A rchive Date
[ 22-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/leishman.html
Catholic leaders go astray
On issues of social policy, Roman Catholic politicians and jurists repeatedly flout church doctrine and are not admonished.
RORY LEISHMAN, London Free Press
2003-06-22
In an ex cathedra statement on Jan. 22, Roman Catholic Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento, Calif., rebuked California Gov. Gray Davis, who is Roman Catholic, yet implacably pro-choice.
"As your bishop," declared Weigand, "I have to say clearly that anyone -- politician or otherwise -- who thinks it acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the church. Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving holy communion until he has a change of heart."
In taking this forthright stance, Weigand upheld the universal and constant teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that procured abortion is a grave and inexcusable crime. Up to about 40 years ago, virtually all Protestant churches also affirmed that the deliberate killing of an innocent human being is always wrong.
The Roman Catholic Church is not about to abandon this article of Christian truth. In a compelling 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II formally declared: "Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God, which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the church."
On Jan. 16, the Pope reminded Roman Catholic politicians that he has "reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a 'grave and clear obligation to oppose' any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them."
Weigand has personally informed Davis of this Catholic teaching. Yet the governor remains unrepentant: "I'm unapologetically pro-choice," he insists, "and I'm not changing my position."
Among civic leaders in North America, Davis is not unusual. There are plenty of other perfidious politicians like him, including virtually every leading Roman Catholic cabinet minister and Superior Court judge in Canada. With rare exceptions, they have done nothing to curb abortion or attacks on the natural family.
In an outrageous statement on May 28, Prime Minister Jean Chretien undertook to denigrate President George W. Bush, a Methodist, by boasting: "I am a Catholic and for abortion, and he is not."
On June 10, Madame Justice Eileen Gillese, a Roman Catholic, signed her name to the judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal that imposed gay marriage on Ontarians. In doing so, she flouted the constant teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that marriage is a monogamous union between a man and a woman.
In the face of such brazen affronts to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church by Chretien, Gillese and numerous other leading Roman Catholic politicians and judges, has any Canadian bishop ever publicly pointed out to even one of these miscreants that he or she is no longer in good standing with the church and should have the integrity to choose voluntarily to abstain from receiving holy communion until he or she has a change of heart? Not at all.
Finance Minister John Manley defines himself as a serious Christian and attends a Presbyterian church. Yet, like his Roman Catholic colleagues in the cabinet, he, too, has recently endorsed gay marriage -- a position that runs contrary to the constant teaching of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Has the leadership of this church firmly rebuked Manley, Chretien or any other politician for denigrating the Christian faith? Again, not at all.
Historians who look back on our corrupt era and ponder how our judges and politicians got away with trampling on the most basic moral principles, including even the sanctity of human life, will have no difficulty in discerning one of the prime causes -- an acute shortage of faithful clerics like Pope John Paul II and Bishop Weigand, who have the courage to affirm the truth.
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail. Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
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