The Homosexual Lobby, Christian Rights & Liberalising Paedophilia

Here's a great post from A Reluctant Sinner, with some worrying news about the homosexual lobby, the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the moves to make paedophilia "acceptable."

I do find it annoyingly frustrating that the same people who wish to get active homosexuals into the Church, and make the Church accept homosexuality, are the same people who then point the finger at the resultant outbreak of paeophilia. It is telling that these same forces are now pushing for liberalisation in regards to this most sick of mental illnesses.

Thye phrase "wanting to have your cake and eat it" springs to mind.

Do these forces really think Christian rights must be trampled upon, whilst paedophiles' "rights" be exalted? So it would seem.

Go Vote For Your Favourite Catholic Sites

The Catholic New Media Awards are now open for voting.

Sorry I didn't know they were on - maybe this little blog will feature next year.

Anyway, go vote for something traditional and uplifting, thought provoking and insightful.

I can recommend The Distributist Review - and there are others that I'm sure will catch your eye.

Please feel free to list your preferences, tips, votes or hints in the comments on this blog.

Prince or Pauper: the King of Creation is Yours

I found this image online and it immediately made me think "this is what it is all about."

Sorry to sound like a football pundit, but this image encompasses what Catholicism is for me.

• Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
• The Faithful kneel in reverence to the King of all Creation.
• All mankind is called, prince and pauper, to receive Our Lord.
• The Mass as the centre of Catholic life and Communion at the centre of the Mass.
• A great mystery of Christian theology and history, something so sublime and beautiful.
• Yet even the "worst offender" can Confess sincerely and receive Our Lord.
• Christ the King is available, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, to the most lowly.

I hope all that doesn't sound trite, I certainly don't want it to. Just sometimes an image like this, in all its simplicity, can reveal great truths.

The Miraculous Holy Water Coma Cure

Story on Radio 2 (Jeremy Vine Show) right now about a young girl in a coma - no hope, so the parents had her baptised by a Catholic priest.

When the Holy Water touched her, she raised her arm and gradually got better. She hadn't moved at all for a week previously.

Incredible. Nurses calling it a miracle.

Link:
Girl in Holy Water Miracle

Baroness Scotland Blames Paedophilia on "Loneliness"

Catholic? Or Heretical?

I find The Universe pretty hit and miss, more miss than hit, I'm sad to say.

This is really sad as a thoroughly Catholic paper could be such a great source of Grace, of promoting Catholicism, of educating Catholics - of strengthening our Faith in so many ways.

The rare occasion when I've picked up a copy and  thought "wow" has invariably been when there has been a "retro" article on Chesterton or Belloc. They also produced some 'from the archives' photo magazines which had some beautifully moving images, which to be honest made my heart leap and sink, the former because it reminded me how beautiful Catholicism can be, the latter because it reminded me how much we have lost.

Put it this way, altar rails, the Kyrie Eleison, Communion on the tongue, the high altar with Tabernacle - none of this can be replaced by Kum By Ya, "Jesus 'hearts' U" tapestries, happy clappiness.

I am only a pew Catholic. I am no great theologian, thinker or great Defendant (like GKC), but I am convinced that there is a vacuum in 'modern' Catholicism, there is a gap and it could be argued that it has been caused by the modern world, or that the modern world has flooded in to fill the gap caused when so much our forefathers held dear for generation after generation, was ripped away.

Now I know much of it was window dressing, but as I've said before the Church historically was not idiotic. Outside of the supernaturally inspired things which moved men's hearts and helped them to worship and try to understand the great mysteries of the church, there were man-made things of great beauty, inspired by men of great Faith: popes, saints and others known and unknown, all codified and made Catholic (universal) by Holy Mother Church.

Despite the chaos and turmoil in this 'Vale of Tears,' a Catholic could enter a Church in London or Timbuktu, in Rome or Alice Springs, in India or Spain, and follow the Mass in all its beauty, having his eyes, mind, heart and soul filled with the sights, sounds and smells of the Mass, celebrated as it was hundreds of years before.

