focus
Protecting
THE INNOCENCE OF CHILDREN:
the Christian home at the heart of the decisive battle
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n September 2020, compulsory sex and relationships education is due to be introduced to schools in England. The Catholic Church has consistently recognised parents as the primary educators of their children. The bishops of England and Wales, however, are backing government plans that will end the statutory right of parents to withdraw their children from programmes promoting LGBT ideology and “confidential” access to contraception and abortion. In response to the abandonment of Catholic parents a new pro-family initiative has been formed by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the Latin Mass Society, the Good Counsel Network, and Catholic Man UK. The Coalition in Defence of Primary Educators is calling on lay Catholics to pray and offer sacrifices to obtain the grace that the bishops of England and Wales will return to the fight and lead the defence of the families in their care. The group’s inaugural event was a two-day pilgrimage of prayer and discussion for the feast of the Immaculate Conception at the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham. In 1061, Lady Richeldis of Walsingham had a dream in which the Blessed Virgin showed her the Holy House of Nazareth and requested that one like it be built in Walsingham. Richeldis did this and Our Lady promised that: “Whosoever seeks my help here will not go away empty-handed.” The shrine was to become a place of prayer and pilgrimage ranked fourth in the medieval world after Jerusalem, Compostela and Rome. Throughout its turbulent history, Walsingham, “England’s Nazareth”, has remained a site of devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Encouraged by the words of Pope Leo XIII, “When England returns to Walsingham, Our Lady will return to England”, and taking as its theme Acts 1:14 which describes the disciples as “perseverantes unianimiter in oratione” (persevering with one mind in prayer) with the Mother of the Lord, the pilgrimage culminated in a Rosary procession, led by fathers of families, some walking barefoot, to the ruins of the ancient priory.
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