At the very moment when the bishops of England and Wales are finally confronting the reality of the debacle with which they have apparently colluded: that is the normalisation of same-sex sexual relationships, and are finally starting to do what they should have done from the first, that is explaining Catholic teaching with regard to human sexuality, The Tablet has seen fit to publish (and I dare guess to commission) three pieces designed specifically to undermine that teaching.
The three pieces are trailed as ‘by leading Catholics.’ They are by Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, Martin Pendergast and Tina Beattie.
Three leading Catholics? Only in the Tablet’s view of the world!
Fr Radcliffe is certainly well known: where he is leading Catholics may be a matter for discussion.
Martin Pendergast is only known for being the ex-priest homosexual activist who has been in the news mainly on account of his lover being, for many years, the head of CAFOD; an irregular situation of which many in the hierarchy were aware (and even apparently approved) but assiduously kept from the laity who fund CAFOD under the impression it is a charity run by faithful Catholics and in line with Catholic teaching (both, to say the least, very moot points: see my posts tagged CAFOD, passim.)
Tina Beattie: well, what can one say?
Their arguments are every bit as cogent and Catholic as you might expect...
But my question is this: which is homophobic?
To say to the gay lobby: here is the teaching of Christ’s Church; here is where your true happiness, peace, and indeed salvation may be found. To explain that from natural reason, empirical evidence and the teaching of Christ himself, we know that the good they seek will never be found in homosexual activity?
Or to say: get on with it chaps, it’s all about Love, isn’t it?
I think the latter is profoundly homophobic: running scared of the gay lobby, and sacrificing their well being on the altar of false charity.
As I write this, I am thinking of the people I know afflicted with homosexual desires: both those who resist heroically, and on whom this contemptible issue of the Tablet spits, and those who have succumbed to disease, despair or death.
What will it take for the Bishops to recognise that the Tablet should not be allowed to pass itself off as a Catholic paper?
H/t Chrysostom on James Preece’s blog.
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6 comments:
Tina Beattie writes "Marriage is not just about sex but about a lifelong commitment to bodily unity in difference with another human being in all the interwoven materiality of our lives."
What on earth is meant by "bodily unity"? Sounds like sex to me.
How can anyone write such a sentence? Would I be wrong in thinking this waffle is written by an out and out materialist?
The Tablet is new to me - mainly because I only reconnected with my faith in the last two years but I have heard a LOT about it's curious angles on the faith. Interesting to look into further and I too question how it can be considered a Catholic paper when it endlessly calls into questions key teachings?
Londonistar (formerly on Twitter. I'll just be on bumpbeyond.com now)
Yes, not only can Nicholas Bellord be wrong. He is wrong.
Frankly, how dare he insult historical materialists like myself by suggesting that posturing bourgeois liberal, Tina Beattie, who can't write a sentence to save her life, is anything to do with us?
For the avoidance of doubt, Tina Beattie is NOT a materialist and the ideology she disseminates owes more to a (thinly-understood) libertinisim than Catholicism.
A pseud, a poseur and purveyor of junk history is what she is.
I hope that clears up any confusion.
Red Maria: Thanks for putting me right. It was the phrase "interwoven materiality of our lives" that threw me. I have visions of a knitted jumper suddenly unravelling.
Alison: The Tablet used to be a good read in the days of Douglas Woodruffe but it has steadily gone down hill ever since. What finished it for me was an article by Mark Dowd which struck me as homosexual pornography. I see he is now a member of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council.
That reminds me: Mark Dowd was the reporter who compiled that programme about Catholicism for Radio 4: The Pope's British Divisions.
Catholic Voices inexplicably praised it:I thought it lamentable: http://ccfather.blogspot.com/2010/09/popes-british-divisions.html
I hadn't realised he was now on the Soho Masses Pastoral Council.
It's a small (and sad) world, that one...
Wondering if Archbishop Nichol's letter tomorrow will be read at the Soho Masses???
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