Washington D.C., Feb 6, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
As Church of England leaders meet in a contentious synod over whether to bless same-sex unions, tensions escalated when a diocese reported a lay synod member to police for “hate speech.”
The Diocese of Coventry announced reported synod member Sam Margrave to the police after he reportedly posted his beliefs that same-sex relationships are sinful. The diocese is part of the Anglican communion and not in communion with the Catholic Church.
Margarve has been a vocal critic of Anglican Church leaders who want to bless homosexual unions and those who want to go further and perform marriages for homosexual couples.
Bishop Christopher Cocksworth of the Diocese of Coventry informed Margrave that they had reported him to the police, according to a news release from the United Kingdom-based Christian advocacy group Christian Concern.
“The diocesan secretary has had no option, in view of a number of complaints received, [but] to report your offending tweets to the West Midlands Police and is in continuing conversation with them,” the correspondence read.
“[The police] have advised her that they have been able to speak to you but that you continue to deny you have done anything wrong.”
When contacted by CNA, the diocese forwarded its statement condemning Margrave but refused to comment further on its decision to report him to the police.
In its statement, the diocese wrote that “everyone has the right to feel safe when interacting online” and encouraged people to read an information sheet that includes information about how to receive mental health support and report supposed hate speech to social media companies and local police.
“We are extremely sorry when an individual makes comments that fall short of the social media guidelines published by the Church of England and fails to behave in a way fitting of their office as a member of Synod,” the statement read.
“We continue to take all the appropriate action available to us, including reporting the matter to external agencies, and are working to introduce a Code of Conduct with sanctions for non-compliance to our own Synod. We have not taken these actions lightly and have only done so in view of the sheer number of complaints received from third parties, and only after other avenues have been exhausted, including repeated offers of support to the individual concerned.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Unfortunate optics!
Wondering whether the papal choreographers knew where the Anglican ecclesial communion was heading so recently in its own permanent synod, when the recent airline interview by Pope Francis was conducted? Will Pope Francis now be propped up falsely, in England, as synodally in step with the Anglican version of German synodality, and its Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/02/05/pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-god-accompanies-people-with-same-sex-attraction/
In a comment only yesterday on CWR’s “what to do about politics?”, even non-entity/yours truly volunteered that friendship must not be morphed into being misconstrued as concurrence or complicity (the case of Jacques Maritain’s friendship with Saul Alinsky). https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/02/05/what-to-do-with-politics/
Will the serendipity papal photo-op with Welby now be exploited in the British “hate-speech” case against their own synodalist Sam Margrave, i.e., REAL “hate-speech” being the institutionalized criminalization of binary speech?
But, who are we to judge?
Now that Fr. Benedict has passed, is the appearance of stocks like Welby and Greenshields, going to become a feature to suit the topics? Will it be “inside synodality” or “only inside synodality”? Outside? Fr. Benedict is no longer there to attest to anything but their agreement with Pope Francis will authenticate the recognizing and imparting of Fr. Benedict’s discretions? Says Welby, “Our pilgrimage together is a sign for the world.”
What this is showing to Pope Francis and to us, is that the temptations that beset him as Fr. Bergoglio before the papal election, have decidedly overtaken him in the Papal office and now he himself is actively pursuing them and using the office to spread them.
There is also a breakdown in transparency that I will not elaborate here. Consequences flow for all these and from all these; and they should be kept distinct for the sake of a fidelity.
Lamentably, things have gotten unhinged. It may not be trenchant but that can’t make evil good, or untruth, truth Meantime each will continue to provoke the other ones and produce more deranging outcrops.
There is a third layer and it does not amelorioate the problems, rather makes it worse. There is a piling up of misrepresentations going on that can be very diverting that at same time multiply the gravity of the situation, increase the guilt they incur and deepen the complexes, tending to confirm it all.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-02/pope-francis-south-sudan-interview-justin-welby.html
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/01/the-church-of-england-takes-a-third-way-on-gay-marriage
Can anyone explain what the significant difference is between modernist/materialist/politically correct Anglicanism and the German brand of synodality? Both use the same worldly and false ad hominem, and strawman arguments to deny or to denigrate the infinite wisdom of the Word of God, divinely inspired dogma, and the unchanging, (read: unchangeable) teaching of the Church? To paraphrase the English poet, Wordsworth: It seems that
“The world is too much with us…
We lay waste our powers…
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
Or to quote the bard on such foolish “worldly” self-impressed, love affairs: “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
When one compromises religion with politics, especially the lame and limping form of politics that we see today, you get lame and limping religion. Absurdum Infinitum