Inside the Toronto hotel where HLI had its 1999 World Conference on Life, Love, and the Family, delegates heard a message of courage and hope… (see part 2 about protesters below)

In what may have been a blueprint for action by not only Catholics, but also Christians and others concerned about the social and moral decay of North America, the president of the influential U.S. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights told listeners at the banquet of Human Life International’s World Conference on Life, Love and the Family that it’s time to start “playing hardball” in the culture wars.

While noting that everything the New York, N.Y.-based League does is “responsibly aggressive” and that it will never “hit below the belt,” a feisty William Donohue also said his organization never takes a wimpish attitude to issues that confront it.

“This is the nice thing about the League: it’s a lay organization. We can get away with things that might be inappropriate for a bishop.” He recalled saying to a homosexual activist during a recent, televised debate, “Get used to it, pal, you’re starting to lose. Wake us up and you’re in trouble.”

The Catholic League, which boasts a remarkable 350,000 members throughout the U.S. (a smaller counterpart exists in Canada), has had an impact on several areas of the culture wars in recent years. At the HLI conference, Donohue, who holds a PhD and has served as a college professor, rhymed off some of its accomplishments.

During one recent Christmas season, the Sony music corporation released the CD O Come All Ye Faithful, which contained Christmas carols, but saw all proceeds of its sales go to pro-abortion organizations. John Cardinal O’Connor, and other Catholics, were incensed by the use of one of Christianity’s most holy seasons to support an abortion initiative.

Donohue noted that Sony ignored all initial protests against the CD, and was actually arrogant in its replies. So it was time to start playing “hardball,” as Donohue described it.

He called up Sony’s president and threatened to take out a full-page advertisement in the N.Y Times on behalf of the League. In it, the League was to have called for an across-the-board boycott of Sony products. Within two weeks, Donohue received a courteous reply advising him that the CD was no longer going to be issued.

“That’s what I mean about playing hardball,” he said. “The other side is driven crazy by people like you … When you get down, remember that they’re going nuts knowing that we (HLI) are meeting here … If we weren’t having an effect, they wouldn’t be so angry with us.”

More recently, the League succeeded in persuading the Disney corporation – which previously released the offensive film Priest on Good Friday a few years ago – to turn over distribution of the current, controversial filmDogma to a smaller concern. The film features a trash-talking apostle, a demon made of excrement, a riff on Joseph and Mary’s marital relationship, and a “buddy Christ” who no longer hangs from the cross, but instead offers a thumbs-up salute.

“After four years, we finally got Disney to sober up and get away from the Catholic bashing,” said Donohue.

He pointed to the recent conviction and sentencing of Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian as evidence of progress in the culture wars. “Only a couple of years ago, Kevorkian thought he was getting the chair in medical ethics at Harvard University. Now he’s going to prison,” he said, to enthusiastic applause from HLI conferees.

Despite the bright spots, there are many reasons for concern, and indications that in some areas, things are getting worse. Donohue noted to gasps from his audience that the American Psychological Association recently removed pedophilia from its list of mental disorders, in step with the removal of homosexuality in the 1970s.

He noted that elsewhere, one scholar and four Nobel Prize winners have called for the legal infanticide of children up to 28 days after birth.

Donohue said people of conscience have to make “better use” of those who have changed sides in the culture wars, such as the Norma McCorveys and Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s of the world. Even some of the writings of radical feminists such as Germaine Greer can be harnessed, he said.

“Germaine Greer … wrote scathingly of those who think abortion is a right or a privilege … And she came out in favour of Cardinal Winning in London (England) who has a program which is paying women who are thinking of having an abortion, to take the child to term.”

Donohue said it is important that battles be carefully chosen. Activists should “not try to do everything … You can’t take on every battle because you dissipate your resources.”

On the other hand, he cautioned against “giving up” on changing North American culture. “Abortion will be a reality. We’ve got to change the minds of people on this. That means getting to the pop culture.”

Donohue added it’s important to “know thine enemy,” as the saying goes, and in the case of the North American culture wars, the enemy is made up of people who don’t use logic, but rather, “constantly lie.” In addition, there is “a totalitarian impulse” in many of them, he said. “We must continue to press on with the truth,” Donohue said, before concluding to a standing ovation from the 900 people present.

Also at the banquet, Monsignor Vincent Foy and Fr. Don Moll were presented with HLI’s International Human Life Award. Foy was honoured for his efforts to combat the Canadian Catholic bishops infamous “Winnipeg Statement” of 1969, which suggested that Catholics could, in good conscience, depart from their church’s teaching on contraception as outlined in the papal encyclical Humanae vitae.

“I have only one swear word in my whole vocabulary, and that is, ‘Winnipeg Statement,'” Foy quipped in his acceptance speech. “We are living among the death peddlers. They are all around us; we heard their voices outside the hotel today. They’re in our schools, establishments, everywhere. So it is up to you now, to be pedlars of life and apostles of life.”

Former senator Stanley Haidasz, American pro-life activist Joan Andrews Bell and the Ontario trio of Linda Gibbons, Rev. Ken Campbell and Anneliese Steden were also acknowledged during the banquet.

Good news was provided by an HLI representative from El Salvador, who spoke of legislative success in protecting human life from conception in her home country, as well as in Argentina, where a “Day of the Unborn” was recently observed.

