“There are no adults left in Ireland,” says leading Irish writer
By John Smeaton | 18 September 2024
It strikes me that much of what John Waters said earlier this month in reference to the Irish establishment could equally apply to the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales.
Interviewed about so-called transgender “rights” on the Richie Allen Show on 3 September, the leading Irish columnist and author commented:
“There are no adults left in Ireland … There was a time that Irish people over a certain age, were sensible. And as you went up through the institutions, went up through the layers of authority, that tended to get stronger, that element of reason and logic and fairness and justice … And now we have the direct opposite … a crazy ideology, which is being imposed on Ireland, not by the people who are seeking to change the genders, or whatever. That’s all contagion. This is an orchestrated attempt to demoralise the people of Ireland and to destroy their capacity to hold to any belief at all, or understand anything, or have any any opinion that they can trust and express publicly …”
Voice of the Family’s recently published Analysis of Life to the Full, the Relationship and Sex Education programme of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales shows how the same “crazy ideology” is being actively normalised in the classrooms of Catholic schools in Britain with the backing of bishops.
One video, “Imagine a World”, aimed at Catholic schoolchildren aged nine to eleven, focuses on discrimination in the context of the Equality Act 2010. The presenters in the video speak approvingly of laws enforcing civil partnerships, same-sex unions, and transgenderism as follows:
“These are types of legal union between a man and a woman, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman … Other protected characteristics include about whether someone is a boy or a girl, meaning male or female, when someone feels different about themselves from the way their body is and who they are attracted to … These are the protected characteristics. Because that is what they are: protected by the law as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. You might think that would it be great if we all treated one another fairly without needing to tell us to. But these protected characteristics are really good.” (My emphases)
The concluding remark, one of clear approbation, strongly undermines Catholic teaching on transgender issues, the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts1 and Catholic duty to avoid formal cooperation with sin.2
In another video, “Appreciating Differences”, 12–13 year-old Catholic schoolchildren are introduced to questions of equality between the sexes in a way that follows the secular liberal narrative exactly. Students are introduced to the subject of gender dysphoria with a dialectic comparing the claims of gender ideologues with the scientific reality of biological sex. Although objective facts of one’s biological sex are not given any precedence above one’s subjective sense of one’s “gender identity”, the argument is naturally on the side of biological reality. However, the line of argument is abandoned with the words, “There is no blueprint for you”, leaving children with the idea that they can choose their own gender identity if they wish.
While the same video includes tactful considerations that “people experiencing gender dysphoria need a lot of love and support”, no mention is made of their right to be told the truth, of the spiritual, psychological and physiological destructiveness of gender ideology3 or of the Church’s teaching that so-called gender transition is morally illicit.4 As this is one of the major threats to young people today, one would expect a programme commissioned by Catholic bishops to deal with it in some detail — as does the excellent, doctrinally rich document, published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in March 2023.5
The Life to the Full programme of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales repeatedly promotes Childline, a registered charity which is strongly committed to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) agenda6 and to providing young people with confidential advice. Children going on to the Childline website are assured, “Confidentiality means not telling anyone the things you’ve told us. And it means you can trust we’ll keep things private.”7
Having been signposted to Childline through the bishops’ Life to the Full programme, children who visit the website are encouraged to question their gender identity. A section headlined “Questioning your sexuality” says:
“It’s natural to be confused about your sexuality or to need time to work out who you are. It’s okay not to be sure. Some people know who they’re attracted to from a really young age. For other people, it’s not so simple and can take a while to work out. If you’re not sure about your sexuality, you might:
- not be sure what it means if you ‘like’ someone
- be scared about how other people will react
- worry about what it means for your community or religion
- want to come out and tell people
- try to find a sexuality that ‘fits’ how you feel.”
“It might take some time to work out what your sexuality is. Remember there’s no such thing as normal.”8 (My emphasis)
On another Childline webpage, under the headline, “What is gender identity”, the following account is given:
“When we’re born people have to record whether we’re a boy or a girl. This is usually based on looking at our sexual organs, but for some people their gender identity can be different.
“Lots of things make up your gender identity, including:
- your body and biological sex, for example your sexual organs
- how you feel about your gender and how you identify yourself
- your gender expression, for example how you dress or act.”
“Gender identity isn’t just male or female. Some people can identify as non-binary, and how people identify can change over time. It’s okay to take your time when thinking about your gender identity, especially if you’re feeling pressured to identify as a specific gender. For many young people feeling unsure about their gender is part of growing up and can pass in time, for some these feelings continue for longer. If you’re unsure about your gender identity, you’re struggling to cope or you want to talk about what it means to you, we’re here to help.”9 (My emphasis)
Through their Relationship and Sex Education programme, Life to the Full, the Catholic bishops are facilitating gender ideologues’ access to and influence over children behind the backs of their parents.
I urge readers of the Voice of the Family Digest to read our Analysis of Life to the Full and to decide for themselves whether the Richie Allen and John Water’s discussion of the Irish establishment also applies to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales:
John Waters:
“The entire Irish establishment has been corrupt on these issues for a long long time … I don’t think they understand what this is about. I actually think it’s conceivable that some of these people think they’re being progressive, but they’re not. They’re being demonic. They’re being satanic … I don’t even need to be a Christian to know that if there’s a young boy standing before me, I call him … “he” …
“We live in a world where for millennia, for eons, there have been men and women … and these people are trying to tell us that this is old hat. …
“This is deadly stuff. This is destroying children. It’s quite obvious, there’s a widespread opinion now amongst experts that this is a deadly business …
Richie Allen:
“I hear what you’re saying because … this compulsion that you must go along with the fantasy that the boy’s now a girl … if you go along with that it makes it easier for the puberty blockers and the surgery with the breasts being removed, the penis being removed, I get it, one hundred percent I get it …”
John Waters:
“I’ve watched all these guys … in the most appalling period of my life in Ireland and they have behaved shamefully, disgracefully: in their silence, in their evasion, in their avoidance of doing what their fathers would have done, which is to stand up and say ‘In the name of God, will you stop it!’”
An Analysis of Life to the Full, the Relationship and Sex Education programme of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales is available to read here.
Notes
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357. ↩︎
- Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals, To Give Legal Recognition, To Unions Between Homosexual Persons (2003), 5. ↩︎
- Dr Michelle Cretella, “Deconstructing Transgender Pediatrics”, The Academy Review, Summer Term, Issue 1, June 2021, The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family; Family Education Trust, Gender Ideology and our children. ↩︎
- Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii (1931), 71; Pope Pius XII, Address to Doctors, (1948); Pope Pius XII, Address to the Medico-Biological Union of St Luke (1944. ↩︎
- Committee on Doctrine United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Doctrinal note on the moral limits to technological manipulation of the human body (20 March 2023). ↩︎
- “How Childline was captured by trans ideology”, by James Esses, a former volunteer counsellor for Childline, in The Spectator, 8 January 2023. ↩︎
- https://www.childline.org.uk/about/confidentiality-promise/ ↩︎
- https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/sexual-identity/sexual-orientation/ ↩︎
- https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/sexual-identity/gender-identity/ ↩︎