AmericanPapist Comments
We must pray for Cherie and Tony Blair, that the Holy Spirit will enlighten them with moral courage as to the error of their ways. Also, we pray that errors about the human person will not triumph, confident that the love of Christ is stronger than the culture of death.
This is all about selling her book. I for one won't be buying it! God bless! Padre Steve
Can you imagine this woman calling her fourth child an accident! On tv no less!
Considering Tony received personal direction from a Cardinal before being received into the Church, when is it appropriate to assume that the Cardinal really has no problems with what th Blairs say?
Personally, I think it was several months ago, when Tony was publicly still pro-killing-little-babies.
Thomas,
Could you please indicate where Tony Blair has been at variance with the Church? It could be irresponsible to make that last claim without backing it up. And, please, don't mention abortion: that issue works very differently in the UK. The Prime Minister does not occupy the same role (with respect to that issue) that the US President does.
"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception."
Would that this were true. I suspect the opposite is a more accurate statement. I also suspect contraception is the one issue on which most aspiring "good Catholics" stumble, in respect to understanding the teaching as well as following it. (I take exception with the statement that it is only through contraception that women have been able to control their fertility.)
While Mrs. Blair did not spare us the "common sense defense of contraception," we can be thankful she did not elaborate further on the "range of unmentionables."
Well she never actually tells us is that her "contraception equipment" was a John Major mask and a CD recording of Bill Clinton telling Tony "Your my poodle boy!"....
Then we have two things to be thankful for.
I wonder how Leo feels about this disclosure -- or any of her children, for this matter. I'm so put off by anyone being this candid about bedroom/bathroom material. Must we all be privvy to these lurid details? How on earth will any new generation respect their leaders when such things are itemised in the press. Winston Churchill, call your office!
But didn't you know! These days you can become a Catholic without having to really change any of your opinions, to sync with the mind of the Church. Obedience got flushed down the toilet and a Catholic can do whatever he wants and not feel the least bit guilty. Morality. Subjectivity. Ah, who cares! The idea of conversion (turning) doesn't seem to be focussed on much any more, to turn from the errors of your godlessness and embrace the truth embodied in Jesus Christ is almost too much to hope for. They're in my prayers. May the Holy Spirit enkindle in them the fire of His divine love.
I'm so put off by anyone being this candid about bedroom/bathroom material. Must we all be privvy to these lurid details?
Here Here, the very though occurred to me as well. What happened to common decency, a sense of integrity, even a modicum of propriety. Have we no scruples!
Well, isn't it true that Humanae Vitae was not an infallible document of the Magisterium? Also, we should be careful to note that the Vatican did authorize the use of (anti-ovulatory) contraceptives among Congolese nuns in danger of being raped.
Last, these are our Catholic brethen, now. So, we want to make sure that we are not launching un-Christian attacks on them. The Blairs might be public figures; but, that is not a reason to assail their character.
Leo is gonna need some pretty serious therapy one day, methinks.
The Cardinal who prepared Tony Blair seems to have failed miserably in ascertaining his readiness to assent to all that the Catholic teaches and believes. Amazing that contraception, one of most common serious sins committed today would not come up in the preparation and not be explained to the Blairs!
Yuhu ming mong, Humanae vitae may not be an infallible statement, but the teaching that contraception is always and everywhere immoral for married couples, wanting to avoid pregnancy, is a part, at least, of the ordinary magisterium of the Church, having been taught for 2000 years! Thus it is infallible. Read the early Christian writings, like the Didache (120 A.D. or so). Moderns believe that contraception was invented only in the 20th century. The ancient civilizations had it and it even led to the extinction of the plant in Greek times because of the pagans' high demand for it.
That story about the nuns in the Congo is bogus anyway.
What a dehumanizing and degrading attitude toward these hypothetical nuns, that taking a carcinogen and stroke inducer which also causes silent abortions and pollutes the environment for all living things is morally and practically acceptable as a 'defense' against rapists!
What the nuns would need is a personal militia to protect them, not an abortifacient carcinogen which does nothing to protect them from a violent assault! Whoever came up with that idea, was a male chauvinist pig who did not have the true interests of the nuns at heart!
