My condolences to my Kirk friends . . .

 . . . those whom this will sadden and those who cannae see why some would be saddened. It occurs to me that today's postings are going to read like a caricature of a crazed fundamentalist Catholic, but intelligent comment will have to wait for another day.

A FORMER soldier and his partner became the first same-sex couple to be blessed by a Church of Scotland minister, in a ceremony at a pub yesterday.

[...]

Mr Whyte said he would not have blessed the union if he did not agree with it. "It was not easy carrying out a ceremony in a pub, but it is where people are and this is real life. I look forward to the day when we have legal recognition of same-sex relationships." (Scotsman)

Hey look, an arguing bishop!

PLANS to build seven mixed-faith, joint-campus schools were thrown into chaos yesterday, when the Roman Catholic Church withdrew its support for the scheme. The Right Rev Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, claimed that North Lanarkshire Council’s plans were "flawed" and ignored the Catholic Church’s wishes over how the campuses should be designed. He has now written to Jack McConnell, the First Minister, asking him to intervene personally. Mr McConnell has in the past praised joint-campus schools as a way of tackling sectarianism. (Scotsman)

Now you may think that going down the state-funded route for Catholic schools a bad idea although obviously it brought about a fiscally more equitable state of affairs. I do. You may think that shared campuses are a bad idea full stop. (Though, since it seems that Catholics who attend non-denominational school have a lower rate of lapsation, maybe they're not?) In any case, much credit to Bishop Devine. I may be paranoid, but it doesn't mean that the're not out to get rid of Catholic schools altogether.

missing the point

Or maybe not: I have not done a survey, but the media report seem to omit the point made by opponents of the HFEA ruling, that children will die during this procedure. Here Il Scotsmano:

THE creation of "designer babies" to cure sick siblings will be allowed, after the rules on embryo screening were relaxed in a landmark ruling yesterday by the United Kingdom's fertility watchdog.

[...]

However, the change sparked a backlash from pro- life groups, who warned of a "rush down a very slippery slope." Some feared the relaxing of regulations could lead to parents choosing the sex, hair colour or other such features of a child.

Well, the SPUC comment in fact said:

We have every sympathy for Joshua and his family. However, it cannot be right to create a child with the primary purpose of benefiting an elder brother. The designer baby may be allowed his or her right to live, but that same right will be denied to his embryonic brothers and sisters. These unwanted embryonic siblings could be flushed down the sink, frozen or used for experiments. Although one should do everything that is ethical to relieve illness and pain, it cannot be right to destroy human life like this. This unethical procedure undermines any benefit which could come from it.

The recent pictures of a baby dancing in the womb can be seen here.

Pious Interlude

 

Work for the day. The saints never lost time. Live for the day. Life is made up of days. Why lose a moment on the way during a brief journey? Our eternity is built on time. Never waste time. If one has given all to Jesus and Mary, one has no right to waste time.

 
A collection of snippets from the extant writings of the Venerable Edel Quinn. If you haven't read the life by Cardinal Suenens go and get it now. Maybe at abebooks.

Apropos oppression-by-birth-control

The Curt Jester's comments on a story to which he links bring up the racist and eugenic agenda that so many of the "family planning" pioneers held.

Ann Farmer has written a very good book on the subject, Prophets and Priests, published by St Austin Press. The production is naff, which is unusual for St Austin Press books, but the content is excellent.

George Bush & the Mexico City Policy

Or,

The Disinterested Concern of Mr Clinton for the Women of the Developing World

Old news, but many will not have read it before. This is a very long document to which I link, but even in scanning it one soon notices that the sponsorship of the IPPF, for example, is exactly the kind of thing that the memorandum mentions: USA interests demand that the population of poor countries not be allowed too expand to fast or too far, but direct USA involvement in population control programes might be resented, so other agencies should be employed to do the work.

The link is here.

Ouch.

Can one sue for conspiracy in desecration?

The story about the interfaith prayer centre or whatever at Fatima was denied publicly by the chap-in-charge some time ago, but this one, unless the photos are elaborately staged fakes, seems true enough, unfortunately.

Here the link.

Incidentally, I don't think that this "Catholic Family News" is related to the (excellent) British-edited e-newsletter "Catholic Family News".

Hooray!

Now I can see that canon lawyers have a purpose beside handing out annulments!

See here for details.