From the Archdiocese of Southwark's website:
On Thursday, 13th December 2012, during a reception at Archbishop's House, Archbishop Peter presented Terry Connor with a certificate from the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, granting him the rank of Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory. This Papal honour was granted in recognition of the many years of dedicated work and service Terry has given to the Church, especially for young people during his over thirty years at the Cabrini Children’s Society (formerly the Catholic Children’s Society, which served the dioceses of Southwark, Portsmouth and Arundel and Brighton).
...... And the problem?
This is from the Cabrini Society's website:
We welcome people of all ages, cultures and faiths. You could be single or a couple, in a same sex or heterosexual relationship. It is not necessary to own your own home, as long as you can provide enough space for a growing child. However, you must be resident in the UK and not have any criminal convictions against children.
And of course in the dioceses of Southwark, Portsmouth and Arundel and Brighton in order to fund adoptions by people who "could be single or a couple, in a same sex or heterosexual relationship" parishes are asked take a collection at their crib.
So apart from the source of the money, coming from Catholic parishes and historic gifts given to further the ends of the Catholic Church, and the giving of a Papal Knighthood given to Mr Connor by Archbishop Smith, in what sense is the Cabrini Children’s Society "Catholic"?
16 comments:
I hope you are going to notify the Vatican of this little oops. No point in letting the matter rest.
No wonder the faithful are confused. The message from the hierarchy is "no" to same sex marriage, then in the same breath it engineers a Papal knighthood for someone whose society is willing to place vulnerable children with same sex couples.
This is Humpty Dumpty Catholicism.
Best stick to giving to Aid to the Church in Need.
It may be that Mr Connor was not aware of this on the website. In any organisation there can be overenthusiastic/officious people who exceed their authority.
The crux will be whether something is quickly done about it - now that it has been pointed out. After all it would only take a few seconds to take out the offending material.
I wrote to Buckfast Abbey a couple of years ago to complain that their shop was selling greetings cards with congratulations of civil partnerships. Whether they did anything about it I don't know. they didn't have the courtesy to acknowledge my letter.
JohnF,
The Cabrini Soc. was set up to conform to government legislation, demanding children be offered to ss couples.
The Catholicity of the Cabrini Society was guaranteed by the fact that the Trustees were the Bishops of Portsmouth, A&B and Southwark. Those Bishops washed their hands of it by arranging that in future they would no longer be the trustees and it could be handed over to laymen with nothing in the Trust Deed to ensure catholicity. This was when facing a fight with the Government that in the view of our Bishop Kieran Conry could not be won and therefore should not be fought. The aim was explicit; to conform with the Government directive to allow placements with same-sex couples. Lets not pretend that anyone connected with the Society did not know this.
Shame on them.
The most recent Motu Proprio was a hard word against Catholic charities dispensing funds garnered from the faithful for uncatholic social vices/ deadly sins - it seems most Christians will only find out that these things aren't neutral preferences when the chance for repentance is passed.
This is from the Cabrini Society's website:
"...You could be single or a couple, in a same sex or heterosexual relationship"
"Weep not for Me but for your children." - the Vatican knows
'Humpty Dumpty Catholicism'
Q - which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A - Protestantism is the chicken that wants to fry its own eggs because 'nothing' came before it.
meanwhile the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (the one that isn't a-historical) continues to feed and water said oblivious or vicious chickens.
I'm confused,is this some kind of practical joke?
I suppose it is what the aberrants imagine what things will look like if they get their way
I'm confused - what does an aberrant look like?
must renounce, metaphorical, allegorical, analogical.
and never chuckle at the devil's expense.
"The Cabrini Soc. was set up to conform to government legislation, demanding children be offered to ss couples"
I wasn't aware of that Father. I've now exhausted my charitable thoughts on the issue!
Behaviour like this just debases the Papal Knighthood just as a secular Knighthood is now debased.
Father
I have the 31 March 2010 accounts of the Cabrini Children’s Society. May I reproduce selected extracts? I accept that this may be out of date and ask for corrections.
The report includes as trustees Rev. Mgr. Canon John Hull and Rev. Mgr. Canon Nicholas Rothon.
The Articles require that the number of Trustees (who are members of the Society) shall not be less than five and 75% of the Trustees must be Roman Catholic.
The Society maintains strong links with the three Dioceses of Arundel & Brighton, Portsmouth and Southwark. This includes meetings with the individual Bishops to discuss services.....
Following the passage into law of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, the Society set up a Communities Fund, a restricted fund, to assist those who wished to give to the Society but did not wish to support the Society’s adoption projects. .... With the agreement of the Dioceses [the same three], all gifts received from parishes and schools are allocated to the Communities Fund.
Comment: I am not aware whether a single homosexual couple have been proposed for adoption. I regret the implied willingness to make such a proposal.
It does seem that there is an effort made to protect parishes from supporting homosexual adoption inadvertently.
If we are to object to the actions of Mr Connor I think that we should be careful with the facts.
Peter,
I understand no same sex couple has applied to the Cabrini Society.
You are quite right that putting money into a "seperate pocket" is a way of "protecting parishes".
The establishment of the Cabrini Society is a way for the Children's Society to continue its work, the problem is that it has been forced to embrace Government legislation. What is unfortunate is that website actively seeks same sex couples.
Many of us were ill at ease with this "stepping aside" from the Catholic Church at least without a fight. With the publication of De Caritate Ministranda recently, and and the consequent change in Canon Law, it would appoear to be illegal.
Peter: Many thanks for getting this useful information which I was unaware of. However it does not really get them off the hook. The fact of the matter is that the Cabrini Society is offering services to support same-sex marriage. Their only way forward is to drop that side of the business.
Further I suspect that putting money into the community fund it is releasing money for the adoption side. It is notoriously difficult to segregate the services of a charity in this way where decisions have to be made to allocate expenses to one fund or another.
"Further I suspect that putting money into the community fund it is releasing money for the adoption side. It is notoriously difficult to segregate the services of a charity in this way where decisions have to be made to allocate expenses to one fund or another."
Mr Bellord is quite correct. Money is a totally fungible asset and this putative hypothecation of Catholic donations is a smokescreen to lend a veneer of respectability to the continuing relationship between the dioceses and this charity.
If money is donated to any organization, some of whose objects are evil, then there is no way in reality that you can be sure that you are not assisting in the perpetration of that evil. The same can be said for CAFOD and its work with organizations which promote contraception in the developing world etc.
Our hierarchy in this country seem to be woefully ignorant about how money works. If you want to have a clear conscience, just do not give money to organizations whose objectives include evil activities. There are plenty of good Catholic charities who do need your money.
Father, Nicolas and Deacon Augustine, Thank you each.
I share your sentiments and analysis entirely. I do understand that if the Society welcomes gay couples in a formal sense but indicates in other ways that they are unwelcome that would constitute discrimination: I would have to check the rules again on this point.
Dealing with Mr Connor as an individual: he has presumably acted with the advice and consent of his bishops so it is hard to find serious fault with him.
I can quite see why the bishops would not wish to close a successful adoption service and make the staff redundant.
I fear though that once you start to compromise your principles it is hard to stop.
The impression I have is that the split of the Society from the Church is more apparent than real. And given the texts I quoted it is not very apparent.
Genty above has identified the result of this.
Thank you Father for your blog.
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