A spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has expressed “profound” sadness at the death of MP Jo Cox. The 41-year-old Labour MP was stabbed and shot after holding a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
The bishops’s spokesman said: “We are profoundly saddened and shocked at the death of Jo Cox. Our society has lost a dedicated public servant.
“Her life touched the lives of so many others and we share the deep sense of loss at her passing … The Catholic community throughout England and Wales will be praying for Jo, her husband Brendan and their family.”
Catholic peer Lord Alton hailed Mrs Cox’s “remarkable dedication to humanitarian causes”. Speaking to an audience in Liverpool, he quoted her husband, Brendan, who said: “Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with energy and a
zest for life that would exhaust most people.”
Fr Eamon Hegarty, of the Church of St Mary of the Angels in Batley, in Mrs Cox’s constituency. said she was a “really lovely lady” who was “generous with her time and willing to help in any way she could”.
A GoFundMe page set up in tribute to Mrs Cox raised half a million pounds in a day. At her family’s request, the money raised will be shared between the Royal Voluntary Service, which helps to combat loneliness in her constituency; the White Helmets, volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria; and Hope Not Hate, which seeks to challenge extremism across Britain.
Aid agency Cafod is to keep academic Tina Beattie as a theological adviser, resisting pressure to sever links over her views on abortion.
Prof Beattie, professor of Catholic Studies at Roehampton University, signed an open letter to Polish bishops supporting a right to “early, safe and legal” abortion in some circumstances.
Cafod, the overseas aid agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said that the views in the letter “do not represent nor reflect Cafod’s policies”.
It said in a statement that it “naturally values our ongoing dialogue with academic theologians who have always debated complex moral issues”, and clarified that the advisory group she serves on, the Theological Reference Group, was “not a policy or decision-making body”.
But it said that Cafod would be reviewing the “role, status and membership expectations” of its advisory groups, including the Theological Reference Group, after a board meeting next month.
The statement said: “Cafod is an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. We take this responsibility very seriously. As such, our policies and practice adhere to Church teaching, including protecting the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.
“In all of our long-term development and humanitarian relief work, we do not fund any work that is in any way inconsistent with the teaching of the Church. Cafod appreciates the opportunity to dialogue with many external specialists in all areas of our work who offer their services on a voluntary basis,” the statement said. “Cafod then makes its own decisions on policy and practice, all of which are agreed by its board.”
The letter signed by Prof Beattie began: “We uphold the sanctity of all human life, including the right to life of women and their unborn children.”
It continued: “We also acknowledge that sometimes women and girls face agonising decisions about whether or not to continue with a pregnancy that is the consequence of an act of sexual violence; that poses a serious threat to their own health; or that would result in the birth of a profoundly disabled or terminally ill child.
“While we respect those who decide to continue with such a pregnancy, we do not believe that this decision can be imposed upon them through moral coercion, and far less through the force of law,” the letter stated.
“In our view, the latter constitutes a violation of a woman’s freedom of conscience and personal dignity, and it runs counter to the Catholic tradition’s distinction between morality and legality. The law should not be used to control a person’s moral life, except when that person’s behaviour poses a threat to society.”
Polish bishops are calling for their country’s parliament to introduce “full legal protection of unborn lives”. Currently the law allows abortion in the case of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s life, and some cases where the baby is disabled.
The bishops also urged politicians to set up “programmes to ensure concrete help for parents of sick and handicapped children and those conceived through rape”.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has applauded the bishops’ stance.
The British Medical Association has reiterated its opposition to assisted suicide during a vote this week, at its annual conference in Belfast.
During the conference, doctors considered whether to change their position on assisted suicide from opposed to neutral. But the body voted by 198 to 115 to maintain its current opposition.
The pressure to debate came after a YouGov survey found only seven per cent of the public supported the union’s position.
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