Qui scandalizaverit: Bishops Conference working for radical liberalism
Rev. Robert Brucciani, November 2020
We might live in a post–Reformation liberal society, but at least we have the Church to nourish us and defend us. Yes, this will always be true, but since the Second Vatican Council, Holy Mother Church has been increasingly eclipsed by a hierarchy who are so intent on pleasing the world that its members have forgotten the mission bequeathed to them. In fact, they have not just forgotten their divine mission, they are working actively against it.
This is clearly evident in the promulgation of the Relationships & Sex Education (RSE) Curriculum by the Catholic Education Service (CES) of the Bishops Conference of England & Wales. The curriculum is reprehensible both for both what it leaves out of Catholic teaching and for how it presents what remains.
What is left out
Mirroring the legislation on RSE, there is no mention of man’s supernatural destiny, supernatural grace or virtue, original sin, actual sin, vice, the natural law and the revealed law. Neither is there mention of the role of Church in the education of man, the natural roles of men and women in a family and in society: how they differ, and their complementarity. No Catholic definition of marriage. Nothing Catholic about the sanctity and place of sex. No mention of the grave dangers to the soul and to society of unnatural relationships and behaviour.
Various virtues are named (respect, commitment, compassion, sensitivity, honest, integrity and so forth), but they are neither defined not put into the context of a moral framework.
What remains
What remains is pure religious and moral relativism. While the CES model policy for implementation of the curriculum presents a list of the Catholic teachings that should be “known and understood” alongside the curriculum content, nowhere is there a hint that Catholic teaching is the truth, that it is binding under pain of sin, that no salvation is possible if it is ignored. Instead, everything Catholic is presented as merely advisory or voluntary.
This relativisation of both religion and morality positively undermines Catholic faith and morals in children; as does the uncritical presentation of contraception, abortion, sexual identity, “the importance and benefits of delaying sexual intercourse until ready,” “safe sex” and other other such things.
Millstones aplenty
The fault of both the CES and the Bishops Conference, is not that of missing an opportunity to educate children, but making itself complicit in the global push for the ultimate liberal, godless and immoral state. So desperate to appear dutiful and compliant in the eyes of the state, they have renounced their mission to teach the truth, to govern their flock and to lead them to sanctity.
Would that just one bishop assert his God-given authority to prevent the scandalisation of the children among his flock. Would that one diocese restore their schools to merit the name “Catholic” once again.
