After discovering that a government minister had intervened to remove the sex education programme "Living and Growing" from the shelves, I decided to ask the Diocese of Middlesbrough if they had been using the programme...

Dear Mr Preece

Responses to your questions about Channel 4 sex education programme "living and growing"

1) Has this programme been used in any diocesan primary schools?

Not in an Middlesbrough Diocesan Primary Schools and its use has been actively discouraged because any material used for teaching in a Catholic School must be in accordance with the Church’s teaching.

2) Does this programme continue to be used in diocesan primary schools?

My researches indicate that it has not been used in any Middlesbrough Diocesan Primary School.

3) Is there a Diocesan policy relating to the use and selection of sex education (PSHE) materials for primary schools?

Currently a process organised nationally by CES and NIBRIA to review the Relationship and Sex Education guidelines last issued by the Bishop’s Conference in the 1990s is taking place and a Middlesbrough Diocesan Working Party has been established to implement those revised guidelines locally. In the meantime the Diocese recommends to the Governors of Diocesan primary schools the current scheme of the Diocese of Brentwood called ‘Journey in Love’ and the current scheme of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

I hope the above information answers your questions.

Yours sincerely

Father Derek Turnham

So the good news is no living and growing. I don't know much about the Diocese of Brentwood scheme, but I'm not fantastically pleased to hear they are recommending the current scheme of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

The following video from "All That I Am" contains graphic full frontal nudity approved by Archbishop Vincent Nichols and recommended to Primary Schools by the Diocese of Middlesbrough.

This video is aimed at nine year olds but you should only watch this video if there are no children around, you certainly shouldn't watch it at work...

The nude bodies flying at the screen. What are they for? There is absolutely nothing educational about them at all. I am quite sure that if a man on the street were found showing such pictures to nine year old girls he would be arrested.

Time for another email to the Diocese...

As I have already blogged, Bishop Drainey is holding a consultation on whether schools in the Diocese of Middlesbrough ought to become academies.

The Bishop’s Council, The Trustee Board of the Diocese, and the Director of Schools, Mr John Tat, met on Thursday 29th September 2011 to listen to a number of presentations on the conversion of Catholic Schools into academies.

The primary objective of the Bishop and his Trustees is to ensure that the Catholic identity of all Diocesan schools is not only maintained but enhanced and any proposed change by a Diocesan school to an academy must ensure this is achieved. In law, it is the Trustees’ responsibility to give formal, written consent to the establishment of any academy in the Diocese. There are many other implications, primarily legal and financial, for all our schools and in particular for our Governors, Headteachers and teaching staff. A discussion took place on the various models for academies proposed by the Government and the initial view is that the ‘Family of Schools’ model seems to best meet Diocesan needs. However, the Diocese is at the start of a wide ranging consultation programme so that any decisions are made with full knowledge of all implications for schools and the Diocese.

John Tat, as Director of Schools, has been asked to convene area meetings of parish priests, governors, headteachers and teachers across the Diocese to explain in more detail the implications for a school on becoming an academy and in particular the ‘Family of Schools’ model. Following this, a full day Diocesan meeting has been arranged for 22nd March 2012 at York Racecourse where the views of governors, headteachers and priests will be obtained.

The dates and venues for the meetings, which will be held between 6.00 pm and 8.00 pm, are as follows:

Tuesday 1st November Sacred Heart College, Redcar
Wednesday 9th November St Mary’s College, Hull
Tuesday 15th November St Peter’s College, South Bank, Middlesbrough
Wednesday 16th November Trinity Catholic College, Middlesbrough
Tuesday 22nd November All Saints School, York
Wednesday 30th November St Francis Xavier School, Richmond
Tuesday 6th December St Patrick’s Catholic College, Thornaby
Tuesday 13th December St Augustine’s Catholic High School, Scarborough

Middlesbrough Catholic Voice - Nov 2011 - Page 6

Anybody who has been through more than one of these consultation type things knows that they are only ever carried out once a decision been all but made. It should be obvious why - a vast amount of effort is required to hold a "consultation" in the first place so they only ever get held once there is a certain amount of political will behind whatever is being consulted on.

