What Our Lady of Guadalupe Means to a Former Abortionist| National Catholic Register

What Our Lady of Guadalupe Means to a Former Abortionist

The story of Guadalupe is an icon for our moment when mainstream women’s health care proclaims — with callousness and absurdity — that elective abortion is essential health care.

What Our Lady of Guadalupe Means to a Former Abortionist| National Catholic Register: 

    

Run With Life: Part 1 - CRA ATIP - two bureaucrats question pro-l...

Run With Life: Part 1 - CRA ATIP - two bureaucrats question pro-l...: The Liberals' latest witch hunt against anything and everything pro-life is a really bad idea for pro-life charities. We all know this.

In my latest ATIP to CRA I asked for: 

"All records including but not limited to internal/external correspondence, memos, briefings, work plans, and meeting notes related to the Liberal campaign promise to no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations."

(My last ATIP to CRA on this subject is here.)

Most of the correspondence I received back, were copies of media articles and letters to the editor about the proposed changes. There are also a couple of pro-life letters/articles in the package. But most of what is included are media articles from progressives. 

There is one letter to the editor where we are compared to the Taliban. Really. 

There is one long article that is not unfavorable to our position, and the author makes some noteworthy points.

What is absent from the ATIP is any proof of the so-called "dishonest counseling" from any pro-life organizations. To date, our prime minister has failed to give us any proof of his allegations. That's because this is a totally made-up idea, dreamt up by him to continue his unrelenting attack on pro-life groups.

A few excerpts below. More to come later.

A few excerpts below. More to come later.

--------------------------------------------------

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mandate Letter states:

• "introduce amendments to the Income Tax Act to make anti-abortion organizations that provide dishonest counselling to pregnant women about their rights and options ineligible for charitable status, and to expand the Medical Expense Tax Credit to include costs reimbursed to surrogate mothers for IVF expenses. You will be supported in this work by the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth [no kidding]."

--------------------------------------------------

Minister for Women and Gender Equality [what a ludicrous name for a department] and Youth Mandate Letter states:

• "Support the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in introducing amendments to the Income Tax Act to make anti-abortion organizations that provide dishonest counselling to pregnant women about their rights and options ineligible for charitable status..."

--------------------------------------------------

Notice how the DPM and the Minister of Women and Gender Equality fall into lock step with the PM, agreeing without question, this discriminatory policy

But I do like the following comments below embedded in the ATIP. They are notes taken from a meeting of bureaucrats. No names. Only initials. But have a look at BM's and DW's comments. These are about the only comments I found in the document where a bureaucrat questions this stupid policy from our you know who.

BM • "Talking at Muttart about proposed amendment r.e. anti-abortion groups, giving dishonest info refused charitable status. Concern about naming one type of organization can set a dangerous precedent. Becomes a subjective discussion about what's dishonest info, future gov'ts might target pollution, or critical race theory. Does CRA not have tools around providing dishonest info already?" (emphasis added)

DW • "Mandate letter was concerning, especially given provisions in ITA to deal with dishonesty, and subjectivity around dishonesty (environment, anti-abortion,etc.) Nothing in B2022, but no clarity or further statements about what's happening." (emphasis added)

And DW again:

DW • "Mandate letters re ITA, and anti-abortion orgs providing dishonest counselling. Concerns about status being dependent on certain views, and the linking of gov't funding and those views. No consultation or info on the details. (emphasis added)

Did BM and DW not get the memo? Ouch

Killing the Homeless - Canada's New Form of Mercy

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: What Euthanasia Has Done to Canada

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: What Euthanasia Has Done to Canada:

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The New York Times published an opinion column by Ross Douthat on December 3, 2022 titled: What Euthanasia Has Done to Canada.

Douthat begins by writing about the pro-euthanasia ad by Simons, a Canadian fashion designer, and retailer. Douthat states:

In an interview quoted in Canada's National Post, the chief merchant of Simons stated that the film was "obviously not a commercial campaign." Instead, it was a signifier of a public-spirited desire to "build the communities that we want to live in tomorrow, and leave to our children." 

For those communities and children, the video’s message is clear: They should believe in the holiness of euthanasia.

In recent years, Canada has established some of the world’s most permissive euthanasia laws, allowing adults to seek either physician-assisted suicide or direct euthanasia for many different forms of serious suffering, not just terminal diseases. In 2021, over 10,000 people ended their lives this way, just over 3 percent of all deaths in Canada. A further expansion, allowing euthanasia for mental health conditions, will go into effect in March 2023; permitting euthanasia for “mature” minors is also being considered.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has been urging its supporters to boycott Simons. 

