I blogged a couple of weeks ago about CYMFed and how having asked them for the names of their board members I had left it a week and got no response.

Since then, David Beresford has come back to me to say that he's been busy but he's happy to provide the names of the CYMFed board...

The CYMFed board is not a secret or a mystery.

The chair is Fr Dominic Howarth, (Brentwood)

The vice chair is Danny Curtin, (YCW)

As Chair of CAYMA, I am also on the board

Other members are Johnny Toryusen (Southwark), Fr Dermott Donnelly (Hexham and Newcastle), Rachel Romain (Bishops Conference), Mrg Andrew Faley (Bishops Conference), Becky Barber (Plymouth), Fr Martin Donnelly (Cardiff), Fr Michael White (Birmingham).

As I remember the board was made up to best cover the geographic spread of our church and the diversity of the organisations.

More recently I received an email from Fr Dominic Howarth the chair of CYMFed, he asked me to publish it in full by way of a clarification and I am happy to do so (probably something to do with how unkind I am)...

Dear James,

I write to you as chair of CYMFed. I wish that you had emailed directly before posting about us – it would have been easy to have allayed your concerns.

I attach a list of members, current as at autumn 2009. As you will see, there is a representative from every Diocese, and from many Movements, Organisations and Religious Orders: numbers are growing as those we are not yet in touch with contact us to become members as word of CYMFed spreads. Far from being “shadowy” we are completely open, and we hope that everyone working in Youth Ministry will have a way into CYMFed through their local Diocese, or through the particular Movement, Organisation or Religious Order of which they are part.

Your fellow blogger who has written about the absence within CYMFed of the characteristics of religious movements is entirely correct, for the simple reason that CYMFed is not, in itself, a Movement. We bring together a wide range of charisms, to share good practice and develop national opportunities such as the Congress.

CYMFed members are all volunteers, doing what we do nationally as we have a shared passion for Youth Ministry and believe that a national conversation can bear great fruit. In addition to the Congress we are also developing an online training programme for those working in parishes. We can only do such things by working together. I do appreciate that our website, www.cymfed.org, needs more updating: those running the site are doing so in amongst busy and pressured roles. Just to get the Congress publicity up and running was a huge task, and was our priority in recent weeks.

The existence of CYMFed is fully endorsed by the Bishops because they see the value of what we are doing. In case you have not yet seen it, I am pleased to provide you with the Press Release produced by Bishops’ Conference following their November meeting, and quoted at the end of this email.

I hope that this is now sufficient information for you. I am sorry that as I am Diocesan Youth Chaplain, Chair of CYMFed, and work in a parish with three churches, four schools and a hospital for which I share a 24 hour on call pager, I cannot enter into significant correspondence on this blog. I hope that the fruits of CYMFed will speak for themselves in the weeks and months ahead and I encourage you and all those with a passion for Youth Ministry to come to the Congress in February.

Yours with prayers

Fr Dominic Howarth, MA, STL (Rome)

This is the press release that Fr Dominic included...

Press Release

For immediate release – 22 November 2009

New Youth Advisory Body commended by Bishops

A new youth advisory body has been set up to “form and serve the Catholic Youth Ministry community in England and Wales.” The Catholic Youth ministry Federation (CYMFed) brings together Youth Service Directors, representatives from New Movements, Organisations and Religious Orders working nationally with young people, and Bishop Kieran Conry in his capacity as Bishop for Youth.

It was endorsed by the Bishops’ Conference at their Low Week Meeting in April 2009 and has now become an integral part of the Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis. At the recent November meeting of the Bishops of England and Wales, CYMFed was commended for their work to date.

Chair of CYMFed and Chaplain to the Brentwood Catholic Youth Service, Fr Dominic Howarth said: “The wisdom and expertise gathered around the table at full CYMFed meetings is priceless. There are people working in urban and rural settings, and people with particular charisms from Orders like the Salesians and Movements like YCW and Youth 2000. The level and depth of people’s knowledge, coupled with the shared desire to move Catholic Youth Ministry forward in strong and purposeful ways, makes CYMFed a pleasure to be part of, and time well spent. CYMFed provides the opportunity to share good practice, fresh ideas, friendship and support, and there are also things that are possible when the whole Catholic Youth Ministry community work together that we cannot achieve alone.”

Bishop Kieran Conry said: “CYMFed is a great initiative, which the Bishops are very pleased to support. Working with CYMFed it is easy to see the hope, dynamism and purpose that are present in what we are offering for young people within the Church. Having CYMFed as our key advisers in this area means that the Bishops are directly in touch with those working with young people across the country, and this is an invaluable resource for us.”

CYMFed has already attracted a £9,000 grant to develop an online training programme for those working with young people at Parish, Deanery or Diocesan level in partnership with Ushaw College. The course will be modular, very accessible, and it is hoped launched in September 2010.

The new youth advisory body has also attracted internationally acclaimed speakers for the first Congress for Catholics working with young people, set to take place on February 27th 2010. “We have set our hope on the living God” will be headlined by Fr Timothy Radcliffe, Abbot Christopher Jamison, Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Bob and Maggie McCarty. The McCartys have worked in Catholic Youth Ministry in America for over 25 years and Bob is President of the American equivalent of CYMFed, working with over 170 American Dioceses.

END

Finally, Fr Howarth provided a list of the full CYMFed membership...

