De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  For just how long will the Catholic faithful accept a bishop who is consistently problematic before they start to speak out? This weekend, Cardinal Blaise Cupich spoke at the March for Life rally in Chicago. He was heckled and booed and eventually led away by security. Catholics clearly have had enough. Cardinal Cupich started the day off with a VERY pro-abort tweet (corrected after outrage but awful nonetheless): CNA wrote a decent report on this which presents the reasons for Cupich's poor reception from marchers:  Cupich was criticized by some in the pro-life movement last year for leading an effort to head off a direct confrontation between the United States Conference of Bishops and President Joe Biden, who as the country's second Catholic president has pursued policies at odds with official Church teaching against abortion and same-sex marriage. A year ago Cupich took to Twitter to issue a scathing criticism of what he called an "ill-considered" statement the...

In the wake of the USCCB's re-affirmation of the pre-eminence of the issue of abortion in our society  I have to say I was really sickened to find no mention of this issue in CAFOD's newly released Guide for Catholic Voters . The article begins with this comment from Daniel Hale, Head of Campaigns at CAFOD, who says: “The idea of having to go the polling station on the way back from our Christmas shopping isn’t something that will fill many of us with festive joy. “But an election is one of the most valuable opportunities we have to bring the voices of our poorest sisters and brothers to people in power – making sure that they are not an ‘afterthought’, as Pope Francis has warned. “Brexit is bound to dominate this election, but we need to make sure that the candidates asking for our votes are reminded that politics has to also focus on the other critical issues we face in our common home.” The article continues to state four especially important election issues to r...

On Saturday I took part in Life Fest 2019 at Church House & the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster from 9.30am. The event culminated in the March for Life which started outside Church House at 14.30 and marched to Parliament Square. It is hard to put into words what a positive, happy, worthwhile day this is each year. I can't help think that, in the UK, it must be the largest Catholic public act of witness each year, with numbers estimated at over 5,000. For me it feels like everyone is there. You spend the day catching up with friends and excitedly hugging people you haven't seen for a year or so. There is always someone new to say hello to, this year I got to meet Laurence England for the first time face-to-face: This is me with Mark Lambert, Catholic blogger, as you can see from my face I am not very good at taking selfies. pic.twitter.com/wvxZRA4qyd — Laurence England (@TheCrushedBones) May 11, 2019 The morning consisted of a number of really top notch workshops...

Argentina's senate has rejected a bill which would have legalised abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. After a marathon debate, 38 senators voted against it and 31 in favour. Its defeat means lawmakers must wait until next year to resubmit legislation. Currently abortion is allowed in Argentina only in cases of rape, or if the mother's health is in danger. Pro-abortion supporters react to failure in as extreme a manner as the Irish did to success. In Argentina they have responded to defeat with violence and burned the place down. This victory for those who reject the legality of abortion has international moral importance. It says not everyone agrees with the steam-roller of social consensus about this issue. Most interesting is the clear BBC bias on abortion - it is definitely one of their shibboleths against which they will have no dissent. No balance. No counterpoint. Instead they paint those who oppose the bill - which has democratically been voted...

Bishop Robert Barron will give one of the keynote addresses at the Cornerstone Catholic Conference in Tacoma Oct. 20–21. His address will be titled “The Eucharist: Spiritual Food to Sustain Our Witness.” The Cornerstone conference arose in response to this division between “pro-life” Catholics and “social justice” Catholics — this lack of communication and cooperation, sometimes distrust and even disdain. Bishop Barron has given an interview about the forthcoming address in which he laments this false dichotomy. To me, it’s one of the bitter fruits, in some ways, of the post-conciliar period — mind you, not the council; Vatican II is very clear on this . But in the post-conciliar period there was a tendency within Catholicism to fall into these two camps, and I’ve watched that all my life in the church. Call it left-right, liberal-conservative, or, as we see it in the Catholic context often, this: Are you more on the life issues or more on the justice issues? And it’s just a...

Bonino speaks in front of an audience in the church of San Defendente in San Rocco di Cossato, Italy, July 26, 2017. (La Stampa) There's dismay being expressed from a range of Christian commentators this week after a notorious Italian abortionist was allowed to speak at a Catholic parish on Wednesday, while pro-life critics were locked out, silenced or kicked out. Lifesite reports: Despite her abortion advocacy, Emma Bonino was praised by Pope Francis in 2016 as a “forgotten great” because of her work with refugees. Bonino meets Pope Francis ( Lifesite ) Between her abortion activism and being an abortionist herself, Bonino is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of roughly six million Italian babies between 1968 and today. On Wednesday, she gave a presentation on immigration at the Church of San Defendente in San Rocco di Cossato , part of in the Diocese of Biella in northern Italy. The parish priest, Father Mario Marchiori, gave the green lig...

Mikey relaxing in anticipation of the brain food he was about to ingest. It is so wonderful to be a father. Every stage of parenthood is different and with a sixteen and a eighteen year old at the top end of the family age group, I find myself challenged regularly as they form their ideas and test them against the logic and reason in my arguments. I think this helps me grow as a person as well as facilitating a constant development of ideas against new and sometimes challenging perspectives and scenarios. Of course, not everything they encounter is new and innovative and often the discussion will revolve around perennial problems and issues we are all familiar with. This weekend one of my boys dragged me along to a Pro-life conference where we both tested our knowledge and understanding of some of the most important issues we face in society today. So I write this as I have just returned from Southport and the SPUC (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child) 2015 Youth ...

March for Life is huge in America with hundreds of thousands of people turning up to walk for the rights of unborn children killed in their mothers wombs. March for Life began as a small demonstration and rapidly grew to be the largest pro-life event in the world. The peaceful demonstration that has followed on this somber anniversary every year since 1973 is a witness to the truth concerning the greatest human rights violation of our time, abortion. This event also takes place in the UK. One of the organisers is Isabel Vaughan-Spruce writes: March for Life UK will be held on Sat 16th May 2015 . Start from St Chad's Cathedral Birmingham. We chose Birmingham simply because it is geographically fairly central and has good transport links & there is some parking here. We work well with the council & local police and have great support from our Archbishop, Bernard Longley who will be attending the march and saying a few words there. The theme for this year...

Tina Beattie, Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing at the University of Roehampton, has posted a blog in The Tablet which makes an excellent point, demonstrating the hypocrisy of the outcry at Oklahoma's botched execution  for a couple of reasons. First of all, she highlights the fact, reported in the Guardian , that British companies had been secretly exporting potassium chloride to America for use in executions. Next, Beattie makes the link between the use of this drug in US executions and the fact that it is also used in this country to inject the foetal heart in cases of late abortion. The website of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists offers this advice: For all terminations at gestational age of more than 21 weeks and 6 days, the method chosen should ensure that the foetus is born dead. This should be undertaken by an appropriately trained practitioner. Intracardiac potassium chloride i...