Latest from the College of Psychiatrists

Abortion does not improve mental health when compared to giving birth in unwanted pregnancy.
Yet 98% of UK abortions are on grounds of improving mental health.
This last statement presumably is no longer evidence based medicine?

The malignant Dr Kinsey

When he died, a Catholic paper praised him for his dedication and zeal. We now know that he was zealous in the promotion of perversion and this includes the idea that paedophilia may not be harmful.
One may wonder how many seminaries accepted the claims of this troubled soul and at what cost.

Poor Old Augustine

St Augustine gets a bad press when it comes to sexuality. In fact he defended the goodness of marriage and procreation against the Manichaeans. He also said especially in De Bono Conjugali that sexual pleasure is by no means sinful in itself. But, against the Pelagians, he said that there is such a thing as concupiscence which is not the same thing as sexual attraction. Rather it is the thing that leads us to selfishness, fornication and adultery.

A case against assisted suicide

To be found on the Dignity in Dying website. Especially under what the patrons say. When Professor Grayling talks of exhaustive old age, he is clearly not talking about terminal illness.

Catholic Medical Quarterly

Articles are available at www.cmq.org.uk

Cloyne Again

The fundamental problem was that the bishop and the Vicar General chose to ignore the Irish proposals. Another problem was that the proposals were sent to Rome as if they were study guidelines. Either way, the problems were in Ireland.

The curse of pornography

A Canadian bishop who apparently dealt well with the sex abuse crisis in his diocese has been caught with child pornography. What makes a "good" person, like this bishop or Fr Kit Cunningham, do something so wicked? Most pornography addicts tend to compartmentalise their lives. Some addicts get bored of "soft porn" and a relatively small number move on to illegal material. Others are only attracted by illegal material. In either case, we may conclude that pornography addiction is damaging and dangerous.

Letters in The Tablet

Sister Myra Poole asks the bishops to support the ordination of women to the priesthood because this is the price "to pay in following a growing call 0f the spirit."
Another writer mentions the story of Ananias and Sapphira who were found lying to the Holy Spirit.
Oh, and Sister is not keen on priests being men because of the sex abuse crisis. Perhaps we should abandon the Doctrine of The Trinity and The Incarnation as well.

What happened to the Irish clergy

If Michael Voris is right, and he has not been sued, Fr Ledwith had an enormous influence over the Irish clergy, an influence that was utterly harmful. After being embroiled in the sex abuse scandals, he has, according to Voris, left the priesthood. It almost goes without saying that there had been a cover up for many years.

When will this plague end

I owe the Rosminians a great deal. One of them was good enough to be my spiritual director and he introduced me to a wealth of Catholic Spirituality.But the order has got it really badly wrong. How could they have kept quiet following the death of Fr Kit Cunningham when they knew about his past.There is now a wealth of knowledge about the consequences of sexual abuse. There is also a well documented history of Church cover up. With all that, how did they manage to get it so badly wrong?

The Culture of Death

It is easy for us to equate this phrase with issues relating to abortion and euthanasia. But Pope John Paul said that "Only a higher vision can motivate the choice for life. And the values underlying that vision will greatly depend on whether the nation continues to honour and revere the family as the basic unit of society."

The Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis

Many thoughtful people have recognized that only a small number of priests are guilty of this crime.What concerns them is the cover-up and they have every right to be concerned.Sadly,the Catholic Church is not the only institution at fault.There have been similar reports of cover-up involving other religious denominations,schools,the boy scouts etc.
Does this get the Catholic Church off the hook? No. All forms of cover-up involving this crime needs to be condemned.

Geoffrey Robertson QC

A certain Geoffrey Robertson writes in The Independent 26 April 2011 that "The bedrock of our constitution is the Act of Settlement ...A blood-curdling anti-Catholic rant..."
Must be a different Geoffrey Robertson from the one who wrote "The Case of the Pope,"an anti-Catholic rant.

The most important quote from the New Consultation

Which,alas,I did not previously quote properly:" If women who have an abortion show a negative emotional reaction to the abortion or are experiencing stressful life events,support and monitoring should be offered as they are more likely than others to develop mental health problems." In pro-life circles,this is known as Post Abortion Trauma.

More on The Consultation Paper

Remarkably enough,after going through a series of studies,it is noted that it would never be possible to conduct a randomised control trial to include a group of women forced to continue with an unwanted pregnancy and for the rest of the group to be selected to have an abortion.In other words,it is not possible to exclude a link between abortion and mental ill health by means of this kind of psychiatric research. The study by Munk-Olsen is referred to in some detail in the consultation paper.This study was funded by the pro-abortion Susan Buffett Foundation.