Bishop for Youth Rt Rev Kieran Conry
Arundel & Brighton Ray Mooney
Birmingham Fr Michael White*
Brentwood Fr Dominic Howarth*
Cardiff Fr Martin Donnelly*
East Anglia Hamish MacQueen
Hallam Judi Shimmell
Hexham & Newcastle Fr Dermott Donnelly*
Lancaster Ruth Corless
Leeds Anna Cowell
Liverpool Fr Stephen Pritchard
Menevia Fr Ceirion Gilbert
Middlesbrough Fiona Moffat
Northampton Avril Baigent
Nottingham Fr Joe Wheat
Plymouth Rebecca Barber
Portsmouth Dave Hill
Salford Lorraine Leonard
Shrewsbury Dave Fitton
Southwark John Toryusen*
Westminster Dave Burke
Wrexham Angela Gregory
Residential Retreat Centres John Toryusen*
CAYMA Chair Rebecca Barber*
British Jesuits Fr Dave Stewart
CAFOD Monica Conmee
Pax Christi To be advised
Salesians Fr Bob Gardner
Sion Community To be advised
YCW Danny Curtin*
Youth 2000 Hannah Vaughan-Spruce
Youth SVP Awaiting appointment
Bishops’ Conference Rachel Romain

The people with * are the board members:

Rt Rev Kieran Conry Bishop for Youth, ex officio
Fr Dominic Howarth Chair Province of Westminster
Danny Curtin Vice Chair Organisations and Movements
Rebecca Barber Secretary CAYMA Chair
John Toryusen Treasurer Province of Southwark & Residential Retreat Centres
Fr Michael White Board Member Province of Birmingham
Fr Dermott Donnelly Board Member Province of Liverpool
Fr Martin Donnelly Board Member Province of Cardiff
Rachel Romain Bishops’ Conference Youth Ministry Administrator, ex officio

I'll leave it there for now. The fact that we didn't even know the names of the CYMFed board was only one of my concerns and I have made Fr Howarth aware of the others.

I think in the interests of fair play I should give him a bit longer to respond before I blog about those.

So, yesterday I interviewed Bishop Drainey for the Catholic Herald. There's not really much to tell you because I interviewed him for the Catholic Herald and not for my blog so I think I should keep what he said for the full write up in the Herald and not put it on here.

All in all I think it went rather well, not so much due to my interviewing skills which lets face it are average at best (it was my first time interviewing somebody) but due to Bishop Drainey's skill at answering questions. He didn't say "Yes" or "No" but instead made lots of good points which will make the interview far more interesting than if I had been faced with the old blood out of a stone scenario.

For added excitement, I thought I had an hour with the Bishop but at the last minute it turned out there was only half an hour! I had to drop quite a few of my questions. Fortunately the Bishop was very generous and long after somebody had knocked on the door to tell him the time was up he was offering another five minutes for another question.

It shouldn't suprise me, but it did, how much he had to say that falls in to the "if James said that, people would call him a fundamentalist blogger" category. What I will let slip, is that I think Bishop Drainey has a far less wimpy vision of what it means to be a Catholic than I give him credit for - perhaps because I rarely hear it.

So all in all, I'm grateful to Bishop Drainey for his time and for indulging me with fantastic answers to my questions. Obviously he dodged one or two, I think that's par for the course, but at the end of the day if he hadn't been willing to answer questions well, I would have ended up with a rubbish interview.

So get your £1.20 ready.

I always like to give you a bit of fun on a Friday and this is awesome.

From New Liturgical Movement...

However, there is one exception: Catholic Missalette publishers. Every issue comes with a restriction. "The use of this publication is licensed only to current subscribers during the 2010 year." What about those leftover from last year? You must "discard any remaining printed material covered by the license at the end of the designated time period shown on the license."

What about saving up three years of missalettes and reusing them just to eliminate waste and saving parish money? Don't even think about it. That's not allowed. We are even told that it is illegal and violates "moral rights."

And so, every year at exactly this time, there must be a bonfire of the missalettes. They must be destroyed, lest you be immoral, or so we are told. Actually what happens is that they are all collected and hurled into the garbage bin out back and taken off the landfill.

[link]

I'm not sure if the rule about only using a Missalette during a certain year applies in the UK, I wouldn't be suprised to find it did though. Even if it doesn't, the sheer impracticality of keeping and storing many thousands of little books is probably enough to make sure we keep on buying new missalettes every week.

When the new translation comes out (yes, I realise I will be in a nursing home by then) can we please get some proper missals and tell people how to use them?

I thought this part of a much longer article by Fr Dwight Longenecker was interesting, it certainly matches my own experiences...

The student's inner logic goes like this: "I've been given this religion that I've been told is the greatest thing in the universe, but when I try to question it, I'm told to be quiet and simply accept. Therefore it can't be as great as it's cracked up to be. If the adults can't take a little criticism, they either can't defend their beliefs, or they must be scared that it's all hogwash. That's why they try to shut me up. The whole thing must be bosh. I've got to find a philosophy for life that works, and if this one can't take a little criticism, it must be wrong." The practical result of this thought process is teenage rebellion, not only in belief but in behavior.

The rebellion makes the teenager unhappy because he is now frightened of the future. To extend the metaphor, his backpack turns out to be full of second-rate equipment. He needs some serious gear for the challenge of life, and he feels like he's been given string and picture hangers. The rebellious teenager is desperate for security, for sure guidance and a reliable guide for life. If he feels the one he has been given has let him down, then rebellion turns into rejection, and his life may take a downward spiral into despair.

The second response to the critical instinct appears to be more positive. When faced with the opportunity to criticize, the student declines to do so. He accepts everything the adults have said, toes the line, and remains everyone's golden boy. This response could be called polite conformity. The student has not engaged his critical facilities at all; he has merely taken the path of least resistance. He conforms outwardly to the Faith but has not engaged with it in any real or practical manner. Unfortunately, most religious educators have not only been perfectly content with the response, they have positively encouraged it.

