Witnessing to Life is an Act of Charity: Archbishop

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Feb 092013
 

Statement by Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller on the 25th anniversary of R. v. Morgentaler

VANCOUVER (Jan. 28, 2013) — Twenty-five years ago, a legal decision was unleashed on Canada that has had an impact we can scarcely measure.

While some may celebrate, the sad truth is that the Supreme Court of Canada Morgentaler decision has cast a pall over Canada and led to the death of more than a million lives in the womb.

As followers of Christ, we are concerned about anything affecting human life and dignity. That is why we are involved in efforts to stem the tide of violence and war wherever they occur.

We work to alleviate poverty in all its forms in the Downtown Eastside.

We strive to implement more humane ways to handle the incarcerated, to promote fair treatment of immigrants and migrant workers, and to advance access to education.

We struggle to eliminate every form of unjust discrimination and to assure that people have the opportunity to work and that working conditions correspond to their dignity;

We reject unethical practices such as assisted suicide and euthanasia.

And we work to restore in law the right to life of the unborn threatened by abortion.

If we cannot secure the most fundamental right to life, then there is no basis for any other right at all. About this there is no doubt: from its conception, the child has the right to life.

Direct abortion and intentional euthanasia are grave contradictions of the dignity of human life and the respect due to God, our Creator.  Because the embryo should be treated as a person from conception, the pre-born child must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed like every other human being.

As Pope Benedict said, “When a society moves toward the denial or the suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good.  If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.”

In this Year of Faith, when we are invited to evangelize and deepen our relationship with Christ and His Church, I note the growing sense of hope among those working to establish a culture of life. In this we are united in a common cause.

There appears to be more enthusiasm than ever in advancing the cause of life, and all of us need to ask the Lord for increased courage to speak the truth about the inherent dignity and sacredness of human life ever more clearly, but never with hatred or disrespect for persons.

To be pro-life, to defend the right to life, means to stand up for the truth, especially the truth about the God-given dignity and worth of every human being. We must be firmly convinced that this is the truth that sets people free (cf. Jn 8:32) and to proclaim it is an act of charity.

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Paul Schratz
Communications Director
Archdiocese of Vancouver    www.rcav.org
John Paul II Pastoral Centre
150 Robson St., Vancouver BC  V6B 2A7
T: 604-683-0281, ext. 262   F: 604-683-8117   E: communications@rcav.org

Is Christie Clark a bad Canadian? Ten things that identify a ‘bad Canadian’

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Mar 052011
 

Last year, during the H1N1 “swine flu” scare, when RoadKill Radio was the only news agency that publicized the warnings in the vaccine maker’s Product Information Guide—including warnings that the vaccine had not been tested on some of the target groups—then-broadcaster Christy Clark opined that parents who do not vaccinate their children are “bad Canadians”.

This, in spite of the evidence that
(a) the vaccine had not been fully tested ;
(b) the charge that unvaccinated children are a threat to the health of their vaccinated peers (a palpably false accusation, unless the vaccine does not confer immunity;
(c) there were many reports of vaccine-related (and maybe –caused) illness.

And many parents are asking: “Why have governments granted Big Phara immunity from liability, if their vaccines are safe?”

In our desire to be helpful, RoadKill Radio on its March 1 broadcast offered a guide: How to Spot a really ‘bad Canadian’:

10 – Radio talkers (e.g., Christy Clark) who try to bully people into injecting their kids with an experimental vaccine for an imaginary pandemic. (See Swined, Swooned and Swindled, RKR Fall, 2010)

9 – Someone who accepts $20,000 (e.g., Clark, again) for a political campaign from a lobbyist/non-lobbyist who at one point represented both BC Rail and CN Rail during the tainted sale of public assets from one to the other.

8 – Anyone who accepts $20,000 (e.g., Clark, yet again) for a political campaign from a dubious political backroom operative whose consulting company’s name is identical to a shifty American political consulting firm whose clients include radical pro-abortion and other Leftists groups.

7 – Someone whose close relative’s house was raided by police at the same time as the Legislature raid that led to the Basi-Virk trial.

6 – Someone who thinks the $6 million taxpayers paid for a guilty plea in that trial actually “cleared the air”.

5 – Someone who could not wait ten years—until her son grows up—to run for the top political office in BC, telling the Ottawa Citizen that she wanted to teach him by example how to serve the nation. But the implicit lesson here is that career matters more than parenthood. Is this an example of how we are to define Christy Clark’s “family values” agenda?

4 – Someone whose political financing is linked to expanding the gambling industry.

3 – Someone who trumpets “family values”, but supports all-day kindergarten; and who failed to respond to pro-life editor Paul Schratz’ question: “Is there any possible argument that… would defend the notion that citizens in a democracy are forbidden to know what complications are associated with a medical procedure, paid for with their tax dollars?” – referring to the hiding of abortion statistics in BC.

2 – A premier-designate who won’t pledge to curb the flow of public funds to leeches that milk the tax-paying “cash cows”.

1 – The baddest of a bad Canadian is someone gullible enough to vote for a candidate in a Liberal leadership vote – or a general election – who lip-syncs focus-group tested political strategies designed to seduce, befuddle and deceive those willing to be manipulated by so-called political leaders.