Douthat asks the states that the advance of euthanasia presents a different question: What if a society remains liberal but ceases to be civilized? Douthat continues:

The rules of civilization necessarily include gray areas. It is not barbaric for the law to acknowledge hard choices in end-of-life care, about when to withdraw life support or how aggressively to manage agonizing pain.

It is barbaric, however, to establish a bureaucratic system that offers death as a reliable treatment for suffering and enlists the healing profession in delivering this “cure.” And while there may be worse evils ahead, this isn’t a slippery slope argument: When 10,000 people are availing themselves of your euthanasia system every year, you have already entered the dystopia.

Douthat then comments on the concept of euthanasia as a human right.

The idea that human rights encompass a right to self-destruction, the conceit that people in a state of terrible suffering and vulnerability are really “free” to make a choice that ends all choices, the idea that a healing profession should include death in its battery of treatments — these are inherently destructive ideas. Left unchecked, they will forge a cruel brave new world, a dehumanizing final chapter for the liberal story.

Douthat acknowledges that there are Liberals who oppose euthanasia but he suggests that a potent Conservatism is needed to prevent euthanasia from spreading. He writes:

Yes, there are liberals, Canadian and American, who can see what’s wrong with euthanasia. Yes, the most explicit cheerleading for quietus can still inspire backlash: Twitter reactions to the Simons video have been harsh, and it’s vanished from the company’s website.

But without a potent conservatism, the cultural balance tilts too much against these doubts.

Conservatism is not required to oppose euthanasia but we need to call it what it is. Calling euthanasia MAiD takes away the reality that euthanasia is an act of killing. You don't need to be religious or Conservative to oppose killing.

After 56 Years, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Still Offers the True Meaning of Christmas| National Catholic Register

After 56 Years, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Still Offers the True Meaning of Christmas| National Catholic Register: ‘That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.’ —Linus Van Pelt

‘Staggering’ rise in anti-Catholic hate in Canada

https://www.catholicregister.org/item/34715-staggering-rise-in-anti-catholic-hate-in-canada

BY  TERRY O’NEILL, CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWS

• September 1, 2022

• Canadian and international observers are condemning media, politicians, and other opinion leaders for turning a blind eye to a startling new report that shows a 260-per-cent increase in anti-Catholic hate crimes in the past year. 

  The increase is almost 10 times higher than for all hate crimes combined and was by far the single largest percentage growth recorded in any category in the numbers released by Statistics Canada. 

  At the same time, experts and activists are also calling for Catholics to more forcefully respond to the sort of prejudice and bias that the media blackout epitomizes.

  “We should stop talking and take action against it,” said Marc Vella, president of the Christian Civic Affairs Committees of Canada.

  StatsCan reported on Aug. 2 that the number of police-reported, hate-motivated crimes in Canada increased by 27 percent last year, to 3,360 from 2,646 in 2020. Hate-motivated crimes targeting religion grew by 67 percent, to 884 from 530.

  The number of anti-Catholic hate crimes grew to 155 in 2021 from just 43 the year before. Crimes directed at Black persons accounted for the largest number of all incidents. Anti-Jewish incidents topped the hate-crime list in the religion category, up 47 percent with 487 reported incidents.

  While StatsCan provided no explanation for the huge anti-Catholic crime increase, the figures correspond to an explosion of arson, vandalism, and threats directed at Catholic institutions last summer following inflammatory news reports about the existence of possible graves at an abandoned cemetery at Kamloops Indian Residential School.

  A search of Canada’s largest mainstream media outlets did not find a single reference to the surge of anti-Catholic hate crimes.

  “It’s disappointing that the mainstream media did not responsibly cover the staggering rise in anti-Catholic hate crimes,” said Christian Elia, executive director of the Catholic Civil Rights League. 

  “It’s even more disappointing that they covered the StatsCan report in general terms, alarmed at the overall 27-per-cent increase in all police-reported hate-motivated crime, yet they did not acknowledge the eye-popping 260-per-cent increase against Catholics specifically.”

  “Government officials have been equally silent or made dismissive comments about this violence,” said Janet Epp-Buckingham, a professor at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., and director of the Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa.

  “The reality is that these churches are where Christians worship and find their identity as believers. Attacks on them are attacks on all Christians.”