Now one can walk into a church in the same country, even in the same diocese, and have a different language, a different style, a different manner of distributing Communion, a very traditional Mass with great reverence, or a happy clappy Mass with guitars, a running commentary from the MC, Tabernacle hidden to one side, and so on.

Catholicism is not Catholic (universal) anymore. A kind of liturgical chaos reins, from nation to nation. If one is holidaying in Spain, what chance does one have of following the Mass in Spanish? Or in Portugal? France? Germany?

Or what of those of us who feel that Communion in both kinds should be reserved for religious? Who feel the Eucharistic monsters take over Mass in some parishes and don't wish to receive Communion from lay hands or a nun? Let's not mention the 'liturgy of the word' aka the priestless Mass. If travelling we play Russian roulette when we enter a church.

What has all this to do with The Universe? Well, I get the same Russian roulette feeling when I turn a page of The Universe. Will it raise my spirits, reinvigorate my Faith, or will it sap my morale and make me think Catholicism equates some effeminate mush?

I used to buy The Universe regularly in an old parish, but eventually gave up on it because the glimpses of Truth, tradition, genius and sound Catholicism just were washed away in a sea of Kum By Ya, wishy washy, afraid of its own shadow, happy clappy, social worker yuck.

One such piece brought up a serious issue, the loneliness and exclusion of priests in communities and using some awful logic supplied by Baroness Scotland, suggested that such loneliness could lead to paedophilia.

Excuse me? I see that not only as a pathetic way of excusing the very worst crimes in society, but it also airbrushes out the very real role viz the promotion of homosexuality and the spread of paedophilia, a role pushed not least by New Labour which went out of its way to promote homosexuality in schools, to close down Catholic adoption agencies and worse. Baroness Scotland was a New Labour appointee.

I well recall the horror of Catholics when New Labour repealed Section 28, which meant that homosexuality could be promoted in schools. Many Catholics were appalled and fought to keep the law, and felt betrayed by Catholic politicians who closed their eyes to Catholic teaching on morality and used bluff, half-truths, smoke and mirrors to justify their stance.

Not only does Baroness Scotland ignore the central role of (New Labour promoted) homosexuality in the growth of paedophilia, which is well documented in society at large, and should be seriously looked into re.clerical abuse, but to my mind this is a serious assault on faithful priests and the lonely in society.

Priests, Catholics and people in general could be lonely from now until doomsday and would never, ever even contemplate paedophilia. It is a great evil. Of the cases I know of from towns near and including my own, the paedophiles that have been in the media over recent years have been married, in the police, in the Sea Cadets, and similar. All have had families around them whether parents and siblings or spouses.

To state that loneliness can lead to paedophilia is equating paedophilia with drinking, long-term unemployment, playing computer games, or reading trash novels.

It is high time that we all stopped thinking of paedophilia as an aberration,a crime or a bad thing: it is much worse than that. It is an absolute evil. It is a sexual evil, which can only grow out of other sexual proclivities that are evil.

A person does not wake up one morning, make a cup of tea, have no social activities in their diary and so turn to paedophilia. I think we are in danger of both soft soaping the grade of sheer evil that is paedophilia to equate it with loneliness; and to disparage our priests that a lack of dinner invites, football matches or cream teas will make them turn into deranged monsters.

To put this story on the cover of The Universe shows that Catholics (or certain "experts") have lost the plot. These kind of stories paint all our priests as potential monsters (so playing into atheists' hands), whilst simultaneously whitewashing paedophilia to equate it with online gaming, drinking beer or sleeping-in till midday.

I want to pick up a Catholic newspaper to read articles on Catholic current affairs, liturgy, politics, morality, history, the Saints, and similar. The potential loneliness of priests - no problem. The evil and solution to paedophilia - no problem.