In this instance, there is obviously quite a bit of political will to have some/all the schools in the diocese become academies - if there wasn't, they wouldn't bother having a consultation. Nobody is holding consultations on whether to paint all the churches orange with green spots! Unless there is a major backlash I expect it will not be long before we see Catholic schools in the Diocese becoming academies.

A friend of mine who knows a thing or two about Catholic schools (kept anonymous to protect their job!) reckons that might not be a bad thing:

A Catholic school that becomes an academy will benefit enormously: it will have more money; it will be less under the thumb of the local authority; it will not have to follow the National Curriculum with all its works and all its pomps.  You would expect the CES and the Bishops to be all in favour of academy status.  Au contraire, they hate the idea and at first tried to prevent Catholic schools from becoming academies.  Why?  Because the Bishops and their cronies see being part of the local authority as the most important thing: bureaucracies love other bureaucracies.  Always remember, James, that in all Catholic teaching on education it is the parents who are described as the most important people: bishops hardly have a mention and the bureaucracies of bishops do not get a mention at all.

I suppose we parents will just have to wait and see what happens...

Want to know why my children will almost certainly not be going on a Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes?

This sort of thing.

If you look at the full gallery it is perfectly clear that this is happening after the offertory and before the distribution of communion.

Go on...  Try to convince me that this is what kids these days are in to, because as anybody who works in a school can tell you, teenagers often stand around things in a circle holding hands... This is their language.

Um. No it isn't.

For those who missed the story so far... a Catholic school in Hull is planning to open a "free school" in the grounds of the existing one. The new school will benefit from the resources and expertise of the existing school with one exception - the new school will not be a Catholic school.

According to the McAauley College Academy twitter feed...

Business case now submitted to DfE and we hope to get approval to move to pre-opening stage in about two weeks.

[link]

If you have applied for a place at MCA we cant formally offer this until March/April so please accept place from Local Authority for now.

[link]

The clock is ticking. They hope to get government approval in two weeks. They hope to be offering places to parents in March. If Bishop Drainey has any intention of pulling the plug on this he needs to do it yesterday. Once parents start turning down places at other schools it's going to be very difficult to do anything without a major PR disaster.

According to Fr John Lumley, the diocese has "major issues" with the project, yet so far they have done nothing about it? Why not. I think the answer is pretty clear - they cant do anything about it. The people who are supposed to represent diocesan interests in the school, foundation govenors and suchlike, are the very people who are driving this project!

So what is Bishop Drainey going to do? The steering wheel has come of in his hands and the car is hurtling towards a cliff.

The school didn't ask the diocese for permission, the school just went ahead and did it, the school will continue just going ahead until Bishop Drainey steps in and makes them stop. But how? What can he do?

He could ask them? He probably already has - but that's not going to work. You see, St Mary's College is not really a Catholic school - we've spent the last ten years pretending.

Oh sure, St Mary's has a Mass once a month and raises some money for Cafod and I'm sure they even have some dusty old crucifixes still up on some of the walls but the fact is that if St Mary's College were a Catholic school then none of this would have happened in the first place. The head teacher and governing body would never have dreamed in a million years of building a non-Catholic school in the grounds.

The diocese have lost control. The only real power available to Bishop Drainey is to sack the govenors - but what then? How is he going to find new ones? How is he going to do it without major public embarrassment? He could threaten to remove the "Catholic" status of St Mary's College but we all know he won't do that.

So he will do nothing. The govenors will continue with their plans and when the new school opens in September the Diocese will give us assurances that they have spoken to the school and come to arrangements that made the "major issues" go away.

But to anybody who is paying attention it is clear - St Mary's College is only pretending to be Catholic, the Diocese of Middlesbrough is only pretending to have a say in what goes on there.

The emperor has no clothes on.

It's not even published yet and it's already looking muddled...

Confirmation is often presented as an opportunity for young Catholics to ‘stand up and be counted’ – insisting that they have reached an age when they must now stand up and prove to the rest of the world they value all that their parents did for them at Baptism.

I Am Confirmed makes its starting point God’s invitation to each young person to enter more deeply into relationship with Him by receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. Set out in seven sessions and following the RCIA model for catechesis, the programme seeks to allow candidates to see their own personal experience alongside the experience of the Church and recognize that there is much in common.

Presented as a Catechists Book and a set of Candidate Magazines (which can be used as a stand alone resource) I Am Confirmed is to be published by the Diocese of Middlesbrough Trust in early 2011.

