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Priests for Life Canada 2006                                                                                          Issue One  We can rely on our patrons Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph & St. Michael

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There is a worldwide view that does not tolerate pro-life Christians. There is a systematic pattern of discrimination that is easily discernible. A politically correct culture is predominant in oppressing the rights of the individual, the right to life, the rights of the family as well as political and religious liberty. The fact is that in this Cultural War, the battle lines are being waged on all fronts: the spiritual, moral, social, and political arenas. “Communism has been repackaged …in the guise of secularism and relativism which has produced the culture of death wherein all manner of wrongs are now enshrined as rights. And in political correctness, which, make no mistake, is the voice of communism today” (Catholic Insight, Paula Adamick, October, 2005, p.8).

Anti-life and anti-Christian discrimination occurs at many levels.
Anti-life and anti-Christian discrimination occurs at many levels throughout our culture. It is found in both the private and public sectors; in mainstream media, television, movies, radio, books, magazines, and newspapers; in our educational systems, including our universities; in all levels of our judicial system, including the Supreme Court of Canada, undermining marriage, families, children, and society. It began with the legalization of contraceptive devices in 1967, allowing abortion and homosexuality in 1969, and divorce on demand in 1984. The writing on the wall indicated a shift from religious morality: God-made-law, to secular reality: man-made-law, with no room for God or Revelation.

What is being promoted is secular humanism and moral relativism. Secular humanism is a philosophy that teaches God does not exist, that man is perfectible, self-sufficient, and the measure of all things. Its goal is to evaluate, transform, control, and direct all institutions and organizations by its own value system. Pope John Paul II describes the threat of our age, a crisis of truth, as ‘unrestrained secularism’. Canada’s Christian Heritage Party leader, Ron Gray, cautions us, “We must not make the mistake of thinking that secular means neutral. Secularism is a religious worldview, the most bigoted faith on earth: its goal is to extirpate every other faith” (Banning Prayer from the Public Square is a Postmodern Notion, Charles W. Moore 1999). Humanist principles are radically at war with biblical religion. Humanists affirm their beliefs in ‘the self-existence of nature, a denial of the supernatural, and the finality of death’ (Humanist Manifesto III, American Humanist Association, 2003). Secular humanism affirms that moral values derive their source from human experience, and not from God.

Moral relativism suggests that objective truth does not exist, or at least it is unattainable by the human mind. “It denies the possibility of objectively binding creedal credible statements in the first place. It obscures the Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnate meaning of history, the Logos, the self-manifestation of truth itself” (Christ, Faith and the Challenge of Cultures, Asian Bishops’ Conferences, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1993). Pope Benedict XVI has made it clear that relativism subverts traditional Christian teaching; it compromises the basis for human rights; it leads to abuse of power by the state, even over life and death; and it ultimately fosters totalitarianism. The threat to religious freedom is pointed out by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Luigi Ventura: “The underlying cause of the new threats consist of the obligatory and general relativism of values with, as a consequence, the accusation of intolerance, against those who object.... The Gospel is seen as counter-cultural and those who refer to it in public become objects of marginalization” (Annual General Assembly, Canadian Bishops, October 19th Address, 2004). The fact is that Canada was built on Christian faith, which has been for the most part replaced in the past four decades by secular humanism and moral relativism. The fact is that faith, Judeo-Christian values, principles and freedom are inseparable. When there is no grounding to our belief, Chesterton explains: ‘we become a culture with its feet firmly planted in midair’. In postmodern relativism, nothing is true or false, right or wrong, reducing morality and religion to nothing but subjective personal experience or selected ethnic customs.

Public and private sectors in North America are arenas of struggle for pro-life Christians.
The reality is that public and private sectors in North America are arenas of struggle for pro-life Christians. This is evident in the United States, in the case when Donald Grant, a medical ultrasound technician sued his employer, Fairview Health Services of Minneapolis, for failing to accommodate his religious beliefs as required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He was terminated for encouraging a patient not to seek an abortion and offered to have a pastor contact her (Hospital Worker Sues over Firing for Pro-life Counseling, CNS News, Nov. 15, 2002). Religious freedom is under attack in Canada as well. Chris Kempling, a secondary school teacher, employed as a counselor, was denounced by the B.C. Teachers Federation for supposedly discriminating against “gays”. He was suspended from his duties for three months for writing letters to the editor of his local newspaper opposing homosexual practices. Some private sector employees are guilty of anti-life, anti-Christian discrimination as well. In 2002, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, ended its twenty-eighth year tradition of making on-site religious services available to Christian guests, yet went out of its way to solicit the homosexual community, including an annual Gay Day event.

