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November
23, 2008
Now it is the
turn of our brethren in the UK, and even in all of
Europe, to make themselves heard. You might want to
write Bishop Hollis to express your strong disagreement
of his views. But given his track record, that might
not make any impression on him. So you might want
to write the Vatican.
But one important
point is this: Bishop Hollis is the enemy within.
And indeed, we in CFC-FFL also have the enemy within.
Therefore we must do more to educate our brethren,
especially about the assault on the culture of life.
We must more openly discuss aberrations in and lovingly
"confront" the views and positions of our
"dissident" members. And looking to the
future, we must now start the education process from
the very young ages, with KFL.
God bless.
frank
UK
Catholic Bishop: “I have been thrilled by Barack
Obama’s victory and I thank God for it.”
By Hilary White
PORTSMOUTH,
England, November 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) –
A British Catholic bishop has issued a statement enthusiastically
welcoming the man who has been labelled the “most
pro-abortion US president in history” –
president-elect Barack Obama. Bishop Crispian Hollis
of the Portsmouth diocese in southern England has
said he is “thrilled” at the election
of Obama.
The bishop’s
message, posted on the website of the Portsmouth diocese,
says, “With millions of others, I have been
thrilled by Barack Obama’s victory and I thank
God for it. For me, it represents a rare moment of
hope and optimism which shows American democracy at
its best and it is of seismic significance and potential
for the whole global community. And so, more than
ever now, he deserves and needs us to keep him in
our prayers.”
This ardent
welcome from Hollis, known in Britain to be on the
extreme left of the Catholic Church, is in sharp contrast
to a letter issued yesterday by the US Conference
of Catholic Bishops, in which they warned Obama that
“aggressive pro-abortion policies, legislation
and executive orders will permanently alienate tens
of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many
as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.”
John Smeaton,
the director of the Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children (SPUC) responded to the message of
Bishop Hollis, saying, “I am increasingly concerned
by the numbers of people who have endorsed Mr Obama.
I suspect many of them are caught up in an unthinking
Obamania.”
Smeaton asks
if Bishop Hollis has forgotten that “the unborn
are part of the whole global community?”
Barack Obama,
even before being sworn into office, has already begun
to “review” many of the pro-life and pro-family
policies put in place by the Bush administration,
including the prohibition on federal funding for embryonic
research. More significantly, Obama has vowed to pass
the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that in one stroke
would undo thirty years of incremental gains by the
pro-life movement by removing all legal restrictions
on abortion in America.
“The
only ‘potential’ for the unborn under
an Obama presidency,” Smeaton said, “will
be that more of them will be killed. What ‘hope
and optimism’ can Catholic medics have following
Obama's election, who will abolish conscientious objection
to abortion, thereby threatening to destroy Catholic
healthcare in the US?”
Smeaton said
he will be writing to Bishop Hollis, asking him to
answer these questions.
Hollis is well
known in Britain as the representative of the extreme
left of the Church hierarchy. Last year, when Hollis
issued a statement in support of a call for legal
brothels, he was denounced by prominent anti-trafficking
campaigners who said he was encouraging an industry
that legitimizes prostitution and “completely
victimizes” women.
Catholic Herald
editor Damian Thompson, writing on his blog at the
Daily Telegraph website, said that Hollis’ statement
of support for Obama is the most “biased statement
by any Catholic bishop on the subject” and that
it has damaged the reputation of the Church.
“It reinforces
the growing impression that Portsmouth, along with
other ‘radical’ south coast dioceses,
is now independent of Rome, pursuing policies at odds
with the Magisterium and the rulings of the Pope,”
Thompson wrote.
Read related
LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Catholic Anti-Trafficking
Campaigner calls for Pro-Brothels Bishop to Step Down
To contact
the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops:
Palazzo della
Congregazioni,
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00193 Roma,
Phone: 06.69.88.42.17
Fax: 06.69.88.53.03
To contact
Bishop Crispian Hollis,
Bishop's House,
Edinburgh Road,
Portsmouth,
Hampshire.
PO1 3HG
Phone: (0)23
9282 0894
Fax: (0)23 9286 3086
To
send an online message:
"For
to me life is Christ, and death is gain." (Phil
1:21) |