Three-parented People?

The legalisation allowing the manufacturing of 3-parented people is an appalling move by UK politicians. It is a process which will not cure diseases but is one which kills children lost in the manufacturing process and is, in fact, genetic engineering to weed out disease-carrying persons (which means that all we may need in the future is not Physicians but scientists experimenting on tiny human persons to see how to eradicate illness from the human race). Those children who slip through the net can killed by abortion or even, for some folk, killed after birth before they attain an arbitrarily-determined age at which personhood is deemed to have come about by some miraculous (oops, no miracles in science!) biological process; an age that some philosopher, biologist, psychologist or sociologist has managed to persuade the public and politicians to have inscribed into law.

I have to say that while I abhor all that the Nazi Party stood for and did in the 1930’s and 40’s (what they did to the Jews, gypsies, the sick, the disabled etc, went beyond crimes against humanity; they were sins crying out to Heaven for vengeance), I get angry when I hear them criticised by the politicians, media etc., of today when our society has itself taken to lauding experimentation on (and now the biological manipulation of) the tiniest and most vulnerable of our fellow human beings; when our society has taken to dismembering children still in the womb, and to helping the sick commit suicide when society should in fact be seeking cures and support systems that make the lives of the disabled and the dying more satisfying, painless and anxiety-free. I feel we have created a society in which Jospeh Mengele would be very much at home. After all, human experimentation in a white coat in a sterile, neat laboratory in a modern city does not change the fact that we are indeed experimenting on human beings. Politically and socially the simple reality of XX and XY genes as the one, biological and natural means by which the species propagates itself, and the reality of sickness and disease calling out from us the virtue of compassion, are simply ignored.

I hesitate to say the UK Government (or indeed the government of any other nation) is really to blame for this latest progression of the Culture of Death in English Law and society, because they have had no Christian influence over the last sixty years or so to prevent the culture of death taking root. No, and the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind this ‘missing Christian influence’ can be laid at the feet of those in the ranks of the Catholic priesthood (at both Episcopal and Presbyteral level) over the last sixty years.

The dissent from Humanae Vitae in 1968 by the Catholic clergy -which reached deep into to the laity via the pulpit- ensured that respect for human life was thrown out of the window by society, since this dissent dissuaded Catholics from seeing, valuing and fighting for the Culture of Life, it left only a few truly Catholic voices to influence politics, the media, education, science et al. Had the Catholic clergy taken Humanae Vitae to heart and firmly and clearly promoted it (upholding penalties for those who lived contrary to it) today’s society would be in a much better condition. We now have an up-hill battle to fight for the Culture of Life that I do think will eventually be won by faithful, educated voices fighting the pro-life cause and winning over the hearts and minds of many. This will happen by the grace of God. The wisdom of Holy Mother Church, guided by the Spirit of Truth and expressed via Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, will then be seen in all its glory. And priests in the centuries yet to come will be astonished and perhaps aggrieved at their confreres of history (those of us who, over the last 60 years or so, have allowed the culture of death to take hold in our day).

It may be that some think I lay too much blame at the feet of Catholic clergy, but the Catholic Church alone was promised the Spirit of Truth and Divine Assurance for her teaching, and dissent from the Truth in 1968 began a downward spiral from which we have not yet recovered. Dissent is still a factor in the Church, under cover of being non-judgemental; inclusive and just. I quote Cardinal Stafford which talks about on-going dissent and can be found here. Here is a taster:

“The summer of 1968 is a record of God’s hottest hour.  The memories are not forgotten; they are painful. They remain vivid like a tornado in the plains of Colorado. They inhabit the whirlwind where God’s wrath dwells. In 1968 something terrible happened in the Church. Within the ministerial priesthood ruptures developed everywhere among friends which never healed. And the wounds continue to affect the whole Church. The dissent, together with the leaders’ manipulation of the anger they fomented, became a supreme test. It changed fundamental relationships within the Church. It was a trial/test/temptation for many...

Diocesan presbyterates have not recovered from the July/August nights in 1968.  Many in consecrated life also failed the evangelical test. Since January 2002, the abyss has opened up elsewhere. The whole people of God, including children and adolescents, now must look into the abyss and see what dread beasts are at its bottom. Each of us shudders before the wrath of God, each weeps in sorrow for our sins and each begs for the Father’s merciful remembrance of Christ’s obedience.