The collapse of traditional pro-family values is especially evident in Quebec. The institution of marriage is under siege. Mark Cardinal Ouellet challenged the youth to join him in a pilgrimage to Ste. Anne de Beaupré. During catechesis, he informed them that in Quebec, the Christian and Catholic society had collapsed, that in the last thirty years everything had been secularized: hospitals, institutes, schools, and trade unions. He called them to act now or their culture and nation would disappear. The point he was making was that Quebec’s culture would disappear without Christianity. Statistics Canada reports that by 2001, 1/2 million common-law couples lived in Quebec (44% of all of Canadian common-law couples), with 29% of Quebec couples with children living common-law. This separation of marriage and parenthood is anti-family, anti-life, and anti-Christian. Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), wrote explicitly on separation from morality: “No enactment of man can be considered law if it does not accord with the law of God” (Commentaries on the English Common Law).

The media plays a major role in the anti-life, anti-Christian bias.

The media plays a major role in the anti-life, anti-Christian bias in our culture today. It is accomplished through negative portrayals of pro-life Christians in films, television, books, and news media, presenting them as unreasonable, violent, and intolerant, downplaying the injustices and demonizing them through ridicule, emphasizing cases when fanatics attack abortionists, or when peaceful pro-life protests or vigils take place near abortion clinics, all in the name of political correctness. The March for Life in Washington, as well as the March for Life in Ottawa, attended by thousands each year, are downplayed by CBS and CBC with an emphasis on the counter-demonstrations by pro-abortionists with an attendance of a mere hundred. When 150 Planned Parenthood demonstrators gathered for a rally, CBS Dan Rather reported tens of thousands of demonstrators had filled the streets of Washington. Network stories covering a pro-life march did not include “a syllable from any participant, on stage or in the crowd” (Media Research Center, Tim Graham, Jan. 23, 2003).

Christians are negatively portrayed in movies with disrespect for their sacred beliefs, and Christ Himself, as in ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, is presented heretically as sinful and lustful, the apostle, Paul, as a liar, and Judas Iscariot as a hero. Mel Gibson had to deal with opposition to suppress ‘The Passion’ and had great difficulty in finding a U. S. studio or distributor for his movie (The Associated Press, May 1, 2003). The book, “Human Sexuality”, published in June, 1971, under the auspices of the Catholic Theological Society of America, contained propaganda for ‘a new morality’, aimed at overturning traditional Catholic morality. It affirms “that the use of contraceptives is wholesome and moral whenever it helps couples to build a community of love of one another (H. S., p. 127) …and fornication and adultery are in themselves morally good experiences ( H. S. pp. 154-158) ...that living together, swinging, and communal sex are not morally unacceptable (H. S., pp. 151-152)”. In November, 1977, the American bishops declared its pastoral guidelines for the formation of Christian consciences unacceptable. Unfortunately, many have accepted the media’s false characterizing and lies. The Catholic bashing, targeting, and anti-Christian discrimination is pointed out by Brent Bozell in CBS’s “Family Law” - a priest siring a child; ABC’s “The Job” - a priest places his reputation above the sanctity of the confessional; HBO’s “Sex in the City” - a priest agrees to baptize a child accepting the condition not to mention Christianity (Anti-Catholic Entertainment, Creators Syndicate Inc., March 21, 2003). Our Christian Heritage and our Christian values, such as respect for human life at all stages, and respect for family culture, are constantly under attack by the media, depicting pro-lifers as fanatics or lunatics. NBC’s “Law and Order” in January, 2003, featured an insane pro-life introvert stalking and murdering an abortion doctor. This is rare and unrepresentative of the pro-life movement. This constant manipulation and misrepresentation of the truth must be exposed and opposed.

