Anti-life priest now Bloc Quebecois candidate.

Montreal -- Fr. Raymond Gravel has been acclaimed as the Bloc Quebecois candidate for a November 27 by-election in the riding of Repentigny (Globe and Mail, Oct. 30, 2006).

So what is special about that? Three things.

First, under Canon Law, priests are not supposed to belong to political parties and are prohibited from running for, or holding, public office, unless there is serious necessity for the "protection of the rights of the Church or the promotion of the common good." The reason is clear enough, as Fr. Raymond de Souza explained so well in the November 4 National Post. "Priests are to be instruments of unity in service of the Gospel. Political office by its nature requires making choices on political options on which the Gospel requires no particular positione--e.g., the sovereignty of Quebec. Those choices must not be confused with the Gospel itself, and priests in public office confuse just such issues."

Second, there is no serious necessity for Fr. Gravel to run, as Canon Law stipulates. So why is he running? Because his bishop, Gilles Lussier, has allowed him to do so. Here is where we disagree with Fr. de Souza who, after inspecting the diocesan website, drew the conclusion that because Fr. Gravel may not exercise his priestly ministry during the period of his political activity, his bishop had not given him permission to run.

LifeSiteNews, on the other hand, reports that on contacting the diocesan spokesman Gilles Ferland, it turns out that neither the bishop nor the diocesan priest council offered objections to Fr. Gravel's new career. All the bishop has done is to tell (or ask) Fr. Gravel to discontinue any sacramental actions for the duration of his political career; in other words, to discontinue for a while, his priestly services. Also, "part of the agreement is that Gravel would not take positions as a politician that 'go against the doctrines of the Church'" (Oct. 30, 2006).

That brings us to point three. Fr. Gravel has been denouncing the Church's moral teaching for years, including the Church's rejection of abortion, homosexual activity, and same-sex 'marriage.' Gravel was a 'gay' prostitute for six years as a youth, and neither the seminary nor ordination has reformed his views, precisely the kind of person the November 2005 Vatican document on priests and homosexuality warned against. He has expressed these opinions on TV and radio and wherever else he had the chance.

Fr. Gravel was one of the 19 dissenting priests who signed the open letter "Trop, c'est trop" ("Enough is enough") in February 2006, objecting to Catholic moral teaching and Vatican authority (see C.I., April 2006, pp. 15-17, "Dissent on Vatican document in Canada," and Sept. 2006, pp. 30-31, NIB, "Quebec priest's scandalous views going unchecked"). More recently he wrote a letter to the editor of the Quebec newsweekly Actualite (Sept. 15, 2006) in which he asserted that "Cardinal Ouellet is not a true Catholic, that he is not representative of Quebec Catholics, and that, indeed, he is against the Gospel."

Comment: In view of his vociferous denunciations of Catholic doctrine in the past, it is difficult to believe that Fr. Gravel will hold to this agreement. It is likely that, once elected, he will unfortunately be perceived as a Catholic priest at every radio or TV interview or show, and continue to denounce Catholic moral teaching. In the House of Commons, he will present himself as a legitimate spokesman for the Catholic community and go the same thing there.

As for Bishop Lussier, he has exceeded his authority in allowing anal not preventing Fr. Gravel to run for political office. The bishop's refusal to permanently suspend. Fr. Gravel now may endanger the efforts to overturn same-sex 'marriage.'

We have informed the Papal Nuncio and the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy about this situation.