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PASTO R GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 13, 1985
sexual sin, the centrality and sanctity of Christian marriage,
are basic to the moral theology of all our churches. Yet odd ly
enough it is� long time since l have heard� clergyman, let
alone� bishop, preach� sermon .2!! the evils of fornication.
You can listen to them denouncing the sins of Mr. Reagan in
Latin America any Sunday. But the more elementary and dead ly
sins of the flesh nearer home--the sins that lie at the root of
our problem of poverty--remain uncastigated••••
What an eloquent description of the •shepherds of Israel
II
described in
the 34th chapter of Ezekiel!
Chunnel Go-Ahead Rear Britain's sluggish economic picture is responsible
in large measure for two recent decisions. First, the British government
has agreed to jump aboard the bandwagon of President Ronald Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative. The SDI program is expected to bring about
a $1,000,000,000 boost to British industry--no mean amount considering
the dec lining price of oil.
North Sea oil sales have kept Britain
sol vent for years, but the world market is soft and further price cuts
are expected.
Second ly, the British and the French are edging ever closer to a final
favorable decision--expected next month--on a joint, privately financed
project to build a fixed link across the Engl ish Channel. On December 5,
a parliamentary committee voted its approval on the design. As many
expected, they came out in favor of a $3,300,000,000 twin-rail tunnel
under the Channel.
(Another favorite had been a more cost ly bridge
tunnel, road -and -rail scheme.)
If approved, builders could start construction as early as mid -1987 and
finish in the 1990s. The prospects of 50,000 additional jobs in Britain
during the construction phase and at least 8,000 maintenance jobs
thereafter look good to government economists. But as this column has
brought out several times in the past, the "Chunne1• would at last breach
Britain's •moat•--a prospect older Britons are leery of.
Ulster--Warnings Mount
A SUNDAY TIMES C London) poll indicates that
three-quarters of Northern Ireland's Protestants would vote against the
recent Anglo-Irish agreement if a referendum were held on the deal.
About 65 percent of Ulster's Roman Catholic minority favor the deal,
which gives the Republic of Ireland a first-ever ad visory role in the
British province. The agreement is� big gamble. The hope is that, with
Dublin on the scene in the North, moderate political forces among the
minority Catholics will be strengthened, defanging the extremists of the
Irish Republican Army.
But the IRA is too clever for this.
It will
probab ly step up violence, alarming the Protestants, who will turn
against the tieaty--and the British government--with a vengeance.
Ultimately British forces may just pull out--the IRA's aim--saying they
cannot control the situation. Then the real fighting will begin. In the
No v. 24 DAILY TELEGRAPH, Pereg rine Worsthorne draws a scenario that
presents a bleak picture indeed:
All will depend on how wel l the agreement works out in the
crucial matter of defeating the IRA. Here, I fear, there are
dreadful grounds for doubt. Almost certainly, within the next
few weeks or months, there will be a spectacular IRA atrocity,