Fairtrade? Why not Pro-life too?

A few years ago, during the Portsmouth Diocesan consultation over reorganisation, I made a submission in which I suggested that in addition to being 'Fairtrade' (an accolade they clamoured loudly about), the diocese should also be 'Pro-life' in the sense of promoting the plenary teaching of the Church on marriage, sexuality, contraception and the family. Along with probably 99% of proposals, that one ended up in the bin.

I note then with pleasure the rather hard-hitting letter on John Smeaton's blog from Fr Leon Pereira OP, commenting on the Las Casas Institute's invitation to Dr Jon Cruddas to speak at Blackfriars, Oxford (not that they are in Portsmouth, but they are not far away!).

Among other salient arguments, he hits the nail on the head when he says that there has been a bias towards the soft issues in the Catholic defence of justice and peace in England and Wales. Here is how he puts it:

We sign agreements to make our parishes ‘Fair Trade friendly’. That requires a conversion of sorts, although I understand that Fair Trade as it now stands could be improved and made fairer. But why do we not make a covenant with all our families (remember, they are the ‘domestic Church’ according to Vatican II!) to be ‘Humanae Vitae friendly’? Is it a good use of our energies to chain ourselves to the gates of Faslane, when hundreds of thousands of children are slaughtered in our cities every year? Probably not, but it is easier isn't it? It's easier to moan about carbon footprints than to form our consciences according to the mind of Holy Mother Church. But then the Gospel isn't about what's easier.

Fr Pereira is being both bold and brave here. Cruddas won't thank him for his intervention, and my guess is that Fr Pereira's intervention will be viewed dimly by some of his brethren. But if, as he says, Cruddas's record on abortion voting is so lamentable, and if, as he says, Cruddas is unlikely to get a roasting by the participants at Las Casas, then what else can a conscientious man do other than register his protest against the event?

God bless Fr Pereira and God save him from the whirlwind he could reap from sticking his neck out like this.