Quotes of the Day

"It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there needs to be some practical solutions."

 "At the moment the Big Society is lacking a cutting edge. It has no teeth."

"It is not sufficient for the Government, in its localism programme, simply to step back from social need and say this is a local issue."

"We're now at a very critical point, with the philosophy of the Big Society getting clearer, but on the other hand the effects of the cuts are becoming real and there's real pressure about what will happen on the ground."

"As we said in our discussion document, a government cannot simply cut expenditure, wash its hands of expenditure and expect that the slack will be taken up by greater voluntary activity."

"As we said in our discussion document, a government cannot simply cut expenditure, wash its hands of expenditure and expect that the slack will be taken up by greater voluntary activity."

"The poorest are taking the biggest hit while at the same time you see huge bank bonuses and profits and this is not right."

To find out who said this, click here. If only they could grab the headlines in the United Kingdom for saying something that actually reflected the Catholic Faith on Palm Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the majority of the above, but doesn't it all just sound like something Ed Miliband would say? What about the scourge of abortion? What about the overt and deliberate sexualisation of the young? What about the defense of Catholic education? What about a condemnation of the brutal Equality Act? What about the whole spiritual direction of the United Kingdom? What about speaking to Souls as well as to government bodies? The fact that this remains the top story on The Telegraph website goes to show just how powerful the Catholic Church could be in pushing the Gospel to the forefront of the public consciousness.

The statements above are not bad as such. They are good, but they are also popularist.  What about the Gospel? What about Our Lord Jesus Christ? The Church is not an arm of Social Services nor is it an extension of the Labour Party or a trade union. It is the Instrument of Salvation. If this message, the message of the Gospel, the message of our sin and our need for the Salvation of God were already coming from senior figures in the Hierarchy, then I would applaud them when they spoke on matters of social justice as well. Palm Sunday is an ideal opportunity to speak to Souls and it is so sad that key figures in the Hierarchy have failed to do so.

For Pope Benedict XVI's homily for Palm Sunday, click here.