The problem with "polite conformity" is that it is artificial. The student becomes the typical religious hypocrite -- putting on a false front to please the authority figures while behaving in an un-Christian manner. This reaction is actually worse than open rebellion because the student is often fooled by his own façade. He comes to believe that lip service and outward conformity are all that is required, and if he is never challenged to engage his critical instinct positively, his religious development will either be stunted or retrograde.

The third response is the most difficult, but also the most authentic: encouraging the student's critical instinct. Indeed, the educational method from high school upward is built around this instinct and uses it as the motor for the entire educational enterprise. In this response, the critical instinct is seen as positive, and the student is encouraged to rummage through the backpack and test the contents to see if they are true and reliable.

[link]

"When faced with the opportunity to criticize, the student declines to do so. He accepts everything the adults have said, toes the line, and remains everyone's golden boy."

No danger of me falling in to that trap is there... but I think there's a serious point to be made here.

Fr Dwight Longenecker talks about "polite conformity" where the student "conforms outwardly to the Faith but has not engaged with it in any real or practical manner" and he says that "most religious educators have not only been perfectly content with the response, they have positively encouraged it."

I would suggest that one of the big problems in our Catholic schools today is that these "golden boy" students have grown up to become religious educators themselves, they have become "the typical religious hypocrite -- putting on a false front to please the authority figures while behaving in an un-Christian manner".

This is certainly the kind of behaviour which is rewarded and encouraged among those considering a career as a lay pastoral person, youth worker or school teacher. Keep quiet about concerns, be nice and don't rock the boat.

I think this explains how we can end up with such awful textbooks, with Connexions advisors in schools and with so many nods and winks in the direction of contraception and yet still have people crooning about how wonderful everything is.

Everything is wonderful, in the false front put on to please authority figures.

Just when you think you've seen it all...

[link]

It's our first Christmas with a child old enough to learn the names of things... sheep, cow, pig, etc. We thought it was important to get a good nativity set but we couldn't find one we liked anywhere (we are v fussy).

But we do like this...

This fantastic cake was made by Lucy Shaw in Oxford (any connection with Joseph Shaw?) and we think it's brilliant.

[picture source]

Today is the feast day of St Nicholas. He was a Bishop in the fourth centuary, know as a patron saint of children. He helped three girls to get married by providing their wedding dowery. He was there at the Council of Nicea and James likes him becuase he punched Arius!

In Europe (but not England) there is a tradition where children put their shoes outside the door so that the next morning on the feast of St Nicholas they can find that St Nicholas has been and put coins in them. In England Saint Nicholas or Santa comes on Christmas Eve and fills childrens stockings and we thought it would be confusing for the girls if Saint Nicholas visited twice!

So I came up with an idea that Saint Nicholas would throws bags of coins down the chimney on his feast day and give gifts in celebration of the birth of our Lord on Christmas Eve.

This year when he threw the bag of coins down the chimey it burst and the coins scattered round the room so the children (Leona and James) had to find all the coins :o) They had bounced in to all sorts of interesting hiding places and it took Leona a while to find all of hers... it too James even longer.

I'm fairly sure I first heard this criticism from the lips of Fr Fun a few years ago but I've heard it a few times since and now the Bishop of Croydon Nick Baines (Anglican - so he's no more a Bishop than I am) asks of Away in a Manger...

"I always find it a slightly bizarre sight when I see parents and grandparents at a nativity play singing Away in a Manger as if it actually related to reality. I can understand the little children being quite taken with the sort of baby of whom it can be said 'no crying he makes', but how can any adult sing this without embarrassment? I think there are two problems here: first, it is normal for babies to cry and there is probably something wrong if they don't; secondly, are we really to believe that a crying baby Jesus should be somehow theologically problematic? Or, to put it more bluntly, is crying supposed to be sinful?"

[link]

What a moron.

It is normal for babies to cry but it is also normal for them not to cry. Babies do not spend their every waking hour crying and sometimes they simply lay there looking around and gurgling gently.

What the carol doesn't say is "this baby never cries ever" and what it definitely doesn't say is "because a crying baby Jesus wold be theologically problematic because crying is sinful." The song sets a scene: The cattle are lowing (whatever that means), the baby awakes and he doesn't cry.

I've been there, I've been a parent with a baby which simply woke up and looked around. It's a nice intimate moment and it's a nice thought that maybe Mary and Joseph had such a moment with the baby Jesus and it's not entirely unlikely. Neither of my children are God (I would have noticed) and it's happened to me a few times. No doubt there were other not so serence moments but the author of the carol chooses not to evoke them at this time. It's not a biography.

Now if all the miserable gits who can't even make up original criticisms would please naff off that would be lovely.

One of the more interesting things about having children is the development of Christmas traditions. I'm not talking here about well known traditions like Christmas trees and Nativity sets, I'm talking about family traditions. For example, in the Bogle household they wash the manger.

Now that Leona is old enough to have an idea what is going on we've been making a conscious effort to create a few traditions of our own and one of these is "we always go out for a walk to gather some holly". This year was the first time.

It was a beautiful crisp winters day and we drove to the top of Brantingham hill which is one of my favourite places in the world if only because of all the memories.

I was taken there as a child with the gang from Broomfleet (aunties, uncles, cousins) and we pushed my uncle down the hill in a pram. I was taken there many times on scout hikes including a few night hikes the dark. I was taken there on a Duke of Edinburgh's Award training weekend where there was a girl called Ella that I was very fond of but afraid to say so and I came here today with Ella and our children look for holly.

I only notice now I look at the photos that Leona is wearing the exact same had that Ella wore all those years ago.

