On 24 September 2004 - under the surreal headline: “Catholics back AIDS condoms” - an article in London’s Daily Telegraph trumpeted the flagrant dissent from Church teaching practiced by the charity Catholic Action for Overseas Development (CAFOD). Barely a week later, on 3 October, priests up and down the country sullied the Sabbath by permitting a collection for that same organisation during Holy Mass, co-opting their hapless parishioners into the sacrilege in the process. This juxtaposition of public scandal and complicity in scandal exemplifies the casual, self-destructive response to the ongoing dissolution of the Church in these Isles. For here...