<strong>Clear warning</strong>
Sir – Here in Belgium many of my friends, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, are watching the recent developments in the UK Parliament relating to the forthcoming assisted-dying legislation with great concern. Does anyone really believe that the present British government, or its successors, will manage to contain the Bill as it stands? If it passes it will be amended until it is unrecognisable and its impact will balloon in the same way that abortion has. Here euthanasia is so out of control that we are killing depressed teenagers – and now that the doctors responsible have the protection of the law there is next to nothing that can be done about it. Almost identical stories have come from everywhere in the world where euthanasia has been made legal. If Members of Parliament don’t see this Bill for what it is, then they can’t say that they weren’t warned.
<em>Kristian Joossens <br>Ghent, Belgium</em>
<strong>Must do better</strong>
Sir – I am an experienced Religious Education teacher at a state-funded Catholic secondary school in the UK. In recent years the trends of secularisation have made teaching in a Catholic school more difficult; RE lessons are often less about theology and more full-blown battles in apologetics.
Nonetheless, some of the decline of our Catholic schools is caused not by outside factors but by those within the Church. Often the trendy but bogus ideologies and heresies of the day are accepted and promulgated by leaders and teachers alike, despite the requirement of Canon 803 §2 that “instruction and education in a Catholic school must be grounded in the principles of Catholic doctrine".
It seems like a case of serving two masters, but the Department of Education, being on the fashionable side of identity politics, takes precedence. Serious Catholic parents are now increasingly looking elsewhere for real Catholic education and new models are emerging – like the Regina Caeli hybrid homeschooling academy in Bedford.
There may be others, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But what I do know is that the status quo is having an overall negative effect, not a positive one. We are not doing justice to our faith when forced to present it through the lens of exam boards and statutory guidance. Catholicism, with all its beauty and truth, is being dragged through the mud even at what are supposed to be “our” own schools. Surely our children deserve better.
<em>Name and address supplied</em>
<strong>Agony of choice</strong>
Sir – I hope that <em>Catholic Herald </em>readers will spare a prayer for those of us in the United States, who, as Ken Craycraft noted in his column last month, may well be left “out in the cold” <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/us-politics-shouldnt-have-an-exalted-position-in-our-moral-lives-something-to-try-and-calmly-bear-in-mind-this-election-day/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">by the election on 5 November</mark></a>. Although abstention may seem attractive, as Dr Craycraft notes, it strikes me as irresponsible; we must pray and reflect on the choice in front of us and then do our best. Once our clergy might have exhorted us to spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament on our way to the polls, but, as the infamous Pew Research Center survey revealed in 2019, nearly three-quarters of American Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence. This is not really a surprise, given the general collapse of reverence in churches and at Mass that I have seen in my lifetime. We urgently need clear and better teaching and catechesis about the Sacraments, not the blurring of moral issues in the name of “synodality”.
<em>Margaret O’Shea <br>Boston, MA</em>
<strong>Looking ahead</strong>
Sir – As usual the shops are already stocked with chocolate Advent calendars which have very little to do with proper preparation for the Christmas season. It now seems impossible to find ones with traditional Christian scenes without going to a dedicated supplier. I was recently shocked to find one advertising itself as a “countdown calendar”. It had the numbered doors, and was decorated with snow, a fir tree and a lit candle, but there was nothing else to suggest that it was particularly related to the Nativity of the Lord, or the penitential season that precedes it.
I know that most people think of Advent calendars as no more than a “countdown”, but to find a company selling one without even mentioning Advent suggests to me that another line has been crossed. I hope that our schools will make a special effort next month to remind children of what Advent is actually about.
<em>Miriam Oduro <br>London, UK</em>
<strong>Music in church</strong>
Sir – Thank you for your <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/obituary-ben-thapa-1982-2024/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">obituary of Ben Thapa</mark></a> in the October edition, which was a fitting tribute to a well-respected friend and colleague. Many professional singers view performing in church choirs as being a step to something “better”, or as a stop-gap to see them through lean times. Ben was not among them; he was truly dedicated to this craft and he will be much missed on the London church-music circuit.
<em>Edward Jones <br>Horsham, UK</em>
<em>Photo: People take part in the March4Life (Marche pour la Vie - Mars voor het Leven) demonstration in Brussels, Belgium, 30 March 2014. March4Life is a group of students and young professionals who want to promote respect for human life and is strongly opposed to abortion and euthanasia. (Photo credit NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
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<strong>This Letters page originally appeared in the November 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em> magazine. To read further insightful and counter-cultural writing, subscribe <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">here</mark></a>.</strong>