The sun was shining through the trees and making everything golden. We walked for a little while, Leona stopping as she does to examine everything including a molehill to which she pointed and said "poop" (an easy mistake to make). Eventually it happened that I stopped the pram to take a photo while Ella and Leona walked a little way ahead until Ella stopped and looked around. "Oh, very good daddy!" Ella said (calling me daddy 'cause thats what you do when toddlers are around), she thought I had stopped because of the holly bush I was stood next to (that they had walked right past) when actually I hadn't seen it either.

Mummy clipped some holly branches (no berries anywhere) and passed them to Leona who was very well gloved up (health and safety). Leona put them in big bucket we brought with us while daddy looked up and down the path nervously wondering if somebody might come along and tell us off for stealing holly.

We were careful not to take too much holly from any given bush and moved from bush to bush until eventually we had ample holly for our needs. Ella took a little more because it's always best to be safe, then we headed back to the car - but not until we'd played a little hide and seek.

On the way home we stopped for fuel and idiot daddy accidentally bought premium expensive fuel (the pumps were badly marked) which was 15p a litre more expensive but he was cheered up when we passed one of those farmhouses where they sell veg outside with an honesty box and discovered that not only do Brussels Sprouts grow on freaky alien sticks but that he could buy one for only £1.20! Despite the influence of popular culture, I actually quite like Brussel Sprouts!

When we got home mummy used green wire to tie the holly branches all around the house giving it a slight hint of the festivities to come without actually constituting decorations (not shiny, no lights) and spoiling Advent. There will be no real decorations going up until much nearer to Christmas day.

All in all we had a good time and I think Leona did too so we will definitely be doing it again next year.

By now I'm sure everybody has heard about the Dublin Report, the latest in a long line of similar reports on sexual abuse of Children in the Catholic Church. Each time a report such as this comes out (what a grim thing to be able to write) it reminds us of the same inescapable fact: The days when we could say "every organisation has it's bad apples" are gone.

The uncomfortable truth is this: That the Catholic Church has a culture which is favourable to abuse.

There are, right now, priests in the Catholic Church in England and Wales who are abusing their power in all sorts of ways. I am not aware, thank God, of any abuse of children. If I were, I would not be writing about it on a blog but calling the police. No, I'm talking about other, lesser kinds of abuse. Priests who use their position to teach their own personal theory on Christianity rather than the Catholic Church's version or who re-write prayers to match their political ideology.

Don't get me wrong. I am most definitely not suggesting that any of these things are even comparable to the rape of a child. My point here is this: We have priests doing things that they shouldn't and we have widespread knowledge behind the scenes that priests are doing things they shouldn't. Yet nothing happens?

Why?

For the exact same reason that nothing happened in Dublin these last forty years.

It is my strongly held belief that the underlying causes of the sex abuse cover ups are alive and well in the Church today, I know because I have experienced them firsthand. I think it's important to flag up three major areas of concern, ways in which the Church in Dublin acted that allowed child abuse to continue. These are all ways in which the Church in England and Wales continues to act today.

1: Maintain secrecy, avoid scandal, protect the reputation of the Church

I have made complaints to priests and Bishops and I can tell you that the following paragraph makes hairs stand up on the back of my neck. The stench is familiar, the same evil is at work.

1.15 The Dublin Archdiocese‟s pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the State.

As somebody who has on occasion suggested that priests and Bishops may have done something wrong I can tell you that the response is usually along the lines of "careful what you say, that's a priest you are talking about". Usually this is followed by the suggestion that if I criticise a priest I might damage the mission of the Church.

It is a terrible thing to believe that the Church, the mission of Jesus Christ on earth, depends upon lies. To believe that Priests and Bishops can only be respected if we lie and pretend that none of them ever do anything wrong, yet this seems to be a belief widely held in today's Church. The big problem is that the lie generally ends up doing more damage than the original problem. Most people can accept that mistakes are made and some people do bad things, most people can accept a few bad priests, nobody can accept institutional cover ups.

Step 2: Require explicit complaints before you do anything about anything

1.29 One aspect of this was the refusal to acknowledge or recognise an allegation of child sexual abuse unless it was made in strong and explicit terms. There were some anonymous reports which were ignored. A number of bishops heard suspicions and concerns but they did not take the obvious steps of asking precisely what was involved or challenging the priest concerned. A mother who contacted the Archdiocese to report that her daughter had been abused as a child was told that the daughter would have to make the complaint. When the mother made it clear that the daughter was unlikely to be able to make such a complaint, she was not even asked for the name of the priest.

One of the symptoms of a world in which everbody feels compelled to pretend that there are no problems is that we end up with a situation where it seems everybody knows about problems but nothing is done. I've been aware of situations where plenty of laypeople know about a priest and many other priests also do and it's hard to believe the Bishop isn't at least aware that there's a hint of trouble. Yet these situations can go on for years, am I seriously the only person who feels the need to pass these things higher?

Of course, it would be hard to tell if the Bishop did do something about it...

Step 3: Never tell people who complain what you did about it.

1.31 The American phrase, "don't ask, don't tell" is appropriate to describe the attitude of the Dublin Archdiocese to clerical sex abuse for most of the period covered by the report. The problem as a whole never seems to have been discussed openly by the Archbishop and his auxiliaries, at least until the 1990s. Complainants were told as little as possible. The note "Gain his knowledge, tell him nothing" for dealing with complainants and witnesses, discussed in Chapter 4, typifies the attitudes of the Archdiocese.

One of the more frustrating things about writing to a Bishop is the response, which will always be that he is looking in to it and please rest assured he is just as concerned about these things as you are. This is widely accepted as perfectly reasonable, he is the Bishop and you are not, so why should he tell you anything? The problem is that from the point of view of the person making the complaint - nothing happened. You wrote a letter and nothing happened. So why bother writing letters?