[link]

Note the use of the phrase "is often presented" to distance themselves from the practice of giving young Catholics an opportunity to "stand up and be counted". Not "we have often presented" no, "is often presented" you know, by those people... over there... Note the language "insisting", "must", "prove".

That's the bad old way. Then their way...

"I Am Confirmed" (the name of the programme) makes it's starting point "God's invitation to each young person to enter more deeply into relationship with Him". Note the language "invitation", "relationship", "receiving".

I'm not sure the two are mutually exclusive. We can stand up and be counted and we can deepen our relationship with God. We can invite young people to a relationship with God and we can insist on the truth.

It's the latter paragraph that bothers me the most - they plan "to allow candidates to see their own personal experience alongside the experience of the Church and recognize that there is much in common."

See your "own personal experience" alongside "the experience of the Church"

Recognize there is "much in common".

Is that it? Is that all the Church has to offer?

Experience that has value only when it compares favourably with personal experience?

Truth? What is that?

Bishop Terence Patrick Drainey has lost something...

It has always seemed strange to me that we spend so much time preparing for Christmas and yet as soon as Christmas Day is over, we are already trying to forget it and move on with life. With the recession and having to cut back, the timing was somewhat slower this year, but generally you can guarantee that as soon as October is moving out the Christmas trimmings are moving in. I suppose you can lay some blame at the door of the Church for that; there has always been the tradition of spending a month preparing for Christmas in the season of Advent. So then, what about the Twelve Days of Christmas? Where have they gone?

It is interesting that the Church also seems to be in something of a hurry. Yes there are indeed the Twelve Days of Christmas culminating in the three Kings arriving to offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

[link]

What about the Twelve Days of Christmas? Where have they gone?

Seriously? Is he joking?

I'll tell you where they've gone! You see, here in Middlesbrough Diocese the twelve days of Christmas have been reduced to eight by the decision to move the Feast of the Epiphany to the nearest Sunday.

Sorry kids, but four days of Christmas have been cancelled.

Who is responsible for this decision? Don't blame the Bishop's Conference! Archbishop Vincent Nichols is not Bishop of Middlesbrough, Bishop McMahon is not Bishop of Middlesbrough and neither is Archbishop Patrick Kelly. No. Bishop Drainey is Bishop of Middlesbrough and he is personally responsible.

Bishop Drainey cancelled four days of Christmas and then he writes to us all asking "What happened to the Twelve Days of Christmas?"

I wrote to Bishop Drainey back in the summer to ask him about the holy days of obligation and received no reply.

Perhaps the Twelve days of Christmas got lost in the mail with my letter?

It was almost two years ago that I first met with Bishop Drainey for a quiet one to one chat. I had been writing letters (people are always saying I should) and one of his priests had tried to bully me. I wrote more letters, quoted more documents and eventually he suggested we meet.

I thought Bishop Drainey was being very generous with his time, a friend cynically suggested that he just wanted to make sure nothing he said was in writing.

He asked me to trust him. He was new to the diocese he said, but he was just as concerned as I was... I had to trust him...

That was two years ago.

Over two weeks ago I sent his secretary this email:

Hi There,

I'm just wondering if Bishop Drainey has an official public position on the decision by Cafod to have Jon Snow (pro-abortion news reader who once said that Pope Benedict is responsible for millions of deaths in Africa) to chair their annual Pope Paul VI lecture

More information here

James Preece

A reasonable enough request for information and it was also reasonable enough that Bishop Drainey unable to respond straight away. I waited, then I got this:

Dear James

Bishop Drainey asked me to forward your email to Chris Bain at CAFOD for his consideration.

[Secretary]

This is classic Bishop Drainey. Months ago when I asked what he thought about CES he referred me to CES. Now I'm asking for his views on Cafod and he refers me to Cafod. I should ask him his views about me and see if he refers me to me.

I'm yet to hear from the fellow at Cafod (he must have been busy for the last two weeks) perhaps he will refer me back to Bishop Drainey again - that is what CES did!

So I wrote this:

Please pass on my thanks to Bishop Drainey but I really would also like his views as well. He is, after all, the Bishop.