In closing, HLI president Fr. Richard Welch said “it has been an in-credible year.” He said HLI’s China orphanage campaign is in full swing, the Population Research Institute is providing valuable resources to fight population control, and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute is keeping a sharp eye on the United Nations.

Upcoming projects include a video series on chastity, a new branch in Switzerland, and an expository video on the Catholic dissident group Call to Action, he said.

DEATH

– while outside, but beyond the hearing of conference delegates, a ‘hellish lunatic invasion’ was breaking loose

The sounds of “choice” as recorded at the protest against HLI – Real Audio – 56K modem version 28k version Caution – some vulgar language

They huffed, and they puffed, but they couldn’t blow Human Life International’s house – or more accurately, hotel – down. Despite weeks of careful planning, and support from their friends in the media, anti-HLI forces couldn’t put a chink in the group’s armour when it met for its 18th World Conference on Love, Life and the Family at Toronto’s International Plaza Hotel April 7-11.

The main reason for that was that a paltry 200 abortion supporters bothered to show up for each of two organized protests. Another reason was the massive police presence at the hotel site, which saw the men and women in blue – not to mention riot gear – actually outnumber the demonstrators.

That is not to say that the pro-abortionists didn’t try to make a lot of noise despite their meagre numbers. On the conference’s opening night, the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics and affiliated elements trucked in a PA system and a few bull horns in order to offer such treats as OCAC representative Cherie Macdonald singing a fight song: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around, ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, I’m gonna seek a brand new day … Won’t let no HLI bigots turn me around …” she warbled.

There was also the spectacle of Ontario Public Service Employees Union president Leah Casselman bellowing into the microphone, “I represent 95,000 members across the province of Ontario!” Bystanders couldn’t help but wonder why, if so many union members were pro-abortion, Casselman was virtually OPSEU member present.

A woman named Kathleen Howes, claiming to represent the Canadian chapter of “Catholics For a Free Choice,” grabbed the mike to see if any of the Church hierarchy were present at the pro-abortion rally. “Would Cardinal Carter come up here? No? Archbishop (sic) Ambrozic? You should be on this side of the fence.”

Howes, though apparently unaware of Cardinal Ambrozic’s rank, thought she knew enough to charge that HLI “is a shame, it’s an embarrassment” and urged the Archdiocese of Toronto to condemn it. “This is a bigoted, racist group. Most Catholics are not racists. Most Catholics have tolerance and compassion.”

After several speeches and more fight songs, the crowd clambered back onto their buses – christened “The Morgentaler Express” for the occasion – and journeyed back to from whence they came. As a Toronto police spokesperson noted later, there was no trouble.

The same couldn’t be said on the afternoon of the fourth day of the conference, when more extreme pro-abortion elements descended on the hotel – led by Anti-Racist Action, a group that gained notoriety last year when it launched a physical attack on pro-life demonstrators in Toronto.

Although spokespeople refused to reveal the size of the police presence at the hotel, a source with connections to the Toronto force said 250 officers were assigned to the detail. That included representatives from three different forces, riot police, and mounted officers, as well as a command post, a video unit, planners and an officer designated simply to deal with the massive media presence.

From the get-go, it was obvious that this crowd would be more aggressive than the one that met on the conference’s opening night. Chanting obscene slogans, the small but vocal gathering skirted police and steel barricades to go around to the side of the hotel, where protesters pounded the windows, shouting, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

Shortly after that, police in riot gear marched in and moved the crowd away from the windows. Among the congregation was a cigarette-smoking man dressed as Christ, who shouted at HLI delegates to “repent of your sins” while he was being embraced by a fellow male in a display that had obvious homosexual overtones.

Corralled towards the front of the hotel by riot police and officers on horseback, the crowd began chanting more obscene slogans. Then things turned unruly and eggsbegan to fly.

A police officer was struck by a balloon – which some said contained urine – while some protesters hurled horse manure. This Interim reporter was struck by an egg hurled by a young woman shouting obscenities.

Before it was over, and the demonstrators were shoved back to their buses by police wielding plexi-glass shields, two men were charged with assaulting police – Michael Brito, 18, and John Hodgins, 29. They were released to appear in court on May 10.

None of this seemed to faze HLI president Fr. Richard Welch and HLI Canada executive director Theresa Bell, however. In a press release prior to the conference, Welch pledged to put any threats against himself and his organization behind him, and instead focus on the life-saving nature of the work at hand. Welch later joked that, “It’s always great to come to Canada. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure.”

In an interview with The Interim, Bell said the conference was a success. “The way to realize it was a success is to look at the opposition we had … If you’re not being opposed, perhaps you’re not doing enough.”

Bell said the conference and activities surrounding it proved the pro-life movement is being effective. “They’re losing, so they have to lie,” she observed of HLI’s opponents. “When you’re in favour of killing an unborn child … lies come very easily.”

Just who are the
‘violent, hateful extremists?’

Participants in the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics and Anti-Racist Action protests carried threatening, filthy, sacreligious, and blasphemous placards:

HLI: Hellish Lunatic Invasion
Another queer granny for choice
Pro-sex pro-gay pro-choice all the way
I asked God: She’s pro-choice
Harris is a c–t
Hate Life International: Bug— off!
F— HLI
Pro-life my a–
HLI: Kiss my a–
Human life must die
Crucif– up your a–!
F— the Christian right
Abort the pope Doctor killers f— off
Jesus died for your sins, not mine!
HLI: S— my strap-on
Abort Jesus and pope
Don’t hate, mast——!
Abort HLI