I understand that sometimes discretion is reqired, but often there is no reason for this, especially in the case of very public infractions which ought to have a public response. If Fr X has been using cheese in place of communion bread then there will be laypeople wandering around saying "I don't see why we can't use cheese, Fr X does it..." I know because I hear people say things like that all the time.

Looking at the culture...

I think that all three of the problems above are related. Bishops wants to maintain the impression that priests never do anything wrong so they couldn't possibly say that one of them has. As a result, the Church doesn't implement it's own canon laws or do anything about anything unless somebody takes it upon themselves to make a highly specific explicit complaint. Even then, the desire to keep appearances means that the person making the complaint will never know if anything happened.

I don't for one moment think this is the bad practice of one man. I'm not pointing the finger at any particular Bishop and saying "this is what he does" because frankly, they all do it. Not only that, but the vast majority of Catholics expect them to do it and think it perfectly reasonable and for the best. Some of those Catholics go on to be Bishops...

The Dublin report demonstrates how dangerous this culture is, because the culture doesn't make any differentiation between differnt kinds of abuse. These days we have child protection and safeguarding but these measures amount to an exception, we are basically saying "we will allow priests to abuse their power, but only if they do so in ways that are not illegal and expensive".

It's a good thing that we have safeguarding against sexual abuse of minors, but we don't have have any sort of protection against the priest who wants to tell your children that Jesus probably didn't feed five thousand people (they probably shared their lunch) and the tide was probably out at the red sea and basically this religion stuff, well, it's mostly made up and the important thing is to be nice and don't worry about confession because you haven't committed any real sins.

As parents we feel rather helpless.

The answer...

I'm not going to double the length of this blog entry by attempting a solution here. I don't know what the solution is but I think it's an important start to identify the problem. Perhaps we could have a discssion in the comments?

I would like to extend a special invitation on this occasion to any priests reading and the people who read this in our diocesan curial office. I'd be very interested to know their views because they are inside the system and I only see it from the outside.

Still, if some more seasoned commenters could get us going...

Come on everybody...

Please?

Well?

Our Diocese recently used it's website to encourage a parish vigil of prayer for the climate change talks in Copenhagen. "It is crucial" they say, that "as a Christian community, we pray and act together."

Use Google to do a search on the Middlesbrough Diocese website for contraception and you get a single measly result. Do a search for climate and you get 167. I can't help but think they are being a little selective when it comes to what is crucial.

Meanwhile the Archdiocese of Washington website carries an excellent article on Humanae Vitae. I can't imagine our diocese ever posting something like this...

A generation has passed since the publication of the boldly pastoral and prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae which upheld the ancient ban on the use of artificial contraception. Perhaps no teaching of the Church causes the worldly to scoff more than our teaching against artificial contraception. The eyes of so many, Catholics among them, roll and the scoffing begins: Unrealistic! Out of touch! Uncompassionate! Silly! You’ve got to be kidding!

...

What were some of the concerns and predictions made by Pope Paul VI? (All of these are qutoes from Humanae Vitae)

1. Consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity (Humanae Vitae (HV) # 17)

2. A general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law.(HV # 17)

3. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection. (HV # 17)

4. Who will prevent public authorities from…impos[ing] their use on everyone. (HV # 17)

...

So, forty years later, who had the wisdom to see? The World or the Church?

...

The divorce rate did not decline. It skyrocketed. Divorce rates soared through the 1970s to to the 1990s to almost 50% of marriages failing. In recent years the divorce rate has dropped slightly but this may also be due to the fact that far fewer people get married in the first place, preferring to cohabitate and engage in a kind of serial polygamy drifting from relationship to relationship. The overall divorce rate despite its slight drop remains high, hovering in the low 40% range. Contraceptive advocates claim that divorce is a complicated matter. True enough. But they cannot have it both ways, claiming that contraception would be a “simple” fix to make marriages happier and then, when they are so horrifyingly wrong, claiming that divorce is “complicated.” Paul VI on the other predicted rough sailing for marriage in advent of contraception. Looks like the Pope was right.

The question of women’s dignity is hard to measure and different people have different measures. Women do have greater career choices. But is career or vocation the true source of one’s dignity? One’s dignity is surely more than their economic and utilitarian capacity. Sadly, motherhood has taken a real back seat in popular culture. And, as the Pope predicted women have been hypersexualized as well. Their dignity as wives and mothers has been set aside in favor of the sexual pleasure they offer. As the Pope predicted many modern men, no longer bound by marriage for sexual satisfaction, use women and discard them on a regular basis. Men “get what they want” and it seems many women are willing to supply it rather freely. In this scenario men win. Women are often left with STDs, they are often left with children, and as they get older and “less attractive” they are often left alone. I am not sure this is dignity. But you decide who is right and if women really have won in the new morality that contraception helped usher in. I think the Pope wins this point as well.

As for preventing STDs and AIDS, again, big failure. STDs did not decrease and were not prevented. Infection rates skyrocketed through the 1970s and 1980s. AIDS which appeared on the scene later continues to show horribly high rates. Where is the promised deliverance? Contraceptives it seems, do not prevent anything. Rather they encourage the spread of these diseases by encouraging the bad behavior that causes them. Here too it looks like the Church was right and the world was wrong.

Add to this list the huge teenage pregnancy rates, the devastation of single parent families, broken hearts and even poverty. The link to poverty may seem obscure but the bottom line is that single motherhood is the chief cause of poverty in this country. Contraception encourages promiscuity. Promiscuity leads to teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy leads to single motherhood (absent fatherhood). Single motherhood leads to welfare and poverty. Currently in the inner city over 80% of homes are headed by single mothers. It is the single highest factor related to poverty.

...

