...yesterday's lecture by Philip Booth at Westminster Cathedral Hall as part of the FAITH MATTERS series, was really excellent. He was looking at the Church and the free-market economy. Lively, engaging, mind-widening, informative. It is to be published in Standpoint magazine.
The good attendance - the hall was full - was an encouraging reminder that London is still a city where people enjoy spending an evening listening to a lecture on an important topic with a serious basis. A good atmosphere, lively questions, and an opportunity to raise a number of linked issues. One which came up was Catholic schools and the threat posed by encroaching attempts to fold them totally into State control and removed their last vestiges of effective bonds with the Church...while the present Govt has clearly got sinister designs in this area, the Tories aren't much better. Their line seems to be that as Catholic schools are so popular and successful, we must make them available to everyone, and the way to do that is to ban Catholics from having a priority in attending them. So let's ensure that every Catholic school has a large proportion of non-Catholic children attending...
This will have several effects. One will be the absurdity of practising Catholics, blocked from sending their child to the local Catholic school under the quota system, deciding to pretend to be non-Catholics in order to get the child in!
Another effect will, of course, be that once there is a substantial minority of non-Catholic children at the school, it will be deemed unjust to have Catholic prayers, celebration of the Church's feasts and seasons, pictures of Christ and the Pope etc. And then when the school becomes just like all the other schools there will be official puzzlement as to why this has occurred....
3 comments:
Dear Joanna,
I just wanted to write and thank you for having the guts to go on the TV and defend our great Pope. Unlike many of our senior clerics in the UK you have defended him when he has needed it. Ok you got a little hot under the collar, but people are dying and we dont hear enough from on high to defend The Church's teaching which is saving lives else where. You were excellent in mentioning the Phillipines as an example compared to Thailand. Well done, a crown of thorns worn during Lent.
On another issue; Could i suggest that you promote 19th June (start of the year for priesthhod) and rally as many priests as possible to go to Rome and show their appreciation to our Holy Father. My flights are already booked and i cant wait. At the closing mass of World Youth Day in Syndey the Holy Father made us so proud to be his brother priests, now is the time to show our appreciation.
God bless and thanks for all you are doing. Yours in Christ, Fr James Clark (Faith Movement)
There are already Catholic schools with substantial numbers of non-Catholics, such as this school in Birmingham which has a Muslim majority: http://www.theredepartment.com/assets/pdf/Holy%20Family%20Birmingham%20January%202008.pdf
This situation and others like it are not because Catholics are being "forced out" - it's because there are no longer large numbers of Catholic children in the area to take up the school places. Co-operation between faith communities should be welcomed.
Joanna.If you read the Daily Mail today a poor Head teacher was hound by Muslins so much so she had a break down. These people got themselves on the board of Governers (they did not even have children at the school) and went out of there way to get rid of her.She has know got the compensation she deserves.
You are special to all us Catholics for you speak up and give us hope.So please don,t feel down. You spoke up for us all, you have true values,you keep our faith alive and in the media circle. Good for you and the great work you do. Your not an extreamtist like other in other reglions. You are fair minded an honest in you belief.
Well done and Thank you.
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