Tom Harpur, former Anglican priest and religious editor of the Star, is presently a lecturer at the Toronto School of Theology and a Sunday columnist for the Toronto Star.  He believes he can discern “some deeper roots of repressed anger in the opposition to liberal abortion laws” (Star, March 3, 1985) “For example,” he says, “in the case of the Catholic Church it is evident that … the main factor behind the opposition to contraceptives, abortion, women priests and an end to compulsory celibacy for clergy, is one of power, of control over the lives of the faithful.”  The same force can be observed, he believes, in other groups such as “Islam, fundamental Protestantism. Orthodox Judaism.”

Harpur also rebuked Cardinal Carter for not acting more like Pope John Paul.  The latter, he said, received Andrei Gromyko recently.  Why couldn’t Toronto’s Cardinal have received Morgentaler?  However, only three months earlier, on November 4, Harpur had written a column entitled: “Is John Paul really a modern man?”  At that time he told his readers that the Pope’s aloofness (to the media) “damages the cause of Christ and His Church.”

A.H.