Thoughts on the national role of Catholics.

Ottawa -- In harmony with a five thousand--year-old Judeo-Christian tradition, Canada's bishops have re-committed themselves over the past two years to their role of public defenders of natural law morality, albeit then somewhat hesitantly (see articles "The Catholic community battles Same-Sex 'Marriage,'" June 2005, pp. 33-42; and Catholic bishops react in "The triumph of unreason," Sept., pp. 11-13). They have flatly rejected the government's enactment of SSM legislation (Bill C-38).

Archbishop Brendan O'Brien, president of the bishops' conference, stated in July, 2005, that the legislation put at risk the future of marriage in Canada. "Canadians are witnessing a dangerous deterioration of their communal values," he noted.

Other bishops called it "a radical and unjustifiable break from an ages-old tradition which robs the matrimonial union of a man and a woman of its uniqueness." Others, again, defiantly said that the vote would "change nothing to the reality of marriage."

The question is: what is to be done? This question must be confronted on different levels. One level is political-social; another spiritual--moral. Both of these, in turn, require responses applicable in the pursuit of short-term and long-term goals.

Bishop Fred Henry has provided the proper answer for the long range spiritual-moral area when he stated on July 31 that Canadians "need to re-think our attitude towards children; the prevailing contraceptive mentality; the practice of abortion; our divorce culture; and day-care parenting." In other words, we have to undo 40 years of legal-moral regression. In this issue, Rory Leishman recalls the failure to publicly oppose and refute Catholic dissenters, whether theologians or judges, as a contributing factor to the decay which must now be overcome (page 9).

Bishop Faber MacDonald of St. John, N.B., touched upon the immediacy, and personal nature of this vision, when he called for "upholding the true meaning of marriage through word, deed, and personal witness." This should become an immediate goal to be pursued systematically by laity and clergy working together. (For this kind of marriage, see "The kingdom under siege" by Lianne Laurence, page 7).

As for what is to be done on the political-social level, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City and Primate of Canada, speaking for all Canadian bishops, told the Senate that the government's action will involve "largely unforeseeable, but assuredly negative, consequences for Canadian society." Bill C-38, he said, was based on " a false understanding of the fundamental equality between persons; on an erroneous understanding of minority rights; on a faulty interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and on a truncated understanding of freedom of religion" (see Sept. C.I., pp. 12-13). These four specific points should be targeted for separate action.

So there we have it. By implication, the Catholic community--by far and away the largest religious group in the country--will have to bestir itself with an as yet unheard of vigour. And it must do this in the teeth of a raging secularist faction which has no intention of turning the other cheek. It reminds one of the task God gave Jeremiah, and John the Baptist, and a host of martyr saints.

Jeremiah relates how the word of God came to him and explained that He had appointed him a prophet to the nations (1:4-5), that he was to tell them "everything I command you" and behold,

"I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you" (1:17-19)

Jeremiah was delivered from their hands, but in a sense the people did prevail against him by paying no heed to the Lord's warnings. Thereupon, Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Jerusalem were destroyed.

To think that Canada could be destroyed is not a far-fetched idea. The links across this vast country are tenuous, with separatist feelings in Quebec at 50 percent, and in Alberta at 30 per cent. From abortion to sodo-matrimony, the government, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy, have ruthlessly alienated the Catholic and Evangelical communities. They intend to keep it up and this is not surprising: the Liberal-NDP coalition is already preparing to support the private member's Bill C-407 introduced in June, calling for euthanasia.

Catholics should stop waffling and help defeat the Liberal-NDP coalition in the coming election.

Alphonse de Valk, c.s.b. EDITOR