Father Tony Van Hee, S.J.: a pro-life spirituality.

For two years (2006-2008), I have made my living as a labourer working on the grounds of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada, removing ice and snow in the winter, and caring for the tulips and annual flowers in the spring and summer. Being outdoors in all seasons and weather conditions, I see thousands of employees, politicians, and visitors moving to and from the Centre, East, and West Blocks of the Parliamentary precinct. (1.)

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Parliament Hill is busy twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, whether or not the House of Commons or the Senate actually sit. I have talked with Senator Romeo Dallaire about his experience in Rwanda and his book, Shake Hands With the Devil, with Senator Anne Cools about her work on Canadian Divorce Law and supporting the Canadian family, and seen ex- Montreal Canadians goalie Ken Dryden M.P. and Senator Frank Mahavolich going to and from their jobs. Animal life is represented as well. There is a permanent colony of cats; living under the protection of Rene Chartrand, a volunteer, they please both tourists, regular visitors, and volunteers. There are other permanent denizens of the Hill: rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, racoons, pigeons, gulls, and other birds. Parliament Hill is full of life.

Additionally, there is a steady flow of protesters, demonstrators, dissidents, and the aggrieved who supplement the regular celebratory functions, the Governor General's Foot Guard and Canada Day in the summer, and the National Capital Commission's Sound and Light Shows.

Father Tony

Quietly and serenely present through all of this activity is the apparently innocuous figure of Fr. Anthony (Tony) Van Hee, usually on the main lawn near the Centennial Flame on the big pink granite promenade in front of Centre Block. He is present each day the House of Commons sits, through all weather, hot, cold, stormy, rainy. He has been doing so for 19 years. His kit of materials (signs, placards) testifying to the activity of God in our world and the sanctity of life, is always nearby and prominently placed. Over the course of the past two years, I have been privileged to have had many conversations with Fr. Van Hee. He has been generous in lending me magazines and newspapers (Catholic Insight, Reality, a publication of REAL Women of Canada, the Companions of the Cross, "Michael" Journal, CLC National News. The Interim. and others), and has always had time to talk with me and all passers-by. He will listen to anyone. Who is this quiet Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (S.J.)? What moves him to this mission at the site of the Government of Canada? What gives him the endurance, stamina, confidence, and patience to physically and spiritually testify to God's will and intent for us specifically with respect to life issues and especially abortion?

Early life, priestly vocation, and ministry

Fr. Anthony Van Hee was born in Langenburg, Saskatchewan, Sept. 15, 1935 to Angelus Van Hee and Mary Kammermayer, devout Catholics. Their family never missed Mass on Sundays or Holy Days of Obligation, attended seasonal devotions, and said the Rosary daily. Tony was the tenth of 11 children, two of whom died at birth or infancy. The Van Hees moved to Southern Ontario in 1939, where Fr. Van Hee attended Catholic and public schools; he entered the Jesuit Novitiate Sept. 7, 1954. His older sister, Mary, had become a Loretto Sister in 1947, and, when Tony was 18, had stirred his interest in religious life and the Jesuits by sending him a Jesuit bulletin.

His Jesuit formation followed the path of Novitiate, Juniorate, Philosophate, Regency, Theologate, Ordination, and Tertianship. Study of three years of philosophy, four years of teaching high school in Kingston and Montreal, and then four years of theology, and ordination on June 1, 1968 were followed by parish ministry to native Canadians on Manitoulin Island (Ontario) and Garden Village near Sturgeon Falls (Ontario). This was followed by 17 years of various ministries at the Guelph Centre of Spirituality including providing spiritual direction to Jesuit Brothers and two charismatic groups; giving retreats and ongoing spiritual direction; and weekend ministry to local parishes.

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Pro-life ministry

Fr. Van Hee dates his earliest active involvement in the pro-life movement to his joining a protest against an appearance of Dr. Henry Morgentaler at the University of Guelph in the mid 1980's. At a prolife clergy rally in Toronto he picked up a video, Operation Rescue, by the American pro-life activist, Randall Terry. (Terry may be remembered by Fr. Tony Van Hee prays readers of Catholic Insight as a codefendant in a case which went to the United States Supreme Court in 1994, NOW v. Scheidler, in which the National Organization for Women sought an order compelling prolifers to compensate abortion clinics for loss of business. The Supreme Court dismissed the claim, voting 8-0.)