What I don't want to read is this kind of New Labour spin which seeks to separate true cause and effect of paedophilia from the people who let the homosexual genie out of the bottle.

Just yesterday I listened to the BBC Radio programme on exorcism. It mirrored what I had read in books on the subject, that one of the main causes of demonic possession (which Our Lord spoke of and commanded the first Bishops to expel) is homosexual activity.

If we accept the evidence of exorcists, who deal with this phenomenon, then there is little wonder that an act that is of such evil results can result in increased paedophilia - surely the most evil and debased act possible?

It may not be fashionable to treat such themes honestly. It may not be trendy. It may not be popular. It may not seem cool and cuddly. But it would ultimately be Charitable. We owe it to our own children. We owe it to society at large. We owe it to homosexuals and those teetering on the edge of a great evil and the innocents they will corrupt and whose lives they will destroy.

If Baroness Scotland wishes to do so from a Catholic viewpoint she might start by condemning homosexual activity and promotion; at least then those engaged in this dangerous activity would have no misconceptions about where their evil choices may lead.

The Rise in Exorcists: BBC Radio Programme

An interesting BBC Radio programme, drawing on the interesting film The Rite.

As is made clear, in America possession is primarily a result of Ouija boards, drugs and sexual immorality (inc homosexuality).

Food for thought.

Link:
So You Want to be an Exorcist

An Interview with GKC

GKC: larger than life

Do read this fun interview with GKC: it is very amusing (with some pearls of wisdom thrown in, as usual):

Necessary Therapy.

Just heard GKC quoted on Radio 5 Live on the matter of drugs (as taken by Louise Mensch MP) and the legalisation of dangerous narcotics, to the effect that it is the ignorance of experts that imperils men.

When the widespread misuse of drugs are destroying communities and a good percentage of a generation, how can making them any more widespread be any kind of answer? But then we Catholics have heard all these failed arguments before when it comes to more extensive and gratuitous sex education, increased availability of contraceptives and the increase in teenage single mums and abortion.

As Peter Hitchens has said, the anti-drug policy has not failed, it has not been implemented (rather akin to GKC's quote on Christianity).

Oh for a GKC today to pop the balloons of pomposity of today's experts!

Irish Politician 'Misspoke' Over Paedophila

David Norris excused paedophilia

Here's a great post showing the hypocrisy of the Irish press and media over the recent clerical abuse scandal: The Hermeneutic of Continuity.

A friend of mine who is a true and faithful Catholic in Ireland (the media would have us believe he is in a band of very few) said to me quite some time ago that the state there relaxed the rules so that anyone could come forward and claim they were abused without having to go through a process that could charitably be called 'stressful'.

With the burden of proof being laid to one side there was a huge rush of 'victims' eager to claim their compensation and/or to bolster the numbers claiming against the Church. He said it was common knowledge that some/many of these were opportunists out to make a fast buck, whilst the "system" was happy to have over-inflated figures for clerical abuse.

Last week when the Pope recalled his nuncio in Ireland I heard one news reporter (sorry my memory doesn't spring into action with a name/place) saying that this showed the Vatican were taking this very seriously etc. Most other reports made play of Irish government statements that it was unhappy at the lack of action/apology by the Church and comments such as 'things will never be the same again' viz the relationship between church and state.

I know it does not for one moment justify even one terrible/heinous act by one priest, but we should thankful that Irish state-run care homes, schools etc. are/were free from all abuse (ditto our own in Britain),

In closing let us pray for all the Catholic children abused by bad priests, that they may find peace and justice, and that they may keep their Faith and find solace with Our Lady who can soothe their wounds. Let us also pray that Holy Mother Church tightens her control over Seminaries and their intake, and that we may receive Holy, Catholic Priests so that more souls may receive the Sacraments and scandals be replaced by saints.

Amy Winehouse - A Lesson for the World

Fame, fortune and the adulation of the world

"For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?"
Mark 8:36

Therein lies the lesson for us all.