The suppression of Christian religious expression as well as pro-life values is evident in education.
The suppression of Christian religious expression as well as pro-life values is evident especially in our educational systems, and at all levels. Social engineers have focused on control of education as it plays such an important role in informing and forming children’s values and world perspective, which is of significant influence for the whole of future society. In one instance, Dr. Graham Scott addressed the Toronto District School Board concerning their indoctrination on acceptance of homosexuality as an alternate life style:

1) propagandizing children with misinformation about homosexuality and same-sex parents is child abuse;
2) the high-handed insistence of the Board that parents be excluded from input as to what their children are taught is contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ;
3) the insistence that homosexuality be taught as normal suggests a religious devotion to homosexuality that I recognize as idolatry (Catholic Insight, January, 2005, Vol. XIII, p.41).

Luc Gagnon, the Director of Quebec Pro-Vie, in Egards, a new quarterly, accuses the Quebec hierarchy of sanctioning the abolition of the classical colleges, which he saw as an error of judgment for these schools transmitted to youth the culture and mentality of Catholicism (Fall Issue, 2003). Quebec’s Catholic Schools were abolished in 2001 and their general public schools do not teach religion. The examples of discrimination in manipulating education are rampant. One religion teacher in an Ottawa Catholic High School informed me that he was cautioned to use only the textbook and forbidden to use any other books such as the Catholic Catechism. Finding himself being monitored, he quit teaching religion for he was not allowed to do his job properly. In another Ottawa Catholic High School, a parish pastor was not allowed to hear confessions during Advent. He was told it would offend the non-Catholic students. Toronto’s “Globe and Mail” has objected vigorously to Catholic Schools and the parental rights of Catholics to choose schools for their children. In an editorial, Globe and Mail expressed its intolerance towards Catholics by suggesting the BNA Act of 1867 be amended to remove that provision (Jan. 21, 2005).

The politically correct moves are found in higher education as well. The University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, endorsed the culture of death by conferring an honorary doctorate of law degree upon Canada’s most notorious abortionist, Henry Morgentaler. The Sexual-Orientation Committee of St Michael’s Catholic College condemned a speech, a standard teaching on sexual ethics, given by Prof. Peter Kreft as “hate speech”. Paul Kokoski, a former student of St. Michael’s, wrote in a letter regarding the promotion of modernist issues: homosexuality, radical feminism, etc., pointing out their clever strategy: “the subtle ways in which the faculty worked to advance modernism, primarily by sowing seeds of doubt about Catholic truths in the minds of the students, through methods such as “value clarification” (Crisis at St. Michael’s College, Catholic Insight, October 2003). Some so-called Christian-based universities, like Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, have degenerated into offering a course called “Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes”. Stanford University denied the head coaching job to University of Nebraska assistant football coach, Ron Brown, because of his religious beliefs (Daily Nebraskan, April, 2002). When a Harvard student posted on a bulletin board: “Smile. Your Mother Chose Life”, an employee said he was expressing hate (Censorship on Campus, Liberation Journal, 1999-2000). Professor Weissman of the University of California (Santa Barbara), was heralded as an inaugurator: “a very brave woman”. Now pornographic film can be seen as a completely normal and necessary part of a film studies curriculum”.(A Revealing Look at Academic Freedom, Boundless, Simon Dahlman, 1999). Christianity is unacceptable to Postmodernists who peddle euphemisms of tolerance, diversity, openness, and multiculturalism. Such a mindset discourages reason, devaluates human life, and rejects objective truth and the evaluation of ideas on moral grounds. Postmodern theory replaces real education with political indoctrination which maintains that truth and speech are defined by power. In many universities, the slippery slope of postmodern relativism terminates in a tyranny of political correctness against human life and Christianity.

Competing forces with opposite worldviews are locked in a struggle over the direction of Canadian and American societies - the role of government and the freedom of the individual. The fact is that many of the first pilgrims who came to North America to escape religious persecution and seek religious liberty were Christians. The Ten Commandments are the moral and legal foundations of Western civilization (Crime and Punishment in the Ancient World, Israel Drapkin, M.D., Lexington Books, 1989).

