Joanna Bogle (the lady who writes nice books about the lives of nuns and how to bake cakes for feast days) writes...

The Catholic Education Service has completely messed up on this one, and heads will have to roll. Not much can be salvaged, and it's time for an admission of mistakes and a chance for a fresh start at the CES.

They were given an excellent opportunity - invited in right at the start of the Govt's discussions, given a place on the planning committee etc. They should have made the Catholic position clear, offered statistics and information showing - which is now readily acknowledged - that current fashionable forms of sex-ed, used for the past two decades, have resulted in steadily rising rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion, and STDs, discussed some radically alternative ideas complete with plenty of back-up material (lots available both here and in the USA, Australia,etc. If then they were outnumbered and the same old ghastly rubbish-ideas were adopted, they should have produced a minority report and resigned - killing two birds with one stone by producing some sound ideas for the future while possibly helping to squelch the Govt scheme. But no. They just sat and nodded the whole project through on the Govt's terms and are now revealed as essentially part of the Govt bureaucracy and unconnected with the reality of the Church and the Christian vision of life and love.

...

Verdict from Catholic laity and clergy: NO CONFIDENCE in the CES in its present form. Time for a complete overhaul. Over to you, dear Bishops - and with the words of the Holy Father ringing in your ears, please take courage and take the action needed.

[link]

Prayers please! I'm going to be on the telly...

Usually on a Sunday at 11am you can find me at St Joseph's for the 11am Mass. This Sunday I will be on BBC1 at 11am taking part in the discussion on The Big Questions.

The subject of the discussion: Is this Pope a liability? So I expect it's going to be mainly about condoms though they may talk about Bishop Williamson, the Good Friday prayers and the Regensberg Lecture. So Pope, TV, Condoms... The whole thing reminds me of when Joanna Bogle was on Channel 4 recently, I hope my experience isn't as intense as hers.

The pannelists on the show will be Christina Rees and David Davis.

Update: For the next seven days you can watch me on iPlayer

I don't understand why Auntie Joanna keeps complaining about ghastly rubbish in the streets and big bins. So negative...

You just have to apply a bit of creative thinking...

More Skip Conversions...

Joanna Bogle she say...

watching a long line of communicants on this Monday January morning - all ages, both sexes, a great mix of people - I had a sudden wish to haul in some of the gleeful doomsayers who love telling us that Everything In the Church These Days is Awful and telling them to be quiet, kneel down, and join in...

...and then she say...

Apparently the bike trade generally didn't do so well this Christmas :"Lots of kids prefer to have computer games and that." Golly. How ghastly. It makes one droop.

When I play the new Zelda - Phantom Hourglass. It makes me want to haul in some of the gleeful doomsayers who love telling us that Everything in Videogames These Days is Awful and telling them to be quiet, sit down, and join in...

I expect staring at a box pushing buttons looks about as fulfilling as kneeling in front of a box fiddling with beads.