This was followed by listening to audio cassettes of prolife speakers, borrowed from Jakki Jeffs, president of the Guelph and Area Right to Life Association. He was involved in three "Rescues" (organized blocking of access to abortion clinics), and during one, was jailed five hours with other pro-lifers. Inspired by participants in Operation Rescue and pro-lifers such as Kurt Gayle, Joe Bissonnette, Joan Andrews-Bell, and the late Helen Burnie, Ft. Van Hee joined Kurt Gayle's second Fast For Life for the opening of Parliament Sept. 25, 1989, and has stayed ever since.

Fast For Life

Fr. Van Hee kept the name "Fast For Life" and has continued his public protest against abortion. His testimony is that God is a God of life, and that the human fetus is a living being and a human baby. He posts his fasting progress on one of his placards, and supplements his photographs of aborted fetuses with pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Unborn, and other commentary. His fast is rigorous. He begins the Parliamentary year with a forty-day fast, beginning on water only as long as he can, and then bread and water. The rest of the year, when Parliament is sitting, he takes only bread and water, from Monday to Friday. He normally eats 6 slices of bread about 4:00 PM, toasted to avoid heartburn, with margarine, sprinkled with oat bran to avoid intestinal complications. It is a real fast by any standard: I asked Fr. Tony why he felt prayer and fasting is necessary for his mission. He said, "These are necessary because Jesus said in regard to the dumb and deaf spirit his disciples were unable to cast out: 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.'" (Mark 9:29, R.S.V.)

Prayer regime

During the Parliamentary session, Fr. Van Hee lives in a local Ottawa parish, remains a Jesuit in good standing, and returns to the Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre (Picketing, and fasts for Canada. Ontario) during the Christmas and summer periods. During the summer months he also participates in Show the Truth Canada presentations for two weeks and celebrates Mass for the group.

His daily prayer regime is the following: Mass in the evening; Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament in the evening; Liturgy of the Hours (45 minutes, morning and during Holy Hour); 40 minutes of mental prayer (on the Hill); 20 minutes of intercessory prayer (Holy Hour and on the way to the Hill); two 15 minute examinations of conscience (noon and Holy Hour); 15 minutes of spiritual reading (evening); 15 minutes of preparation for next day's prayer (Holy Hour); five decades of the Rosary (on the way to and from the Hill); recalling Stations of the Cross (at 3:00 PM on the Hill); Divine Mercy Chaplet (3:00 PM on the Hill).

Fr. Van Hee says, "Fasting gives power to prayer and is counter-cultural, counter-consumerism, counter-materialism, good for the body, good for the soul, part of that denial of self Our Lord requires of those who would follow him, and part of the 'whole armour of God' (Ephesians 6:10- 18)."

Conversations with Fr. Van Hee on life

Fr. Van Hee has published little, but contemplated and spoken much. He disseminates a reflective and spiritual tract twice yearly, and, over time, interacts with many, many people on Parliament Hill. We have discussed ecology and the various current controversies surrounding the "ecological movement", and have been struck by the profound contradiction in much "Green" thinking, the simultaneous holding of an ostensibly sympathetic and conservative attitude towards the material world and planet, and the pro-choice or pro-abortion stance. Are not human beings a profoundly valuable "resource"? Are they not part of the living spectrum created by God? In Christian, theotic (2.) spirituality, are they not divine in possibility, capax dei (3.)?

Radical feminism

Then there is radical feminism. Abortion is a perennial and indisposable plank of radical feminism. Canadian government at all levels, including elected officials, bureaucrats, and policy- makers, exhibit some presence of the Hegelian, utilitarian principles (4.) which eventually led to the German National Socialist-driven holocaust, even preceding the Second World War. The social organization, policies, and institutions of the National Socialists were formed and established before the war, and were aimed at systematically extinguishing the poor, old, deformed, mentally infirm, and the developmentally handicapped and the weak. The disposability of the inconvenient human fetus arises out of the same ethic, and is promoted sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly by the pervasive feminist organs of the public and private sectors. It is no accident that Fr. Van Hee remains conversant with the brave, groundbreaking work of Real Women of Canada and its publications.

Stations of the Cross

We spoke of the Stations of the Cross, and especially Station IX, Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem (according to John Paul II's 1991 version of the Stations). I had been working on a project with my local parish on the Stations of the Cross, and Fr. Van Hee and I had discussed what a "Prolife" Station might look like. We both agreed that Station IX would readily lend itself to such a subject. Although abortion and pro-life considerations are relevant to both genders, abortion is often put forth as a "Women's Issue", and that Jesus might have a special commentary on the subject to women seems reasonable. Let us hear again what Jesus says to the Women of Jerusalem. "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For Behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" (Luke 23:28-31, R.S.V.)