Judicial System
The endgame for western governments seems to be the complete substitution of secular values (a woman’s right to terminate pregnancy; radical feminist precepts; a homosexual agenda; hate crime legislation; same-sex legislation; promoting anti-Christian obscenity as art) in the place of Christian norms. In the District of Columbia, in July 2000, an ordinance was passed that required mandatory contraceptive coverage in all health insurance plans, violating the religious freedom principles of Catholics, as there was no exempt conscience clause. Canadians have settled for a Charter of Rights that has robbed them of democracy, allowing it to he replaced by a judicial oligarchy, operating within a framework with law being based on will rather than reason. “It is being interpreted by a judiciary in accordance with that ideological framework most dominant in universities today: postmodernism, which includes Hegelianism and its offspring (radical feminism, individualism and nihilism)” (What is the Meaning of Rights? Catholic Insight, Doug McManaman, Oct. 2004, Vol. XII, No. 9). On December 9, 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that the government has the right to legalize same-sex marriage. Many are calling for a free vote or for a referendum.

A Proposed direction: God’s plan.

Let us follow God’s plan to become Saints as outlined by Pope John Paul II. Let Our Lady, Mother of the Eucharist, with her Rosary, lead us to center our families around the Eucharist: Mass and Perpetual Adoration. Let us frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation and deepen our faith and prayer life through Scriptural reflection and study of the Catholic Catechism. Let Our Lady, Star of the New Evangelization, teach us how to live and proclaim the whole truth. Let parents monitor our schools to make sure they promote Christian and pro-life values. Let us support public officials who have the courage to stand up for Christian values. Let us rediscover our Judeo-Christian foundations. Let us engage the enemy, not to defeat them but to change their hearts and minds so they can live a full Christian life and share the eternal destiny God has prepared for them. +

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It is my belief that it is impossible for individuals to call themselves pro-life and not be open to embracing the cross. This certainly is not an easy task. The cross is probably one of the most misunderstood teachings of our faith. One reason for this is because we avoid the topic, and by doing so, hope that it will go away. How can we forget Peter’s reaction when Jesus told His disciples that He would suffer and die (Mt 16:22)?

Another reason is the society in which we live. We are immersed in everything to make us “feel good”: food, clothing, houses, cars, entertainment, get rid of grey hair and wrinkles, avoid aging, and on, and on. Jesus did not say, “Take up your golf clubs and follow Me”. He is not against sports or recreation. However, when these begin to take priority in our lives, and in many cases obscure our purpose in life, then they begin to have a negative effect on us.
Unfortunately, our attitude towards the cross has not been helped by churches in general. Take for example, what I call “the good old chocolate Jesus funerals”. I remember speaking to a bishop one time and he referred to most of today’s funerals as “canonizations”. While some may feel that this is an exaggeration, we have to admit that there are strong elements of truth in it. How easily we have forgotten the words of Jesus, “If a man wishes to come after Me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in My footsteps” (Mt 16:24).

Why was it that someone like St. Francis of Assisi understood the cross more than most people? I believe that he did so for three reasons:

He prayed.
This is not a very sublime answer, but it encompassed his whole life. He was a man of prayer. What this tells us is that he was in constant touch with Jesus. This attribute was not peculiar only to St. Francis. All of our great saints were men and women of prayer.
One of our great Catholic writers, Dr. Peter Kreeft, once wrote, “You cannot give what you don’t have. So for the sake of your family be absolutely sure of Jesus - that He is your God, your Saviour, your Friend, your Lover, your Sanctifier, and your Guide. He is your all”. Pope John Paul II affirmed this in his message to the youth when he stated: “Christianity is not an option, nor does it consist of empty words. Christianity is Christ. It is a person, a living person. To meet Jesus, to love Him, and make Him loved - This is the Christian vocation”. In other words, we cannot be consumed with consumerism, but we must be consumed with Jesus. To become channels of God’s grace we must first be filled with that grace.

