Controversial directory to be overhauled

By Simon Caldwell THE BISHOPS are planning an overhaul of the directory of official Catholic organisations — amid pressure to exclude groups which allegedly condone abortion and gay sex.
Auxiliary Bishop Vincent Malone of Liverpool will head a team in drawing up criteria for entry into the annual Catholic Directory of England and Wales.
All groups listed under the Catholic Societies in England and Wales section are likely be made to reapply for inclusion in a newly-constituted directory, ready by 2003.
The move was largely prompted by complaints at the inclusion of the Catholic Women's Network (CWN), a supporter of such dissenting groups as the pro-abortion Catholics For a Free Choice (CFFC), which the American bishops declared had no right to use the name Catholic.
Bishop Malone said he was "in unfinished correspondence" with the CWN after asking the group to clarify its position.
He said: "It is not acceptable for an organisation to claim to be Catholic and at
the same time to promote the view that abortion is just a matter of choice; such a contradiction must be resolved one way or the other,".
Meanwhile, Quest, a support group for gay and lesbian Catholics, is hoping to be readmitted to the directory after it was suspended by Cardinal Basil Hume in 1998.
Cardinal Hume, believing Quest's constitution to be "ambiguous", was snubbed when he asked for an amendment in support of Church teaching on homosexuality.
Quest has since conducted a survey of members' views, the results of which were sent to the bishops in September in the hope they would deal with the issue at their November meeting.
A Quest insider said that relations with the bishops' secretariat had been "satisfactory" and that they were on "good terms", adding that Quest was a sponsor
of the summer Millennium Mass in Birmingham.
Mgr Kieran Conry, director of the Catholic Media Office, said the directory had been on the agenda of the bishops' meeting last week, but said Quest's membership would be resolved by a standing committee since the "formulation of words was still a sticking point".
He added: "There is a difficulty in forming criteria which are clear enough and inclusive enough. The list grew quite haphazardly and needs to be addressed.
"We need to find something which looks at the question of whether a group has a constitution, how that sits with Catholic teaching, and to what extent it could be included in the national directory."