The Statement of Ed Balls and Post-Vatican II Evangelisation
Editorial FAITH Magazine May-June 2010 - Further Material
Questionable Compromises
■ In 1986 Victoria Gillick received little support from the Church when she challenged the supposed right of doctors to give contraceptives to children under the age of 16 without their parents' consent. Her temporary victory produced the only drop in the teenage pregnancy and abortion rate since the Abortion Act until that claimed by the Government
last February.
■ Over the years CAFOD, The Tablet and others have, without official reprobation, dissembled concerning cooperation with the public distribution of condoms in Africa. To this day only programmes emphasising abstinence have produced sustained statistical progress.
■ For many years most Catholic schools have publicalfy supported the "Comic Relief" brand, which organisation supports abortion provision. After The Catholic Heraldraised objections we were promised that funds charitably raised by us would not be used to provide abortions. It is has not been shown that this accounting measure ensures that our public fundraising for them is not formal cooperation with their vision.
■ In 2008, our London Catholic hospital, St John and St Elizabeth, leased part of its premises to a GP clinic which will be referring for abortion. The aim was to extricate the hospital from its dire financial straits. The decision was made with the knowledge of and without opposition from Church authorities (see our March 2008 article, "The secularisation of a Catholic institution").
■ Of our 11 adoption agencies, so far six, representing 10 dioceses, have dropped their Catholic affiliation. They have, no doubt with much anguish, preferred to be publicly prepared to offer children to same-sex couples, than to give up their excellent and important adoption placement work. Yet still, after all the years in which our people have given them great support, they have gone, with all their resources. Only one of the relevant ten bishops, Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster, publicly and vigorously opposed his agency's decision to cooperate with the Government's direct undermining of marriage and civilisation in this regard.
■ The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service, and its predecessor, the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults have been rolling out some very good and important work across our dioceses. Perhaps due to the lack of a credible alternative helpline, they have encouraged the publicising of Childline to children throughout the English and Welsh Church with much success. Childline prominently promotes abortion as a reasonable option,
and sex as "normal in loving relationships between couples above the age of consent".
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