He listened to and obeyed the Father’s will.
Through prayer, Francis came to a deeper understanding of what the Father’s will was for him. Most of us often feel that someone like St. Francis had a direct line to God. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, most of the great saints struggled with a complete under-standing of God’s will.

He was obedient.
His complete obedience to the Church and her teachings was signified by his signal grace and mark of authenticity.
He understood this great grace of the Church with its sacraments, Our Blessed Mother, infallibility, and many other rich treasures.
Through all of this, Francis came to a deeper understanding of the great value of redemptive suffering. He understood that Jesus did not just come and redeem us. Out of His great love for us, Jesus allows us to participate with Him in our own redemption, and the redemption of the world. We do this by not just “putting up” with our sufferings but uniting them with those of Christ. When we do this they become redemptive, i.e.: our sufferings help to “redeem” ourselves and others.

In a letter to the elderly, Pope John Paul II stated: “When God permits us to suffer because of illness, loneliness, or other reasons associated with old age, He always gives us the grace and strength to unite ourselves with greater love to the sacrifice of His Son, and to share ever more fully in His plan of salvation”.

Francis understood this great gift of redemptive suffering to the extent that his interior love of Christ became exteriorized in the stigmata he received. We may not be given the stigmata, but we are called to exteriorize our love of Christ.

Today we are being asked to become other Christ’s. We are called to step out of the ordinary and be different than the world. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has said, “Seen from the viewpoint of the cross, it becomes clear that Jesus was the kind of person who transcends all normal standards and cannot be explained in normal terms. He just does not fit into the ready-made categories that people use, and therefore, they (the Scribes & Pharisees), had to clear Him out of the way. There, again, it becomes clear that we cannot get to know the real Jesus by trimming Him to fit our normal standards” (God is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 2001, Ignatius Press).

We are called to step up and be counted, to make the ordinary extraordinary, to become different, and to embrace the contradiction of the cross. Simply put, we are called to holiness. +

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Position on Life Issues
1. Abortion

ARTICLE 5: THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not kill. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment”. But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.

2258
“Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being”.

Abortion

2270
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.

2271
Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.

2272
Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae”, “by the very commission of the offense”, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273
The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation: “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death”.

“The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined.... As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights”.

2274
Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being. Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual.... It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence”.

2275
“One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival”.

“It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material”.

“Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity” which are unique and unrepeatable.

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South Dakota State Senate Passes Bill to Ban Abortion: Christian Defense Coalition applauds this historic legislation.
(From: www.dakotavoice.com, 02/22/2006)

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, responds, “We applaud the courage of the South Dakota legislature in voting to ban abortion and end this tragic violence against women and children. With several states waiting in the wings to ban abortion, momentum is clearly building nationwide to overturn Roe. Polls are showing that more and more Americans are becoming uncomfortable with abortion and the overwhelming majority of our nation’s young people feel abortion is ‘immoral’.

“The optimism in the pro-life community also surged yesterday when the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on banning partial-birth abortion. All of these things indicate that Roe is slowly, but surely, being chipped away at. Our hope and prayer now is that Governor Michael Rounds will sign this bill and send a clear message to the other states to affirm the dignity of life”.

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                                           Month                             Newsletters being mailed

                                            September                       Priests for Life, Canada

                                            November                       Catholic Life and Family
                                                                                     Facts for Life

                                            December                        Priests for Life, Canada

                                            February                         Catholic Life and Family
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                                            March                             Priests for Life, Canada

                                            June                                Priests for Life, Canada

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HAPPENINGS

Parish Mission: St. Anthony of Padua Cathedral, Timmins, ON, April 29-May 3, 2006. Facilitator: Fr. Jim Whalen, National Director, Priests for Life Canada.

March for Life: Ottawa, ON, Thursday, May11, 2006. For details, contact: 1-800-730-5358.

Priests for Life Canada: Ottawa, ON, Annual Meeting, Saturday, June 24, 2006.

Priests for Life Canada 7th Annual Symposium: REVOLUTION of DEATH or REVELATION of Life, Saturday, October 21, 2006: 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.,  Senhor Sancto Christo Church, 1100 Kenaston Street, Ottawa, Ontario

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