Catholic Herald & Homosexuality – A Marriage of Convenience?
Having spent some quite some time this week, in two telephone conversations with Madeleine Teahan, journalist with the Catholic Herald, as she wrote up her report on the Rob Flello MP & Co. attack on Catholic Truth, I was appalled to read her short report this morning, giving the majority of space to the Flello position and a short, inaccurate, quote from my letter in the final paragraph.
I found myself discussing the report after Mass this morning, with the two parishioners who had kindly brought me the paper to make sure I saw the report. As the discussion circle widened, the opinion was expressed by one person after another, that – surely? – the only people who support the same-sex marriage position and its advocates, are homosexuals themselves. I must say, it’s a thought which clicked with me. I mean, which of us could write an article about same-sex marriage and give the majority of the space over to its proponents?
I have now emailed the following letter for publication to Luke Coppen, editor of the Catholic Herald.
Dear Sir,
Madeleine Teahan’s report on the Westminster campaign against Catholic Truth was decidedly unbalanced (MPs clash with lobby group over conscience, 19 July, 2013)
Despite the fact that I told your reporter that my own letters to my MP were published on our blog, material which disproves the MP Rob Flello’s claim that we were responsible for “condemnatory” emails to parliamentary colleagues who voted in favour of same-sex marriage, that lie was repeated in your newspaper without any corrective quote from me. Dishonest.
Ms Teahan does include a quote on conscience, taken from my letter to Flello, but even that is not accurate due to careless, if not malicious, repetition of “and moral order”.
When Miss Teahan told me that she would write a “balanced report” I replied that such is the work of the secular journalist. Catholic newspapers should be promoting, not a “balanced view” but the truth. Ironically, this seemed to be news to her.
Juxtaposed with her disgraceful misrepresentation of Catholic Truth, unashamedly slanted in support of the misnamed Catholic Legislators Network, we see another article on the subject of same-sex marriage by the same journalist, headlined Bill on same-sex marriage passes its final hurdle. “Hurdle”? Your journalist (and presumably your good self) sees the parliamentary process for passing the (evil) same-sex legislation as a series of obstacles to be overcome?
Catholics are either against such evil as same-sex marriage or in favour – there’s no middle ground for a Catholic.
Is the Catholic Herald, then, its editor and journalists, pro-same-sex marriage? I can only presume so at the moment, but I think we have a right to know for sure. There’s no reason to shy away from stating your position. You’ll face no sanctions. Neither TDs who voted abortion up to birth into law in Ireland nor the members of the Catholic Legislators Network who voted in favour of same-sex marriage in the UK will face the canonical penalty of being refused Holy Communion. Anything goes, these days, so let’s hear it – is the Catholic Herald, like the majority of Catholic MPs “pro” same-sex marriage? END
Comments (16)
A very good letter, editor, but I fear it will fall on deaf ears. The Catholic Faith is so utterly compromised in the church in Britain now, especially in the so-called “Catholic” press, that it is almost useless to try to correct it. The editors of these newspapers are people who live in terror of being called “fundamentalist,” as though it were some kind of disease of the mind that must be avoided at all costs. But fundamentalist means in essence to be 100% committed to the teaching and practice of the Church as handed down and attested to throughout the centuries by a good many “Fundamentalist” saints, popes and martyrs.
St. Paul said that the Faith should be preached in season and out of season. Well, the Catholic Faith is most certainly out of season in this liberal era and I’m afraid there are very few prepared to put their heads above the parapet to defend it, especially the editors of Catholic newspapers who know they will incur the wrath of the bishops if they dare go against the modern tide. They are all apostates to some degree or another, either by preaching heresy themselves or by allowing it free reign in the interests of “balance,” although I note that they are never too keen on balance when it comes to publishing the rebuttals of Traditional Catholics!
While Britain certainly holds a primary place, along with Germany, in the ranks of those nations most ravaged by Modernism and liberalism, it’s Catholic hierarchies and newspapers given over to general silence while Our Lord is publicly crucified by His enemies, the problem really has its heart in Rome.
I have noted in the past couple of weeks how often Pope Francis goes on about the plight of the poor and the immigrants, yet not a single word has emanated from the Vatican deploring either Enda Kenny’s introduction of abortion (up to full term) into Catholic Ireland or the signing into British law of the same-sex marriage Bill. Indeed, Pope Francis recently exchanged friendly correspondence with David Cameron without a mention of the same-sex legislation that this man declared publicly to be one of the proudest things he has done.