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill is symbolic of the political and legislative heart of Canada, and the sad and deplorable fact is that the majority of politicians in Canada (at least those elected to Federal and Provincial legislatures) are pro-choice or at least maintain a public stance of being pro-choice. This fact helps explain why Fr. Van Hee has selected Parliament Hill as the site of his ongoing campaign, and, incidently, why the National March for Life (May 911, 2008), include activity and demonstration on the Hill. This year's event was exciting, loving, and demonstrated a continued Christian commitment to life and inter-religious Christian commitment; it was affirmative for a multitude of individual and organizational pro-life efforts.

In the midst of, or beneath, the lively, busy, seemingly progressive activity of Parliament Hill is the bleak, disheartening reality that our Federal and Provincial laws and public policies on abortion are directly contrary to orthodox Catholic Christianity and the natural law thinking of other traditional groups. The pro- choice/pro-life issue is a life and death issue. Rigour, risk, and sacrifice are characteristic of deeply felt and committed causes, and Fr. Van Hee continues to endure all these. He has been jailed twice for his prolife work, vilified, threatened, and spat upon. One only has to think of the civil disobedience of Mohandas Gandhi and the Berrigan brothers (Daniel, a Jesuit priest, and Philip, a one time Josephite priest, now deceased) to realize that Fr. Van Hee feels profoundly about his cause. This 72-year-old Jesuit priest is intrepid, remarkably patient, and, by his own claim, is nourished by the trinitarian Christian God, his community, and the Church.

There is hope. Paul Steckle, Liberal M.P. for Huron-Bruce and Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus told me personally that he has been elected five (5) times by his constituents, who are very aware of his pro-life position. Many bishops in Canada are supportive. Attending and presiding at two Masses during the National March were Ottawa's new Archbishop, Terrence Prendergast, also a Jesuit, and Archbishop Brendan O'Brien of Kingston. 7,800 demonstrators attended the March on the Hill and throughout downtown Ottawa on May 8. The Knights of Columbus, out in force at the Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral at 10:00 am May 8, quietly fund the bishops' Catholic Organization for Life and the Family, operating out of the Canadian CCCB offices in Ottawa. Many young Catholics are being sensitized by their elders to respect the life of the unborn. The Holy Spirit, leading us to the "complete truth" (John 16:13), blows "wherever it pleases" (John 3:8), in the hearts of Fr. Anthony Van Hee, of children on the lawns of Parliament Hill, and of Canadian legislators. It blows on all the human beings and animals on the Hill whether they acknowledge the Living One or not. It blows love and mercy on all, even the unborn. It blows until the "end of time" (Matthew 28:20).

END NOTES

(1.) Stacey Matson, Program Manager of Tours, advises that attendance at Centre Block Tours number 362,000 per year, and those entering the Peace Tower number 290,000 per year. There may be duplication in these numbers. There are approximately 1500 House of Commons and 450 Senate employees working on Parliament Hill, 308 elected Members of Parliament and 105 appointed Senators. One estimate places the overall numbers of visitors (tourists, student educational tours, etc.) to Parliament Hill at 2.9 million (2003).

(2.) Daniel A. Helminiak, The Human Core or Spirituality (1996) describes Christian spirituality as uniquely "theotic". The Greek Fathers of the Christian Church coined the term theosis, the term for deification. "In Jesus deification or glorification occurred because Jesus is the Only Begotten of God. In other humans deification can occur because of the work of the Holy Spirit among humankind. Through the Holy Spirit people become members of Jesus Christ, share in his life, and are destined for divine glory" (pp.16-17). Human beings, as created, cannot be God, but, in the Christian tradition, can share in the divine life of the Trinity.

(3.) Capax dei is a term often used in theology and Christian anthropology. It is considered part of Augustinian doctrine, and refers to the human capacity "to receive God" or "to be open to God".

(4.) The research of John S. Powell, S.J., Abortion: The Silent Holocaust (1981) is acknowledged, as well as the attribution of "Hegelian utilitarianism" to the National Socialists by Dr. Leo Alexander, a psychiatrist and consultant to the United States Secretary of War with the Office of the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, Nuremberg, United States Zone of Germany, 1946-1947. His research into the philosophical and medical roots of mass extermination of Jews, Poles, and Russians during the Second World War was published as "Medical Science Under Dictatorship" in the New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 241, Number 2, July 14, 1949, pp. 39-47.