Archbishop Prendergast supports Fr. Tony's Charter challenge

Fr. Tony received this beautiful note from the Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J. Archbishop of Ottawa regarding Fr. Tony's Charter challenge.

"November 12, 2018 

Dear Tony: P.C. [Pax Christi]
             
             Here's some financial support for your upcoming trial and legal expenses. It comes with the assurance of my prayers for the cause, and for you, as well as my fraternal support. 

Sincerely in Christ,
+ Terry S.J."

This support from the Archbishop is great news for Fr. Tony, for all pro-life people, and for freedom of expression rights. Because this law that Fr. Tony is fighting specifically targets freedom of expression rights only for pro-life people and not for pro-choice people. 

This Safe Access to Abortion Services Act is clearly discriminatory and must be thrown out.

Here is the donation link if you would like to help Fr. Tony's case.

Or send a cheque and make it out to "Vincent Dagenais Gibson, In trust” and send it to Fr. Tony's lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos:

Vincent Dagenais Gibson LLP/s.r.l.
260, rue Dalhousie Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7E4

Just include a cover-letter, or the re: line of the cheque note that the cheque is for Fr. Tony Van Hee's case.

Assisted suicide - may be legal but it isn't right

Archbishop Prenderagst in Saturday's Sun on Doctor's conscience rights and medical aid in dying (MAID): Allow doctors to follow their conscience:

"...Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked, “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question ‘Is it right?’” 

We must sometimes take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but we must take it because our conscience says it is right. 

Physicians who wish to be true to their conscience are a gift to the community. The compassionate, competent care they provide in a way that is congruent with their conscience demonstrates their virtue. Society should thank them for their service. Society should affirm their efforts to be agents of healing and moral integrity who accompany patients in their final days and hours. If they cannot live their convictions of conscience in their avocation as healers, if they are forced to be agents of death, not life, if freedom of conscience is discarded as meaningless, then society faces the danger of moral death."

Assisted suicide in Canada - make your voice heard

Below are links on resources about assisted suicide in Canada, including suggestions on contacting our elected leaders to voice our objections to doctor assisted suicide. Also resources on doctor's conscience rights and how they must be protected.

A Pastoral Exhortation on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide - Archbishop Terrence Prendergast– Read by Fr. Charles Orchard C.C.

Cardinal Collins on assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Youtube Video from Archbishop Collins

From the Diocese of Victoria, On Assisted Suicide and Perspective: A Practical Response by Stephanie Gray

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Coalition for Health Care and Conscience

follow on twitter Coalition for Health Care and Conscience

Life Canada - Euthanasia in Canada: What can you do?

Take Action: Respond to Pending Euthanasia Legislation in Canada Now

Coalition for Health Care and Conscience

Canadians for Conscience -Take action

Take Action – write to the Federal Government

Take action - in Ontario, write to the Provincial Government

Association of Reformed Political Action (ARPA Canada includes ways to contact your MP)

The dangers of doctor assisted suicide

Cardinal Collins speaks out on doctor assisted suicide. Only Canada in the world insists a doctor act against his conscience. Cardinal Collins calls it religious discrimination.

Archbishop Prendergast also speaks out on doctor assisted suicide.

Both leaders encourage Canadians to register their opposition to doctor assisted death, and their support of conscience rights, to our elected MPs. You can do this at the link below.

Visit http://www.canadiansforconscience.ca/
Also send your own letter to Justin Trudeau at justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca

Justin Trudeau and Catholics

This story from Catholic Culture is making the rounds. It says that Archbishop Prendergast will be meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau regarding his abortion stand.

But if you go to the source for the story, it appears that it is based on a LifeSiteNews article from June, 2014, and so it seems not to be current.

Many Catholics are concerned about Mr. Trudeau's election to become Canada's Prime Minister. Not only because of his pro-abortion ideology, but because many other Catholics voted for him.

If Catholics voted for Trudeau, we must ask ourselves--are they okay with his pro-abortion ideology? Or are Catholics ignorant of Trudeau's pro-abortion ideology? Or do they believe as Trudeau, does that one can separate their private beliefs from their public beliefs?

All very troubling questions.

I hope that Archbishop Prendergast will indeed speak once again with Mr. Trudeau. (The Archbishop did speak to him in 2014.)

Nobody can be both Catholic and pro-choice because these are mutually exclusive.

EWTN - Standing up for Life in Ottawa

Last night I attended the EWTN taping of the first ever national Pro-life round table event at St. Brigid's Church. The event was excellent.

There were four different panels who spoke on pro-life issues including assisted suicide, conscience rights, political advocacy and what the future holds.

The show will be broadcast sometime in August I think they said.

And today is the annual March for Life in Ottawa. The forecast is perfect, sunny and a high of 20. A perfect day to tell Canada, and especially our politicians, that we want protection for our pre-born children.

Every human being is a unique expression of God' love

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa's Christmas message says in part:

"...sadly the sanctity of human life is not always recognized or protected in our world. Conditions exist that make it difficult for people to receive and treasure human life. Poverty, brokenness in relationships, mental and physical illness, even selfishness, all discourage, the joyful welcome-ness of the gift of human life. Our whole world can become jaded. We can forget that each human life is a miraculous gift from God. We can lose sight of the fact that from the first moment of conception, we are much more than the mere collection of cells. From the moment of his or her conception, every human being is a unique expression of God' love and ongoing creation in the world..."

I have decided that over the Christmas season I will not post any comments that do not promote life from the moment of conception and beyond.

Archbishop Prendergast advocates helping pregnant women and placing restrictions on abortion

(Parliament Hill at the Annual March for Life May 13, 2010)

Here is a transcript of Archbishop Prendergast being interviewed by CJOH's Graham Richardson at the following link: click on "Archbishop of Ottawa talks about abortion"

Interviewer:
Well the Archbishop of Ottawa Terrance Prendergast has been blunt about a topic that many politicians simply aren’t talking about: abortion. The Catholic Church opposes abortion even in the cases of rape but Prendergast is spending less time trying to change the law focusing instead on trying to bring the number of abortions performed in Canada every year down.

The Archbishop:
I think we need to look at the issue of how many abortions there are in our country and so Cardinal Ouellet and I last week took the tact of saying, look alright we aren’t going to change the law at present anyway, so let’s do something about reducing the number. If everyone says there should be as few abortions as possible, what are we doing for that? Why are we happy that the number is staying more or less static? You know in a country like this? The Cardinal gave the statistics that with 10,000,000 people in Belgium, they have fewer abortions than they have in Quebec where they have 8,000,000 people. Why is that? Who would not be opposed to reducing the number of abortions? I don't think anybody.

I mean the other side says that we should preserve the right of a woman to choose ok? And we say well we would like to restrict the number of abortions period but shouldn’t we all be trying to reduce the number of abortions and to help the women who actually would keep the child and bring it to term if they had the resources and support? That’s really what I am underlining right now. It’s a chance to break through the impasse and to go a different way.

Interviewer:
You seem to be inside a pro-life belief, talking about other things other than the law, other than changing the law.

The Archbishop:
Well we would like to change the law, I would like to change the law and at least put some restrictions on it at least something like you have in Belgium where after the first trimester there aren’t any abortions or generally there aren’t any.

The Interviewer said that Archbishop Prendergast says that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is reluctant to even talk about the abortion issue.

The Archbishop:
He [PM Harper] says I don’t normally comment on Private member’s Bills. This is the man who espouses the right of private members to bring forth bills. I find that ironic. But that’s another side but now he [PM Harper] says.

I don’t want to comment on this but now I want to comment why because abortion is this hot potato that nobody wants to handle and everybody thinks it’s a hidden agenda item for Mr. Harper. So I say well OK given the climate we are in let’s see what we can do about helping women in difficulty, and also not just woman but also the men who are there because the men are the silent partners who in some cases don’t take responsibility for their actions.

Bishops confirm abortion debate is on

This week Montreal's Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Ottawa's Archbishop Terrence Prendergast spoke out calling for a new abortion debate

Yesterday Charles Lewis said:
"Two senior Catholic Church officials did something remarkable this week, though it barely got noticed and chances are it will easily be forgotten or written off as some weird “Catholic thing” irrelevant to the rest of society. They proposed a way to re-frame the discussion about abortion and it would be to the benefit of many to pay attention to what they had to say before dismissing them because they wear clerical garb...Cardinal Ouellet first acknowledged on Wednesday that we now live in the midst of a “political and legal impasse” when it comes to the abortion debate...

"I am launching an appeal with my Ottawa colleague [Archbishop Prendergast] for an awareness campaign and [for] more programs providing assistance for women in distress in Canada,” Cardinal Ouellet said. “There is a great scarcity of information, support and financial assistance to enable pregnant women to make an informed choice.”

“We know for now the law is not going to change in the short-term,” said Archbishop Prendergast said in a phone interview Thursday. “So what can we do to help women in difficulty now? If you pushed people on the pro-choice side they too would want to see fewer abortions. So we need to ask them to participate. Of course, we would like to restrict abortions and do away with them if we could, but in the short-term we should work together to reduce the number of abortions.”

This is a very positive development in the abortion debate we aren't allowed to have.

The Bishops are not advocating for a complete ban on abortion. They are calling for support for women and incremental changes. This is realistic, hopeful and inclusive of everyone including pro-choice people. The Bishops are showing leadership that our four political leaders refuse to show on abortion.

Even yesterday Gilles Duceppe was back in his own non-leadership role with "the we can't talk about abortion" bandwagon in the House:
"Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government says it does not wish to reopen the abortion debate. Cardinal Ouellet candidly admitted yesterday that he was raising the abortion issue now because the Conservative government had revived the debate by excluding abortion from its maternal health policy for developing countries. Does the Prime Minister realize that because of him and his refusal to include abortion in his maternal health policy for foreign nations the abortion debate is again raging in Canada and Quebec?"

Then Mr. Duceppe says (and I'm going to digress here but I can't help myself...):
"Mr. Speaker...the Prime Minister... must also know that Kara Johnson, who was president of the National Council of the Conservative Party, is a member of Opus Dei, and that Nicole Charbonneau Barron, who will again be a candidate for his party in Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, is also a member of Opus Dei, and that a conservative member invited his colleagues to dine with Opus Dei leaders."

What relevance does being a member of Opus Dei have on this conversation or any conversation? It's like saying "Did you know that Gilles Duceppe dined with Francophones from Quebec?"

To which the correct answer would be in either case...so what?

Our political leaders (with the exception of some MPs who do and will speak out on abortion) show no leadership on abortion because they are politically motivated and not morally motivated.

But with a critical mass of grass roots support from the country, including leaders such as the Bishops, maybe we can change the hearts and minds of the country. And maybe our political leaders will follow.

Baby steps. But positive baby steps.