What does this tells us if not that our supernatural religion, a divine religion primarily established by Our Lord for the eternal salvation of souls, has been taken over by naturalists who are presently using their positions to re-orientate the Church away from its primary purpose and onto a new road which is purely humanitarian. Hence the fixation today with social worldly issues and an almost universal disinterest in those things pertaining to the Commandments of God and His established moral laws.
This is where Modernism leads in the end, as St. Pius X warned. It results in man becoming his own God, just as Pope Pius XII predicted in his time as already presenting itself in terrifying signs amongst the Church’s own children. In effect, it is the “diabolical disorientation” spoken of in relation to the chastisement of Third Secret of Fatima by Sister Lucy, which Cardinal Ciappi, personal theologian to five popes, including John Paul II, described as “apostasy from the top down.”
In the light of what we have witnessed in the Church since Vatican II, and in light of so many Catholics in prominent public positions swapping divine grace for grace and favour from Our Lord’s enemies, who could possibly argue with Cardinal Ciappi.
That was very dishonest of the Catholic Herald. I’m surprised, as I thought it was the best of the Catholic papers. Just shows.
I agree with Athanasius that editor’s letter will fall on deaf ears but I want to agree with the statement in the letter that we have a right to know if the editor and journalist at the Herald are pro-gay marriage or not. I think it’s amazing how many Catholics have gone along with the gay rights agenda, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Josephine
I keep hearing this (even said it myself in the past) that the Catholic Herald is the best of a bad lot. All I would add now is, “that’s not saying much!”
Athanasius,
I completely agree with you about Pope Francis’s constant talk about the materially poor, while he seems less concerned about the spiritual and moral decadence engulfing both Church and world.
And now we’re set for the nonsense of the latest World Youth Day. I’m told that Pope Francis is genuinely tone deaf, and that even a concert of Mozart sounds like a load of banging to him, so goodness knows what sort of musical junk they’ll serve up at the WYD events including Mass, that he won’t even realise is junk.
What a life. What a conclave – help, Lord!
editor,
I wait with baited breath to see what kind of Papal Mass we get during this forthcoming WYD. That one liturgical event will tell us all we need to know about the Pope. I hope my worst fears are not realised.
Athanasius,
I agree, the papal Mass at the WYD will tell us a lot about the new Pope. It would be great to get a pleasant surprise.
I think the Herald is a disappointment. It will be very interesting indeed to see if they publish editor’s letter but I doubt it because it shows them up for their incompetence and lack of fairness/balance. It also does raise a question about their own attitude to same-sex marriage.
Gabriel Syme,
Only yesterday a friend told me he is thinking of unsubscribing from the Remnant because it ain’t what it used to be. It’s increasingly only concerned with America and didn’t even mention the Cardinal O’Brien scandal. I sometimes check out their website, but that’s about it.
I’ve now had a reply from Luke Coppen at the Catholic Herald, and, yet again, he is making excuses not to publish my letter. Below our recent exchange of emails:
FROM LUKE COPPEN…
Thank you for your email. I have to place the letters I receive into two basic categories: letters for publication on our Letters page and letters of complaint. The former express an opinion about an article in the paper; the latter take issue with editorial decisions.
It seems to me that, overall, your letter falls into the latter category and so I believe I have to treat it as a letter of complaint rather than as a submission for the Letters page.
I have re-read our report and I cannot see where we have asserted that Catholic Truth Scotland was responsible for sending “condemnatory” emails to MPs.
But if you felt this was a point that you wanted to get across to readers we would be happy to publish a clarification in this week’s issue stating: ‘Concerning our report last week, headlined “MPs clash with lobby group over conscience”, Catholic Truth Scotland has asked us to clarify that it was not responsible for “condemnatory” emails to Catholic parliamentarians who voted in favour of same-sex marriage.’
Please let me know by tomorrow morning if you would like us to do this.
I apologise for the repetition of “and moral order”. I would like to assure you that this was a typo.
I would also like to reassure you that we have published countless leading articles and comment pieces rejecting same-sex marriage.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Coppen
Editor,
The Catholic Herald
MY REPLY
For one thing, our name is NOT Catholic Truth Scotland – it’s Catholic Truth. The “Scotland” was added to our website address following sabotage by a scoundrel priest who caused our then website to be pulled, and we had to add something to get the domain back – he’d never worry about pulling yours, politically correct and modernist, so worry not. Nor will anyone be able to hack our current sites, so forget that for an idea!
