Trudeau at Auschwitz: A Study in Irony
Our poseur Prime Minister, who loves backdrops, as do most politicians I suppose, fresh from his front-and-centre presence at the licentious ‘Gay Pride’ Parade, just visited what remains of the labour/death camps at Auschwitz. A curious juxtaposition, one might think.
I was at Auschwitz last May, and you may peruse my own thoughts if you are so inclined, but here is what Justin Trudeau, described in the National Post as “sombre and visibly moved”, while wiping away tears, penned in a memorial book on the site:
Today we bear witness to humanity’s deliberate capacity for cruelty and evil…May we ever remember this painful truth about ourselves and may it strengthen our commitment to never again allow such darkness to prevail
Fine words, one might think, but Trudeau seems ignorant of the fact that the Nazi death machine had its origins in Germany’s own fully legal-and-approved euthanasia program, run by psychiatrists and high-level government officials, to put to death mercifully those who could most benefit from such a release from apparently tragic and pointless suffering, as I also recently described. Trudeau sees not the irony that he himself just recently spearheaded the legislation to permit similar euthanasia death laws in Canada, and, lest we forget, his support for abortion is vocal and unflinching.
The fundamental evil of the Nazis was not specifically the killing of the Jews, (for, although this is the greatest evil for which they are remembered, they did not start there, and they extended their murderous rampage to many others), but rather the denial of human dignity to particular kinds of people, not least the Jewish people. As soon as the State can determine who has the right to life, and who does not, we are already in the realm of what has unfortunately been linked with ‘Nazism’, the one go-to entity that embodies evil. But such evil is of the essence of any number of God-less authoritarian regimes, from Maoist China to Stalinist Russia, who killed far more than Hitler and his deranged henchmen.
And, we must ask, how are we much different, in denying the full rights and the dignity of humanity to the unborn, and now to the sick, frail and elderly?
Trudeau and his fellow-travelers are the very ones who are allowing ‘such darkness to prevail’, although they couch their words in fine-sounding slogans of human rights and dignity, of Canadian ‘values’ and compassion. Yet their euphemisms are largely empty, as they inexorably promote and legislate the culture of death.
We should recall the words of the great John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae which, sadly, I do not think the Prime Minister has read:
It is therefore urgently necessary, for the future of society and the development of a sound democracy, to rediscover those essential and innate human and moral values which flow from the very truth of the human being and express and safeguard the dignity of the person: values which no individual, no majority and no State can ever create, modify or destroy, but must only acknowledge, respect and promote.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→