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Let us begin with the ubiquitous word confidentiality. Whether it be used in clinics, pharmacies, youth groups, by GPs or school nurses, there is no avoiding it. The policies that are routinely sold to our children rest on the contention that all people have the right to confidentiality and therefore we must have confidential access to sexual health services, to abortion and so on. One might associate the word with another – secret...

Dylan James FAITH Magazine September – October 2011This article will summarise Fr Edward Holloway's arguments against contraception while also arguing that Natural Family Planning is a good but not "perfect" use of the marriage act. To make the latter claim is to run counter to the approach of much popular and well-intentioned Catholic thought, thought that has tended to so exalt the goodness of sex that it has often seemed to imply...

The questionnaire distributed by the Pontifical Council on the Family for the Synod on the Family to be held later this year asked whether or not Catholics are living by the Church’s teaching on sexuality. As I filled out the questionnaire, time and again I answered: “No, they are not, but they have never been taught these teachings,” or many others for that matter. Since Humanae Vitae was issued in 1968, it can be argued...

By Dr William Newton FAITH MAGAZINE March-April 2014In a debate with an advocate for abortion, one occasionally comes up against an informed opponent who seeks to undermine the Church’s position on the issue by pointing out that the Universal Doctor of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas, held to the doctrine of delayed animation or hominisation. According to this theory, ensoulment did not occur at conception but only later: for St Thomas at...

In any kind of preaching, we should be aware of the values and attitudes of those who are listening. In the case of abortion, many people are in a state of internal conflict. They know that abortion is the killing of an innocent, unborn human being, a child who is recognisably such. At the same time, they may have been a part of the “condoning generation.” Since 1967, many people who have not had an abortion themselves, have...

When the synod entitled “Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the context of Evangelisation” was announced by Pope Francis back in 2013, I thought it sounded like a very good idea. The rich truths of the teachings of the Church on marriage and the family are now comprehensively supported by a wealth of sociological evidence. Indeed, if we read the website of the Family Education Trust (which does not make its appeal to any text or creed) we find, under the heading “The Importance of the Famil...

Science tells us that the unborn child is a human being. Take a look at the photograph on the right. That is the face of a child in the womb. Only three months old and yet his or her tiny face tells us all we need to know; it is the face of one of us! Indeed, if this little one is not human then no one is human.Medicine tells us that the unborn child is a human being. From the day of our conception, our unique DNA and genetic information are set down. Within our first month of life our hearts...

Editorial FAITH Magazine May – June 2012A class of children aged 13 to 14 is ready for an RE lesson. The plan is to discuss a controversial subject (abortion, contraception, gay marriage, celibacy, or women priests ... tick the box.) The teacher says sagely, with a conspiratorial smile: "I'm going to play devil's advocate." He then skilfully sets out the case for the opposite of what the Church teaches; the youngsters...

My brothers and sisters in the Lord,1. Some state legislatures are presently considering bills that would redefine marriage as the stable union of any two adults regardless of gender. Such legislation would equate same-sex unions with traditional marriage. Furthermore, divorces continue to escalate to the point where couples may now get a bona fide divorce online for fees ranging from $50 to $300. These latest developments are mere...

To hear some people talk, one would get the impression that the prohibition against artificial contraception came out of the blue. However, even a brief review of history reveals a strong and consistent ban on all such activities from the earliest days of the Church in a direct line, right into the twentieth century, with statements to the same effect by Pope Paul VI’s three immediate predecessors, as well as Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes.