Leader of the family coalition party of Ontario.

Pope Benedict XVI, in an address to European parliamentarians on March 30, 2006, outlined the non-negotiable principles for Catholics on social issues as follows.

"As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these, the following emerge clearly today:

* protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;

* recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family--as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage--and its defence from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;

* the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.

These principles are not truths of faith, even though they receive further light and confirmation from faith; they are inscribed in human nature itself and therefore they are common to all humanity."

The Pope's outline mirrors very closely the principles and policies of the Family Coalition Party.

Acton, ON