  Madeleine Enzlberger, executive director of the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, said the Canadian numbers “are truly worrying” and probably represent only the tip of the iceberg.

  “Unfortunately, we have seen similar trends of anti-Christian and -Catholic hatred in other Western countries as well,” said Enzlberger. “It is a dynamic in which violence against Christian buildings, churches or even people to some extent is perceived to be a legitimate form of protest against what the Church said, did or represents.”

  Enzlberger warned that legitimizing violence against the Church by ignoring it “could lead to a normalization that could socially legitimize the further escalation of violence to even more severe levels.”

  “This spiral of violence needs to be broken at its earliest stages before it gets out of control,” she said.

  The news media’s failure to report on the rapid rise of anti-Catholic hate crime is part of a pattern, she said.

  Enzlberger said research conducted by the British Parliament found a prevailing anti-religious and specifically anti-Christian bias, as well as a high level of religious illiteracy among media.

  “This bias often manifests itself in a toxic narrative that only allows for Christians to fit the role of the perpetrators and not the victim.”

  Things are much the same in Europe, said Enzlberger. She pointed out that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s most recent report revealed that anti-Christian hate crimes grew the most compared to other religions and also all other protected groups defined by gender, race and ethnicity. 

  Ian Dowbiggin, a professor in the Department of History at the University of Prince Edward Island and a writer on Catholic issues, said “there’s always been anti-Catholic sentiment down through Canadian history, leavened by anti-French and anti-Irish bigotry, for example, and the coverage of the Church’s sexual abuse scandals of the 1980s and 1990s.”

  He has been warning of the problem for decades. Writing in the Globe and Mail in 1995, Dowbiggin said, “Anti-Catholicism is as alive as it ever was, but now it’s less recognizable.

  The new anti-Catholicism expresses itself in the form of a hip discourse that tries to reduce a worldwide Church with hundreds of millions of parishioners to a handful of trendy slogans of dismissive contempt.”

  Twenty-seven years later, Dowbiggin said he believes Catholics are themselves somewhat responsible for the ongoing problem.

  “If anti-Catholicism and hate crimes against the Church still occur today, and the media won’t report them, it is due to a large extent because Catholics themselves don’t push back and defend their faith,” he said.

  “Canada’s Jews rightly fight back when there is evidence of anti-Semitism, so why can’t Catholics in the face of things like the church burnings of 2021 and the orchestrated humiliation of the Pope in recent days?”

  Vella, a member of St. James Parish in Abbotsford, B.C., is one Catholic who is fighting back. He said the mainstream news media has been pushing an anti-Catholic narrative for decades.

  “We Catholics should not bellyache and complain about how unfair our treatment in the press is,” Vella said. “Rather, we should stop talking and take action to fix the problem.”

  He suggests Catholics need “to become far more savvy” in response to the media, be better informed on issues confronting the Church and not rely on mainstream media, and to get involved in public affairs and politics.

Light and Darkness at Catholic Colleges| National Catholic Register

Light and Darkness at Catholic Colleges| National Catholic Register: 

Patti Maguire Armstrong BlogsDecember 5, 2022


In the United States, there are many Catholic colleges that teach students to know and defend the Faith. There are many other colleges that hide behind a love-and-inclusion banner while encouraging human degradation. The difference couldn’t be more stark.

Some Catholic colleges have been embracing drag queen shows, Planned Parenthood events and other celebrations of lower inclinations. Why would any serious-minded Catholic support a façade of Catholic education that encourages sampling forbidden fruits? Adam and Eve did not just taste-test in the Garden of Eden but rebuked God. So it is at Catholic-in-name-only schools.

CNA reported on a drag show last spring at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph University, which was performed in their student center and put on by their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office.

“The mission of Catholic education,” said the Cardinal Newman Society — an organization that promotes faithful Catholic education — to CNA, “is to evangelize and witness to the truth of God and the world through complete integral human formation.” It’s certainly not to recruit student drag queens, as St. Joseph University’s diversity and inclusion office has been doing annually for five years.

for the rest of the article 

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/light-and-darkness-at-catholic-colleges

Run With Life: Developing and improving the skills of young peopl...

Run With Life: Developing and improving the skills of young peopl...: 

The death industry is really about money. Clearly it's cheaper to kill people than to give them health care, palliative care, home care, mental health care, etc. It's about saving money, and in some cases, it's even about making money. 

For example, Dying with Dignity. 