Amy Winehouse did not have "the world" but she could be said to have the world at her feet. She had a promising music career, thanks to gifts received from God. She was a "celebrity" and put on a pedestal. She had wealth and chose a hedonistic life.

In the Gospels there are various references to the "thief in the night"

"For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night."
1 Thessalonians 5:2

"But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief..."
2 Peter 3:10

"But know this ye, that if the goodman of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open."
Matthew 24:43

In various texts I have read this has been interpreted as the end of times, Judgement Day etc., yet I believe it also refers to each and every one of us; because we never know when our time will come, when we will die, and so when we will face the four last things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

If we choose to abuse the gifts that God has bestowed on us for our own ends rather than for His glory, then we had better be prepared for that ultimate Judgement.

We can think (for we have free will) that God does not matter or does not exist, that the Church and her Sacraments are irrelevant, that we must amass wealth, power, glory and the other trifles of this world. We can even chose a life of hedonistic excess.

However, just because we have free will does not mean we should surrender to our concupiscent nature, for our own death, and therefore our own Judgement, will come "like a thief in the night" to so many of us.

We Catholics pray for a good death. We plead with the Holy Trinity that we may have a good death, that we are prepared. In reality there can be nothing more important for each living person.

Sadly for Amy Winehouse she did not get a good death. Christ did come for her like a "thief in the night," suddenly and unexpected. All the money and fame in the world will not sway her Judgement; that will be down to her actions, her prayers and the state of her soul when she died.

There is a lesson for us all.

"Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour."
Matthew 25:13

Original Sin: On Concupiscence, Jesus Christ and Evolutionist Heresy

I have a tendency towards sin. I am not proud of it. Quite often when I hear a holy man's sermon my ears burn.I suppose you have the same problem. So does everyone up to and including the Pope.

Concupiscence - the tendency to sin - is something that every human being in history (bar Adam, Eve, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ) were and are born with.

It's a result of Original Sin.

Now there's two issues I'd like to chew over with you on that subject, if you'll permit me.

The first is that I am a Catholic, that I have all the weaknesses associated with Original Sin. Therefore as with all those before me (and after!) I need the help of Holy Mother Church to stay on the straight and narrow. My very concupiscent nature makes me susceptible to fall off that road, all too often.

Thus I need the "props" that Our Faith provides, not least the Confessional. Regular Communion fortifies and strengthens us all. But there is also the example, "rules" and order laid out by the Church.

Heaven knows (yes, it really does) that without these I would be like a blob of jelly, spineless and weak.

That is why I am convinced we all need the help of the Church. Our Lord was not stupid. He left us His Church, with His Sacraments, for exactly this reason. His Love, His Charity, meant that as well as suffering His Passion and dying for us all, he left behind all we need to attain Heaven.

The world says that the Church must become "softer." The Church must become more "realistic" and (I shudder as the word enters my mind!) "relevant."

What "the world" really wants is a Church that is powerless to help us, that is as jelly-like, weak and floppy as we are. They want an emasculated Church, that would result in the blind leading the blind. Why does the world want this?

Never forget that the devil offered Our Lord the whole world if he would fall on His knees and worship him. The world today is a conglomeration of media-men, politicians and other opinion-formers, most of whom are anti-Catholic in nature if not in fact. Through omission or commission they seek to make the Church relativist.

Behind this herd of cats lies Satan. He wants a Church that is powerless to help us avoid sin, and certainly powerless to help us get up, dust ourselves off and get back on the narrow way. He wants the pews emptied - less bums on pews means less souls saved (as Linen on the Hedgerow blog wrote the other day, not attending Mass on Sundays and Days of Obligation is a Mortal Sin, and that is a victory for Satan).

The more Catholics are turned away from the Church, via false pride, sloth, greed - whatever the perceived motivation ("right" or "wrong") - then the more souls are in danger of falling away, forever. Didn't Our Lady show the children at Fatima the many souls falling into Hell?

