The Catholic Education Service (CES) acts on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to support Catholic education. We have a strong and positive working relationship with the British and Welsh Government, sharing the aims of high academic standards for all and increased parental choice.

Imagine then the surprise and alarm among rank and file Catholics when the Service issued guidelines on homosexuality in schools much of which was lifted verbatim from publications of the homosexualist pressure group Stonewall.

Was this innocence, indolence or infiltration?

It is hard to say – though the Education Service does, from time to time make available material from other outside sources and is generally scrupulous about declaring provenance. In this case it did not.

It is observable that liberal Catholics are adopting an increasingly insolent indifference to grass-roots opinion and to the teachings of the Magisterium.

We need to be ever vigilant.