Politics
Friday December 2, 2005
See today's LifeSiteNews stories- Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay "Marriage" Prime Minister Does Campaign Stop at Catholic High School
- British Columbia Lesbians Determined to Extract More From Knights of Columbus
- Chilean Supreme Court Orders Sale of Abortifacient Morning-After Pill
- “Gays” cannot be Seminary Rectors or Professors says Vatican Document Cover Letter
- Latvian Parliament Overwhelmingly Supports Constitutional Protection for Traditional Marriage
- Princeton Bioethicist says only “Know-Nothing Religious Fundamentalists” will Value Human Life by 2040
- US Political Wiz Ralph Reed Urges Canadian Social Conservatives to “Make History” This Election
- Crystal Meth User not Guilty of Manslaughter of Unborn Son
- Pharmacists Rightly Concerned about Women’s Health and Plan B
Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay "Marriage" Prime Minister Does Campaign Stop at Catholic High School
By John-Henry Westen
CORNWALL, ON, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday, Prime Minister Paul Martin arrived at St. Joseph's Secondary School in Cornwall with the full campaign bus of national reporters, televising a live nationwide address through CBC Newsworld.
The fact that Canada is currently in a federal election does not seem to have fazed school officials when Martin's staff requested the visit. The campaign stop was a perfect photo op with school children whooping wildly, and waving flags for the Leader of the Liberal Party. Neither has it offended sensibilities at the Catholic school and board of education that a politician who supports abortion and homosexual "marriage" all the while claiming to be a "strong Catholic" would be given a platform.
The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario website (http://www.cdsbeo.on.ca/) features a photo of Martin wearing a school jersey with students behind and a backdrop of a huge Canadian flag. While the school board claims, Martin visit was not political, the school website (http://www.sjssonline.com/home.html ) suggests a different story. "At the end of the question period Kristen Stanley and other members of students' council presented Mr. Martin with a St. Joe's hockey jersey," explains the school website. "Stanley joked that both our teams are undefeated and perhaps the jersey would bring Mr. Martin good luck in the upcoming election."
Mary Ellen Douglas, President of Campaign Life Coalition Ontario commented on the incident telling LifeSiteNews.com, "It's bad enough that the school would allow a partisan political campaign stop at their instruction. However, a Catholic school accepting a visit from a pro-abortion politician who just forced same-sex 'marriage' on the country is beyond the pale."
In addition to Principal Jack McCue, board Superintendent of Education Jane McMillan was on hand to greet the Liberal Leader prior his address to the students.
Board spokesman Bob Perreault told LifeSiteNews.com that St. Jospeh's Principal McCue would not comment on the story and comment from the board would only come from McMillan. McMillan failed to return calls prior to press time.
The local Bishop said he was not consulted on the Martin invite. "I was not involved in that decision making process," Alexandria-Cornwall Bishop Paul-André Durocher told LifeSiteNews.com. "I learned about Mr. Martin coming to the school just a few hours before it happened."
Of the Catholic School Board's acceptance of the Prime Minister's request to come to speak at the school, Bishop Durocher said, "The Prime Minister did not present it as a campaign call but as an opportunity to discuss globalization with the students."
Bishop Durocher added that he had spoken to one person who attended the event at the school who informed him that "students were not impressed with Mr. Martin at the end of the whole thing."
Last year the United States of Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) adopted a statement, "Catholics in Political Life," which says pro-abortion politicians should not be honored by Catholic community and Catholic institutions. "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions," said the statement. (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html )
Asked about his impression of the school's recent allowance of Martin, in light of the widely reported USCCB document, Bishop Durocher responded, "I'm not aware of that document."
To POLITELY express concerns:
Most Rev. Paul-André Durocher
admin@alexandria-cornwall.ca
220, ch. Montréal Rd., C.P. / Box 1388, Cornwall ON K6H 5V4 Telephone / Téléphone (613) 933-1138; Fax / Télécopieur (613) 937-4931
The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario
Eastern Region Education Centre
835 Campbell Street
Cornwall, Ontario
K6H 7B7
Telephone: (613) 933-1720
Toll-free: 1-800-267-7136
Fax: (613) 933-7966
(613) 258-7757 Fax: (613) 258-5067 E-Mail: ann.perron@cdsbeo.on.ca
Back to Top British Columbia Lesbians Determined to Extract More From Knights of Columbus
Blogger exposes “travesty” of highly questionable Human Rights tribunal decision
By Terry Vanderheyden
EDMONTON, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The two lesbians who succeeded in getting a BC Human Rights Tribunal to grant them $2,000 in damages from the Knights of Columbus for the “humiliation” they suffered for being denied a hall to celebrate their same-sex “wedding” are appealing that decision. They want to extract much more from the Catholic men’s fraternal association and make an example of them.
Meanwhile, a web-logger (blogger) has analyzed the decision and circumstances of the case and concluded that the Human Rights decision was “pathetic” and a “travesty” of justice.