Time will prove where wisdom lies. What have we learned in in over forty years of contraception? First we have learned that it is a huge failure in meeting its promises. It has backfired. It has made things worse, not better. Marriage, families, children have all taken a huge hit. Bad behavior has been encouraged and all the bad consequences that flow from it are flourishing. Most people seem largely disinterested in this data. Hearts have become numb and minds have gone to sleep. I hope you are not among them and that you might consider this information well and share it with others. Time HAS proved where wisdom lay. It’s time to admit the obvious.

[link]

Unfortunately, admitting the obvious isn't something we seem to be very good at.

Very, very big.

[link]

[source: b3ta]

Owen of Drawn to Catholicism is has drawn my attention to his yearly devotion to pray for the Souls in Purgatory.

Beginning November 25th my family and I are praying daily through the Month for the Souls In Purgatory from November 25th to December 25th 2009.

This is my fourth year practicing this devotion while three of my family members joined me during 2007, 2008 and again this year.

We would be grateful to add any of your deceased Christian loved ones to our list of souls being prayed for.

Our family is offering Masses during these thirty days leading up to Christmas Day, known as a day when our Holy Mother, through her faithful prayers, sees many souls released from Purgatory to enter the gates of heaven. On Christmas Day we will pray aloud each and every name given to us and commit these souls to the Lord at the Christmas Day Mass.

I have to say, Christmas is not a time I naturally associate with thoughts about purgatory but now I think about it, it makes a lot of sense to think of purgatory as a kind of advent - or of advent as a kind of purgatory.

So if you have somebody you would like praying for or if you would like to join in the praying (or both) then it's not too late to join in.

Launrence England, the legend, has announced his engagement. No doubt the wedding will be streamed live on YouTube.

I can't think of a classier way to announce your engagement to the world than this...

And more than friends yes
A fiancee as well
I love you, my darling
Let's play cards and listen to songs instead
TV Licensing want a hundred and forty two quid
To screen I'm a Celebrity in a Quagmire
Get me Out of Here
I'm going to have to write to them
Tell them I'll have to pass
I'm going to have to write to them
Tell them to kiss my...

[link]

Seriously though, congratulations. We look forward to all the cute baby pictures.

I have a little notebook and a grand plan, I will draw in it regularly (at least one a week if not more) and by doing so my drawing skills will improve. Little and often...

So today the girls were both tired and went for an afternoon nap. A rare chance, so I decided it had been a while since I did a drawing and I pulled out my little notebook.

The last time I did one was August 2008.

If I hadn't done one on Sunday then it is probably I wouldn't have done a drawing all year.

So much for the plan.

Anyways, it's such a rare event I thought I should plonk it on the blog...

I'm particularly pleased with the greenery which I managed to do without my usual reversion to squiggling... well, not too much squiggling anyway.

Mark should recognise the candle sticks.

Fr Ray Blake writes...

Since the rise of the Episcopal Conference bishops see themselves as accountable, above all, to their brother bishop and to the faceless and multifarious committees of the Conference. This accountability far from being about fraternal correction and developing a sense of zeal seems to be about loyalty to the conference and developing a culture of committees and mediocrity, hiding behind collective structures.

[link]

I reckon that's about right.

I know that not many of you care very much or appreciate it at all but a long journey came to an end for me on Saturday when I finally completed the original Legend of Zelda.

I started it over five years ago when I was at university but my computer broke and I lost my saved game. I played it at the same time as Rob who finished it but I didn't. I started it again a couple of years ago and got distracted.

It's an old game and therefore a bit harder than the new-fangled kiddie ones of today. This year, playing a NES game that had been ported to the Gamecube but playing on a Gamecube emulator on the Wii I finally made it.

As you can see (000) I made a point not to use a single continue and collected all the heart pieces.

I can now reach the age of thirty safe in the knowledge that this is out of the way...

We are lucky enough to live in a diocese where the H1N1 trick has yet to be pulled, but not everybody is, which is why I found this cartoon very funny...

[from Drawn to Catholicism]

Unfortunately, you can tell that the artist is a Catholic convert because he got something quite wrong in his picture.

I have corrected it for him...

There. That's what Catholic Churches look like.

It is a wonderful thing to be alive in the age of the internet. Twice this evening I have wanted to know something and twice I have known it within minutes.

I do not know what is more wonderful, to be alive in the age of the internet or to be alive in the age of lego. It is certainly a wonderful thing when the two collide.

Today, the internet has collided with lego has collided with English Catholic history. You don't get much better than that.

Yes, the dissolution of the monasteries in Lego!

What I particularly like about this is the little details, like the monks fighting the soldiers with brooms and shovels...

But even better than that is this...

Lego Ad Orientem!

Okay, okay. So they appear to be having lunch in the Church. You can't have everything.

More pictures can be found here.

Videos I should not be allowed to see...

Remember hearing about penal times when Roman Catholics were given heavy fines by the government for not going along with the state religion?

Well..

At least eight Russo-German families in Salzkotten, Germany, have suffered heavy fines and now their fathers have been sentenced to prison, because they have refused to send their elementary school-age children to mandatory sexual education classes.

...

With fines having failed to force the families into compliance, government officials have now sentenced each of the families' respective fathers to spend a brief time in prison. One father has already spent seven days in jail and was released Friday.

...

"This type of persecution from German government officials against the Salzkotten 8 shows how committed the German system is to punishing home school families and others who do not comply with the compulsory education laws," said IHRG President Joel Thornton, "even when they are only removing their children from a single clearly objectionable class."

...

The Youth Welfare Office or Jugendamt - an institution similar to Child Protective Services - acts as the government's chief intervening instrument, and when prison and fines do not bend Christian families into compliance, they recommend that these Christians lose parental custody of their children.