James

I waited several days more and eventually received this:

Dear James,

Bishop Terry has asked me to respond.  He says thank you for taking the trouble to raise the issue of Jon Snow chairing the annual CAFOD Pope Paul VI lecture.  There is no doubt whatever about his official public position on pro life matters, in particular abortion, he accepts and promotes the Church’s teaching without reserve because it is the Church’s teaching and also as a matter of personal conviction.  He has communicated your concerns to CAFOD.

[Secretary]

I am glad to hear that Bishop Drainey accepts and promotes the Church's teaching on abortion without reserve but this still doesn't answer my original question.

I responded again:

But he doesn't think it inapropriate for somebody who promotes abortion to give the annual Paul VI lecture?

Please ask him to stop dodging the question.

James

I am yet to receive a reply and perhaps I won't.

Welcome to the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Where Bishops dodge questions by evading responsibility and then answering different questions instead. I didn't ask him his view on abortion, I asked him his views on what Cafod are doing.

He is not a stupid man. He is doing it on purpose and it is worse than lying.

I am very dissapointed.

Turns out Middlesbrough Diocese won't need to find £8 million after all. There is insurance to cover us if we have to pay out over child abuse...

The Middlesbrough diocese has said it will appeal a High Court ruling that it is liable for an £8 million abuse claim. This week judges ruled that the diocese owned and ran St William's care home in Market Weighton, rather than the De La Salle Brothers, the order that taught and worked there. Some 142 ex-pupils are suing for abuse. A diocese spokesman said they were disappointed by the judges' decision and would appeal to the Supreme Court. He explained that the decision to appeal the decision was taken on legal advice. The diocese also has insurance to cover itself against abuse claims should it be ordered to pay out compensation.

Source: The Tablet

I wonder if we also have insurance covering liturgical abuse? That would explain why Bishop Drainey does so little about it...

I doubt that many Catholics in the Diocese of Middlesbrough know that our diocese is at the center of one of the largest sex abuse compensation claims in the country. They have this way of only sharing good news that they call openness and transparency...

According to the BBC, the Diocese of Middlesbrough has lost it's appeal and will now be liable for eight million pounds. Yikes!

Forgive the light hearted picture, there is nothing funny about this situation. Nothing funny about discovering that the diocesan culture of coverup has cost us £8 million.

Don't even try to tell me that things are any different now. I've reported clerical abuse (not sexual abuse thank goodness) and got nothing but fluff. From priests advising me not to make a fuss about things if I want to fit in, to Bishops asking me to trust them and then two years later the abuse is still going on.

I don't see where our diocese is going to find £8 million without some serious selling of property. Maybe they will do a deal and "just" have to pay a few hundred thousand a year until, I don't know, until my children are old.

Either way, it's not the those at the top who are going to have pay.

It's the laity. Again.

Well I'm not going to be giving a penny until I see some serious reform.

I almost missed this one... I was helping to clean the house when I found a September issue of our Diocesan newspaper, the Middlesbrough Catholic Voice. Most people would rather have their eyes poked out than read the Voice but personally I would rather read the Voice than clean a house. So I did.

In the Adult Formation section I found this little gem as part of an advertorial for an upcoming (now past) "Family Conference Day"...

The Church, in its scriptural and doctrinal tradition, often refers to ‘family’as ‘Christian household’ or ‘the domestic church’. Vatican II reclaimed this ancient Christian term. In the early church, these ‘households’ were often very large (50-60 people), and not just about those related to one another. The ‘household’ included all the followers of Jesus of that area grouping, and they were called to function as a ‘family’ with love and mutual care, being seen and named as ‘the Body of Christ’ in this place. So when we talk about the family as ‘domestic church’ today, we mean to include a great variety of people who share a common household, and have a commitment to try and live out the demands and the vision of the Christian Gospel as ‘disciples’ or followers or apprentices of Jesus. None of us have ‘perfect families’. In fact, 95% of people say their family life had a problem of one sort or another to live with. But since when has God been fussy about who he uses?

Do you see what they did there?

They just redefined family. They removed the word "marriage" and the word "children" and instead opted for a very modern, very secular view of family. It's just people, you see, people who happen to live in the same place.

I can see why it's a definition that appeals to the Diocese of Middlesbrough but it's not what the Church says. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this...

A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.

[CCC 2202]

If the Diocese of Middlesbrough would like a next generation, they might want to promote that, rather than papering over it.