The government wants to recruit children to spy on their parents

My latest on LifeSite.

The U.K.’s Conservative Party government was elected in 2019 on a wave of revulsion at the patronizing progressivism of the political elite, which was doing its best to frustrate the implementation of the result of the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union (EU), and condemned patriotic voters as “low information” and racist.

This government has now finally implemented our departure from the EU, “Brexit”, but in many parts of the establishment the old elite are clearly still very much in charge. The government’s attitude to the family, the natural, basic unit of society, is starkly revealed by a proposed law they wish to ram through Parliament, despite it being once already defeated by the House of Lords. The Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, due to be considered in the House of Lords in February, allows for the recruitment of children of 16 and 17 years old to spy on their parents, and at the same time allow them to break the law in doing so. The Daily Telegraph reports:

Covert child agents can break the law if it means they will be able to glean information that could prevent or detect crime, protect public health, safety, or national security or help collect taxes, says the guidance, quietly laid by the government this month.

But it’s ok, we are told, because this will only be done if any one of twenty different state agencies, who are given this power, takes the view that it is justified by “exceptional circumstances.”

Read it all there.

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Younger, conservative priests attacked again: by Fr James Martin

Me on LifeSite. Fr James Martin, who retweeted the article I discuss, is even more annoyed now than he was before. However, since I quoted his tweet in full I can hardly be accused of misquoting him.

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Fr. James Martin, SJ, has condemned younger, more conservative priests, linking to a National Catholic Reporter article that uses a parish’s experience as a jumping-off point to criticize a whole generation who are strongly motivated to oppose abortion, who are “active” and want to “evangelize,” who like Latin and incense, and — horror! — who read LifeSiteNews. 

Fr. Martin commented as he re-tweets the article: “Essential reading: These are not isolated incidents and part of a growing trend in the church, leaving parishioners feeling angry and isolated. Essentially the rejection of much of Vatican II by younger priests, this phenomenon has flown under the radar.”

"I cannot tell you how many people have told me of experiences like this: parish councils disbanded, women removed from positions of leadership, parishioners being told they're "bad Catholics," after recently ordained priests decided to remake the parish in their image."

Read the whole thing there.

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The trade in babies must stop

My latest on LifeSite

The public were recently treated to a recordingof a discussion by the family of Chinese actress, Zheng Shuang, about what to do about two babies which she had arranged to be born by American surrogate mothers. The babies arrived, awkwardly, after she had split up from her boyfriend, the babies’ biological father. The recording was released in the context of a bitter dispute between them and the father.

It’s not clear why Zheng, who is 29 and donated the eggs, wanted to employ other women’s wombs for these pregnancies. Perhaps she has some health reason, or perhaps it was to avoid disrupting her career. After the couple’s split, Zheng and her family have appeared to regard the infants as nothing but an embarrassing inconvenience. Interestingly, surrogacy is illegal in China, and the affair has not gone down well in the Chinese press. Zheng has also been dropped as the Chinese advertising face of the luxury clothing brand, Prada. 

There are of course plenty of minor celebrities, and ordinary people too, whose romantic failures have left small children high and dry. Still, however foolish the earlier behaviour may have been, the maternal bond is generally still strong, and grandparents too tend to feel they have something at stake and frequently step in to help pick up the pieces. Those who pay for surrogates to bear children for them, like the Zheng family, by contrast often seem to feel no connection with the children when things go wrong.

Read the whole thing there.

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Find me on Gab: @LMSChairman

Following the suppression of huge numbers of pro-life and Catholic accounts by Twitter, I have created a Gab account. Right now that seems the only alternative - if that makes me an evil person that's too bad.

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'Transjacking' women's sports

My latest on LifeSite

I thought I spotted some signs of common-sense returning to the world of sport a few weeks ago, but the President of the United States can, up to a point, create the political weather, and Joe Biden’s lead on allowing transexuals to compete as whatever sex they choose now makes my optimism seem premature. On the plus side, I have now learned a new word to describe this phenomenon: “transjacking.”

I found it this in this article on the subject which helpfully gives a long list of American sports events where athletes who had the good fortune to be born with male bodies outcompeted athletes who did not. The advantages that men have over women in almost every sporting endeavour are very significant, and enduring. They include, notably, longer limbs and larger lung capacity. The response of many sporting bodies, to insist that male-born athletes who wish to compete in women’s events lower their testosterone levels for a certain number of months, is wholly inadequate. To have the necessary effect, the hormones would have had to have been different over the course of several years, from about the age of 12. Low levels of testosterone isn’t going to shorten runners’ legs at the age of 20. 

Read the whole thing there.

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The mother-and-baby homes: fact and fiction

My latest on LifeSite.

On October 30th the Irish government released a major report into the much-criticized ‘Mother and Baby Homes’ run by Catholic religious sisters. These looked after women who had children out of wedlock who, in the first half of the 20thcentury, faced severe social sanctions in Irish society. When their families did not want to support them, these religious sisters did: and worked to find homes for the children, if the mothers wished to have them adopted, and set the women back on their feet in terms of employment.

Except that isn’t the narrative the mainstream media, including in Ireland itself, have been setting out. According to them, these institutions were little short of torture chambers for abuse and oppression. The Irish Government and the Archbishop of Dublin have offered public apologies. So, what is the truth?

Read the whole thing there.

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More online Latin: and New Testament Greek

Don't miss out on the chance to start or improve your Latin and Patristic/ New Testament Greek with unthreatening online classes.

CHRISTIAN GREEK & LATIN Lenten courses

• New Testament Greek for beginners and intermediates
• Post‑beginners Latin
• The Language of the Latin Mass :
• Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) and the commentarial tradition from Ambrose to Almar — 50% subsidies for Priests, seminarians and religious

Contact matthewjaspencer@yahoo.com

 “Ardor mihi inerat ut scirem quid priores auctores haberent in corde, qui nostra officia statuerunt”

 Living Greek & Latin for the World Today January 19, 2021

  

GREEK COURSE 1 (22 Feb ‑ 19 March 2021)

Greek Alphabet and very basic grammar for beginners

Plus Greek Course 2 (19^th April to 14^th May 2021): Intermediate Patristics and New Testament Greek Grammar:

8 weeks total : 2 hours weekly, consisting of two one-hour sessions, with a half-hour break in between, leading to possible participation in a six‑day residential Latin Mass Society Course (in August) £400 for 8 weeks of instruction and small-group work (reduced to £300 if only one course is taken) . No previous Ancient Greek is required

NEW: Post-Beginners Latin Course (19 April - 14 May 2021).

4 weeks. £240 per person for 2 hours per week. If you have taken already Beginners’ Latin, then come along for four weeks of Psalms reading and selections from the saints in order to begin consolidating your knowledge of formal grammar, including word ending changes and sentence structure

The Language of the Latin Mass 8 Weeks (22 February ‑ 19 March 2021, and 19 April ‑ 14 May 2021)

For Seminarians, Priests, Religious, 50% subsidised; and interested laypersons; two one hour sessions, on separate occasions, per week).

£600 per person but after generous Latin Mass Society subsidy this is reduced by 50% for priests etc. Connected to England and Wales by residency or background (PLEASE SEE NOTE* below).