[link]

That's not England in the 1600's, that's Germany right now. Of course here in England things are different...

Parents will face fines if they remove 15-year-old children from sex education lessons as they become part of the national curriculum for the first time.

Lessons in relationships and sex will begin at five, with prescribed content for each age group.

...

Mothers and fathers risk being fined and prosecuted under anti-truancy laws.

[link]

The biggest kick in the teeth at the moment is the Catholic Education Service who said merely that they are "dissapointed". That's great. A law is passed making it illegal for me to exercise my rights as a parent and they are dissapointed.

Not as dissapointed as I am.

Searching today for something entirely unrelated (to do with programming) I stumbled across a website that really has to be seen to be believed.

Rules for Good Handwriting

If only they had this sort of thing when I were a lad.

I've been running the Google advertising down the right hand side of this blog for a couple of years now and while it's never made me a millionaire it brings in about £5 a month which just about covers my web hosting and domain registration.

Because I run those adverts, Google has offered me a £75 voucher to try running some adverts myself. I don't actually want to run any adverts myself but it seems a shame to let £75 worth of free advertising go to waste, so, if anybody knows of any good causes that could do with a little bit of extra web traffic then get them to send me an email. These are for Google adverts on the internet - they will need a website for me to point them to.

Be quick! The voucher runs out on December 31st.

I don't know how many of you saw the story of the ugly but safe Christmas tree in Poole...

When is a Christmas tree not a Christmas tree? When it is a giant cone covered in what appears to be green doormats.

Shoppers stared in bemusement at the mysterious object that landed in a shopping precinct in Poole, Dorset, this week. Some compared it to a giant traffic cone, a witch’s hat or a cheap special effect from an early episode of Doctor Who.

The 33ft structure turned out to be their Christmas tree, designed according to the principles of health and safety, circa 2009.

Thus it has no trunk so it won’t blow over, no branches to break off and land on someone’s head, no pine needles to poke a passer-by in the eye, no decorations for drunken teenagers to steal and no angel, presumably because it would need a dangerously long ladder to place it at the top.

[The Times]

Of course, the general public were not impressed. They said things like "I prefer a Christmas tree, not a big wizard’s hat or a lump of astroturf or something that belongs in the roadworks." and "It’s horrible. If you are going to have a fake tree then it ought to resemble a tree. You can get some really good fake trees but this is awful. It doesn’t feel Christmassy at all."

The council stood firm. The tree would definitely be staying and not moving saying: "People think you can just go into the woods, chop down a tree and put it up in the high street but if it blows over and kills someone then somebody is liable"

Fortunately, Vandalism to the rescue...

A Dorset town's much ridiculed fake Christmas tree has been replaced with a traditional conifer.

...

The Dolphin Shopping Centre donated the real tree which was put up on Tuesday morning.

Dorset police are studying town centre CCTV video to see who damaged the artificial tree.

Police said one or more individuals climbed the structure in Falkland Square and damaged its framework between 1700 GMT on 30 November and 0915 the following day. It was taken away for repairs.

[BBC]

A heartwarming tale of Christmas cheer or yet another sign of the rise of the barbarians and the impending fall of civilisation?

You decide...

Personally, I obviously don't condone mindless acts of vandalism but what about non-mindless acts? What about considered, positive (and inclusive of course) constructive acts of ugliness removal?

Maybe there is something to be learned from the thugs of Poole?

I'm just sayin...

I've always been a big fan of gift aid. There's something really satisfying about the thought of dangling some cash under the tax man's nose and then whipping it away to give a good cause.

For those who don't know, Gift Aid is a scheme in the UK where you can allow charities to claim back some of the tax you paid on a donation. So for instance, if I give £20 to a charity they get £20 but if I Gift Aid it then they can claim back the tax I paid and they actually get more like £25. Hooray. Poor Darling, so near and yet so far.

Today I received a phone call from Amnesty International who I used to support with a monthly donation until they decided to support abortion at which time the money started going to SPUC instead. Amnesty didn't want to ask for more money, they wanted to ask me to give them permission to put in a Gift Aid claim for the money I already gave.

It wouldn't cost me anything and since I was giving a few quid a month for a couple of years they could stand to do quite nicely out of it - and it would be a kick in the teeth for the tax man.

I said no, explaining that I could no longer do anything to support Amnesty because they have become pro-abortion. The lady down the phone said that's not true, we are not pro-abortion, we are just against criminalising women.

The fact is that because of Amnesty International's policy change there will be unborn babies killed who would not otherwise have been. I supported Amnesty because I thought they were about standing up for the weak and defenseless - how much more weak and defenseless can you get than an unborn child?

So as painful as it is, the government get to keep my money - no doubt they will spend it on free condoms for toddlers.

Sometimes you just can't win.

I was speaking to a priest the other day who was telling me about something some other priest had said about how we need to stop preparing people for "a sacrament" and start preparing them to "live sacramentally".

No doubt when understood in the correct way there's nothing wrong with the above. If "a sacrament" is understood to be one off event that has no lasting significance in our lives and "live sacramentally" is understood to mean that we live our lives in such a way that both the physical and spirtual parts of our human nature are fulfilled then yes. Okay. We have an improvement.

But the general impression one actually receives is that the sacraments are not important, it's how we live that counts. The net result is to downplay the sacraments and tell people to be nice. Don't worry about a Baptism, try to teach your children to be good. Don't worry about a Wedding, try to love your partner.

This is dangerous and foolish because the Sacraments are not merely a social event to mark the fact that we intend to start being nice to a girl we like. Sacraments are a source of sanctifying grace. The very grace we need to make a sacrifice of our lives for our wife and children.

