Green's Expulsion of Councillor Summers: The Plot Thickens

Jason, have a break from the Green Party for a while...

Recently, Brighton has been in the news on two or three fronts. First, we had the Liberal Democrats here in Brighton hosting their party conference. Then, a teacher of moral relativism in Brighton decided to flee the country with his school pupil causing the girl's parents to plea for her safe return. Say a prayer for all concerned. Before this, however, Brighton hit the headlines for Christian and Green councillor for Brighton and Hove, Christina Summers.

Christina, as we know, attracted the ire of the Green Party because she felt unable in her conscience to sign a Green Party pledge to support 'same-sex marriage'.

Thus did a hitherto fairly unknown Green councillor hit national headlines for defying the consensus of current British politics that the 'gay marriage' debate is over and that its attending doctrines are already sacrosanct.

The Green Party, swift to move to counter what could be considered a PR disaster, as it could be seen as somewhat authoritarian, then published a list of crimes committed by Christina Summers which also 'contributed' to her expulsion from the voting membership of the Party. These crimes included lending her support to a local campaign against abortion. Thus, the Green Party proves once and for all that standing up in defense of planet Earth is a moral good, standing up in defense of the union of sterile relationships in which bringing forth children is biologically impossible is great, but standing up for humanity and freedom of conscience is secular blasphemy to the Party.

Councillor Jason Kitcat 

The Kitcat Connection

All this readers may know. However, while it is heartening to read that another Green councillor, the Catholic in the middle of this farce, Jason Kitcat, did not sign to expel Councillor Summers for not going along with the commitment to same-sex marriage, we are left in confusion as to why a 'practising Catholic' has presumably signed the local Party's ideological commitment to same-sex marriage without a troubled conscience. We can, going by the fact that he is not in the headlines, assume that Jason, who has been seen worshipping at a Polish Mass held at a local Brighton Catholic Church in the recent past, has signed the commitment to support 'same-sex marriage'.

Archbishop Cranmer, on his blog, relates the story of the supposedly practising Catholic who has signed up to the Green Party's manifesto for the support of 'gay marriage'. So, how did a Protestant Christian get kicked off the voting panel of the Green Party councillors for obeying her conscience, but a practising Catholic manage to remain safe and secure in his party with the same voting rights as everybody else?

Pope Benedict XVI gave an address to a group of politicians 

It just so happens that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has today made it plain that Christian politicians have a duty to uphold true marriage - that is - the only marriage worthy of the name - the marriage of man and woman. Here are the words of the Holy Father, courtesy of a site with which Mr Kitcat is perhaps not familiar, Life Site News...

The different areas of interest for people involved in public life, the pope said, are not distinct from each other, but are “profoundly interconnected,” and are all “constituted by respect for the transcendent dignity of human beings,” Pope Benedict told a group of Christian politicians last week. 

The defence of human life, Benedict said, is not therefore separate from the defence of natural marriage. Rejection of abortion, euthanasia and eugenics, “is, in fact, interwoven with respecting marriage as an indissoluble union between a man and a woman and, in its turn, as the foundation for the community of family life”. “It is in the family, founded on marriage and open to life, that human beings experience sharing, respect and gratuitous love, at the same time receiving - be they children, the sick or the elderly - the solidarity they need.”  

 Pope Benedict XVI, in a speech to the European Christian Democrat movement, said that “authentic progress of human society cannot forgo policies aimed at protecting and promoting marriage, and the community that derives therefrom.” The family, based on the union of a man and a woman, he said, moreover “constitutes the principal and most significant place for the education of the person.” “Thus the family, the basic cell of society, is the root which nourishes not only the individual human being, but the very foundations of social coexistence.”

So, where does a Catholic councillor stand in all this and does Mr Kitcat wish to even be a Catholic in good standing with the Faith he, at least privately, professes? Perhaps I should email him and see if I can get a response, but in the mean time, we should ask the question as to whether Jason given a 'get out of Hades free' card by the Greens? Here he is on a politican blog, responding to the accusations flying around that Mr Kitcat has been neither wholly supportive of the religious liberty of his fellow councillor, nor faithful to those beliefs that a 'practising Catholic' should maintain in public life, as well as in the private sphere...

'I withdrew from being on the panel ten days ago due to concerns over the process being used and because I felt my participation to be incompatible with my role as Group Convenor.
I did not vote as a panel member on any findings nor sanctions, I participated in a preliminary conversation over possible sanctions, that was all. I have not seen nor do I know the contents of their final report. So to suggest I was the minority vote is misleading as I never voted. To be absolutely clear, Cllr Christina Summers is still a member of the Green Group. The group will need to have a quorate meeting to vote on the panel’s recommendation before anything can happen to her membership of the group. Thanks, Jason.'

It was on the 10th of September when Jason penned that. As of 25th September, however, The Argus remains convinced that Christina Summers is banned from sitting with her Green party colleagues at Brighton and Hove City Council. Confused? Well, that's probably how the Green councillors would like you to remain.

In general, I find it deeply worrying that a Catholic who has been seen worshipping in a Catholic Church  in Brighton finds himself to be described thus...

'Despite his religious beliefs, he does not introduce them to his public political life. He doesn’t attend the prayers held in Brighton and Hove before council meetings. He voted in favour of marriage rights being extended to gay and lesbian couples.'

Councillor Summers said of this affair, “I’m accountable to God above any political party. Obviously whatever the cost, if there is a cost, then so be it."

Such a view as that expressed there by Councillor Summers was once fashionable among even public Catholics. It's kind of how the martyrs who shed their blood for Christ and His Church thought about things too.

Jason's email, if you'd like to ask him any questions about all of this is jason@jasonkitcat.com. If you're a Catholic living in the Regency ward of Brighton and Hove, then all the better since, after all, I guess, as a Councillor he's accountable to you, too, as well as the Lord.

Further Reading: Protect the Pope