Father Des McGrath and the NDP.

St. George, NL -- Father Des McGrath, a popular priest and co-founder of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union in the '70s and holder of the Order of Canada, thought that just because he is 69 and retired from pastoral work in the parish, he could ignore the current Pope's insistence (in 1980) that Catholic priests should not run for political office and that those who were already in partisan politics should get out. Not Fr. McGrath. In the June 2004 election, he decided to run for the NDP, Canada's dogmatically anti-life, pro-abortion, pro same-sex "marriage" and anti-family party.

"You people on the mainland seem to be more interested in that (abortion) than any other issue in Canada--and we got more serious issues right now," Father McGrath told the Globe and Mail newspaper (June 23).

Ottawa should leave the abortion matter alone, he said, despite Conservative Party policy that would allow MPs to introduce legislation on it. "I don't believe in stirring up the pot and stirring up old ashes in this," he says, adding, it's up to women to make the right decision. "Responsibility goes with the rights that women have over their own bodies and hopefully the decision that they make would be for pro-life."

Comment:

The ignorance among some priests about the seriousness and massiveness of the contemporary attacks upon the foundations of human life and the moral defences thrown up by the Church over the centuries, is astounding. Time and again they just slough it off.

Father McGrath, like so many other people, doesn't think the killing of pre-born babies is all that important. He believes that it is up to the women to get it right. It is difficult to know which of these statements is the more offensive.

A factual, detailed letter was sent to Bishop Douglas Crosby of Labrador City-Schefferville, but he never responded. McGrath was defeated in the election. "What man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?" (Mt 7:9).