If we really believe in the supernatural then what we are saying sounds awfully like "don't worry about meals, the important thing is to live your life without being hungry". The two are related.

Anyway, the whole thing put me in mind of a blog entry by Fr Dright Longenecker...

From the distorted deity of the modernist and the un-Christian anthropology comes an un-Christian understanding of Christ and the gospels. The modernist cannot accept the old supernaturalist understanding of a Virgin Birth, the Incarnation, the Atonement and the Resurrection. These events must be 'de mythologized' and re-interpreted. Consequently, the whole understanding of the salvation of souls is totally eviscerated. Jesus Christ's death on the cross is nothing more than the martyrdom of a good man. For the modernist it cannot be a saving sacrifice. Such metaphysical and medieval concepts are impossible given his faulty theology and anthropology. At most the sacrifice of Christ is a symbol of human selflessness and sacrificial love, but even this is a nonsense if all we have is the senseless death of a political prisoner.

If this is true--if Jesus' death is no more than symbolic image, then the entire ecclesiological structure and sacramental system is no more than an archaic symbolical structure. It is a historic mythology that, at best, unlocks something within the human subconscious. It is a human construct that helps people to transition through their lives. Indeed, the vicar in the next door parish to me in England in the late 80s said as much. He said, "I see myself as a sort of shaman of the tribe. I'm there to offer them rites of passage."

What strikes me now is how honest my fellow clergy were about their paganism. Unfortunately, their honesty was rare and usually not conscious. More often they indulged in a kind of dishonesty which I can only now admit is really a lie from Satan himself, for what they did was to use the traditional language of the historic Christian faith while not believing the historic Christian faith at all.

So when they said they believed in the Incarnation they actually believed that "Jesus Christ was the most fulfilled human who ever lived. He was so self actualized that he achieved a kind of divine status. He, more than anyone else, was one with the god within." When they 'affirmed' the Virgin Birth they really meant that Mary was an especially pure young woman before she had intercourse with Joseph or a Roman soldier. When they proclaimed from their pulpit on Easter Day, "Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!" what they meant was, "In some sort of wonderful way I would want to say that Jesus Christ continued to inspire his followers after his tragic death."

I used to think that his lie was simply being told in the halls of academia, that the rot was really only in the universities, but of course it was not only there. It had been disseminated throughout the Anglican Church through the education of the clergy for the last fifty or sixty years. Of course there were pockets of true belief and there are still. In making this critique of Anglicanism I am not damning all Anglicans.

However, Catholics who are involved in ecumenism should be aware that this is the real nature of the people they are talking to. The Anglican theologians will talk a Catholic language, but they mean something totally opposed to Catholicism when they do. They will talk a Christian language, but they mean something totally opposed to Christianity when they do. We must not imagine that this modernism is held only by radical theologians and heretical bishops. It is the mainstream.

...

PS: I am well aware that the same sort of modernism has poisoned the Catholic Church too, and will post on this soon.

[link]

Perhaps the priests who are speaking about the need to stop preparing people for "a sacrament" and start preparing them to "live sacramentally" mean it in a good way, but the problem is that it's hard to tell and I can't help feeling this kind of ambiguous language is a sign of a wider uncertainty about the role of Sacraments.

If we really believe that the Sacraments are outward signs of very real sanctifying grace then it is crazy to talk about going past them. We should be forever talking about going back to them.

We should forget preparing people for married life and start preparing them for marriage.

It's a classic...

They just don't think these things through...

Ding! Ding!

This is Catholic Education Services docment "Setting the record straight":

This what happens if you put water on a chip pan fire:

There has been a great deal of misreporting and misleading information circulated regarding PSHE in schools and therefore we hope this document is of help to parents, schools, staff, governors, members of the Catholic community and the media in helping to set the record straight on this issue.

Sex and Relationships Education: Setting the record straight (pdf)

Oh wait, I think I muddled them up. They are both so similar...

Dodgy dealings in the parish down the road, here's an excerpt from the newsletter...

Be reconciled for Christmas! (before all the aggravation!). During our Tuesday evening Mass there will be the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We're not allowed to offer a 'General Absolution' but it'll be as easy as we can make it! I can't say any more in case someone reports me!

[link]

I don't know what he's worried about, he's been reported more times than I've written blog entries. Nothing ever happens.

Last time I went to one of these things, "as easy as we can make it" mean't this: It meant everybody went to the front communion line style and said "forgive me father for I have sinned" and he said "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", that's it. Obviously by the book...

One of the issues raised in the recent Dublin report on priestly abuse was this...

One aspect of this was the refusal to acknowledge or recognise an allegation of child sexual abuse unless it was made in strong and explicit terms. There were some anonymous reports which were ignored. A number of bishops heard suspicions and concerns but they did not take the obvious steps of asking precisely what was involved or challenging the priest concerned.

[link]

What's the chances this applies here as well?

For those last minute Advent ponderies... a look at the four groups at Jesus' nativity.

It may be December, but Kate is still having a fair old crack at the blog entry title of the year award with "CASE Closed"

As a CASE Associate I received my outrageously badly photocopied letter a few days ago informing me that the agency is to close meaning the Bishop's Conference will now have no agency for youth work (that closed last year) and no agency for evangelisation. The work CASE do will apparently be divided up among other departments at the Bishop's Conference which begs the question - do these other departments not have other work they are doing already?

Despite their shaky websites, CASE were the best thing to come out of the Bishop's conference in recent years and they should have been supported and not closed down.

I'm fairly sure we're going to be pretty busy this festive season what with two toddlers and all so now seems as good a time as any (the calm before the storm) to wish you all a happy and joyful Christmas.

I leave you with the best Christmas present I will receive this year, Bob Dylan...

See you on the other side...