Like the Angel of Death, but one that did not pass over, Bill C-7 has been approved by the House of Commons, the Liberals shutting down debate, with the help of the Bloc Quebecois. A thorough summary of its deleterious consequences is provided by Alex Schadenberg and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. We must pray ever more for Canada, as our nation descends into barbarism.
We should not lose sight of the primary spiritual significance of this – there is no blood of the Lamb over our lintel, as we abandon the sacraments, and especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the primary thing keeping us from completely toppling over the precipice into the abyss. To paraphrase Padre Pio, the world could live more easily without the Sun than without the Mass.
Would it help to bring back the ancient practice of excommunication? Many of those who helped pass Bill C-7, along with the unholy host of other evils in the recent past, and others soon to be brought into law, describe themselves as ‘Catholic’ – Trudeau one of the first amongst them. One might argue that ‘it wouldn’t do much good’, but that is seeing things from too earthly a perspective. For the purpose of such penalties would not be to stop the evils done, but rather they are aimed primarily at the conversion of those doing the evil.
When Pope Saint Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth the First with the 1570 Bull Regnans in Excelsis, prompting the persecution of Catholics in the English realm, the general consensus was the Pope had done an imprudent thing, but the saintly, ascetical Dominican Pontiff, his head bowed often in deep meditation, saw things from a broader perspective, sub specie aeternitatis, as befits an episcopus – literally, one who ‘over sees’, or ‘sees over’, or even ‘sees above’ – and likely thought that it were best if the battle were brought out into the open. Amidst all the secular struggles – even the fearful, demonic persecution – who knows how many souls were saved?
It may well be past time for such more radical and eternal thinking.