May 29

For the pro-life movement, May 29 will be – or at least should be in years to come – a day of sadness and prayer for forgiveness of our sinfulness. May 29 is the day the Commons passed Bill C-43.

Spiritual disaster

The Bill is a spiritual disaster because Canada has rejected God and His commandments on matters of life and death. After doing it first in 1969, with a degree of confusion, this time parliamentarians have done it freely, willingly and with full knowledge. Once more, therefore, the killing of unborn babies in Canada carries the stamp of approval from the country’s highest legislative body.

Legal disaster

The Bill is also a legal disaster and this for two reasons.

First, it makes acts of violence legal – acts of violence which mean the death of human beings. Thus Parliament undermines its own lawmaking nature. Once more it endorses the false principle that the end justifies the means. This principle can and will be used in the future to subvert the rights of others, including those of the sick and the elderly.

Secondly, the legislation is cynical. It places the killing of babies in the Criminal Code, yet assures perpetrators of the crime that they have nothing to fear; the crime may be committed for any reason whatsoever.

Moral disaster

Finally, the bill is a moral disaster. The consciences of many politicians have been polluted, perhaps permanently. As a group they have re-committed the country to the most aggressive form of secularism which, as usual, is disguised as pluralism. The Christians among them – that is nearly everyone – have discarded the teaching of their faith as well as the claim this faith makes upon them as legislators to witness to Truth and Life.

This massive betrayal of principles, civil and religious, bodes ill for Canada. Therefore, this Bill cannot be regarded as a new beginning. Rather, these politicians, their parties, pomps and ceremonies should be disowned in order to clear the way for a radical renewal.

The Church, meanwhile, should cease trying to play the lawyer and politician. In conformity with her inalienable mission, she must return to be “a sign and safeguard of the transcendence of the human person” (Vatican II, On the Modern World, sec. 76).