Family under attack.

Readers must be familiar with our articles detailing the attacks against the family underway in Canada. One article, for example, was entitled "Who controls the souls of the children?" (Apr. 2007, pp. 23-27). Some, no doubt, are weary of being challenged time and time again. If only we could be left alone to sit back in a rocking chair at the cottage while watching the sun go down over the lake. Yes, we all like to be left alone to while away the time in innocent pleasantries.

But our country is no longer as pleasant as it used to be. There are more threats, there is more betrayal, and there is more government interference. It won't do to close our eyes in the hope that it will all pass. If we do that, nothing will be left that we value.

First, government interference. Parents with daughters should read "HPV vaccination: A threat to families" (p. 39). Four provincial governments are planning to provide free, "voluntary" vaccination to young girls of a drug promoted by the pharmaceutical company Merck, put on the market after only the flimsiest and briefest experimentation. "Voluntary" is in quotation marks because we are only a step away from mandatory. The drug, needless to say, will be hugely profitable to Merck.

Second, there is the increasing sexual orientation-related bullying. Columnist Herman Goodden spoofs the madness of unisex washrooms to which academics are now surrendering, on page 11. Ever since the Supreme Court in 1995 declared "sexual orientation" (undefined) equal to every other right in the Charter of Rights, free speech and religion have come under siege. And Human Rights Commissions have lent their punitive powers to help "politically correct" groups and individuals push their agenda.

As you know, censorship of dirty movies and pornography collapsed long ago. In December 2005 the Supreme Court of Canada officially ruled that community standards do not exist. Meanwhile, a new secular censorship has managed to impose itself upon the nation via "hate" laws, same-sex "marriage" legislation, and sexual orientation. (See "Alberta man awaits 'hate speech' charge verdict" (p. 38) and "Conservative website faced Human Rights Commission" (p. 38).

The pressure to conform is especially strong in the schools. At the very time that the Catholic School System in Ontario is once more threatened (see "Renewed efforts to defund Catholic schools," p. 34), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) is inviting the vehemently anti-life, anti-Catholic Michelle Landsberg, wife of Stephen Lewis, to be a keynote speaker at its Toronto biennial conference, August 23-25. Also, its workshop No. 8 features: "Building inclusive communities in Catholic schools" ("Participants will explore effective strategies to create safe, caring and inclusive environments within schools for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-spirited and Transgendered students and share resources designed to facilitate social justice in schools".)

While OECTA softens up teachers to the LGBTT agenda, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDB) puts it firmly in place. On May 2, 2007, it added same-sex partner status to "marital status" and "sexual orientation" in its document Workplace Harassment, prohibiting criticism. Toronto Catholic school trustees apparently no longer accept the traditional understanding of the Catholic teacher and the Catholic school. Also, librarians in Catholic schools have been ordered to provide a separate shelf for books for children five years and olders promoting the homosexual lifestyle. A news report from LifeSiteNews (Aug. 9) relates that in Kitchener the Waterloo Catholic Board refers students for counselling to homosexual activists and organizations. These steps may spell the end of Catholic schools in Ontario.

The following is from Pope John Paul II:

It is quite human for the sinner to acknowledge his weakness and to ask mercy For his failings; what is unacceptable is the attitude of one who makes his own weakness the criterion of the truth about the good, so that he can Feel self-justified, without even the need to have recourse to God and his mercy....

Although each individual has a right to be respected in his own journey in search of the truth, there exists a prior moral obligation, and a grave one at that, to seek the truth and to adhere to it once it is known.

--Veritatis splendor

Let teachers, parents, priests and all Catholics who stand with the Pope, oppose, denounce and obstruct the efforts of the sexual-orientation people in our schools and in society.

FATHER ALPHONSE DE VALK, C.S.B.

EDITOR