In the October 1991 issue of Insight, the author reviewed the Fully Alive text and raised objections to several features of the program. In this issue, she reviews a text which she finds admirable. A few years ago I met Patricia Puccetti, the author of the Faith and Life series, She said that she could not write a family life program because [...]
As our readers will know by now, one of the three main objections to FA is its graphic and explicit nature from Grade one up. Such an approach can only be approved by those who deny the latency period, or as it is also called, the period of innocence in children, ages six to twelve. One such person is the Most Rev. [...]
We invited Joseph Thompson, a retired high school teacher of religious studies and a father of eleven, living in Sarnia, Ontario to examine Fully Alive at its deepest level – namely the principles of theology which under gird it. Mr. Thompson has both educational and theological credentials. In this perceptive article, the author pinpoints the exclusive emphasis on the Holy Spirit as [...]
Editors of The Interim have met with authorized representatives of the Bishops’ Fully Alive program As readers will note from the comments issued in the name of Bishop O’Mara mentioned above, FA representatives accuse The Interim of having completely misrepresented the program. They assert: (a) that there is no separation of sexuality from moral context in FA and that sin is treated [...]
In 1980, during a Mass celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the paper now called the Catholic Register, Cardinal Carter in his sermon urged bishops to enter the public forum and make their views on controversial questions known. But they could not expect merely to lay down the law; inevitably, he said, their opinions would be challenged and controverted, but [...]
Families have always been attracted to pro-life events. For a variety of reasons, parents choose to bring their children along to abortuaries, prisons and government centers to challenge to so-called right to abortion. Perhaps it is because parents are very aware of both the joys and difficulties of bringing a new life into this world. Perhaps it is because of their desire [...]
Question: What have a Lutheran pastor, two Baptists and the Knights of Columbus have in common in Cobourg, Ontario? Answer: A desire to help people with problem pregnancies. Interdenominational Beginnings is a Christian interdenominational counseling and adoption service started in Hamilton, Ontario, ten years ago to aid unmarried parents and families for whom the birth of a child may be a burden. [...]
News of Louise Summerhill’s death made me wonder just when and why she founded Birthright, M.P., Toronto, ON. By 1967 Louise Summerhill was already in the struggle against abortion as secretary to an early pro-life group in Toronto (Britain legalized some abortion in 1967 and Canada’s government was pushing to follow suit, which it did in 1969). She heard of the work [...]
This month, Update – Religion brings an update on the U.S. Catholic scene. The source of much of this information is the U.S. Catholic weekly, the Wanderer. Call for discipline On September 3, Chicago pro-life activist Joseph Scheidler, President of the Pro-Life Action League, and 33 other Catholic met in Rome to present a petition to Pope John Paul Ii, requesting disciplinary [...]
With this issue, The Interim concludes the series of six editorials on what to do about the anti-life philosophy in Canada. What have we said so far? We pointed out that pro-lifers cannot hope to change the current calamitous attitude towards the unborn by pursuing reform placement, step by step, asking for some marginal restrictions on the current death program, while hoping [...]
Vancouver – Three pro-lifers were named October 10 in a new injunction obtained by an abortion center here. According to another unnamed demonstrator, two men and one woman were inside the Hycroft Medical Building which houses the Elizabeth Bagshaw Abortion Centre. They were not blocking doors or access to the business, but only talking to women going inside. Staff On Monday, abortuary [...]
Conservative MP Robert Wenman told a Commons committee on November 5 is private members Bill C-203, would not legalize euthanasia or doctor assisted suicide. “Unnecessary and dangerous” Others disagree completely. Alliance for Life, the national umbrella for pro-life educational groups, appearing before the committee on October 29, stated in their position statement that it considers this legislation “unnecessary and dangerous.” “We presume [...]
When the police paddy wagon pulled up to Robert Scott’s abortuary in downtown Toronto one October day recently, Mary Burnie and Jan Copps wondered what was going on. A surly police officer stepped out, approached them as they picketed and said, “You’re trespassing on private property.” Now Mary understood. Earlier she had rested against the fence that separates Scott’s property from the [...]
On May 11, 1989, John Gauthier, 26, died of cancer in Ottawa’s Civic Hospital. Prior to that he had spent nearly three months in the palliative care unit of the Elizabeth Bruyére Health Centre. The Centre is named after a religious sister and is run by the Sisters of Charity. John’s parents, Roger and Irene Gauthier, are very upset. They charge that [...]
In August and September, Fr. McGoey discussed the philosophy of the Family Education Teacher program which held sway in Catholic educational circles in Ontario for some 20 years. He characterized it as “a fiasco” and “poisoned” by secularism. (August Interim, Page 5-of Insight; September Interim pages 13 and 20. In October he analyzed the Foreword to the Fully Alive sex education program, [...]