CONTACTING THE VOICE

By Mail:	Editor, (Rev V Farrell), Holy Family Church, Links Road, Blackpool, FY1 2RU
Fax:	01253 590018
Telephone:	01253 351258
Email:	Editorial – voicechain@aol.com Letters – voicechain@aol.com
Articles and letters submitted for possible publication must state so clearly. Please include a full a full postal address and telephone number. The full address will not be used on publication, but we will NOT publish letters where we are asked to withhold names entirely. Letters may be edited. Returns, only if accompanied by S.A.E. Please type all submissions even if not sending by email. Deadlines: For June, May 10th, for July, June 6th, for August, July 11th.

The evils of our time
The article “Make Poverty History” caught my eye in the April issue. “20,000 a day dying from hunger and disease is disgraceful when there is more than enough to feed them and resources to treat them. But then life is so cheap and throwaway in Great Britain today. 600 children killed every day by abortion. 200,000 every year, regular as clockwork and at a cost to all tax – payers of millions of pounds to fund the National Health Service and the B.P.A.S. and other charities who this service. When there is little or no respect for life in our own nation, there is not much chance anywhere else.
Also if the present government gets its way, the killing of old, infirm and incapacitated patients will be made legal. How? Food and drink will be classified as medication. “Withdraw the patients’ medication.” You don’t need A Levels to work out the result of that treatment! Perhaps we could have a half page spread on these two evil practices in a future edition.
John Smith
Wesham

We should let them know
We should be more ready to communicate in the cause of right. Our television networks are infamous for the foul language, obscene violence, and gratuitous sex they beam into our homes. Programme makers interpret a lack of reaction as approval to push the boundaries of indecency ever wider. We can phone, we can write and we can email our disgust. If standards improve we should show our approval. It might just reverse the trend if, in the business of communication, church members began to punch their weight.
Bill Saunders
Barrow in Furness

A Cry and then tears
There were several good articles in the March edition of the Voice but, “A Cry from the city; a Call to The World” was both original and compelling. It literally recreated the atmosphere in Jerusalem on that Good Friday. Thank you also for G. K. Chesterton’s wonderful poem, “The Donkey.” I have never found it easy to cry even in sorrowful times when it would be a relief. But that poem never fails to bring tears to my eyes and an acute awareness of my own shortcomings.
Anne Dudon
St. Annes on Sea

Guidance sought at Election time
The April edition of The Voice contained some guidelines from our Bishops questioning Parliamentary candidates. I would ask the bishops for more guidance on two moral questions in particular.
Euthanasia & the Mental Capacity Bill:
I understand that any action to deliberately shorten life or cause death is wrong. I also understand that pain-controlling drugs may be used, even if the side effect may be a shortening of life and ultimately death. Perhaps the more difficult and agonising decisions concern intrusive and burdensome forced feeding or resuscitation of gravely ill and possibly dying patients. I also understand that it has never been the Church's teaching that a person must be kept alive at all costs by using "extraordinary means".
We are fortunate in having Archbishop Peter Smith working with the pro-life MPs to put the Catholic position with regard to the Mental Capacity Bill. Would it be possible for our bishops to put out a pamphlet on these very sensitive and difficult issues? I do not feel that the booklet "Cherishing Life" gives enough guidance to anyone who has to make these heart-rending decisions.
The Global Common Good:
The paragraph under this heading reads, "It requires policies that challenge the root causes of injustice, such as wars, generalised violence, persecution, human rights abuses, the arms trade,............" We all know that the arms trade is big business and provides many jobs in our diocese. We also know of the terrible loss of life the arms trade can contribute to. Again we are fortunate with our own Archbishop, Patrick Kelly, (vice-president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference), having the experience of dialogue with BAE Systems. Please Bishops, guide and advise us on these moral question.
Harry O'Brien
Warton, Preston

Financial Review
The financial state of our diocese is important. The difficulty is in understanding why parishioners and workers of the diocese cannot read the Review. It is desirable that the response to the Review is within the framework of a pastoral plan that should be developed through discussions and consultations in the diocese. The letter requesting these cuts was received on the 1st March and proposals for implementing them were required by the 5th April. Workers for the diocese must feel both vulnerable and their work undervalued. It is important to ask what the effects of the proposals will have on these diocesan organizations and commissions. For us at the Faith and Justice Commission it will mean a reduction from £11,000 to £8,500 in the current financial year (2005/6).
Paul Bradley
Chair Faith and Justice Commission