WCR Letters to the Editor

What has happened to culture of life?

He points out that pro-life activists are "insulted, fined, imprisoned and marked as mentally unbalanced, without any word of support from those who are considered leaders of religious truth and arbiters of morals."

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of our bishops, clergy, religious and laity continue to sit out the Canadian abortion holocaust and remain silent about the judicial power oppressing pro-life protestors. Like latter day Pilates, they are washing their hands of the blood of the innocent.

What we most often get from within the household of the faith in Canada are snide, mean-spirited remarks about pro-lifers and the pro-life movement.

Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, a guest speaker at the recent Alberta Pro-Life conference in that city, insulted his hosts by declaring that "pro-lifers were the rudest people he had to deal with, and that he didn't like it."

The general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Bishops, Msgr. Peter Schonenbach, says "The trouble with the pro-life people is they take everything out of context."

CWL President Sheilah Pellerin, says of Campaign Life Coalition, "They're a one-issue organization. If everyone else who is against abortion doesn't agree with them - well they're wrong."

Where have you heard remarks like that before?

They are mantras of the pro-abortion movement and the culture of death. The remarks of these three Catholic leaders were made in the context of their defence of the indefensible - the giving of some $100,000 of Catholic money to the International World March of Women.

Whatever else one can say about the sponsors of this event, they are not proponents of the culture of life, the civilization of love.

Msgr. Roger Morin the chancellor and vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Ottawa spoke on Parliament Hill on May 11 at the Canadian pro-life movements third annual March for Life. Pro-lifers can take solace from his telling those there assembled that they have a special place in God's heart.

Ironically, CCCODP gave not a cent or even moral support to this annual March for Life in Ottawa protesting the deaths of over two million children killed by abortion in Canada since 1969.

Robert & Mavis Benn
Edmonton

Be wary of those 'cosmic powers'

Words used to describe Reiki in your article, and others I've seen, invariably include: energy, channel, power, tune in, frequency (like wavelength), turn on, energy flow, aligning our own energy to the universal energy

I've never seen those words or their like in my Catechism, my Bible, or my copy of Vatican II, but I'll keep looking. However, these are the same groovy words invoked by the '60s drug culture and the '90s New Age Movement, and we all know about the fruit from those trees. Body

Andrew Rondeau
Gibbons

A sacred duty to withhold donations

Pope John Paul recently instructed the German bishops to: "avoid any action that would cloud the Church's unconditional position in favour of life." It seems that the conference leaders were not listening; neither did they consult their fellow bishops on the matter.

Thank God, however, for Cardinal Ambrozic of Toronto, Bishops Tonnos of Hamilton, Durocher of Sault St Marie, Jude Saint-Antoine of Montreal and other bishops who are still sensitive to papal directives and Church teaching in such matters and have protested this scandalous decision.

How dare the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops use our money under false pretences: that is, by endorsing and funding the World March of Women which promotes, among other things, the killing of the unborn and the destruction of the family!

Defending their position by saying that their financial support is only given for the good works the Women's March do - and not the bad - does not get the bishops off the hook. They are now also morally responsible for the bad things the Women's March does.

A dangerous precedent has been set here because the bishops have no control whatsoever over the Women's March. Once the money is given, what is to stop this group from using it for whatever purposes their agenda demands, which include, not just helping women, but pushing sterilization, contraception and abortion as well as promoting same-sex rights - all of these contrary to Catholic morality?

If our bishops cannot guarantee the proper use of our money, then we, in conscience, have a sacred duty to withhold our donations from their organization and support those that do.

This is the reason my wife, Mary, and I withdraw our support for Development and Peace until we are assured that our contributions are used to promote the Gospel of life and not the culture of death.

In conclusion, we call for an independent review of all projects funded by the bishops' organization, Development and Peace. We also strongly recommend that a review of the leadership of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops be made as soon as possible before the Church in Canada becomes further divided by this kind of imprudence and incompetence - and before precious souls are hurt by these divisions.

Deacon Daniel & Mary Dauvin
Killaloe, Ont.

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