In reading through the decision, Bob Tarantino at Let It Bleed noted that “The three panellists furrowed their brows, quoted a whole bunch of irrelevant case law, contradicted themselves about a jillion times and then, when not even that mash-up could get them to the result they wanted, they just made it up.”
** See the rest of this LifeSiteNews.com SPECIAL REPORT at
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/051202a.html
Chilean Supreme Court Orders Sale of Abortifacient Morning-After Pill
Population controllers, through activist court, have finally breached pro-life nation
By Terry Vanderheyden
SANTIAGO, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chile’s Supreme Court has reversed course and ruled that the abortifacient morning-after pill can now be sold, according to an EFE News service report. Previous developments on the issue indicate that the pro-life country has most likely endured intense pressure from international population control agencies forcing this dramatic about face.
In 2001, after the government’s minister of health approved use of the morning-after pill, the Chilean Supreme Court, recognizing the abortifacient component of the pill, banned its use in Chile, where abortion was illegal. The 3-2 vote overturned a lower court ruling in favour of the pill.
Only moments later, the Ministry of Health approved another similar pill arguing that the court only banned a certain brand-name of abortifacient morning-after pill. The court decided to ban use of the abortifacient morning-after pill, Postinal. Just moments after the ruling, the Health Ministry gave final approval to German drug maker Grunenthal's brand of abortifacient morning after pill. The morning-after pill has been distributed free to Chilean women who are victims of rape.
After a refusal by a majority of the country’s Mayors to distribute the pill there last year, Health Minister Pedro Garcia warned them: distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill in your towns or face sanctions.
Up until now, Chile was one of only five countries world-wide that banned all abortions. The Chilean constitution contains a prohibition against abortion. The United Nations has repeatedly badgered Chile, along with other countries that still prohibit abortion, to change their law. A UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ruled last November that the countries should allow abortion in cases of rape and incest.
In 1999, a UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women complained bitterly that Chile did not offer legal abortion or divorce and demanded that its laws “must” be changed.
Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo warned about the abortifacient nature of the morning after pill in 2001. “It is very grave that an attempt is being made to confuse public opinion with ambiguous terms,” he said, as reported by Zenit News. “The process of human life does not begin with the embryo’s adherence to the maternal womb, but before, at the very moment of conception. Hence, to talk about ‘impeding implantation in the uterus’ is nothing but a euphemism in an attempt to disguise abortion.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
United Nations Now Pushes Chile and Malta to Legalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04113003.html
UN Orders Chile To Provide Abortion And Divorce
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/jun/99062301.html
Chilean Health Ministry Defies Supreme Court By Allowing Abortifacient Pills
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01090603.html
Vatican Cardinal Warns of Deception over ‘Emergency Contraceptives’
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/apr/01040502.html
Chilean Minister of Health Threatens Mayors: Distribute Morning-After Pill or Face Sanctions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04050606.html
Doctor Spells Out Abortive Nature Of "Emergency Contraception"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/june/99062302.html
“Gays” cannot be Seminary Rectors or Professors says Vatican Document Cover Letter
By Hilary White
ROME, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A part of the Vatican’s instruction on banning homosexuals from Catholic seminaries that did not gain widespread media attention was a covering letter accompanying it that specified that “gay” men must not be allowed to be seminary rectors or professors.
Signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the education congregation, and Archbishop J. Michael Miller, the congregation’s secretary, the letter specified that the instructions “must be adhered to faithfully,” a stipulation expected to rankle among North American and European bishops who have long been accustomed to a creative interpretation of obedience to Rome.
The letter made it clear that although there are no current plans to remove from ministry those homosexuals who have already been ordained, such men cannot be allowed to participate in the formation of seminarians.
The letter stated that as with all priests, they must continue in their calling to celibate chastity but, "Because of the particular responsibility of those charged with the formation of future priests, they are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries."
In an interview with the US Public Broadcasting Service, (PBS) Fr. Joseph Fessio, the well-known supporter of Catholic orthodoxy and head of the Pope’s English language publishers, Ignatius Press, said that the document says nothing that is new about Catholic teaching on sexuality but that the teaching is largely being ignored in modern seminaries. Fessio expressed his gratitude for the document because it clarified that “homosexuality is not something neutral. It's not a gift of God. It's an affective disorder. That does not mean that those who are afflicted with it are bad persons.”
PBS spokeswoman, Margaret Warner, asked if it means that to the Catholic Church, homosexuals are “unfit for the priesthood.” Fessio replied, “That’s correct.”
Fessio clarified, “The Catholic Church has taught from the beginning that homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral, against God's plan, against the natural law and are serious sins, and that, therefore, a tendency to indulge in those acts, or desire for them, is an objective psychological disorder.”
Father John Harvey, the founder of Courage, the organization for recovering homosexuals that is faithful to the Church’s teaching, said in an interview with the Rome news service, Zenit, that he was also grateful for the document. “It is clear of two types they do not want: those who are actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle and those who push the gay agenda, that "gay is good." People with that view should not be in seminary,” Harvey said.
