Catholic Identity Cards!

How cool is this? Today through the post I received my "Catholic Identity Card" a plastic "credit" card with a splendid picture of the Pope stating: "I am a Catholic; in the event of an accident or an emergency please contact a priest". I have to say that I love it... though I perhaps wish it had said "in the case of accident please contact an ambulance and a priest..."

Anyhow if you want your card, it only costs a euro for three, and can be purchased here! 

The Pope and Condoms

I am almost too weary to add a post on this issue, but thought that perhaps we all have a duty to try and put a bit of balance into the subject.

We have of course seen the press going wild because the Pope has once again reiterated the Catholic teaching against condoms (as if this is some sort of shocking surprise). So France have gone all officially self righteous claiming that the Pope's views go against the scientific consensus, Germany has thrown in her two pence worth, and apparently some Green MEP has likened the Popes views to mass murder. It is all stuff and nonsense of course. Thankfully after initially joining in on the lunacy the BBC has eventually come to produce slightly more balanced coverage of the issue.

So here goes:

The Pope is NOT saying that using condoms makes a sexually promiscuous person more likely to catch aids than if they didn't use condoms. He is NOT saying that people should have numerous partners and not use condoms. That would indeed be lunacy, but this is almost how some have reported it.

The Pope IS saying that the only way to avoid AIDS, and see it completely wiped out, is to follow Catholic sexual teaching and either abstain from sex, or keep sex within a lifelong monogamous relationship between a man and woman. In this situation AIDS will not spread. This is simple fact.

What the pope is also saying is that encouraging condom use actually encourages the myth of "safe sex" i.e. the myth that it is OK to sleep around because it can be done "safely". The reality is that it is this very sleeping around that leads to the transmission of sexual diseases in the first place. The more sexual partners, the more the likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease... EVEN with a condom. The only true protection against STD's is monogamy or abstinence!

That is what the Pope is saying, and actually it is simply common sense, the wilful misrepresentation of the Pope's views says more about those who do the reporting than it does about the Pope or Catholics, but I guess that is simply part of the package for those who dare to speak the truth.

Good news: Nurse re-instated! Bad News: NHS bans freedom of speech!

Well the good news is that the nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient has been told that she is welcome to come back to work after all, this is a welcome move..

However at the same time (though not directly connected) the NHS have released a document (called "Religion or belief: A practical guide for the NHS") saying that if staff attempt to share their faith with other staff or patients, then this could be considered harassment!

Seminarian Blogs

Just to draw your attention to a couple of new Seminarian/ Vocation type blogs that I have become aware of recently,

Firstly there is the blog called "Paul Johnson" written (unsurprisingly) by one Paul Johnson. Paul is a fellow seminarian at Oscott, and indeed occupies the room next to me when I am staying there. Paul is a fine fellow, and I am certain his blog will be worth reading...

Then there is a blog (new to me at any rate) promoting vocations in the Diocese of Lancaster 

And I should of course use this opportunity to mention a blog which is now quite old, but is written by fellow Oscotians called East Anglia Seminarians.

Prayer a sackable offence?

At work today I noticed the front page of the Daily Mail, with a story about a nurse who has been suspended for offering to pray with an elderly patient. I am not a great fan of the Daily Mail, which is a paper that tends to be somewhat sensationalist, but having come home I have discovered more details, which you can read about here!

This is of course yet another example of secular intolerance, and indeed would be laughable... if it wasn't seemingly becoming the default position of so many in modern England.

The bottom line is (it would seem) that the nurse offered to pray for the elderly patient, the elderly patient declined, so the nurse didn't. For this she is suspended pending an investigation. Investigation into what I ask? Absolutely nothing has taken place. It is entirely legal to believe in God, and indeed most of the world's population throughout of most of history have done so. And it is entirely legal to ask a person a question. The whole situation is utter nonsense.

Fr Dwight Longenecker has given e-mail address of the company that have suspended the nurse in question... so if you want to E-mail them voicing your concerns, then here is the address:

pals@nsomerset-pct.nhs.uk

However as Fr Dwight says... keep any comments Christian!

Bypass the BBC

I notice that disgraced presenter Jonathan Ross, is returning to the BBC and is being welcomed as some sort of conquering ancient Roman general leading his march of triumph through the streets of Rome. It would seem that the whole contrition stuff was purely an act both from the BBC and Ross.

However I no longer care as now that "Vatican Youtube" has been launched I can get all my tele-visual needs satisfied there, totally bypassing the BBC....

John Paul II and Islam

It is often implied that Pope John Paul II had a very different approach to other world faiths, and particularly Islam, than the current more "hardline" approach of Pope Benedict XVI. This impression is of course partly due to the gatherings at Assisi, and pictures of Pope John Paul II reportedly kissing a Qur'an (though some deny it was a Qur'an and claim that it was in fact a Bible!) Indeed John Paul II did speak highly of the "religiosity" of Muslims, however he didn't confuse Islam and Christianity... 

The following quote from John Paul taken from "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (published 1994) is a useful reminder of this, in fact this quote probably sums up the Catholic view on Islam as well as anything else:

"Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation..... In Islam all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New testaments, has definitely been set aside.

.... Islam is not a religion of redemption... the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very different from Christianity."

Which seems pretty clear to me.