Liberal Arrogance vs. Conservative Compliance
Patrick Brown, the erstwhile leader of the provincial ‘Conservative’ party, and I use those square quotes advisedly, has decreed that there are to be no ‘social conservative’ raised at the upcoming convention. Now, that might seem ambiguous, for any issue is by definition ‘social’, but here, in politico-speak, deviating from normal and logical English, it means any issue pertaining to life, family and sexual issues, a triad of the three most important and fundamental topics facing us, which are now verboten, at least in the fearful, hesitant and wavering mind of Brown.
Why so? The answer may be gleaned from the fact that Trudeau has quite brazenly also made these issues forbidden, by simply decreeing that anyone who holds any pro-life view, even Rachel Harder, hardly pro-life, who support a woman’s ‘right to choose’, be cast into the outer darkness. Any, even incremental, conditions limiting in any way access to abortion (and contraception) services is off-limits to the Liberal party, making one a political and social pariah, unclean and to be shunned. Add to that any opposition to same-sex ‘marriage’, or, indeed, any hint that sodomy and lesbianism are in way, even remotely, disordered and not conducive to human flourishing. Perish, perish the very thought.
What explains this Conservative submissive fear and Liberal arrogant insouciance? Why are these issues no longer fit for public discourse? Even the vaunted Andrew Scheer, the newly minted leader of the federal Conservatives, does not want to raise the ‘abortion question’. In fact, he is found toasting ales with feminists, even declaring himself ‘absolutely’ one in a rather sad attempt at solidarity. His responses in that linked interview, such as it was, were all vague, talking with marbles in his mouth, curiously compliant to the assertive woman across the table from him, fearful of offending her, of saying the ‘wrong’ thing, of treading where he dare not go. I don’t find myself inspired by him, for some vague reason.
Why can’t Mr. Scheer, like the smirking Mr. Trudeau (and, dare I add, Mr. Trump down south, with all of his imperfections, but to far better purpose and effect, dismantling the evils of Obamacare, and nary a care who cares) just say what he really thinks and holds dear? Why cannot conservatives, upholding family and life issues, all that is sane, good and true, be as assertive as the ‘liberals’, asserting mantra-esque the in-sanity of feminist, abortion, homosexual and transgender rights?
The answer to the question at one level is rather simple, and has been said by others more eloquently and forcefully than I: The Liberals in Canada, and the Democrats in the United States, or more properly the broad mindset that informs them both, have won the culture war, capturing the minds (as well as the hearts) of a majority of Canadians and Americans out there, at least those of a certain age.
To be particular: Their ethos has been drilled into the minds of anyone under fifty, through the media and university, the primary means by which the modern intellect is ‘informed’, for want of a better word. We are all to some extent complicit, not least in sending ourselves and our children through the modern educational establishment, from kindgergarten to bachelor of arts, all along the way, two decades of subtle and not-so-subtle indoctrination. Yet people still trot off to the modern university somehow, someway, expecting an education. Do we want our future leaders to sound like Justin Trudeau, whose cramped, vague and incoherent mind seems to think that ‘feminism’ and ‘gender equality’ will save the world? I would be more on his side if he were touting ‘femininity’ and ‘gender equitability’, but I have a sinking feeling that he knows not the difference enough to disagree.
We have all been infected, even if we have fought it off by might and main and grace, and most have been entirely subsumed, with the intellectual virus of universal tolerance, of feminist ‘values’, of a milky porridge of virtue-signaling slogans incoherently mashed together in unformed brains, all of us told to keep quiet to ‘get along’. A false irenicism, as Pius XII warned, has seeped deep into our souls, making us sadly pussilanimous, as Aristotle put it, scared to make a stir, to stand up, to resist this anti-culture by doing something bold and daring, to adopt the true Catholic sense of magnanimity, greatness of soul, of mind, of will, of passion.
To paraphrase Chesterton said, only a living thing can swim against the tide. And it is high tide that our leaders here in Canada take a page from Trump, to begin speaking as insouciantly as Trudeau, but, with greater certainty in the truth than our benighted Prime Minister, with more profound clarity, with boldness and the parrhesia of which Saint Paul speaks.
I wonder, oh, how I wonder, what that would look like?
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→