From Lorene Collins re population and bishops.

The February 2, 2005 issue of a local weekly newspaper carried an article reporting on our mayor's wish to have immigrants welcomed to our community in order to compensate for the present decline in population. "We've got an aging workforce," the mayor said, and he went on to point out that current low birth rates will mean shortages of workers in critical areas like health care, engineering, and business.

The mayor's concerns described in the article were certainly understandable. What was less understandable was a letter from Bishop Fabbro of London, distributed four days later at Sunday Mass. The bishop noted that this is the season of kindergarten registration, and he spent four paragraphs urging Catholic parents to make a point of choosing Catholic schools for their children in order to "ensure a strong and vibrant Catholic educational system for the future ..." since we are now living in a "period of declining enrolment ...". At Sunday Mass a few weeks earlier, a letter from the bishop was circulated urging the laity to write their MPs opposing same-sex marriage legislation.

I for one will never understand how any of our bishops in Canada can expect the laity to meet these social challenges while they themselves refuse to revoke the Winnipeg Statement, which is at the basis of our population woes, and while they also continue to approve a catechism which undermines Catholic teaching, and a sex education program which promotes tolerance for contraception and "alternative life styles" (i.e., sinful homosexual practices).

Sarnia, ON