Thursday 22 April 2010

Catholic Education Service appoints anti-life and anti-family ex-MP as deputy director

The Catholic Education Service (CES), an agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, has appointed Greg Pope (pictured), former Labour MP for Hyndburn, as its new deputy director. Mr Pope has a lengthy and strongly anti-life and anti-family parliamentary record - see below. According to a CES press release earlier this week:
"Greg [Pope] was appointed after a rigorous selection process and was the unanimous choice of the final interview panel, which was chaired by Bishop Malcolm McMahon, Chairman of CESEW."

"Oona Stannard, Chief Executive and Director of CESEW, welcomed the appointment, saying...'[It] will help us to continue to both promote and protect Catholic education...'"
Parents, clergy, teachers and other concerned citizens, both Catholic and non-Catholic, up and down the country have already been outraged by the CES's shameful complicity with the government and the pro-abortion lobby in spreading the culture of death through schools. The CES, along with the pro-abortion lobby, helped draft the government's guidance on sex education, which is a cornucopia of anti-life and anti-family ideas. The CES did everything it could to help the government mislead the public about the Children, Schools and Families bill. The bill, as passed by the House of Commons at third reading, was a vehicle to impose the teaching of abortion, contraception and homosexuality* on schools, including Catholic and other faith schools.

It is clear that the CES and its agenda has the full backing of Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster. Archbishop Nichols has today expressed "deep shame" at the sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church, apologising:
"to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed".
That is all very well, but neither Archbishop Nichols, nor Bishop McMahon, nor Oona Stannard have apologised for exposing schoolchildren to abuse via government-led sex education. Nor have these Catholic leaders apologised to all those parents, clergy, teachers and other concerned citizens "who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed" by them. The CES's appointment of Greg Pope is an grotesque adding of insult to injury. I pray that Pope Benedict and his supporters in the Curia will relieve the Catholics of this country from this oppression by the episcopal policy in England and Wales.

Greg Pope MP’s parliamentary record against life and family

Abortion
Greg Pope voted for amendments to lower the 24-week time-limit for abortions done on social grounds to 22 weeks or to 20 weeks but voted against amendments to lower the same limit to 16 weeks or to 12 weeks. (20 May 2008).

Abortion and contraception for school-age children
Greg Pope:
  • voted against a bill which would have required practitioners providing contraception or abortion services to a child under the age of 16 to inform his or her parent or guardian (14 Mar 2007).
  • signed a parliamentary motion praising a condom manufacturer for helping schools host “National Condom Week” (11 May 2004).
Abortion of disabled children
Greg Pope voted against an amendment which would have required doctors to provide pregnant mothers with certain information and an offer of counselling before any abortion of an unborn child on grounds of disability (20 May 2008).

Abortion groups
Greg Pope signed parliamentary motions praising the leading domestic and international pro-abortion organisations:
Abortion rights
Greg Pope signed parliamentary motions promoting:
According to the British government and to the US administration, these terms include a right to abortion on demand.

Contraception
Mr Pope signed parliamentary motions promoting:
Euthanasia
The Mental Capacity Bill (now Act) enshrined euthanasia by neglect into English statute law. Greg Pope:
Homosexual* activity
Greg Pope voted to:
He also signed parliamentary motions celebrating the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England (24 Jul 2007) and calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Uganda (12 Nov 2010).

Homosexual* parenting
Greg Pope:
  • voted against amendments which sought to retain the requirement for doctors to consider the child’s need for a father (20 May 2008) or male role model (20 May 2008) before a woman is given fertility treatment.
  • voted against amendments restricting adoption to heterosexual couples (20 May 2002) and married couples (4 Nov 2002). He also signed a parliamentary motion in the same vein (24 Mar 2004).
Homosexual* propaganda
Greg Pope:
Homosexual* rights
Mr Pope signed parliamentary motions promoting homosexual rights generally and in other various ways (24 Mar 2004) (21 Feb 2005) (30 Mar 2006) (4 Jul 2006) (20 Nov 2006) (20 Mar 2007).

Homosexual* unions
Mr Pope signed parliamentary motions promoting homosexual unions (7 Sep 2004) (13 Oct 2004) (20 Jul 2005).

Marriage
Greg Pope voted against:
  • an amendment to reject plans for a no-fault divorce system in England and Wales (24 Apr 1996)
  • amendments to extend the cooling-off period for divorce from one year to 18 months or to two years (24 April 1996).
Mr Pope also signed a parliamentary motion arguing that “unmarried couples should receive the same benefits as married couples should one partner die”. (16 April 2002)

Parents’ rights
Greg Pope:
  • voted against a bill which would have required practitioners providing contraception or abortion services to a child under the age of 16 to inform his or her parent or guardian (14 Mar 2007)
  • voted for the Children, Schools and Families bill at second (11 Jan 2010) and third readings (23 Feb 2010), which would have restricted parents’ rights over their children’s education, especially regarding sexual matters.
Population control
Greg Pope signed parliamentary motions promoting population control (16 Dec 2002) (1 Jul 2004).

Transsexual* rights
Mr Pope signed a parliamentary motion “call[ing] on the Government to bring forward legislation to give transsexual people full rights and legal recognition” (27 Nov 2002).

Sex education
The Children, Schools and Families bill, as debated by the House of Commons, would have forced all state-funded schools (including faith schools) to provide sex and relationships education, based on anti-life/anti-family principles. Greg Pope voted for the bill at second (11 Jan 2010) and third readings (23 Feb 2010). He also signed a parliamentary motion in the same vein (21 Feb 2007).

* Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, teaches in paragraph 97 of Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

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