Blair conversion

I was driving this afternoon across Beverley Westwood when I heard the news of Blair's conversion on Five Live. I almost jolted the car in shock. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked because it had been on the cards for a long time. But the latest report before today's announcement suggested that Blair had no intention of converting. Not so.

I suppose I should grit my teeth and say: “Congratulations Mr Blair on joining the one true fold.” But I must admit I found it difficult to write that. So far, Mr Blair has not given comment about his reception into the church. I am convinced a public statement repenting for every time he has legislated or publicly voted against church teaching whilst being an MP is needed.

To be honest, as an ordinary, bog-standard member of the faithful, I feel physically sick. Mr Blair has probably done more than any other prime minister in modern times to legislate against the teaching of the Church and curb the Church’s involvement in public life. Here’s just a small list of the way he personally and his government has done this:

Taken us into an unjust war

Legalised euthanasia by omission in the Mental Capacity Act

Legalised the sexual orientation regulations meaning the end of the road for Catholic adoption agencies. This law also has serious implications for Catholic schools and Christians who own hotels etc.

Legalised same sex civil partnerships and publicly admitted he did "a little skip around" when he saw the pictures of the first civil partnership ceremonies in Northern Ireland.

Allowing girls as young as 11 to get the abortifacient morning after pill at school or elsewhere without the consent of a parent or guardian

Extending the availability of contraception, especially the morning after pill

Voting and extending the scope for experimentation on human embryos and legalising therapeutic cloning

His Government financially supported the One Child policy in China through its funding of international family planning agencies

Whilst an MP, he voted:

- three times to permit abortion up to birth I the case of disability
- once against a move to reduce the upper time limit from 28 to 18 weeks
- once in favour of creating an appeals board for women refused abortions
- twice in favour of making the upper-time limit 26 weeks instead of 18
- once to allow the experimentation on human embryos up to 14 weeks
- once against a move to ban social abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy
- once against a motion to outlaw abortions after 20 weeks
- once against a motion to outlaw abortions after 22 weeks
- once in favour of an amendment to require only one doctor to ok an abortion- once in favour of an amendment to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland
- once in favour of extending research and experimentation on human embryos

To give a flavour of his attitudes towards the pro-life movement, he told The Observer on March 20 2005:

"The fact that the person lives in terrible housing, and has hopeless education and no choices in life and no-one invests in them - what has [the pro-life lobby] got to say about that? The Make Poverty History campaign (to increase aid to Africa), that is a pro-life agenda for me."
Far from promoting a pro-life agenda to increase aid to Africa, Mr Blair's government exploited the Make Poverty History campaign in order to promote universal access to so-called sexual and reproductive health - a technical term which includes abortion on demand - under the vague terms of the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, he obviously doesn’t know, or is prepared to deny, the work of:

- British Victims of Abortion, a sister organisation of SPUC, in their work giving counselling to women who have had abortions.

- The charity LIFE in helping women in crisis pregnancies and caring for newborn disabled babies

- The Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative, the Good Counsel Network and other organisations in helping women in crisis pregnancies

- And the work of the pro-life movement in successfully lobbying for an amendment to the to the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 to secure the priority entitlement of an expectant mother to housing

I’m not even sure that this is a comprehensive list, but you get the idea. As John Smeaton. National Director of SPUC said live on News 24 tonight, it would be like St Paul converting on the road to Damascus and then continuing to persecute Christians if Blair were not to publicly say sorry for his championing of the right to access abortion worldwide, for instance.
If this public reparation does not happen, I will continue to pray for Mr Blair’s “conversion” as, at the moment, his acceptance into the Catholic faith seems of little value if he continues to slap the orthodox teaching of the faith in the face.

Labour MPs' rebellion

It is encouraging to hear that up to 40 Labour MPs are considering voting against their party's whip in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill when it comes to the Commons as early as February.

According to the Catholic Herald, Jim Dobbin, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, Joe Benton, secretary of the APPPLG and Geraldine Smith, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, are amongst those planning to rebel.

If Gordon Brown goes through with plans and cracks a three-line whip, it will not just be an inconvenience to Catholic backbenchers, but an outrage which will mark a significant shift in modern British politics. The convention, though unwritten and unofficial, that matters of conscience must be warranted with a free vote to all sides of the House will be well untruly thrown out the window.

In my opinion, this already happened, in a sense, when the government legalised euthanasia by omission in the Mental Capacity Act, which was railroaded through parliament.