God knows (yes, He really does!) that without His Church I would have fallen away too. There are 101 reasons for not going to Church, and the devil will always find the one that most appeals to you, dripping honey words in your ears that appeal to your pride.

The response to the paedophile scandal has been more souls lost. I know this because I hear this from family members, friends and acquaintances. The Church, to many (via the world's media) has become synonymous with this scandal, with hypocrisy, with absolute evil.

These people are human of course. They are concupiscent. They are open to the devil's honeyed-words. Souls are being lost.

The first job of the Princes of the Church is to save souls. One day they, like we parents, will have to answer for the souls under their charge.

So why is this scandal being allowed to go on and on and on? Certainly the media is milking it, but there can be no doubt that their ability to do so is the fault of the Church in not acting like Catholics in the first instance.

And why is the Church putting Pope John Paul II on the road to canonisation via the "fast track" system, when it must be said that most of this scandal happened under his watch? This does not sit well with people outside the Catholic bubble. Not addressing the issue smacks of the same cover-up that hit us in the face after the years and years of this abuse scandal.

I am sorry if I have genuinely offended any good and faithful Catholics, but I think we need to wake up and smell the coffee. The truth is that the paedophile scandal (which correct me if I'm wrong but happened primarily through the 70s, 80s and 90s?) has destroyed the image of the Church in the eyes of many -- including many Catholics.

Now maybe they are weak Catholics, but so am I! So are we all. There but for the Grace of God... etc.

The only way the Catholic Church can get to the bottom of this is to grasp the nettle. The acts and the nature of the people involved must, of course, be absolutely condemned, as I'm sure it has been. But the dualistic approach to moral relativism, immoral acts etc. such as has happened in Westminster Archdiocese viz the (homosexual) Soho Masses must be nipped in the bud by the Church authorities. It was this cowardice and relativism, this 'looking the other way' that allowed the paedophile scandal to go and grow underground.

I am reminded of a priest friend who went back to his Seminary a few years back only to exclaim "it is full of homosexuals" in a most dejected way. Catholics must learn from the ills that have befallen Anglicanism. You cannot be one thing and say another. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. If we say that homosexuality is an abomination, a disorder, then the priesthood and seminaries must be gone through with a fine-tooth comb.

Sounds harsh? Indeed. But when it comes to souls, Salvation, Heaven and Hell I do not think we can cut corners. Of course anyone with homosexual tendencies can and should be helped in a most charitable manner; but the priesthood must be closed off to them (as it should to people with other disorders such as alcoholism, an adulterous nature, etc.)

The fact that Catholic children were sexually assaulted by men with the indelible character of Christ's priesthood on their soul should fill us all with horror, grief, terror, remorse and shame.

Pussyfooting around issues when it comes to the Church, its moral character, its nature etc. has let too many souls fall away and let a tiny percentage [but one was too many!] of the priesthood become outright evil.

Let us learn the lesson and have a thoroughly Catholic Church run on Catholic principles, promoting the Sacraments and defending Catholic dogma and tradition.

The second issue is the issue of Original Sin itself.

A few months back I was at a local lecture on the Faith and the Salvific nature of Christ's Incarnation came up. It set me to thinking at the time, and its an issue addressed in the latest Christian Order (CO)mag too, that if one does not believe in Creation, in Adam and Eve, in our First Parents' fall from grace, then the Incarnation becomes meaningless.

A friend told me he overheard someone at his Church muttering that Creationism was ridiculous. Now if Creation is a "myth" then so is Christ's mission. His Death on the Cross in turn becomes meaningless because by their rationale there was no break between man and God, no rift, no loss of Heaven for Christ to remedy via His Passion and Death on the Cross.

Furthermore, as CO magazine makes clear, Creation is a Catholic Dogma. In other words if you do not believe that God created the entire world and all things in it ex nihilo (out of nothing) in an instant, then you are officially an heretic. I'm not a cannon lawyer but I think that means you should not receive Communion.

