Ever so Moderate Murphy

Over in the Old Dart there is a battle right now between the Catholic Church and the British government. The British government under Tony Blair wants to force Catholic adoption agencies to adopt out children to sodomites. The Church, on the other hand, wants an exemption from the law to allow them to peacefully operate without having to be complicit in this disgusting child abuse. The whole episode has resulted in pleading letters from the bishops to the government to allow the free exercise of conscience in this matter.

But there is another disturbing element to this story.

And that's the disturbingly weak quality of the arguments being put forward by Cardinal Cormac Murphy and his non-opposition to the law in general (so long as Catholics have an 'out').

Take this story from Catholic World News (my emphasis):

"Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said that he was still hopeful that Catholic agencies would be able to continue their adoption services, despite the conflict between the new policy and Church teachings. He did not directly oppose the Equality Act, saying: 'The government has a right to legislate and homosexual couples are also able to adopt in other agencies but we want to hold onto this principle.' "

Yes, the government has the "right to legislate" but it does not have the right to legislate laws that are directly opposed to the natural moral law. Any law that is contrary to the natural moral law is immoral and illicit in itself. To quote from John Paul II's encyclical on the Gospel of Life:

"In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it.' "

You can read more here including the ridiculous remarks of Ruth "the practicing Catholic" Kelly.

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=48945