Tuesday Jan 23rd

DOMESTIC JOY

Our local plumber is called, rather endearingly, Mr Plumb, and his son is now also part of the business, so it's all very like Happy Families....they are an excellent team, and the son arrived today with bucket and ferocious plunger-thing with which he gloriously unblocked the sink (hooray!!) and then he turned his attention to the leak coming from the pipe that leads to the washing-machine, and he mended that too....and he went off looking very professional and cheery leaving much rejoicing here at Bogle Towers......his fee was exactly the amount I get for one feature article in a Catholic paper, which seems fair.

GAY ADOPTION: SKY TV

With washing whizzing away satisfyingly in the machine, and domestic efficiency restored generally, I hurried off on my bike on errands to the bank and Post Office and shops....and on my return was just thawing out and contemplating a quiet day of solid work at the computer when the phone went....SKY News...would I debate with Peter Tatchell (leading homosexual-rights lobbyist) about "gay adoption" and the position of the Catholic Church? No, I said. Mr Tatchell says horrible things about the Church and I can't see anything useful in a dialgue with him. I might be prepared to talk separately.

They phoned back: yes, that seemed a better plan. But could I come now? Due on air at 12.30 pm. Grabbed various papers on which I was working (plus copy of National Catholic Register, just arrived, to read on the train) and hurtled off on bike to local station. Train to London. Cycle ride across Westminster Bridge, arriving TV studios at Millbank on time, having said heartfelt if somewhat incoherent Rosary en route.

Make up done by expert lady before I faced the camera: made vast improvement to face.... why don't I do this more often? Faintly wished I had changed from my comfortable navy-blue guernsey with darns on the elbows but too late now....into studio.

Hope it was all right: made the point that Catholic adoption agencies exist to help people who cannot care for their own babies but who desperately want them adopted into families who share their Catholic Faith and will bring the child up in the Church. Homosexual couple openly opposing Catholic teaching by their way of life cannot possibly do this. It is extremely cruel to ban the Church from running an adoption service which serves the needs of Catholics.

I was involved with one lady, with a very troubled and tragic life, whose little girl was adopted by a loving and kindly couple....it meant so much to this lady that her daughter would be taken to Mass and encouraged to live as a Catholic and honour the Church's teachings. She would have been utterly devastated if she had been told that, in theory at least, the Catholic charity would have, as a matter of law, to consider two lesbians adopting the child.....

I also stressed that the Catholic Church's teaching on this is part of the whole Christian tradition in our country, which has served us well and is in no way an innovation: this understanding of marriage and family, of man and woman, is the bedrock of our common life and we have every right to continue upholding it.

Mr Tatchell had been on earlier, denouncing the Church and saying that the whole Catholic approach was based on one verse in the Bible which also banned shellfish...oh, you know the sort of rubbish. He says the most horrible things about Catholics and no one ever seems to suggest that he is being offensive or insulting......

At one point when asked what the Church might do next I pointed out that we've got a fairly grisly history in Britain....Catholicism banned, Catholics even languishing in the Tower of London and being slaughtered on the gallows etc.....so the idea of the Church being banned and restricted isn't new.....but on this particular issue we are simply saying something which is common to all Christians and is a matter of justice.