Sunday February 19, 2012 www.thecatholicuniverse.com theuniverseReachingouttotheninemillionCatholicsintheUKandIrelandeveryweek £1.30 €1.75

Jaqson’s red roses bring a smile to Kate

A CATHOLIC schoolboy stole the Duchess of Cambridge’s heart on Valentine’s Day this week when he presented her with a personalised cupcake and a bunch of flowers.

Kate was visiting Liverpool and went to the Brink, a new non-alcoholic bar in the city, when Jaqson Johnston-Lynch, who attends St Vincent de Paul School, gave her the gift.

The eight-year-old’s mother, Jacquie, is head of service for the charity Action on Addiction, of which the Duchess is a patron.

The card reportedly said: “Dear Kate, Happy Valentine’s Day, I love you, from Jaqson.”

However, the youngster appeared on BBC Radio Merseyside and told presenter Sean Styles that the Duchess was not his type.

Leading bishops and politicians join the increasing clamour for Government to protect rights to Christian worship and prayer

Warsi mission to Vatican urges confidence in faith

By Simon Caldwell

A massive fight-back was mounted this week against the rising aggressive secularism which is pushing religion out of British public life.

The charge was led by the Coalition Government, which vowed to overturn the High Court ruling which banned local councils from beginning their meetings with prayers.

Nailing the Government’s colours firmly to the mast, Baroness Warsi, the co-chairman of the Conservative

Party, and a Muslim, promised to personally assure Pope Benedict XVI of her “absolute commitment to continue fighting for faith in today’s society” when she led a high-profile delegation of seven British ministers to the Vatican this week.

The Government’s intervention reflects the deep concern among the Churches that they are being victimised by a minority of aggressive secularists dedicated to purging British culture of any vestige of Christianity.

It follows a backlash against a court victory by Clive Bone, an atheist member of Bideford Town Council, Devon, stating that the Authority had acted unlawfully by allowing prayers to be said before meetings.

The National Secular Society, which brought the action on Mr Bone’s behalf, argued there was no place for prayer in “a secular environment concerned with civic business”.

It said the practice of praying breached articles 9 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect an individual's right to freedom of conscience and not to face discrimination. Mr Justice Ouseley rejected its arguments but then ruled that prayers were unlawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972.

“There is no specific power to say prayers or to have any period of quiet reflection as part of the business of the council,” he told the court.

“The council has on two occasions by a majority voted to retain public prayers at its full meetings. But that does not give it power to do what it has no power to do.”

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