In 2021 they received $1,653,893 in donations (why would anyone donate to these people anyway?). They actually had $8,000,000 in the bank that year. And they received $204,655 from the federal government in FY 2021. Why any company should receive grant money when they have this kind of money in the bank is beyond me.

But that wasn't enough. They also received two government grants from the Canada Summer jobs program for 2020 and 2021. To get this money, employers must:

"demonstrate that they are providing quality work experiences for youth that provide opportunities to develop and improve their skills." (emphasis added)

They have ten employees. Check out their salaries:

1 person earns $1 to $39,999

5 people earn $40,000 to $79,999

3 people earn $80,000 to $119,999

and the winner is...the one person who earns $160,000 to $199,999. 

Charity Intelligence who rates charities for donors (and not for the charities) gives DWD a 1 star rating (out of 5 stars). For each 

"dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 36 cents are available for programs."

That's a lot of overhead.

As Canada kills more and more of their undesirable people, I predict we will see this company do better and better financially. 

Check out the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition's terrifying information on Canada's MAID

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Vancouver doctor has killed more than 400 people b...

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Vancouver doctor has

killed more than 400 people b...: 

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Ellen Wiebe A Vancouver doctor who operates a euthanasia clinic has kil...

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A Vancouver doctor who operates a euthanasia clinic has killed more than 400 people since legalization.

A recent article promoting euthanasia for mental illness alone states that Dr Ellen Wiebe has killed more than 400 people by euthanasia for physical reasons and she also supports euthanasia for mental illness alone.

The article attempts to be balanced by interviewing Psychiatrist Dr John Maher who wants the government to review euthanasia for mental illness alone. The article reports:

Dr. John Maher

"I had a patient who talked to me recently about MAiD who wants to die because he believes no one will ever love him," Dr Maher told W5.

He said that colleagues have shared similar stories of patients in their care, enquiring about how to stop therapy and qualify one for assisted death.

“The wait times for our treatment programmes in Ontario are up to five years,” Maher said.

Various studies also confirm that there are long waits for mental healthcare across Canada.

"There are cycles of illness. Some of it's up and down. It might be years. And then there is a burst of illness and suffering that we then take care of,” Maher said.

He says that MAiD for mental illness, is too close to suicide for his comfort.

“You're assisting someone in the completion of their suicide. The doctor is the sanitised gun," he said.

One of his key concerns is how anyone can determine if someone with a mental illness is incurable, as is required by the legislation.

"I'm not at all disagreeing that there are people who have an irremediable illness. What I defy you or any other person in the universe to prove to me is that it's this person in front of you.”

Recently Canada's Justice Minister told a Toronto Star reporter that he supports euthanasia for mental illness because MAiD is a more humane death than suicide.

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Canadian man claims that he was pressured to request euthanasia (Link).
  
• Why did they kill my brother (Link).
  
• Manitoba woman died by euthanasia based on inadequate home care (Link).
• Quebec man seeks euthanasia based on changes to home care (Link). 
• Alberta man requests euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
• Ontario man approved for euthanasia because he can't get medical treatment (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).

Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe: St. Zelie Martin an amazing mother and saint

St. Zelie and St. Louis

Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe: St. Zelie Martin an amazing mother and saint: 

Sunday, December 4, 2022

St. Zelie Martin, an amazing mother and saint

Most of what I write about (abortion) is depressing. My protection against this evil is to turn to Jesus, Mary, and the saints. One of the best places I can do this (apart from Mass, the Rosary and the Sacraments) is to turn to the Discerning Hearts podcast. Kris McGregor is the host. She has literally a ton of good spiritual content from interviews with book authors, to conferences on saints, to audio books, to novenas, to...you name it.

The content is a healing salve for the soul. I download the episodes to my phone, and can listen to theofflinene when I am walking or driving, or doing housework, etc.

Two of my favourite conferences are with Fr. Timothy Gallagher on St. Therese's sister Leonie Martin and Therese's parents St. Louis and St. Zelie Martin (which I am listening to now). Their life was not easy: Leonie's life was very difficult, the deaths of four of Zelie's and Louis' young children, breast cancer, war, etc. So much suffering but also so much joy.

I have read the Story of a Soul by St. Therese. But I find Therese hard to relate to--a great saint to be sure but honest,ly I just don't really get her. So listening to the letters from her mother (which there are many) about her family (and the commentary) I have found to be absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and hopeful.

If you need a break from the woke world we now live in, check our Discerning Hearts and pick a gem from their basket of precious jewels, of which there are many.

