Canada's last chance: bishops letting us down.

The bishops of Canada are letting the Catholic community and all of Canada down. The issue is the same-sex legislation, Bill C-38, now being pushed through by the Liberal (Martin-Cotler) government.

At the time of this writing, June 7, the media are telling us that the special legislative committee will produce its foregone conclusion approving the abolition of the traditional definition of marriage between husband and wife in favour of (any) two persons, by June 14-16. Third reading will follow immediately; the Bill will be sent forthwith to a compliant Liberal-dominated Senate for approval within one or two days, and then go to the Governor-General for her signature and enactment as the law of the country. That is the plan of Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and that is what the media expect to happen.

Member of Parliament Patrick O'Brien has resigned from the Liberal Party to sit as an Independent in protest against both the process and substance of this legislation, which will destroy the recognition and needed protection of the family and marriage. His was a courageous act. What we need now is more Catholic MPs to follow him in his determination to fight this bill which, as O'Brien points out, "far supersedes any personal or partisan political consideration."

Pope Benedict is quoted in all the June 7th Toronto newspapers (Post, Globe, Star, Sun, Metro) under the headline: "Gay marriage fake: Pope." He is also quoted on radio and TV. So it is not as if MPs have not heard what the Church has had to say. Moreover, Canada's bishops from coast to coast have issued pastoral letters rejecting the legislation, and defending the traditional family as the building block of society.

What did the Pope say, exactly? The news items noted that Pope Benedict, "in his first pronouncement on gay marriages yesterday (June 6), condemned same-sex unions as fake and an expression of 'anarchic freedom' that threatens the future of the family." Here is the text:

"Today's various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages, as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex, are instead expressions of anarchic freedom, which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man."

In other words, Canada's Bill C-38 is fake; it is fraudulent. Those who promote this legislation indulge in moral fraud. Fraud is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "criminal deception."

That brings us to the question of how Archbishop Marcel Gervais of Ottawa can describe the chief instigator of this fraud, Prime Minister Paul Martin, as "a faithful member of my Cathedral parish," to whom he will not deny Holy Communion. Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary has long since said that he, in good conscience, cannot give Communion to Paul Martin and politicians like him (See C.I., June 2005, pp. 41-42).

Here is a Catholic Prime Minister who publicly rejects Church teaching on abortion--which the Church insists is murder--and by this stand, keeps his party fully devoted to the "pro-choice" cause. Mr. Martin then extends his enthusiastic support to an all-out attack on the family by bullying politicians to possibly act against their conscience, and ramming through a measure which two-thirds of Canadians oppose, which Pope John Paul II condemned on eight different occasions in the last two years of his life, and which the present Pope calls "an expression of anarchic and false freedom." But his bishop declares him "a faithful member of my parish." To continue doing so, is this not a slap in the face of every truly faithful Catholic in the country?

Meanwhile, many other bishops, including Cardinals, remain silent about the Catholic MPs in their dioceses who publicly scorn the Church by voting and speaking in favour of Bill C-38.

All this happens during the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist. If we Catholics truly emphasized the simplicity, purity, beauty and holiness of the Eucharist, we would know how to defend it against those Catholics who spurn the truths of faith.

This editorial was placed on our website on June 8, 2005.