It is not a moot point. It is not open for debate. It is not an issue where there can be movement. Church Dogma is that God Created the earth and the beasts on it. Furthermore he created man; not a bit of slime that became a cell, that became a fish, that became a reptile, that became a mammal, that become a monkey, that became a man.

If you do not believe in Genesis (no, not Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel) and its account of Creation, then you cannot believe in Christ's Incarnation to break us free from the bonds of sin.



When Christ uttered the words "it is done/accomplished" He was surely referring to His Salvific mission to restore Heaven to mankind. Yet the very idea that we come from [soulless] monkeys and therefore cannot have lost Paradise through the actions of Adam and Eve, means that Jesus cannot have been the second Adam come to our rescue, nor Mary the second Eve conceived without sin to bring Our saviour into this world.

This heresy reduces Jesus to a "nice bloke" like we here atheists prattle on about on the telly. They tell us he was just a 'good guy' amongst many others (Buddha, Gandhi etc.) and we can pick n choose because really we're just talking soulless monkeys.

The Church has dogmas for a reason. It is not be constrain us, anymore than the need to breath oxygen constrains us or the laws of gravity constrain us. It is so that we my know, understand and dwell on the Truth.

"We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end." G. K. Chesterton

So what am I asking for? As usual I guess I am asking for a Catholic Church, i.e. for Our Faith, for the Pope and for the Bishops to be Catholic, to be dogmatic, to fight for the Truth and above and beyond all else, in all they say and do, to fight for every soul!

To do all you can in your power to keep a soul on the narrow path to Heaven and to lose is a great sadness, but it is not your fault. But to be lukewarm, to let your sheep go wandering off the track and be lost in mists, in quagmire, in thorns and be torn apart by wolves, then their fate rests on your shoulders, whether you are Catholic parents, priests or Bishops.

Please God let us all be watchful and do our Catholic duty.

I am sorry that I have 'gone on' so much, but this something I feel strongly about, and not out of pride, for I am a very weak Catholic, like all of us far too prone to sin. It is because I need so much help and I do not want to fall away (and I wish others not to, and yet more to come back to the Faith, let alone be converted) that I really desire a strong, dogmatic Catholic Church.

I feel we have gone without it for 50 odd years and the pews have emptied as a result. Please. I am not, to quote Basil Fawlty, asking for an elephants ear on a bun. I just want my Catholic Church to be Catholic! It's not too much to ask is it?

Rest in Peace Jack Rees, Faithful to the Last

St Benedict - Pray for Jack Rees

Some very sad news this evening from our local Parish Priest:

"Jack Rees passed on this evening after being fortified with the rites of the Church. His death is our loss but certainly Heaven's gain.

"There will be sacrifice of Holy Mass for the repose of his soul tomorrow [Tuesday] at 8.45am.

"Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

"Jack's funeral will be announced later by his family."

Jack was a real hero. He fought at Monte Cassino, the site of St Benedict's foundation of Western monasticism, and had more medals than you would think one person could have! He played the organ in our local parish for many years, until a recent fall.

Please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

Early Saints on Communion and the Real Presence

I wonder if some kind souls (I know you exist!) out there in cyberspace could help me in some research I am doing.

I am after quotes from early Saints, say up to the Sixth Century, but the earlier the better, on Communion, the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, basically the need for Christians to receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our lord Jesus Christ at the Altar of God.

I know Christ Himself says that we must eat His Flesh, but is there an ongoing reference of this from other sources in the early church?

Thanks for your help.

Old Computer Needed

Our local Parish Priest is after an old pc/laptop to use for parish records. If anyone out there can help please drop me a line.

If you can't, we can take it back to factory settings.

Diolch yn fawr. Many Thanks.

