As we move into this new year, we should make certain resolutions, and here’s one proposal: for all of us to strive for greater precision and clarity in what we read, understand and write.
After all, words are sacred, for they are the pathway to the truth, which is why our Saviour described Himself as the Word, the Logos, as well as the Way and the Truth.
There is no end to how we might apply this resolution for clarity.
Take, for our first example, the headline the other day that Minister of the Treasury Scott Brison declared his intention to resign, so to spend more time with his ‘family’. Sounds nice, domestic, even Catholic.
Yet, we should recall that besides the other ambiguous dealings with which he has been involved, Mr. Brison is also the first openly ‘gay’ politician to sit with the Progressive Conservatives, although he quickly ‘crossed the floor’ to sit with the more accommodating Liberals, rising in the ranks, a poster-boy for their ideology.
His ‘family’ consists of his ‘husband’, along with two daughters born by surrogate. We should be clear that a family – as natural law and revelation tell us – is a man and a woman united in matrimony along with their children. Any other association of people is only a ‘family’ by analogy, more or less approximating the sacred union intended by God as the foundation of society,
Is this a big deal? Well, Mr. Brison’s private life is in one sense his own affair, but we should remember the words of Pope John Paul II, that as the family goes, so goes society, and the only way to gauge that is to know what a ‘family’ is, or what, sadly, used to be.
And speaking of families, Justin Trudeau has expedited the refugee claim of a young Saudi Arabian woman, one Raham Mohammad Alqunun (I guess even the fairer sex must carry the ubiquitous name of the ‘Prophet’) – who has fled her family, particularly her father, who – she claims – was abusing her. What exactly does that mean? Denying her the ‘right’ to go topless in Sydney, as one photo shows Ms. Alqunun? (somewhat modestly edited). She could stand for any millions of young Saudi – along with other Islamic -daughters across the globe, who could claim ‘abuse’ under any sort of Trudeaupian ‘values’. Should we let them all in to start life anew? The 18-year old was met at the airport by Foreign Affairs Minister Krystia Freeland herself, who dubbed Raham a ‘brave, new Canadian’, all hugs and smiles in front of a huge media scrum.
Of course, the Saudis will not take this lightly, seeing this as an implicit condemnation of their whole culture: They are rather emphatic on paternal authority, especially over their daughters.
Canadians have already gained the ire of China by the arrest of Huwai’s executive Ming Wangzhou, with Canadians in China paying the price with what appear to be arbitrary arrests and punishments. One Robert Lloyd Schellenberg – a former high school football player who had gone to Thailand and China – is now on death row, after his appeal of a 15 year sentence for smuggling methamphetamines was, after a one-day show trial, bumped up – or down, as the case ma be – to the death penalty. And China executes thousands each year – no one knows how many – for lesser offences.
Another Canadian, Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, has been arrested out of the blue for espionage. When our benighted Prime Minister tried to claim diplomatic immunity for Mr. Kovrig, Chinese authorities just laughed.
Of course, we know not the full facts of either case, but this all seems rather odd, and one would think twice about going to China, whether for pleasure or business. Now, we can say the same for Saudi Arabia. And neither nation has what one might accurately call the ‘rule of law’, nor any constitutional guarantees and rights. As one commentator suggested, Trudeau should send in the A-Team, or is that the eh, team?
Diplomacy is the art of the possible and the practical, and we should at least be prudent in what lines in the sand we are willing to draw. Our mis-educated Prime Minster’s moral lines are rather wobbly. I am no fan of the Islamic oppression of women, but it is lamentable that Trudeau, a globe-trotting apostle for abortion-on-demand, euthanasia, transgenderism and deviant sex, goes to the wall and risks our entire diplomatic edifice for these lesser, disputable ‘rights’ and duties. After all, there is a natural law principle that children belong to their parents, and – barring extreme cases – are under their tutelage until the age of emancipation.
As the Second Vatican Council warned, the world stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. And, as we meditate in this post-Epiphany time, wise men are thin on the ground, especially in the halls of power, which makes this all the more sad and tragic.