You manage to get out of publishing my letters, almost every time, Luke. I do not respect that. It’s cowardly and dishonest. It’s a piece of nonsense to divide letters as you say you have divided them – claptrap which falls into the category “any old excuse”. Any editor worth his salt would publish my letter and welcome any fallout.
However, since yet again you are refusing to publish my letter, please do put in a prominent place, the correction you suggest but make it more clear. It’s not good enough to say you didn’t say we were responsible for the nasty mail – Madeleine allowed that lie from the MP to go uncorrected. That makes YOU (both of you) guilty of perpetrating falsehoods, quite possibly deliberately, although I refrain from making a definitive judgment on that. Just because I don’t trust you (or that journalist) as far as I could throw you, doesn’t mean I can read your soul, so we’ll leave it at that. Please publish that it is a fact, readily available to check on our blog, that no nasty emails or letters have been sent by anyone associated with Catholic Truth. It has to be as clear as that, for justice to be done, Luke, and you’re all great at bleating on about “justice” in the allegedly Catholic papers.
As for your concluding sentence – publishing articles pro and against isn’t good enough. Would you publish articles arguing the case FOR any other evil (the Jewish holocaust? Burglary? You name it?)
So, what is YOUR position – are you in favour of same sex marriage and/or the “gay” lifestyle?
Patricia
Excellent letter to Luke Coppen, editor. I’d really like to see his reply.
Actually, Petrus, his reply was very polite and he’s offered an acceptable correction to be put in next week’s paper: here’s his reply to me –
Thank you for your email. Could I check: is this the new wording you were thinking of?:
‘Concerning our report last week, headlined “MPs clash with lobby group over conscience”, Catholic Truth has asked us to clarify that it was not responsible for “condemnatory” emails to Catholic parliamentarians who voted in favour of same-sex marriage. It says that no nasty emails or letters have been sent by anyone associated with Catholic Truth and refers readers seeking more information to its blog, Catholictruthblog.com.’
Thank you for asking about my personal position on same-sex marriage and homosexuality. I support the teaching of the Church on both matters. END
I’ve restored him to my Christmas card list.
I would very much doubt Editors fine letter will be published. Newspapers of any type would never print criticism of themselves, especially if it also showed them up as being selective / duplicitous.
I share the view of others, that the Catholic Herald is typically the best of the UK Catholic press but – as has also been pointed out – thats hardly any great boast. The beano or the dandy, were they still in print, would give the typical UK Catholic newspaper a run for its money in terms of printing matters relating to orthodox Catholicism and general intellectual content.
The Scottish-specific papers are – in my opinion – particularly bad: they employ ‘Catholic’ writers, such as Kevin McKenna, who suck up to the Church when writing in faith-based papers, but then savagely and unfairly criticise it elsewhere, (The Guardian, in McKennas case) for secular approval.
I do often buy the Herald, but then what credible weekly alternative is there?
After the Catholic Truth conference, where copies of The Remnant (impressive) were available, I have considered subscribing to it. But then Im in two minds as the content is generally US-specific.
I would not use the likes of the Tablet, SCO, or Flourish etc to wrap my chips in, let alone actually read them.
Editor,
That’s very positive. He seems to be generally fair minded.
Clarification printed verbatim on pg2
Crossraguel,
Thank you for that. Will see it on Sunday.
I note that your post went into moderation when there is clearly no need for it. Quite a few posts have gone into moderation without any reason, recently. I will check this out with the Support people at WordPress as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’m checking as often as possible to release any innocent posts in the queue. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Here’s an article quoting Bishop Egan of Portsmouth speaking out about “gay marriage”
Maybe I’m misreading it, but the following extract strikes me as a cause for concern:
Although the full implications of the legislation will have to be fully assessed, he said that the Catholic leadership will “certainly need to review our preaching, teaching and school curricula….Our Catholic system of meanings and values is strikingly different from what secular culture now deems normal or acceptable.”
In what way would preaching etc need to be “reviewed”? Is “reviewed” a euphemism for “diluted”?
I must say I understood the opposite. There is precious little “preaching” at present and hasn’t been for nigh on 50 years, and, we know Bishop Egan is one of the two good guys, so I think he’s saying that the Church will have to get Her teaching role in gear and TEACH.
CrofterLady,
WOW! That would be great – I do hope I’m wrong on this and you are right. Bound to happen one day, might as well be the beginning of the month!
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