Above Right: Something a little more up to date might be apt! ;-)

Please Pray to GKC

This was a comment left to my last piece, by Ecumenical Diablogger (a fellow Welsh Catholic):

I just saw this comment on the American Chesterton Society website, from Daniel Collins, "Please, everyone who reads this, please pray to Chesterton for a miraculous healing of my Grandmother. She is very ill, and there is a problem in doing surgery.

Chesterton once said that he believed in miracles even though he could not perform any. But I think that he can and he will, if we ask him. Please pray for my Grandmother, and also try to make this date a real Feast day for Chesterton."

God Our Father, Thou didst fill the life of Thy servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith which was the foundation of his ceaseless work, a charity towards all men, particularly his opponents, and a hope which sprang from his lifelong gratitude for the gift of human life. May his innocence and his laughter, his constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his love for all men, especially for the poor, bring cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction and warmth to lukewarm believers and the knowledge of God to those without faith. We beg Thee to grant the favours we ask through his intercession, [and especially for……] so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the Church may proclaim him Blessed. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk

Goodbye and Good Riddance to the News of the World

The News of the World is going. I wish it was that easy - the decision came like a North Korean diktat, and is a power-play to secure Sky for news International. Furthermore NoTW will be replaced by another Murdoch Sunday paper.

Left: Do our children know more about Saints or drug-taking celebrities? Which will help them attain their place in Heaven?

It is more akin to shuffling samples from an STD clinic than getting to grips with the immorality and amorality which causes the spread of STDs in the first place.

I use that example pointedly for in many (most?) respects the NoTW is like a STD. It is (was!) a newspaper of the lowest common denominator, full of sleaze and gossip. The few people (two off the top of my head) who I know who have bought it always looked embarrassed when I asked them "why?" and replied: "it's for the sport/football."

Not good enough. The success of the NoTW and The Sun during the week, shows that we are indeed "Broken Britain."

If we are really preoccupied with salacious gossip, pictures of semi-naked women, soap plot lines and similar, then, it would seem, there is little hope for us. We deserve what we get. I can only think that many Rosaries, Novenas and Masses offered against the waterfall of sin is keeping God's wrath from us.

Those who said, this week, that they would now be boycotting the gutter rag (purchasing or advertising) should be asked what they were doing supporting such a disgusting title. And I do not think the Sunday People (the Mirror's Sunday title) is much better.

We really must re-evaluate our actions as a society.

An edited example of the NoTW sleaze

Should we really be surprised that tabloid hacks behaved in such an underhand and disgusting manner? When their output has been, for many years, highly questionable and an affront to the Faith and morals of "the remnant."

Catholics should be made aware that the tabloid media goes against everything that Catholicism stands for. Like the good people of Liverpool in dealing with Murdoch's Sun paper, we should let every single Catholic in the land know that the tabloids must be boycotted.

How else can we expect our children to be good Catholics and role models for the next generation if their parents, aunties/uncles, grandparents etc. have copies of papers lying around that push a totally anti-Catholic worldview and (im)morality?

I recall reading a few years back (and I would dearly love to be corrected - please!) that Rupert Murdoch was given a medal by the Vatican. If this is true, it shows how the "bosses" of our Church have twisted their role and (as a friend used to enjoy saying at every opportunity) "lost the plot."

Rupert Murdoch must hold the ultimate responsibility for a media empire that has spread a weltanschauung of disruptive anti-family soft porn; of money buys loyalty and gossip; of spreading tittle tattle, semi-truths and lies; of promoting an anti-Catholic agenda on so many levels.

We Catholics are the sheep guided by the Princes of the Church, who should set the example so that we can all (in our faltering Via Dolorosa, in this Vale of Tears) attain Sainthood.

"Newspapers" such as (but not solely) the News of the World have been a roadblock for many souls on that road. Now is the time for Catholic Bishops to speak out and help us pew Catholics by providing us the ammunition to fight back against a gutter mentality, promoted by Rupert Murdoch and other media barons.

Time for Catholic Action! Hurrah! Meet you at the barricades ;-)  [For humbugs looking in - that is a joke].