Servant of God Leonie Martin

Mainstream media gets crushed in Munk debate

Germany’s Synodal Way Takes a Boring Route| National Catholic Register

Germany’s Synodal Way Takes a Boring Route| National Catholic Register: COMMENTARY: The synodal path is merely a symptom of a bigger problem: The Church is dealing with de facto atheists who believe in secular modernity more than...

Cristiada 2012 Online Latino HD TusPelisLatino com Peliculas Online ...

TRUDEAU'S GOV'T LOST ITS MIND: Liberals think their opinions supersede t...

The Dictatorship of Relativism - Fr. Terry Donahue C.C.

The Dictatorship of Relativism

Fr. Terry Donahue, CC – October 9, 2011 – www.companionscross.org

Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Isaiah 25:6-10, Phil 4:12-14,19-20, Mt 22:1-14 

To listen to Father terry's Homily click here http://www.box.net/shared/646uvj2alhsg1h51d9fg 

Today I’d like to speak with you about what Pope Benedict XVI calls the Dictatorship of Relativism. But first let’s define relativism, and in particular, moral relativism.

What is Moral Relativism?

Some truths are relative. For example, if I say, “Chocolate ice cream is delicious. It’s the best!” that is a statement about my personal tastes, so it is subjective. Taste can vary according to the individual, and I won’t fault someone for liking vanilla better! Subjective truths are based on internal preferences. They can change according to our feelings.

Other truths are absolute. For example, if I say, “2+2=4” and someone else says, “I believe that 2+2=5!” I can say “I’m right and you’re wrong.” Because that’s an objective truth from mathematics. Objective truths are realities in the external world that we discover. We cannot change them according to our internal feelings.

Moral relativism holds that all moral truths (about what is right and wrong) are subjective, like our personal taste in ice cream. A moral relativist believes that there are no universal moral rules that apply to everyone, everywhere.

The opposite of moral relativism is moral absolutism, which holds that there are moral rules which are universally binding on everyone, which are not a matter of personal conviction, but are objective truths that we discover. (Francis J. Beckwith & Gregory Koukl, Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-air, 1998, p. 28)

Moral Relativism on Campus

Moral relativism is running rampant in our society, especially in universities, colleges and even high schools. Many university students see relativism as a necessary condition for a free society. “The goal isn’t to correct your mistakes and really be right. The goal is not to think that anyone is right at all.” (Relativism, p. 73)

In their book Relativism, Francis Beckwith & Gregory Koukl offer the following dialogue between a high school teacher and her student Elizabeth (based loosely on a real-life exchange):

“Teacher:  Welcome, students. This is the first day of class, and so I want to lay down some ground rules. First, since no one has the truth, you should be open-minded to the opinions of your fellow students. Second… Elizabeth do you have a question?

Elizabeth: Yes, I do. If nobody has the truth, isn’t that a good reason for me not to listen to my fellow students? After all, if nobody has the truth, why should I waste my time listening to other people and their opinions? Only if somebody has the truth does it make sense to be open-minded. Don’t you agree?

Teacher:   No, I don’t. Are you claiming to know the truth? Isn’t that a bit arrogant and dogmatic?

Elizabeth: Not at all. Rather I think it’s dogmatic, as well as arrogant, to assert that no single person on earth knows the truth. After all, have you met every person in the world and quizzed them exhaustively? If not, how can you make such a claim? Also, I believe it is actually the opposite of arrogance to say that I will alter my opinions to fit the truth whenever and wherever I find it. And if I happen to think that I have good reason to believe I do know the truth and would like to share it with you, why wouldn’t you listen to me? Why would you automatically discredit my opinion before it is even uttered? I thought we were supposed to listen to everyone’s opinion.

Teacher:   This should prove to be an interesting semester.

[The class clown chimed in…] Ain’t that the truth!”  (Beckwith & Koukl, Relativism, p. 74)

As Catholics we believe that we have the fullness of the truth, not because we’re so smart and have figured it out for ourselves, but because we have received the truth as a gift from a higher authority, from God, the source of all truth, through Jesus Christ. So our claim to know the truth is not arrogance, but in fact requires humility. It takes humility to submit your life to the truth when you discover it.