LvB,
I'm not so sure that the Congolese nun story is a fabrication. My own research suggests that there is evidence of such an episode, but it is not conclusive. Nor is there evidence conclusively demonstrating that the story is a fabrication. Moreover, the use of contraceptives in the case of rape has been justified by serious Catholic theologians as being consistent with HV given the lack of a unitive element to the sex act, which element is morally inseparable from the procreative element. Admittedly, these justifications cannot apply to abortifacients, but assuming the story is true (again, I think that it is impossible to know with confidence), it is quite likely that the abortifacient properties of the contraceptives at issue were not fully understood at that time.
Now all that said, none of this really has anything to do with the plainly deficient statements enunciated by Ms. Blair, though I agree with posters who recommend that criticisms directed toward the Blairs should be done charitably.
Yuhu,
You are greatly misinformed on many counts.
Technically, if Leo was a baby conceived around the onset of menopause (I can't believe I'm conversant in such things about total strangers!) then contraception wouldn't have been a teaching to which Tony needed to personally assent, since it no longer applied to his marriage. Even so, his reception in the Church shouldn't have been contingent on his wife's assent, since he might not share that opinion. If they were still fertile, what would a man do? Beg his wife to reconsider, and go to weekly confession. In all honesty, we don't know his opinion on birth control, do we?
This just in: Cherie Blair has opinions about Catholic teachings.
Yawn.
Can someone explain to me what is wrong with contraceptives?
For anyone interested in the pre-Humanae Vitae story of contraception, see Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, by John T. Noonan, Jr. (who, incidentally, is a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals).
BimBam, go to this link:
http://www.catholiceducation.org...ity/
se0002.html
Mr. and Mrs. Blair are not theologians.
She simply meant the last child was unplanned, not that it was some unfortunate accident. she didn't have an abortion, you know.
She represents the vast majority of uncatechized adults who were taught by their bishops and priests to use their own conscience on this matter, just as my parents were instructed in the 1970s. They are part of the generation of people who don't see the real difference between artificial and 'natural' family planning.
The teaching on birth control is not the most important teaching of the church. The fact that many fine, orthodox bishops and theologians have argued that the use of contraceptives does not constitute a 'mortal sin' should give us some pause before condemning lay people who really don't know any better.
As for Blair and abortion, he has had to pay lip service to liberal dogma so many times. He couldn't even convert to Catholicism until he left office for God's sake.
... he left office for God's sake. :) There is hope yet.
I agree that most Catholics are un- or under-catechized with respect to the teaching on contraception. But I don't believe proper catechesis would result in widespread compliance with the teaching. The "contraceptive mentality" is ingrained in our culture. Mrs. Blair views contraception as an "important issue" because "women's lives have been changed" in that they are "now able to control their fertility." Culturally, concepts such as continence or chastity do not appear on the radar as means of controlling fertility. So, although contracepting may not be the gravest of sins, the issue is more than a matter of ethically avoiding pregnancy, it also raises questions of values as well as obedience to the magisterium.
What a witch!
Not only is she making her dissent public she is leaving on historic record a message for child #4:
Mummy didn't want you, we just forgot the rubbers.
Nasty.
If the nuns were in danger of assault, contraception and abortifacient contraception were no defense! Instead it was cynical chauvinist exploitation and it is certainly immoral. I suppose the pill somehow would make the assault less violent,less cruel and more palatable? This is plain ridiculous. Studies from the mid sixties already showed the abortifacient property of the pill. The women are left not only with the aftermath of the assault, but their health is damaged and they run the risk of death from the Pill itself. Giving women poison is not moral! The men pushing this on women didn't care.
Where were the godly policemen or soldiers willing to protect the innocent nuns against marauders?
I was once told that someone who would call him or herself a "good Catholic" probably wasn't. It's a harsh over-generalization but at the same time it fits - the best of us (i.e. the most saintly) have an acute awareness of our failings and would never pretend to paper over them with a simple statement. I'm sure even if you should ask the Pope he would merely say he was doing the best he can and always looking to more closely conform himself to Christ.
One wonders why Cherie feels so compelled to discuss this matter to begin with.
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