Unlike the situation with MCA where most pro-life politicians said "let's get some amendments to try and push the bad bits out of the bill", I hope pro-life MPs will oppose and vote against the Bill outright and in its entirety because there is simply nothing good in its aims. Please let us not have a situation where the hierarchy of the Catholic Church tries to "negotiate" with the Government about how to make the Bill "less bad". It is disastrous by very definition, it will alter the meaning of humanity and of the family itself.

The main thrust of the HFE Bill is to make fatherless children acceptable, experiment on human-animal hybrid embryos, and widen grounds for testing of human embryos to decide whether to transfer them to the womb. The bill will inevitably lead to the destruction of yet more human embryos.

We have a situation where this Christmas could be the last ever when we gaze upon the Child Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the crib and our society accepts that "this is the definite model of how to bring up children in our society". What a frightening prospect. Let us pray hard this Christmas that that will not happen.

But it is encouraging to see that, from the planned rebellion, some MPs will be walking through the "wrong" lobby in support of life.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

Over the past few days, peers in the House of Lords have been considering the committee stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which aims, amongst other pernicious things, to
permit the creation of interspecies embryos for experiments. I have only watched parts of the proceedings on Parliament TV and read some of Hansard at this stage. I hope I will get chance to do an in depth review of the debates in due course.

Lots of the debate tonight seemed to be discussing amendments to tighten the Abortion Act which I think, as one of the Lords members said tonight, will "open a Pandora's box" for discussion on changes to the abortion law. This is the most anti-life government we've had and pro-abortion MPs significantly outnumber pro-lifers, meaning that the greatest risk is that abortion laws could actually be relaxed via amendments.

The concentration on getting amendments to the Abortion Act as part of this bill is slightly annoying to me because, in reality, the bill will lead to, in effect, though not by legal definitions, more "abortions" of human embryos. It widens the ground for testing of human embryos to decide whether to transfer them to the womb and widens grounds for research on human embryos that are not going to be transferred to the womb. These two proposals alone will lead to more embryos being experimented on and destroyed after research. The message to those who seem obsessed with lowering the time limit for abortions by a week or four is: Don't neglect the embryo.

On the issue of the pointlessness of yet more embryo research, Lord Alton of Liverpool hits the nail on the head:

"Since 1991, at vast public expense, more than 2 million human embryos have been destroyed, cloned, or experimented upon. Now the Government want to change the law to make animal-human hybrid embryos. Yet, not a single cure has been forthcoming anywhere in the world from the use of embryonic stem cells. So far such work has proved enormously costly and utterly futile. It has not resulted in one treatment. Yet, meanwhile, around 80 cures - and 300 clinical trials - have been developed from ethically non-controversial adult stem cells. Real cures real therapies. Trapped in an ethically controversial blind alley, Britain will be left trailing the world while patients are denied treatments that could save their lives."

It's also encouraging to note the Observer's "news in brief" (nib) this Sunday which reports that up to 40 backbench Labour MPs, reportedly lead by All Party Parliamentary Pro Life Group Chair Jim Dobbin, are preparing to defy party whips in parliamentary votes on the bill. It is utterly scandalous that Labour is not allowing its backbenchers a free vote on, not just one, but countless "matter of consciences".

Abortion in the surgery

So, "the Government have no plans to change the law on abortion" (health secretary Dawn Primarolo in a written answer to David Amess on 27 November) then? Of course not. Why bother consulting parliament about widening the access to abortion? Why not just go ahead with it anyway?

Excuse the sarcasm but that's exactly what's happened today when the government confirmed that trials are under way to test whether early abortions could be carried out safely in doctors surgeries in England. Trials at two "undisclosed locations" are evaluating the "safety and effectiveness" of such services. The pilot is for drug-induced (presumably RU486) abortions which can be carried out up to the ninth week of pregnancy. It involves taking two tablets under medical supervision.

The trials have been taking place with no publicity at two facilities - a community hospital and a stand-alone unit within an acute hospital. What cowards the government are in not naming the two hospitals. I know where my next Freedom of Information Act request will be going to, although I'm sure they'll refuse to release the information under the "policy formulation" exemption. In the meantime, can anyone who knows where these hideous trials are taking place please leak it to the press?

This is a further example of the government's attempts to ignore strong medical opinion that shows abortion is unsafe for women, creating even more time pressures on women considering an abortion and, most concerningly for Catholic doctors, trying to make it more difficult for medics to conscientiously object to carrying the procedure out.

