Remember my project to get 1000 people to sign a promise to LiveChastely during the 40th anniversary year of Humanae Vitae?

Well it's finished, because the people at Progressio have decided to pull the promises system without notice and replace it with something new... Community Challenges.

So would we have got 750 people to sign up in the next month? Probably not.

But now we'll never know...

Don't forget, if you haven't done it already, you need to sign the LiveChastely promise.

http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely

If you have done it. Have you asked somebody else to do it? Huh? Huh?

100 promises and counting...

In 1967, Pope Paul IV gave us his historic encyclical Populorum Progressio. Forty years later, 2007, we commemorated the 40th anniversary of this great encyclical. Populorum Progressio was translated in to 'plain english', the LiveSimply challenge was made and became the theme for three celebrations of National Youth Sunday (2006, 2007 and 2008). All over the country in schools and youth retreat centres young people have been learning to live simply.

In 1968, Pope Paul IV gave us his historic encyclical Humanae Vitae... Shhhhh. Forty years later, 2008. Nothing. The Bishops of England and Wales are silent. No youth organisations have been founded, not even a press release acknowledging the event. Nada. Nill. Not a sausage.

A Response...

As part of LiveSimply, young people have been invited to make a promise to change their lives in response the Populorum Progressio and the challenge to live simply. At the LiveSimply Promises website, hundreds of young people have made promises to turn off the light, eat fairtrade chocolate and not drop litter etc.

Now, over a hundred people believe that the time has come to make a new promise. On the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae we are making a promise to LiveChastely.

So far...

The response on the blogs has been great. Catholic Dads, Generations for Life, Lunch Break, Tim Finigan, Mullier Fortis, Countercultural Father, Joanna Bogle, Torch of The Faith, Laodicea and many others. Thanks to you all. The promise was also mentioned by Anne Arco in the Catholic Herald and I have also been contacted by a journalist for the Catholic Times. Mhari Dunlop (of xt3 fame) founded a facebook group which bizarrely has more members than have actually signed the promise (such is the nature of facebook).

Over a hundred people have now signed, the hundredth being our parish priest Fr William Massie. The hundred and first... did not want to give their name. One in five promise signers have hidden their names and a few of them went out of their way to email me and tell me why... that's right: They work for the Church.

What now?

We are well on target for 1000 people by the 41st anniversary of Humanae Vitae. If we carry on at the current rate we will easily make it. But. We need to keep up the momentum...

If you have not yet signed the promise... Sign the promise! Do it now! Click here and fill in the form! Remember: Chastity is not celibacy. Married people can be chaste too - Chastity means being in control of your own sexuality. It means not having an affair or using pr0n.

If you have a blog... Please mention the promise on your blog. If you have already mentioned it, the 100 promise milestone is a fantastic excuse to mention it again! It's a good idea to link directly to the promise page: http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely so that people don't get distracted reading this page. Also, you might like to put one of our banners in a prominent place on your blog.

Everybody... Blogs are great, but (sadly) many of our Catholic friends don't read blogs. All of us know people who would gladly make the promise and support a thing like this but who simply won't see it on a blog. Send them an email... personal invites work best. Don't forget to mention it to people you know at Church... did you see that LiveChastely thing? Finally, if you are a priest, you could put the promise on your newsletter... http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely

Future Plans?

Yeah... once we hit a good number (500?) I'm thinking of writing an individual letter to each and every Bishop in England and Wales inviting them to sign the promise. That will be interesting. But we need you to get us there...

Many many thanks to all the bloggers who have supported LiveChastely with blogentries and links. It really is appreciated. I won't try and thank you all individually here, but I plan to (try) to do it later.

As a blogger, I know how quickly a blog entry can slip off the front page in to obscurity. So... I made myself a handy banner (see above) so that no matter how much I blog, LiveChastely is always getting eyeballed.

Here's the code to put a banner on your own blog...

For this banner (handy for blog headers and forum signatures)...

Use this code...

<a href="http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely"><img src="http://www.lovingit.co.uk/images/live-chastely-banner.png" alt="Sign the LiveChastely promise!" /></a>

Or for this (more handy for sidebars) banner...

Use this code...

<a href="http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely"><img src="http://www.lovingit.co.uk/images/live-chastely-sidebar.png" alt="Sign the LiveChastely promise!" /></a>

Thanks again for all the support... only 15 to go until the big 100!

It's been Forty Years since Populorum Progressio.

The 'Live Simply' challenge will also mark forty years since the publication of Pope Paul VI's Populorum Progressio (the Development of Peoples). A number of organisations, including Pax Christi and Progressio, are planning a series of events and challenges on themes of justice.

[link]

Livesimply is inspired by Populorum Progressio, the 1967 encyclical from Paul VI.

This year's National Youth Sunday is the third one in a row with a LiveSimply theme.

[link|link to word file]

Third one... in a row... I think it's fair to say we've covered the LiveSimply theme.

Populorum Progressio was released in 1967 and it was only right and proper that we mark the release of such a significant encyclical. Populorum Progressio itself refers to Rerum Novarum (by Leo XIII). Important encyclicals should be remembered.

But 2007 is forty years since 1967. We heard about that anniversary in 2006 (marking the 'upcoming anniversary') and in 2007 itself.

It's now 2008 - surely the time has come to mark the fortieth anniversary of another important encyclial?

LiveChastely anyone?

Didn't think so... Silence. Of. Dissent.

Here's an idea... the LiveSimply people have a system on their site where you can make a promise to LiveSimply. The most popular promise on there at the moment is a promise to sign a seedpacket and send it to your MP. That promise currently has twenty-two votes - I reckon we can beat that.

I've made a promise on the site to LiveChastely, along with a clear message that I think the time has come to mark the anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Don't be part of the silence - join me in singing this promise and make it clear to the powers that be that those who want these things to be taken seriously are not one or two nutters with blogs, but hundreds and hundreds of people.

Click here to leave your promise.

You can leave a comment of your own over there, if you like and for heaven's sake, if you have one, put this on your blog! I've set the target to 1000 people by the 41st anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Don't lets leave me looking like an over-optimistic twerp.

Don't just be the best you can be! Encourage others to do the same!

It's more important than one of those stupid blog awards...

(Everybody feel free to use my faux-logo above...)