Thursday night, the leaders of the three major parties in Great Britain held the second of an unprecedented series of debates in advance of the country’s parliamentary elections. The prime minister is not elected directly by the people — the P.M. is the party leader of the party that captures a majority of seats in the House of Commons — so these debates are causing quite a buzz not only within the UK but internationally as well because they are, in effect, nationalizing the election around these individual men. It’s also caused a stir because the leader of the long-time third party, the Liberal Democrats (acknowledged to be further to the left than even the Labour Party), was acknowledged to have won the debate. Coupled with the quickly falling poll numbers of the front-running, and main opposition, Conservative Party, incumbent Labour is back in the hunt in a nearly three way tie.

Background as prologue done, please see the video below from the debate last Thursday. The replies are in response to a question from a voter who supports homosexual unions, abortion, and condom distribution, who wants Pope Benedict’s fall visit to Great Britain cancelled. (It is expected he will beatify 19th century English Cardinal John Henry Newman during the visit.) Then, try to identify the “Conservative Party” candidate. It’s well nigh impossible.

To Tell The Truth: Will the real conservative, if there really is one, please stand up?

If the Conservative Party is on the same plank as the two leftist parties, is there hope in the UK? No wonder it’s an island of moral irrelevence where the dictatorship of relativism rules. (Who needs an election, then?)

If you think this is amazingly sad, I wish I could find a video with the complete discussion — there was a follow up in which all three lauded Britain’s homosexual union law with the “Conservative Party” candidate even saying, “the Pope needs to get with the times,” which prototypically misunderstands the point. A man, The Pope, does not make Church doctrine. No man can. The Pope defends Church teaching which is the teaching of our Creator, our Heavenly God.

One of the three, as you heard, even said he was “not a man of faith,” which may make him the first such Western leader. All three gladly said they were in agreement on disagreeing with the Pope. 

But I guess we should be thankful that they at least will welcome His Holiness to their country. Or will he even attend now? Because, as the Brits like to say, there is a twist to the tale.

Apart from the debate, but at about the same time, a memo by a government official about the historic first-ever Papal visit to Britain became public. In it, he wrote such vile as that the Pope might, during the visit, launch Papal-branded condoms, bless homosexual marriages and open an abortion ward (see American Catholic blog).

If this insult was made about a Muslim leader, the official would have been fired immediately. Instead, this man is allowed to stay in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government. Or, as Gerald Warner of the Daily Telegraph wrote:

Wear a cross to work and you are sacked; insult the Pope and you are “transferred to other duties.”

The Vatican, however, showing the humility of Christ, stated the visit is still on, despite forceful letters of protest by Scottish and English Catholic bishops (The Scotsman). No doubt, this will put whoever wins the election and has the great honor of receiving Pope Benedict, in a more humble position in lieu of their adamantly arrogant ”disagreements with the Pope.” Maybe they will learn a lesson in humility from him. 

To Tell The Truth identities. Oh yeah, in case you are wondering: The man on the left, the first to answer the question, is David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader; the man who admits he is of no faith is Nick Clegg, of the third party Liberal Democrats; and the third candidate is incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labour Party. 

Bill Donahue of the Catholic League released a statement (read here) in which he asked:

Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?

Deal Hudson, of InsideCatholic.com, told FoxNews.com:

Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim —there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.

More on the controversy can be found here at popeater.com. In fact, there are two poll questions there, including one asking if David should apologize. As of tonight, the responses to both questions are overwhelmingly anti-David. We encourage you to vote and pile on to send HBO — and Hollywood secularists in general — a message.

Not at all. As John Paul The Great once said, “The Church breathes with two lungs, the Eastern Church and the Western Church.”

The Church is made up of several Rites, or Churches within the Church, the largest of which is the Latin Rite. Each Rite has a patriarch, the head of that Church. The Pope is the patriarch of the Latin Rite as well as the head of the Church Universal. A kind of first among equals.

We don’t quite need an organizational chart, but this is a topic we will write about often here, as it is underserved, and one in which Brother John and I both have some background and expertise. But the reason it comes up today is because last week Pope Benedict heeded a plea from the Middle Eastern bishops to convene them at the Vatican and announced that he is calling a special Assembly of the Synod of Eastern Bishops dedicated to the Middle East, October 10-24, 2010. The theme of the Synod will be, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Testimony: The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul (At 4,32).”

Pope Benedict added:

On other occasions you have asked for a more regular contact with the Bishop of Rome to enforce the communion of your churches with the successor of St.Peter and to examine together any problems of significant importance.

This proposal has been renewed even in the last Plenary Congregation for the Eastern churches and in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

The Eastern Patriarchs want to address four points critical to Catholics in the Middle East (from Asia News via CatholicOnline): the growth of fundamentalism and the restlessness of the Christians, the importance of Muslim-Christian dialogue, the position of the Oriental Catholic patriarch in the Universal Church, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Kuwait and in the Gulf countries. Iraqi Bishop Louis Sako made the proposal for the special assembly of the synod for the Middle East to Pope Benedict last January.

This is an exciting development for the Church as it will bring to light certain and unique difficulties of the Church in a region dominated by Muslims, and also help Roman Catholics better understand the Church Universal. We look forward to reporting on it.