The Liberal Abortion Box

Well, at the risk of some level of sensationalism, it seems the persecution has begun, on the fringes at least. The Liberals under Justin Trudeau and Employment Minister Patty Hajdu are now requiring that institutions applying for a Summer Job funding grant from the federal government (which many Catholic and Christian groups do) must check off a box that attests they agree to ‘reproductive rights’, including a woman’s right to choose and receive an abortion.

There seems to be a background to this, as a reaction to the hue and cry from certain quarters of the populace and bureacracy after certain ‘anti-abortion’ groups (in the government-speak… ‘pro-life’ in regular speak) received such funding for summer internships.

Hence, the ‘attestation box’, that  must now be checked off to ensure no more money goes to naughty and hateful groups that want to limit a ‘woman’s right to choose’.

Of course, the attestation is also required of any institution, whether involved in pro-life (‘anti-abortion’) work or not:  Schools, camps, colleges, small businesses, all of them must now submit, or their application will not even be considered.

In response to the backlash, the government has suggested that such groups not specifically engaged in work against abortion should just check off the box, and their application will then be considered.

It seems, in the unspiritual and unreflective milieu, interior and exterior, in which these people seem to live and move, they don’t seem to grasp that no one of right and sound conscience can ‘check off the box’, without violating that very conscience. It is akin to the situation facing Thomas More, whose own friends and family asked him just to sign the Oath of Supremacy (making Henry VIII unlawfully Head of the Church in England) and not mean it.  Here was the future martyr’s response as given in The Man for All Seasons:

When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.

This whole mess signifies the corruption deep in the heart of this government, and Canada in general (just check out some of the comments under the above linked news article…we don’t seem that far from outright totalitarianism).  Under the rubric of ‘women’s rights’, the Liberals and their supporters not only advocate the deliberate murder of the unborn, but are now requiring everyone else to acquiesce in this evil, as is often the wont of those with seared conscience.  ‘Attesting’ to something means something, which is something Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Hajdu likely already know, and should learn if they do not.

Otherwise, why the box?

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→