No controversy? Contraceptives instead of Respect for women.

Melinda Gates and her partners, including the British government and the world's largest abortion providers, have launched a $4 billion campaign to push birth control for poor women in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Ms. Gates claims that there is "no controversy" in powerful groups and governments promoting birth control for poor women, but here are the facts:

Fact 1*

Melinda Gates' favorite form of birth control is Depo Provera. But hormonal contraceptives, particularly injectable methods like Depo Provera, have been shown to increase the transmission rate of HIV/AIDS.

Fact 2*

At the UN's 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Western elites' language of population control was officially changed to the language of "equality," "sustainability" and "reproductive health." The population control tactics, however, did not change.

Fact 3*

Melinda Gates' partners, Marie Stopes International and International Planned Parenthood Foundation, were founded by leaders in the early eugenics and population control movements, and who were very open about the fact that they did not like the idea of poor people of color having children.

Fact 4*

Several types of hormonal contraceptives have been labeled Group-1 Carcinogens - the same category as cigarettes and asbestos - by the World Health Organization.

Fact 5*

There are documented health problems caused by the pill and other hormonal contraceptives.

Fact 6*

Many nations continue to use coercive means to stop women from having children, most notoriously in China, India and Uzbekistan.

An interview with Prof Rowland

This interview with Professor Rowland was conducted by Fr Bradley at Buckfast Abbey Conference centre on the Ordinariate's conference day at the end of June.



Tracey Rowland and the Ordinariates from UKOrdinariate on Vimeo.


And something from your's truly on the same day.

New Evangelisation at a Local Level from UKOrdinariate on Vimeo.

Transcendentals - Beauty in church architecture

When Prof Rowland addressed us at Buckfast regarding the New Evangelisation, one stimulating thought regarding Evangelisation regarded what is known as the three transcendentals. She suggested that the New Evangelisation was not a programme but a renewal in Evangelisation. One thing she suggested was that we needed to have regard for the three transcendentals: truth, beauty and goodness, in the life of the church. She suggested to us that individuals tended to major on one of the three transcendentals and it was important therefore for the church to appeal through all three, for if it neglects one of the three then it effectively closes its doors to a whole section of people. Beauty, being one of the three, will naturally attract and draw people, so the church should be about "beauty", not least in its worship.

Here in the following video clip from Fr Barron's WordOnFire blog, Dr Macnamara explains his understanding why some churches seem beautiful while others do not. He has written a book called "Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy" and will be publishing these short video clips weekly to accompany his book. (The blog is found here ).




And this is the second clip in the series:

Higgs Boson - a catholic?

 

The possible discovery of the so-called Higgs Boson particle, whose theoretical existence has been proposed for some time, has also heralded some jokes around the theme of the particle being catholic! The jokes all hinge around the scientific theory that the Higgs Boson particle/field gives mass to matter throughout the universe. Without the Higgs Boson particle it is difficult to explain inertial mass in a scientific sense.

A Higgs Boson particle walks into a catholic church. A priest walks over to it and says "Hey, you're not allowed in here!" to which the particle replies, "BUT WITHOUT ME, HOW CAN YOU HAVE MASS?!!"

I know it is not a great joke but it amuses me!

More seriously Fr Andrew Pinsent, a catholic priest and former particle physicist at CERN, talks about the Higgs Boson and more generally about science and the catholic church.

Here is a page with the recording of the interview: here

Finally apparently the reason why people call it the "God particle" has nothing to do with the theory explaining away God, but a publisher who named a popular book after a physicist who apparently said that if the Higgs Boson could be found it would be a great gift from God.

See here for comment from the Vatican observatory.

IH