Induced abortion and mental health

What are we to make of the new Draft consultation paper from the College of Psychiatrists? At 118 pages it is certainly detailed. Unlike the blatantly pro-abortion RCOG draft consultation,it attempts at balance. For example, it is reasonably critical of reviews (Charles and American Psychological Association) that dismiss links between abortion and mental ill health.It also states that "if women who have an abortion show a negative emotional reaction to the abortion or experience a stressful life event,support and monitoring should be offered as they are likely than others to develop a mental health problem." It states that "mental health outcomes are likely to be the same whether women with unwanted pregnancies opt for abortion or birth."This makes a mockery of the 1967 Abortion Act which allows for abortion in order to improve the mental health of a woman with an unwanted pregnancy. However,there are many reasons to be critical of the draft consultation paper. I urge people to read it on the College of Psychiatrists website and respond to it.

Planned Parenthood and Mammograms

Apparently Cecille Richards,head of planned parenthood, lied when she said that her organization offered mammograms.If the abortion-breast cancer link is to be believed,perhaps they should.

Assisted Suicide The Real Agenda

So the euthanasia campaigner Nan Maitland has killed herself. Was she terminally ill? Was she in intractable pain? No. She had arthritis.So that is the real agenda-to assist people to die whether or not they are terminally ill.

Refuting Stephen Hawking

For a brilliant refutation of Hawking,do watch the lecture by Dr John Lennox on youtube

Public School Atheists

Stephen Fry,Hugh Laurie,Dawkins,Hitchens,Jonathan Glover etc. What is it about public schools that brings out the atheist in us? Public schools give us a good formation in the Arts and Sciences.But Theology is often scandulously ignored. Hence the general ignorance in otherwise gifted atheists. I only read about Aquinas once at school-and that was in a book by Bertrand Russell.

Christians have rights too

I have had the privilege of giving a series of talks in a non-Euoropean country.Many people asked about the issue of homosexuality and I answered in line with the teachings of the Church.There was a great sense of charity with no expressions of hatred.A pity that Christians are losing this right of free expression in Europe.

On a great Jesuit

A man told Fr Thwaites:"Father, I owe you £100.Why not get this in writing?" Father agreed and wrote on a piece of paper: "You owe me £100" and gave it to this man. The man looked rather surprised.

The Great Jesuits

Fr Crane was referring to excommunication as an act of charity when he wrote of "time for the chop." Wonderful to know this blog gets read.And so to one of my main projects. I have been meeting dozens of people who have been influenced by Fr Thwaites. Some day someone may write a book about him. A few anecdotes. He would spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament.As he walked into chapel,he would give Our Lord a smile.I asked him what he said in prayer and he answered "Not much." The important thing is to grow in divine intimacy and different souls pray in different ways.

Time for the chop?

Interesting times we livein. I spent a few hours lamenting the spread of liberalism in the Church-with an Eastern Orthodox Christian ! I have more in common with him than I have with a liberal sitting next to me in church.Professors of theology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are calling for-just about everything.Why do they remain in the Church? Are they the professional Catholics that Pope Benedict has spoken about? Many years ago Fr Paul Crane SJ wrote an article on Hans Kung entitled "Time For The Chop?"

The Ordinariate will be good for all of us

There are many Anglicans who share our values on the sanctity of life,marriage etc. We need them. Some of the most Pro-Life priests in our area are ex-Anglicans.The Ordinariate will be small to begin with but it will bring us all many blessings.

Blessings of the Ordinariate

Tina Beatie does not like it.Therefore it follows as night follows day that The Ordinariate must be a wonderful blessing for us.

Christian Pride Month

During this month introduce Christianity into the classroom but do so in a subtle way.Talk about the faith of Pasteur in biology,of Ampere in physics, of Pascal in maths etc.And turn that month into a year.

On tolerance and free speech

I became a Catholic because people were prepared to criticize my pro-choice views and a whole array of other views.They did so with charity and clarity.I thank God for them.That was 25 years ago.If it happens now,I can report them.What a difference 25 years make.In our age of political correctness,we have to be careful what we say in public.There are exceptions to the rule-attacking the Catholic Church,for example.

If Sarah Palin is responsible for the unrest in the USA

Then are secularists responsible for the unrest in the UK?

A Dream

The Radio 4 broadcaster asked the Catholic bishop if the Chuch will change Her teaching on abortion homosexuality contraception and women priests.The bishop answered no no no and no.I then woke up.