Who it's all about...Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#3); Scrutiny

This third post on the subject follows our previous two here (1) and here (2). The posts should be considered as a set.

The "Order of Service" produced for Cilla Black's funeral (a BBC link to the document is here) is all that's needed to prove that a potential public scandal and Eucharistic sacrilege lay in wait. Many alert Catholics saw it coming a mile off. We did. The team at Torch of the Faith can even provide documentary evidence (provably published just two hours prior to the funeral) that they did.

If lay people were switched-on enough to the dangers, you'd expect that a permanent deacon, two priests and an auxiliary bishop – i.e. the four-hand clerical team that celebrated the funeral –  were equally so. Either that quartet knew the clear risks, or they didn't. Simple as that. If they didn't, then serious questions should be asked about the extent of their prudent involvement in the preparation of a very public funeral broadcast live in the UK on TV, radio and the Internet – the latter also having a global reach; nothing, absolutely nothing, should have been left to chance, misinterpretation, or ambiguity. If, however, they did know of the possible perils (far more likely), then more serious questions must be asked about why they didn't take firm, preventative action.

Who it's all about...Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#2); Preamble

* This post – the second concerning the subject of the funeral of Cilla Black – is a preamble piece, ahead of a third, necessarily punctilious, scrutiny which we intend to publish in the next 24 hours. These matters are being aired and published contemporaneously "for the record".

We are hugely indebted to the Torch of the Faith team – also based in the Archdiocese of Liverpool – for flagging-up the biggest of the scandals, among many, perpetrated at last Thursday's bewildering and depressing funeral "Mass" for Cilla Black. See our first post on the subject.

It had been anticipated – and strongly suspected in the aftermath – that such a conspicuously heterodox, worldly and irreverent event would inevitably provide the wicked (yes) platform for open public scandal and sacrilege to especially occur during the distribution of Holy Communion.

And so it was.

This is not using the benefit of hindsight, as we'll go on to prove.

What's it all about...? Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#1)

At the time of writing, the Archdiocese of Liverpool website is highlighting (as shown above), a link to an important briefing paper ("Assessing the evidence on Assisted Suicide") produced just three days ago by the English and Welsh Catholic bishops, ahead of the UK MPs' debate in the House of Commons, 20 days from now, about a bill which seeks to enshrine in British law the legal right to "enable competent adults who are terminally ill to choose to be provided with medically supervised assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes".

The primary aim of the bishops' short document is actually to refer readers onwards to another work: a study produced by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Guide to the Evidence") which comprehensively nails the lie that this murderous campaign (heavily backed by the UK media and assorted UK celebrities, incidentally) is founded upon "mercy". Moreover, it asserts that its anti-success, if given Royal Assent, would only serve to "undermine key principles of law, medical ethics and palliative care". 

Offering eight reasons not to legalise Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS), it is the fourth in a sobering list provided by the Anscombe team which forms the bedrock case: 

Legalising PAS would undermine a foundational principle of law and justice. All human beings possess, in virtue of our common humanity, an equal and intrinsic dignity. It is contrary to justice and human solidarity intentionally to kill an innocent human being (that is, someone not engaged in unjust aggression).

Whilst rightly highlighting the links to this hugely impressive, incredibly clear and ultra-urgent document, the Archdiocesan website also directs readers to coverage of the high-profile funeral celebrated yesterday by the Auxiliary Bishop in one of the city of Liverpool's most famous Catholic churches – which was also broadcast live to millions across the UK on TV, radio and the Internet – of a soul who scandalised many of her fellow baptised Catholics by publicly proclaiming her support for assisted suicide and especially the Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland.