|
From CatholicInsight.com Abortion We covered the Canadian media’s reaction to Cardinal Ouellet’s comments at a May 15 pro-life conference in Quebec City. The press focussed entirely on a response to a reporter’s single question namely that “abortion is a moral crime, even in cases of rape,” (C.I., June 2010, p. 12).
What else did the Cardinal say?
1. He rejected the “neo-colonialism” of Western nations, imposing their anti-life mentality on African nations. “Africa,” he said, “has an extraordinary culture of life, an extraordinary respect for life, love of children and families. And we want to impose on them our own schemes, our own conception of progress…”
2. He criticized attempts by the education system to present homosexuality and homosexual ‘marriage’ in the classroom in a positive light. Such attempts are harmful to children: “You are deforming conscience. You are also warping the processes of psycho-sexual and psycho-social identification processes of youth” (LifeSiteNews.com, 27 May 2010).
3. Thirdly, Cardinal Ouellet praised the pro-life movement in Canada and the National March for Life in particular. “The atmosphere [at the March] was great, really outstanding. In fact, people were full of enthusiasm and full of life,” he said. “When you commit to life, you become more alive …There was a majority of youth in this demonstration, which is great” (ibid).
Press Conference
Two weeks later, in a Press Conference in Quebec City, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, accompanied by the Archbishop of Ottawa, Terence Prendergast, re-iterated that “the debate over abortion had been re-opened and that it should stay that way.”
The government should now extend financial assistance to groups helping pregnant women carry their babies to term, he said. If doctors only took half an hour to explain to a woman of sixteen what the moral, physical, and psychological consequences of abortion are, I am convinced many would not choose it.
If the (Harper) government refuses to finance abortion overseas, then it should develop a coherent policy in helping women in need in Canada. “Governments are funding clinics for abortion. I would like equity for organisms that are defending life also.”… If the federal government does not want to fund abortions abroad and does not help women in Canada to keep their children, then, the Cardinal says, “I think they [the government] are incoherent…. The heart of the debate is the support for the pregnant woman by the father of the child, her family, and society” (Le Devoir, May 27, 2010, “Le debat sur l’avortement est rouvert et doit le rester, dit le cardinal Ouellet”).
Reaction
The fact remains that not a single Quebec bishop had the courage to back up the Quebec City Cardinal. And the-once-upon-a-time Catholic Premier of Quebec Jean Charest, asserted that “abortion is an inalienable right…the abortion battle is over and here [i.e. in Quebec] there is no turning back.” The head of the federation of specialist physicians in Quebec, which includes gynecologists, sputtered that “I’m blue with rage. The cardinal should be ashamed of himself” (Globe and Mai,l 31 May, 2010).
On May 31, the Globe’s Quebec columnist, Lysiane Gagnon, confidently asserted that: “Canadian women can count on Quebeckers to be the first at the barricades to prevent its recriminalization.” (“Distinctly Quebec view of abortion!”)
As for the Cardinal, Gagnon dismissed him saying: “There certainly was no need to launch such an attack on a man who doesn’t represent a threat to the partisans of free choice. Cardinal Ouellet is already marginalized. He is the only vocal anti-abortion supporter in the Quebec Catholic hierarchy and the large majority of practising Catholics are in favour of access to abortion…”
Gagnon surely meant to say non-practising Catholics. Of those there are many in Quebec. But how long will they be around? My guess is that Quebec’s current anti-God and anti-life culture will be short lived.
One response in English Canada
National Post columnist Charles Lewis took the Cardinal’s proposal about the need for government to support pregnant women seriously. He thought “something remarkable” had happened. They “proposed a way to reframe the discussion about abortion and I believe it would benefit” all of us to pay attention….
“Somewhere between banning abortion and ignoring the issue comes this common sense proposal for reducing the number of abortions without the force of law…Let us at least help young women who want to have their babies but feel that they cannot.”
Lewis then quoted Archbishop Prendergast: “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….”
These ideas should be kept alive. © Copyright 2003-2009 by CatholicInsight.com |