The Tablet has run an editorial ridiculing the 1,000 bishops, Abbots and priests who signed a letter to The Daily Telegraph expressing concerns about David Cameron’s plans for legalizing same-sex marriage. The Tablet accuses the priests of dangerous paranoia that will make accommodation with secular society more difficult.
The Tablet mocks the judgement of over 1,000 bishops and priests
‘David Cameron has a responsibility to make the fears of a thousand Catholic priests look far-fetched. He has to ensure that any law recognising gay marriage will not, as these priests complained in a letter to The Daily Telegraph last week, leave them open to persecution redolent of the anti-Catholic penal laws levied after the Reformation. Government spokesmen have already stated that no Catholic priest or teacher will face legal consequences if they teach the Catholic doctrine that marriage should be reserved for the union between one man and one woman. It is an indication of the somewhat fevered atmosphere surrounding this issue that government assurances to the contrary are not trusted.’
‘Rights do sometimes conflict, and as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference sensibly said in a statement afterwards, “The Church would strongly encourage disputes of this kind to be settled without recourse to the courts. In many cases, applying common sense would enable a reasonable accommodation between competing rights to be found.” But an atmosphere of paranoia would make such accommodation more difficult, and that is the danger of the priests’ letter to the Telegraph.’
The Bishops that The Tablet mocks as alarmist and dangerously paranoid include:
Rt Rev Peter Brignall, Bishop of Wrexham
Rt Rev Terence Drainey, Bishop of Middlesbrough
Rt Rev Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth
Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, Bishop of Nottingham
Rt Rev Daniel Mullins, Bishop Emeritus of Menevia
Rt Rev Philip Pargeter, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Birmingham
Rt Rev Patrick O’Donoghue, Bishop Emeritus of Lancaster
Rt Rev Francis Walmsley, Bishop Emeritus to HM Forces
The Tablet also published a letter from a priest more in sympathy with their mockery of our bishops and priests than with his brother priests:
It is so encouraging to discover that three- quarters of my colleagues felt unable to sign the letter whining about the Government’s policy on same-sex marriage in spite of lettersand stamped, addressed envelopes provided by the backers (see News from Britain andI reland, page xx). I received two of these letters which, with the two envelopes provided,cost someone £2. I wondered who was paying for this ridiculous initiative which must have cost many many thousands of pounds to mount. Clearly the Church has far more money to waste than it has common sense. (Fr) Richard Barton Matson and Tuffley, Gloucestershire
Protect the Pope comment: Catherine Pepinster obviously thinks she knows better than eight consecrated bishops of the Catholic Church and over a thousand priests. Yet again she proves she has no respect for the munera of Christ that our bishops and priests received through the sacrament of Holy Orders. If her sense of superiority enables her and her paper to regularly criticize Pope Benedict, then what’s mocking as paranoid 1,000 bishops, abbots and priests? For some unfathomable reason Catherine Pepinster and the journalists think that writing for The Tablet gives them a charism of discernment and wisdom greater than that of the successor of St Peter and the successors to the apostles!
http://protectthepope.com/?p=6434
“In many cases, applying common sense would enable a reasonable accommodation between competing rights to be found.”
Tell that to Lillian Ladele, Shirley Chaplin and Gary McFarlane.
Absolutely spot on, Mike2; the so-called ‘safeguards’ would be soon be sacrificed on the EU altar.
How much longer can this appalling publication be permitted to call itself ‘Catholic’?
A bit of common sense would have prevented those people’s cases being bought. We should remember that seeking a court action is only and should only be a last resort. There are 70 million people in the UK and about 50 million of them are religious. Common sense and reasonable accomodation must be working for many of those people. I really feel that the three people you name have been served badly by their employers and our legal system, but I don’t think that that removes the arguement that most employers are able and willing to aplly common sense most of the time.
The Tablet says “It is an indication of the somewhat fevered atmosphere surrounding this issue that government assurances to the contrary are not trusted.”
But I wonder if anyone, other than Tablet journalists, trusts this government.
Unfortunately I have heard that some people see the numbers who didn’t sign the letter ie. around 3/4 of all priests in England, as being in favour of SS ‘marriage’….
Catherine Pepinster and Fr Richard Barton need to be advised that rights do indeed conflict and recent legal rulings mean that homosexual rights trump religious rights.
Dear Nick, The “Pill” isn’t on its own when it comes attacking the wisdom of 2000 years. The past few days in Ireland has seen CDF issue a warning to Fr Tony Flannery CSsR that he is near to being excommunicated. Of course his order in Ireland and the lovies in the Irish Times, Independent have back his disobiedence to the hilt. We need to pray for him and for all in the ACP that now, even at this late hour, common sense may prevail on them to see that their cause is hurting the Church, especially the Holy Father!
Why do parishes continue to sin by stocking such filth as The Tablet? Its sin to stock something that undermines the Catholic faith on so many levels.
Paranoia? The Tablet is a fine one to talk.
Ms Pepinster clearly thinks that it is the task of the Church to conform Catholics to the ever-more bizarre standards of the world rather than to bring people to Christ. The Tablet is a scandal.
I would love to see the Tablet banned from every Catholic Church. They have no spirit of obedience to the Church’s Magisterium. They should learn to ”Sentire cum Ecclesia.” And not dissent with the world.
This so called catholic newspaper should be banned and any church that sells it should be ashamed Why does the bishops conference not do something
No need to ban it, Freddie; if people want to write (and read) dissenting garbage they should be free to do so. The organ publishing the dissening garbage should, however, be banned from describing itself as Catholic.
I add my voice to those who think the Tablet ought to be proscribed.
I thought suppositories were prescribed, not proscribed.