The controversial Abort67 group were found not guilty of public disorder in their grizzly and graphic anti-abortion campaign outside various abortion clinics, including Wistons Clinic Brighton. Whatever you think of this new evangelical pro-life movement, you have to say that the ruling is a victory for freedom of speech.
By the way, as an aside to this story, I read in The Argus on Wednesday that another reason the Green's got rid of Councillor Summers was because not only had she held onto her public beliefs concerning the nature and meaning of marriage, but had also publicly supported a vigil against abortion outside Wiston's. Pro-life and pro-marriage? Try UKIP, love.
I have far more sympathy, however, and support, for the work of The Good Counsel Network, who are to commence a massive pro-life campaign for 40 Days for Life outside the Marie Stopes Clinic on Whitfield Street, London. You can join the Facebook group for this event here.
The 40 Days for Life 24 hour a day prayer vigil will start on 25th September at 7pm at Bedford Square but moves onto 8:00pm at Whitfield Street outside Marie Stopes. If you can, do go along and lend your support and prayers to the work of 40 Days for Life. Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will kick the latest in a series of vigils off with opening prayers, so get your Rosaries at the ready for what will, doubtless, be a 40 day spiritual war of the highest order. You can sign up to pray at the vigil at 40 Days for Life, here.
Good Counsel Network are also having a fundraising ball on 10th November at the Ognisko Polish Club in London in November. Click here for the Facebook page. You can email for more information at info@goodcounselnetwork.freeserve.co.uk
'As a mother of four who has been married for thirty seven years, I am absolutely bewildered by claims such as 'the contraceptive act is an act of irreverence for God as father and creator, and an act of irreverence by husband and wife towards each other.' Or how about, 'the father of lies is still active, seeking to deceive, seeking to divide and separate us from the love of God and also from truly loving each other. Blessed John Paul II, when speaking about these issues, describes the marital bedchamber as the place where the forces of good and evil meet and do battle.' I can only conclude that anybody who can write this kind of nonsense has either never been married, or is in urgent need of marriage counselling. It may well be that some unhappy couples experience such low levels of love, affection and care for one another that they must tether their sex lives to absolute functionality lest their contempt for one another destroys them.
To assume that all of us are so deficient in our capacity for love and respect really tells us far more about the person writing the article than about the rich, complex and often very lovely reality of non-procreative sex. Loving and being loved is just as 'natural' for human beings as procreation, and for many, many couples reliable contraception enhances our capacity for mutual self-giving without the fear of unwanted pregnancy. I have known far too many Catholic couples of a certain age whose capacity for sexual expressiveness and enjoyment was permanently blighted by faithful adherence to Humanae Vitae to see this booklet as having any claim to truth. Procreation is a very great gift, but so are intelligence, reason and common sense, all of which seem markedly absent from this view of marriage and sex. If the Church is to offer any wisdom or truth in the area of human sexuality, then it has to start listening to and engaging with the experiences and insights of sexually active Catholics who know what they're talking about. This is a perverted publication written by and for people with a perverted understanding of the meaning and reality of sexual love in all its joys, struggles and ambiguities.'
Is that a theological house of cards falling down somewhere in The Tablet offices that I can hear? All it takes is a feather, Tina, love and it looks like you're the one supplying it. This lady teaches at University of Roehampton and is on The Tablet Trust board of trustees. Someone ought to tell the Nuncio that there is a woman claiming to be a Catholic who attempts to launch written surface to air missiles as soon as a Catholic teaches the truth about the Church's vision of marriage, love and sexuality.
In other pro-life news, pray for peace in the Holy Land and the Middle East in general. It looks like these guys mean business...
Follow the Transalpine Redemptorists' advice and pray the Rosary.
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