The Dictatorship of Relativism – Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of relativism in his homily during the Conclave in 2005, at a Mass for the election of a new Pope (just before he was elected Pope Benedict XVI). He said that once relativism is embraced by a large portion of society, it then becomes imposed by the state:

“We are building a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”  (Cardinal Ratzinger, Deacon of the College of Cardinals, Homily for Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, 18 April 2005, http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html)

In a dictatorship of relativism, relativism is imposed by the state through force of law. Let’s look at an example of how this is playing out in Canada.

Linda Gibbons and “Bubble-Zone” Laws

Have you heard of “Bubble zone” laws? They are laws in Toronto and Vancouver that make it illegal to protest or speak about abortion within a certain distance of an abortion clinic (50m or 18m depending on the location – for more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_protection_of_access_to_abortion).

In August 1994, a civil court ordered a temporary injunction against picketing too close to Toronto abortion clinics. Since then, Linda Gibbons has been arrested over 20 times for staging illegal protests in front of Toronto abortion clinics, and has spent nine of the past 17 years in jail. What exactly was her crime? Here is a description of her most recent arrest in August 2011:

“Ms. Gibbons can be seen holding up a poster of a healthy infant with the words: ‘Why Mom? When I have so much love to give.’ She remained silent while five police officers spoke to her about the court order. Ms. Gibbons was then handcuffed and taken into custody.”

(Charles Lewis, “Activist against abortion back in jail,” National Post, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=buNsf73CIPc and http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/08/09/serial-abortion-clinic-protester-linda-gibbons-back-in-jail/)

Much of the rhetoric of the pro-choice movement is about “Don’t impose your morality on me.” But now the same people are using the coercive power of the state to enforce their morality upon Linda Gibbons and the rest of Canada. It is proponents of the “tolerant” pro-choice view who locked her up in jail for years for peacefully standing on a public sidewalk and advocating for the life of the unborn. That is the Dictatorship of Relativism.

Morality and the Wedding Feast

In the parable of the Wedding Banquet in today’s Gospel (Mt 22:1-14), the King is clearly not a moral relativist! He judges those who killed his servants as “not worthy” to enter the wedding feast (Mt 22:8). At the end of our lives, we will be held accountable for our actions, based on how we responded to the invitation, to the graces we received from God.

Sincere seekers can enter the Kingdom of God!

Sometimes when Catholics hear a priest like me railing against relativism, they can think “Well, I’m a Catholic. I’m in the exclusive club, so I’m good. All these warnings of Jesus don’t apply to me, do they?” Well, Catholics shouldn’t be too quick to assume that…

In a recent homily given in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI commented on Matthew 21 where Jesus says tax collectors and harlots will enter the Kingdom of God before the Pharisees. Benedict translated Jesus’ statement into the present, saying that agnostics (who don’t know if God exists) but are seeking to find out, “those who long for a pure heart but suffer on account of their sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is ‘routine’ and who regard the Church merely as an institution, without letting… the faith touch their hearts.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at Touristic airport, Freiburg im Breisgau, 25 Sep 2011, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20110925_freiburg_en.html)

The Kingdom of God is not some exclusive club just for Catholics! The Kingdom is radically inclusive of anyone who is sincerely seeking the truth and willing to submit to it when he finds it.

A Call to Action

1)  If you realize that your moral compass has been demagnetized by moral relativism, today can be a wake-up call for you.

- Get answers to your nagging moral questions from authoritative sources, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church instead of just going along with the crowd or doing what “feels” right to you.

- Some of you may need to get right with God. Fall on the mercy of the Saviour by repenting of serious sin and make a good confession.

2)  Learn how to recognize arguments from moral relativism in speeches, or even in conversation around the water cooler at work. Don’t let the sloppy reasoning of relativism slide by. Challenge it and expose the weakness of relativist arguments.

3)  Teach your children that there are moral absolutes – that some things are really right (such as defending the life of the innocent) and some things are really wrong (such as punishing the innocent precisely because they are innocent).

Conclusion

When Linda Gibbons dies and faces judgment seat of God, she will be vindicated.

Because she will finally face a just judge

who will not condemn her for speaking out in defense of the innocent,

who will not imprison her for years for siding with the helpless unborn being dragged off to die.

On that day, the Just King will deliver all those who have been oppressed, maltreated, abandoned and forgotten.

He will “destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples” (Isaiah 25:7).

He will “wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8).

On that day, they will say with one strong voice: “This is our God. We have waited for him, so that he might save us” (Isaiah 25:9).

CCCB - Statement on the Persecution of Christians

IN HIS NAME

https://www.cccb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/In_His_Name_EN_FINAL.pdf