New movements meeting

At the Faith Movement's council meeting on Thursday, a letter was read out inviting someone to represent Faith at a meeting of the new movements the next day (Friday). It was asked whether anyone was available to go. My hand was the only one that went up. I was still on holiday then and would only have been doing touristy things in London. So, that was that.

After staying in London overnight (and not feeling too good with a sore throat and a cough, which has now developed into a chesty cough etc) I hopped on a train at King's Cross to Welwyn Garden City, a "new town" in Hertfordshire. Upon arrival, the place was like a toy town. It was only founded in the 1920s and has a lot of character about it.

I eventually found the Focolare Centre for Unity and was kindly showed into the meeting, where I slipped in at the back of the room (I had only planned to go for the afternoon session and, therefore, was an hour and a half behind).

Dozens of the new movements and communities were in attendance, from hosts Focolare - a movement inspired by the gospel, working for unity in all spheres of life - to Madonna House - a Catholic community of men, women, and priests, dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life.


Others included:

L'Arche, an international federation of communities for people with learning disabilities and assistants which has nine houses in the UK

Youth 2000

Alpha - which runs courses for anyone to explore the Christian faith

Maranatha - a free, open and loving Christian movement which has been led into a balance between prayer and action

And several others, many of which their names escape me

Also in attendance was Mgr Keith Barltrop, Director of the Bishop's of England and Wales' Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE).

Each organisation was given a 10 minute slot to tell the others a bit about themselves, especially with regard to what they did in terms of evangelisation. Many of the communities talked about their founders and focused particularly on the importance of prayer, reflection and love of neighbour. Most of them also mentioned they offered catechises at some level in the Christian faith to their members.

Unlike many of those in attendance, I was not a "leader" of the movement/community I was representing. I was merely someone who had benefited from the teaching, spirituality and social aspect of Faith over the last seven or eight years. I now also help to organise and run Faith youth events and am on the Movement's council.

To explain the New Synthesis and vision of Faith in 10 minutes is impossible. So, for my 10 minutes, I gave a perspective of what a young Catholic has gained from one of the new Movements. I briefly introduced the Movement as a group of priests, religious and lay Catholics drawn together by a shared vision of Christ as "Lord of the cosmos and of history".

It offers a new synthesis of science and the Catholic faith whilst remaining loyal to the Church's Magisterium. In a perspective of creation through evolution we can show clearly the transcendent existence of God and the essential distinction of matter and spirit.

I then went on to describe the events by which Faith offers clear, comprehensive and orthodox teaching of Catholicism, and the results this brings. The Movement puts on two sessions or conferences - one in the Summer and one a Christmastime - where the Faith vision is unpacked in a series of talks. There's also daily Mass, time for prayer and confessions, discussion, sports and plenty of socialising between like minded young Catholics.

In between Faith's two major events, there are also "Faith Forums" in pockets around the country which offer three or four series of talks throughout the year. There's also a summer event for teenage Catholics, introducing them to the basics of the vision focusing on the existence of God, man (the pinnacle of God's creation), why there is sin, the Church and the Sacraments. These are in a holiday atmosphere and includes plenty of time for sports and other activities. To complement these are occasional "Faith Youth Days" which provide a day of two talks, activities, sports and finishing with exposition and benediction.

Although the Movement, set up in 1972 by Fathers Edward Holloway and Roger Nesbitt, did not originally intend to seek vocations, this outcome has been a natural progression for many involved as a result of being given a clear and uncompromising teaching of the faith. I said that the number of vocations to the priesthood had been encouraging and that marriages had also come about between people who have attended Faith events.

In terms of evangelisation, I held up a copy of the latest edition of the Faith Magazine, the main tool by which the movement catechises Catholics of all ages. I concluded by saying Faith makes no apology for challenging young people intellectually and giving them an orthodox vision of Christ and his Church's teaching. Because, after all, if you love someone, you want to share the most important things to you with them. There can be no greater thing than a Catholic person's faith and to be able to share that faith with clarity is hugely important in our secular world.

After my brief talk, there was some interest in the magazine and I gave my copy and a subscription form to one gentleman.

During his talk before celebrating Mass, Mgr Barltrop told of how he was assigned to lead CASE by Cardinal Hume. He described how the agency's role was to support, but not interfere, in the work of the new movements. He complemented each of the organisations in attendance for their evangelising efforts.

I found this a hugely positive experience and it was interesting to find out more, and talk to people involved in the new movements which, in my opinion, are keeping the Catholic Faith alive in Britain today.