christ.

Neither the Catholic Voices project nor the Bishops Conference of England and Wales have been called to defend the Catholic Faith in the public square by promoting moral positions which are held by 'most Catholics', since if 99.999999999999% of all Catholics in the whole World believed that red was blue and the only Catholic in the whole World who believed that red was red was the Pope, the Pope would still be right and 99.99999999999% of all Catholics would still be wrong. Both Catholic Voices and the Bishops Conference of England and Wales have been called to defend the Faith of the Catholic Church and the Faith of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church wants abortion to end yesterday. For the Bishops to desire anything else would be an insult to God, a shocking neglect of the innocent unborn, a source of confusion for the Faithful and a betrayal of their Apostolic mission to bring Salvation, rather than destruction and damnation to the World.

It would appear that the author of that 'Monitor' blog post believes that 'most Catholics' are Catholic in name only and that among them are the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. I hope and pray that whoever wrote what appeared on the Monitor blog does not speak for the Bishops of England and Wales. Whoever, wrote it, I tell you now, you don't speak for me and I, as you know, am a Catholic. It's no wonder that one of the co-ordinators of Catholic Voices wants John Smeaton's head on a silver platter.