Well Done, Cardinal O’Brien
Sept 11, 2004
Cardinal O'Brien seems keen to ditch his liberal image and, God knows, this most recent article can only help his promotion prospects.
(Catholic Truth, Scotland,29 August, 2004) We'd scarcely raised a toast to the victory for truth at the above meeting, thanks to Mrs Eileen McCloy's knowledgable interventions, than we were alerted to the Cardinal's outspoken attack on explicit sex education, published in the Ecosse section of The Sunday Times, 29 August, 2004.
You may recall that it was former Tory Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher who said "It's a funny old world". Well, when you've read the Cardinal's fearless piece in the Sunday Times, you'll realise that he is now so far to "the right "that he makes Maggie look like a member of the SNP.
Again, like Eileen McCloy, sticking to the facts, the Cardinal demonstrated the manifest failure of sex education. He urged parents to act to ensure that their children are not being subjected to explicit and "value-free" sex education programmes.
The Cardinal, however, expresses the assumption that Catholic schools are free of this evil. They are not. Beginning with Alive-O in the primary schools, Scottish school children are gradually groomed in the same way as children in other non-denominational schools.
Oh and there's the little matter of the "home-school-parish" - i.e. entire Catholic community ethos.
Let's imagine that in one little corner of Edinburgh there is a good Catholic school free of the kind of sex education condemned by the Cardonal in his (terrific) Sunday Times article. The children learn about purity and chastity etc etc. Then they go home for the weekend. Switch on Radio Forth and listen in to Father "call me Andy" Monaghan on Saturday night, 11pm through to 2.a.m.
How confusing for them to hear a Catholic priest condoning and even promoting the gay lifestyle, co-habiting, divorce and remarriage, adultery, three-in-a-bed sessions, and so on and so on. You name it, it's OK with (quoting Dorothy, who openly flirts with him) "Randy Andy".
Cardinal O'Brien seems keen to ditch his liberal image and, God knows, this most recent article can only help his promotion prospects. With us, though, seeing is believing, sure, but so is not hearing. Remove the Rev Monaghan from the airwaves, Cardinal O'Brien, and we'll be on our way to being really convinced that your conversion to orthodoxy is for real. Whatever the "Monaghan" deal is, to keep him on air, we'll double it to have him removed... Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder (George Washington)
Well Done, Cardinal O’Brien