Tuesday March 27th

BLAIR'S HAPPY ANYWAY

Tony Blair - remember all those reports that he's about to become a Catholic? - says he gave a skip of joy at seeing Britain's first gay-marriage style Civil Union. And he's given unqualified backing to the militant homosexualist lobby group Stonewall which will now be able to start lots of work in schools following the Govt's new Sexual Orientation Regulations which ban Catholic schools from putting the Church's teachings in this area. See the speech that Blair gave last night at a big Stonewall celebration.

AND WHAT DOES THE HOLY FATHER SAY?

In a (rather profound and moving) exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict, summing up the recent Bishops' Synod on the subject recalls their emphasis on "Eucharistic Consistency". He goes on to explain what this means:

"Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptised, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children, and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws grounded in human nature. There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist(1.Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them." (emphasis mine)

Anyone written to Ruth Kelly yet? (I genuinely want to know. I think the woman's in a bind about this).