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Promote Culture of Life and Catholic Teaching to Combat Rising Crime and Cultural Degradation: Lancaster Bishop

By Hilary White

LANCASTER, UK, August 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Drug abuse, gun crime, pornography, alcoholism, suicide, euthanasia, and 2.2 million deaths of unborn children by "scientific experimentation" are the results of Britain's 1967 Abortion Act, that allows virtually unlimited abortion up to 24 weeks gestation, says the Catholic bishop of Lancaster.

In a 92-page document obtained by LifeSiteNews.com that is due to be released next week, Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue writes, "I am convinced another cause of the wide-spread violence lies in the Abortion Act of 1967."

"For 41 years we've lived in a state-sponsored culture of death that has killed 5 million children, and we're now surprised that some of the surviving children have turned out violent with no regard for the sanctity of life?"

He continues, "How many children know that their mothers have had an abortion? What effect will it have on them knowing that they have been deprived of a brother or sister through abortion? If a society holds human life so cheaply is it any surprise that young people will also hold life cheaply and engage in violence?"

The document, a kind of manifesto for his Catholic flock, serves as an outgoing message from the retiring bishop to the diocese of Lancaster and to the Church in England and Wales. LifeSiteNews.com reported yesterday that the bishop had strong words for his fellows in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales whose response to the threat of secularism and the ongoing crisis of faith in the Church has, he says, been "flat and safe at a time when we need passionate and courageous public statements that dare to speak the full truth in love."

In the document, Bishop O'Donoghue writes that "much in our modern culture...is toxic to the life of human beings." Bishop O'Donoghue writes of a cultural climate that justifies "crimes against life", claiming them as rights promoted by the state, even to the point of claiming "free assistance from health care systems."

From abortion, we have moved, he writes, to another "crime against life", that of embryonic stem cell research. Bishop O'Donoghue has joined his voice with those opposing the government's proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill that would allow the creation of human/animal hybrid clones for experimentation.

"It is we ourselves who have become 'monsters' for allowing the exploitation of the unborn for our economic and medical gain."

The Culture of Death, he writes, has two faces, legal and illegal, but both are promoting activities that "poison human society." Both the "legalised state-sponsored culture of death, facilitated by some medical professionals, scientists, politicians and journalists" and the "illegal, criminally facilitated culture of death" of drug and sex-trafficking, "reinforce and sustain each other through spreading the general darkening of conscience in society."

He calls on his flock "at every opportunity" to "proclaim the right to Life - the most fundamental human right that underpins authentic work for justice and peace."

"Pray, protest and petition" he urges, "institutions that promote the culture of death." He specifically names "Parliament, the British, Medical Association, the Royal College of Nurses, Brooke Advisory Centres, broadcasters, the tabloids and broadsheets."

Earlier this year, a secularist Parliamentary committee had demanded that Bishop O'Donoghue give an account for his work to steer his diocesan schools in what they called a "fundamentalist" direction.

Reflecting on his appearance before the committee, Bishop O'Donoghue writes, "There appeared to be an a priori suspicion and scepticism about the motives and practices of faith schools in general, and Catholic schools and the Church in particular. Any hint of evangelisation or catechesis, even within our Catholic schools, is increasingly viewed as intolerable indoctrination and proselytism."

The bishop says is "concerned that a breach seems to be growing between the State and the Church, and the position of faith in general, which will harm the ability of both to help the citizens of our county to 'fulfil their personal and social vocation."

"Of one thing I am certain, this breach will not be mended though compromising the faith and morals of Catholic doctrine."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Exclusive: Retiring UK Bishop Reveals No Consensus among Brother Bishops over Same-sex Adoption
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081906.html

Contraception, Abortion and Sterilisation "Attack the Very Foundations of the Human World": Lancaster UK Bishop
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081905.html

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