Anthony McCarthy defends church teaching on a popular BBC program

Anthony McCarthy of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics in Britain was interviewed as part of BBC News' very popular program "Have Your Say." He was also kind enough to alert me to his appearance. You can view the full one-hour program right here.

The highlight of the show is the appearance of Bishop Kevin Dowling [at the 22:30 mark in the show]. Bishop Dowling is (not suprisingly) often quoted by the liberal media, as I've mentioned before.

A nice quote from Bishop Dowling in this interview:

"the act of love ... must be looked at in relation to the total socio-cultural-political-religious context of a person's life."

Mr. McCarthy, for his part, does a very good job of responding to the points raised by Bishop Dowling, making sure to recognize when the Bishop is indeed stating Church teaching as well as when Bishop Dowling is going against what the Church teaches or missing the most important part of what the Church does teach.

McCarthy equally handles difficult questions posed by call-in viewers, reminding them that the Church isn't a "No" to life-saving practices but a resounding "Yes" to what is truly best for man.

Really, the interview is a sterling example of how to defend Church teaching in the public square on this most thorny of issues, and his guess for what the Vatican's next move will be is the same as mine.

Bravo to Mr. McCarthy.

A quick note, however: since the show is mostly a "reader opinion" call-in/email-in program, McCarthy is sometimes given precious little airtime to respond to the multitude of opposing views that are given airtime (perhaps because McCarthy wasn't saying what the BBC wanted to hear about the possibility of change).