Charitable Status to be, or not to be, Revoked – and Then Some: Whither the Church in Canada?

Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (John 15:2)

Many of the persecutions in history began as bland, bureaucratic laws. Latent therein, however, was deep evil. The persecutions in ancient Rome were a simple request to throw a pinch of incense to placate the local gods, just to keep the peace, and all would be well. The French Revolutionaries asked priests to swear to the legalese of the Civil Constitution – and one had to look closely to see what that entailed. Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries – resulting in the martyrdom of untold number of monks and the closure of every religious house in England – had as initial purpose (so they said) to make an inventory of their goods and accounting practices. And his own Oath of Supremacy, declaring the King ‘head of the Church’ – well, only Thomas More’s finely trained Catholic legal mind could fully and honestly see where that was headed.

Just so, buried in hundreds of pages of proposed tax reform legislation of last December, 2024, the Liberal government buried their own intent to remove charitable status from any ‘anti-abortion’ organization, or any that has as its primary purpose the ‘advancement of religion’. For a more detailed analysis, with some good legal questions on what these vaguely worded terms might mean, see here. As well, Peter Baklinksi has a good summary of this possible legislation here.

It is a vivid irony that a very un-charitable, immoral government supporting all sorts of evil and mayhem – from abortion to medically-assisted suicide – gets to decide who is a ‘charity’ and not.

There is also the deep problem of the very notion of an ‘income tax’ itself, first put in as a ‘temporary and emergency measure’ during the Great War – but we all know what happens with those. The government got addicted to the largesse, which now provides most of its funds. It’s not only not gone away, but metastasized, and the state now seizes a good portion of our paycheque, feeding its growth into a bloated behemoth, consuming untold billions every year. Canadians, unto the umpteenth generation, are paying for it all.

One relief from this oppressive tax burden is to give to charities. And the Church, in her visible, hierarchical dimension, relies on being exempt from tax and her own charitable status. But this means that her bishops and priests must watch what they say, especially if what is said strays anywhere near anything deemed ‘political’ – which is pretty much everything now – in case they lose that ‘charitable status’.

But this proposed legislation goes further than simply removing ‘charitable status’, which could be tolerated, and may even do much good. But there is more: targeted organizations will also have to pay a ‘revocation tax’, to the sum of 100% of their assets – buildings and chattel – unless they can transfer these to an ‘approved’ charity. This will bankrupt them all, and given the ambiguity of the criteria for closure – much like Cromwell’s closing of the monasteries for whatever reasons he deemed fit – no one will be exempt who has any whiff of pro-life sentiment or religious zeal. Churches, schools, charities that help new mothers, pro-life groups and counselling centres, convents, religious houses, colleges – even, dare I say, Catholic magazines.

I can’t help but think the Church in Canada partly brought this upon herself, giving free reign to the Trudeaus’ – senior and junior – with nary a rebuke or remonstrance to their nefarious socialist agenda running roughshod over the Church and the very foundations of our society. From the Winnipeg statement onwards, there has been too much silence and complaisance on the grave moral crises of our time. And this not just from our hierarchy, but from all of us. It’s a subtle form of quasi-Erastianism, with the Church subject to an omnipotent state.

All is not lost, and we may see much good from this proposed legislation, in unifying and even purifying the Church. Cardinal Frank Leo has penned two forceful letters, one to the Finance Minister against this ruinous change to the tax law. The other is to the Health Minister, against MAiD – medical assistance in dying, or, more simply, state-sanctioned murder-suicide. The tide may be turning, leaving the murky moral waters of the Winnipeg statement in the dust and ashes, where it belongs.

There’s also a petition going around, to ask that this legislation be buried. I sympathize, for I enjoy walking down to Mass and access to the sacraments in our lovely local church. I also teach at a private Catholic college, which could be described as ‘anti-abortion’ and ‘advancing religion’. The same could be said for this magazine which I happen to edit. The same could be said of any number – hundreds, if not thousands – of other apostolates across our fair land.

As imperfect, even disordered, as all these things may be, I want them – well, most of them, perhaps – to continue to exist, so they become more perfect. As long as there an opportunity for reform and renewal, let’s re-form and re-new.

But perhaps God doesn’t want the status quo to continue, but rather shake things up, and shake us out of our complacence. After all, most Catholics in Canada don’t practice their Faith in any meaningful sense, with only a small minority fulfilling the Sunday precept to attend Mass, to say nothing of fidelity to Humanae Vitae and the rest of the moral law. As the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. The Almighty does send punishment as a means of repentance, and there’s lots of precedent in history and Scripture.

I know not the future, nor whether this proposed legislation will ever see the light of day. But we may be in for a sturm und drang if this is imposed by our modern atheistic authoritarian state, which has a distinct animosity to the Catholic Church in particular. Perhaps a dose of persecution will follow, and the loss of much our buildings and wealth. The result may be a smaller, even underground, Church, that may well grow in spiritual strength and zeal, which Cardinal Ratzinger predicted back in 1967 in this radio interview, and a fitting conclusion to these dire, yet hopeful, thoughts may be the prediction of the great theologian, cardinal and Pope, who saw farther, and deeper, than the rest of us:

 

God brings good out of all things, even the greatest evil. We trust in Him, and praise Him still, through whatever storms are on the horizon. We are made for heaven, and thither we must go.

We’re in the middle of our novena to Saint Joseph, patron of the Universal Church and of Canada, so let us beseech his intercession. As well, of the Canadian Martyrs, and all the holy saints of this fair Dominion.  Orate pro nobis!