On March 20, the decision of an Anglican Bishop’s Court that homosexual minister James Ferry should be suspended from his duties was announced. Welcome as the decision was, it had disturbing aspects. Farce The proceedings of the Court, followed with great attention by the press, contained elements almost of farce. • When Ferry’s lawyer Valerie Edwards tried to press her claim that [...]
Coalition of Concerned Canadian Catholics Pro-lifers are very much aware of the battle for the “soul” of their respective religious communities: will they, or will they not adopt the immorality of the permissive society and thereby earn the world’s approval as “progressive”? CCCC Within the Catholic Church in English Canada, the Coalition of Concerned Canadian Catholics (CCCC) is the current vehicle through [...]
Shopping St. John, N.B. In November 1991, R.C. Bishop Edward Troy wrote premier Frank McKenna deploring the sudden and arbitrary decision to permit Sunday shopping on a temporary basis. It opens the door to the exploitation of workers and the erosion of family values, he said. In early December, Bishop Troy wrote an open letter to Dan Cameron, leader of the CoR [...]
A pro-life religious order to be known as the Sisters of Life has recently been formed in the United States. As reported by Chuck Lindberg in the Knights of Columbus publication Columbia (January 1992), the new order was founded to provide spiritual support for the pro-life movement. The Sisters of Life are committed to pray and work for the protection of life [...]
In June, 1991, Mike Farnan, former Ontario Solicitor General, MPP for Cambridge, and a Catholic, handed a statement on abortion to a member of the Galt Council, Knights of Columbus. (see sidebar) It is another exhibit in the continuing saga of Catholic politicians taking wrong stands on the abortion issue. It is a good example of the kind of self-deception which pro-life [...]
“Catholic leaders fail to stop theologian,” said the Globe and Mail (Jan. 17, 92). “Barred from Churches, priest speaks at civic hall,” stated the Toronto Star (Jan. 20). “Using condoms no sin to priest,” reported the Toronto Sun (Jan. 20), while The Ottawa Citizen headed its report, “Liberal and Conservative Catholics clash at lecture” (Jan. 24). Finally, the Toronto Star devoted most [...]
Conservative Jews Montreal. In December 1991 the Canadian Council for Conservative Judaism (CCCJ) passed resolutions on Quebec, AIDS, firearms, rape, social services, nuclear weapons, war and abortion. The Conservative movement claims 50,000 members in Canada. The abortion resolution states the Council’s opposition to “any attempt by the federal and provincial governments to legislate control of abortion, leaving all decisions in this area [...]
The purpose of The Interim is to set forth the truth about the freedom and dignity of the individual human person in the area of family, marital and sexual morality. Insofar as religion and politics, law and medicine, economics and culture impinge upon this sphere, The Interim makes these areas her own. Erring clergy, indifferent politicians, lawless magistrates, doctors of death, abusers [...]
Quebec. On February 13, a week after the end of the 30-day period in which an appeal was possible against Mr. Justice Dufour’s ruling that she had a right to be taken off her life support system, Nancy B.’s respirator was taken off; she died seven minutes later. When she was unplugged, a hospital spokesman said, she was unconscious because of tranquilizers, [...]
Ottawa. The Vatican has warned an Ottawa priest to bring his teaching views of moral theology into harmony with Church teaching. André Guindon On Jan. 29, 1922, Father André Guindon, of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, professor of Moral Theology at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, was presented by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) The CDF is [...]
In the ‘Charge’ he delivered last September to the 139th Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Bishop Terrence Finlay stated, “I need people who will reach out and listen to someone on the other side, to act with care, to know how to give and take.” Such care and sensitivity were required, he thought, in “an effort to understand how the [...]
The Ontario Association of Catholic Families issued a letter in December 1991 addressed to fellow Catholics asking to oppose sex ed in school. School is not the automatic social context for sex ed, the letter says, despite what people are saying. The association was founded several years ago and has some 100 member families. Its current president is Brian Taylor, a father [...]
A high school ‘safe-sex’ display has led to parental calls for an abstinence-based sex-education curriculum. Janice Morris said she and other parents in the Grey County school district were motivated to speak out when they discovered the contents of a ‘Sexuality Fair’ that was touring local schools. “When we looked at the fair and discovered what sort of things they were teaching,” [...]
On Monday, January 6, 1992 the official opening of the new Way Inn and Aid to Women offices in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood took place. Since the premises are right next door to the Cabbagetown Women’s clinic at which Dr. Monole Buruiana performs abortions, a pro-life picket preceded the reception. The opposition came out in force too, and helped make the opening a [...]
“IN ALL MY WANDERINGS IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE GRACE OF GOD IS IN COURTESY.” So wrote the famous English writer of the 1930s, Hilaire Belloc. As this is my first column for 1992 – the January column was written in December 1991 – I was trying to think of something positive as a subject. Then on Sunday last I happened [...]