or, "A quick and dirty lesson in spin"
I haven't had much to say about Cherie's talk at the Ange. We haven't finished with it yet, so it wouldn't be a good idea for me to talk about it much. But I have to say one thing, I have never witnessed such a magnificent display of minutely orchestrated damage control in my life. It was a miniature political masterpiece, so kudos to Mrs. Blair and her friends at the Ange.
And it works. Given that Tony and Cherie are known in Britain as the King and Queen of political spin, I would like to offer the following as an example of the kind of damage that can be done:
More women leaders needed at the Vatican, says Cherie Blair
and
Is Blair really pro-choice/pro-abortion?
Please note in my post that I never claim that Blair is pro-life. I merely make the observation that given what she said at the Angelicum talk, it seems that the "pro-abortion" label does not fit.
ReplyDeleteMy actual words, just in case: "From her remarks and her answer to questions afterward, I must conclude that Blair is pro-contraception but not pro-choice on abortion. This is a tentative conclusion on my part."
I also note in that post: "Her political and charitable associations would make it very difficult to conclude that she is not pro-abortion; however, she seemed to reject outright any difficulty with Church teaching on this issue."
Can you produce a text where she unequivocally states a pro-abortion position? If you can, please let me know ASAP!
Fr. Philip, Op
Oh Father.
ReplyDeleteRemember, Hilary, this is the same country (of my forefathers) that gave St. Luciano of Modena a Catholic state funeral complete with 1000 year old cathedral, cardinals, bishops, eulogy (by abortion loving prime minister) and papal greetings beamed in via satellite.
William: Tell me about it.
ReplyDeleteRemember Pierre Trudeau's state funeral at Notre Dame in Montreal?
Fr. Powell,
It is important to understand what "pro-abortion" means. If you are in public support of an organisation that exists to further the abortion agenda, you cannot be other than pro-abortion.
Please see my story at LifeSite today for more.
I fear that you have been a victim of spin.
Do you mean St. Pierre of the Child Jesus/Sainte Pierre de l'Enfant-Jésus?
ReplyDeleteWasn't history's greatest monster in attendance at that one?
(I hear Fidel Castro was there too.)
Fr Philip, perhaps you could clear something up for me. You do not "claim that Blair is pro-life", and you "must conclude that Blair is... not pro-choice on abortion". So what are we left with? Is there a Blairite '3rd way' between pro-life and pro-choice?
ReplyDeleteSurely, if Mrs Blair's talk left you with some doubts about her exact position, those doubts could be cleared up by a quick look at the public support Cherie Blair has given to one of the UK's leading abortion (murder/genocide) organisations (FPA).
Can what St Jerome said of Origen not be adapted and applied to Mrs Blair? "While in word he asserts the resurrection of the flesh, he destroys the force of this language by other assertions"
Fr. Philip,
ReplyDeleteNo one, not even in the abortion industry, admits to being "pro-abortion". Not even the George Tillers of this world. They all, ALL, pay lip service to the moral law, even if it is only to adopt the ridiculous euphemism "pro-choice".
Well, what is the "choice" that they are "pro"?
To say, however, that you are in support of an organisation that kills children in such large numbers as the FPA, to say on your website that you support the CEDAW committee that never, ever, fails to insist to countries that abortion is an integral part of "reproductive rights for women", means, however you want to whitewash yourself, that you are in favour of those activities. Indeed, one might be able to claim (were we not talking about so clever a woman as Cherie Blair) that in the case of CEDAW she might be ignorant of what the committee does. But absolutely no one is in ignorance of what the FPA does in Britain.
Naivete is not helpful sir.