Not just disingenuous but nauseating

There are times when those who base their entire philosophy on religious conviction irritate me no end. There are other times, particularly when those convictions potentially put lives at risk unnecessarily, that they make me sick.

Just such an example occurred yesterday when the enlightened Governors of the Roman Catholic School St Monica's in Prestwich, Cheshire, refused to allow girls at the school to receive the new vaccination against the papillomavirus which is known to cause the most common form of cervical cancer. The governor who appears to have been behind this , one Monsignor Allen, claimed that the grounds for refusal were nothing to do with morality and all to do with genuine concerns for the health of the pupils with an untried vaccine.



What hogwash! Monsignor Allen has previously been on record suggesting that the vaccine would promote sexual promiscuity and immoral behaviour, but of course, he is sharp enough to spot that, were he to give that as a reason, he would be pilloried by the liberal press for suggesting that he would rather hang the risk of a painful death from cancer over the heads of young girls than do anything which might encourage them to have sex before marriage.

So he invents, on behalf of the governors, a saleable story...but who is going to believe it? They make me sick these people who haven't even got the guts to publicly defend their own ludicrous position and instead invent a cover story. How can an organisation stick its head in the sand and deny young girls the opportunity of a life free of a painful terminal illness simply because of the message they think it might send out. They are not only playing priests...they are playing God and it shows an incredible degree of stupidity. A woman can get cervical cancer as a result of sexual activity at any time, even within the sanctity of marriage so who are these people to legislate on the fate of young children?

It is as stupid and as cruel as to suggest that AIDS is a punishment from God for homosexuality. We have a human obligation to medically protect our children as best we can ..and this innoculation is a marvellous breakthrough.

OK so the girls can go to an NHS clinic and be vaccinated - nothing the school can do about that - but it's likely to have less of a take up than if the school is visited by the doctors. Meanwhile these holier than thou clerics go about their business with sanctimonious smugness convinced that they have deferred another sinful descent into the flesh pots of evil.

Its another bloody good reason for ensuring that every school in the country comes under the ultimate sanction of the Dept of Education and another bloody good reason for scrapping faith schools altogether.