“For years within the Church we have had people pushing the gay agenda,” Harvey continued. “Groups such as Dignity, New Age Ministry, and gay and lesbian ministries. It is about time the Church said clearly that if seminarians have gay tendencies, we need to be aware of it. They should not hide their same-sex attractions or lie about it.”
The question is being asked in many corners, however, whether the document will be implemented by bishops according to what Fessio calls the “blunt” teaching or by the standard of ‘business as usual.
Diogenes, the pseudonymous blogger and commentator at Catholic World News neatly summed up the expectation - or lack thereof - of many observers, saying that whether the document is a juridically binding document may make little difference to bishops long accustomed to ignoring or ‘reinterpreting’ most Roman instructions. He writes, “Binding or not, we know what the Vatican wants. Now we'll see which bishops want the same thing.
Read Fr. Fessio’s interview with PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/july-dec05/gays_11-2...
Read Fr. Harvey’s interview with Zenit:
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=80897
Latvian Parliament Overwhelmingly Supports Constitutional Protection for Traditional Marriage
Implemented to prevent possibility of US and Canadian type activist judge decisions
By Terry Vanderheyden
RIGA, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An overwhelming majority of Latvian legislators confirmed a proposal to enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in the country's constitution yesterday.
Seventy-three of the 100-member parliament ratified the measure; a two-thirds majority is necessary to effect a change to the country's constitution. Although same-sex "marriage" is already prohibited by law in Latvia, a change to the constitution assures the law will be less likely to be amended by an activist court - a real worry in light of events in Canada and the US.
The constitutional amendment proposition came after an activist court ruled in July that a banned Riga gay-pride parade could go forward. Pressured by the government and Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, Riga reversed an earlier decision to allow the parade. The day before the parade, Riga District Administrative Court ruled the ban illegal.
Approximately 50 homosexual-rights activists showed up for the march; the small contingent was dwarfed by thousands of protestors. Following the parade, the combined efforts of members from the Lutheran and Catholic churches urged the constitutional amendment, supported by the Prime Minister's First Party of Latvia.
Latvian Cardinal Janis Pujats warned in August that homosexual militancy is more dangerous than the militancy experienced by the war-torn country in Soviet times. "In Soviet times we faced atheism, which oppressed religion; now we have an era of sexual atheism," he said. "This form of atheism is even more infectious and dangerous, spiritual values disappear in a swamp of sexual irregularity."
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Latvian Cardinal Warns Gay Militancy More Dangerous than Soviet Times
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05081609.html
Princeton Bioethicist says only “Know-Nothing Religious Fundamentalists” will Value Human Life by 2040
By Hilary White
PRINCETON, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Infamous advocate of infanticide and the man often credited as the founder of the modern radical animal rights movement, Dr. Peter Singer, was featured in the National Post this week predicting that the traditional ethics of western civilization would shortly be abolished. Singer’s comments appeared first in the September/October edition of the journal Foreign Policy as a speculation on what cherished social institutions would still exist in 35 years.
Singer, a strict utilitarian and the man the New York Times called the “greatest living philosopher,” says, “By 2040, it may be that only a rump of hard-core, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct.”
The title, “The Sanctity of Life,” can only be meant as ironic coming from a man who has made his fame advocating abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, infanticide up to thirty days after birth and euthanasia for the elderly and infirm.
Singer’s predictions, shocking as they may appear, are well on the way to fruition, however. With the advance of utilitarian philosophy at both ends of human life, first with abortion, then with cloning, IVF, and growing rates of infanticide, and then with the acceptance of euthanasia, Singer has merely given an approving nod to what is verifiably happening all over the world.
He predicts bluntly, “During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments.”
What Singer refuses to acknowledge is that there is no unavoidable necessity for this collapse. In fact most of it is being forced on nations by activist judges, undemocratic government and other organization actions and ruthless elites, who have constantly distorted facts to suit their agendas.
Technology has been developing since the emergence of organized human culture. In all that time, however, it is not until our own epoch that the suicidal anti-human philosophy has been so broadly accepted. In no other time before the modern age, has it been seriously proposed that the development of technology must necessarily supercede the inherent value of human life.
Ironically, as the implementation of Singer’s philosophical imperatives of drastic population reduction, mass euthanasia programmes, abortion and infanticide advance, the logical outcome will be that only those “know-nothing religious fundamentalists” he excoriates will survive the anti-human pogroms.
Read the full article:
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/200509--.htm
US Political Wiz Ralph Reed Urges Canadian Social Conservatives to “Make History” This Election
TORONTO, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – US political wiz, Dr. Ralph Reed, addressing a Toronto gathering of religious and other social conservative leaders Nov. 30, urged them to organize effectively and on Jan. 23 “usher in the greatest victory in the history of this country.”
Dr. Reed, was senior adviser for President George W. Bush’s election campaign and as executive director of the Christian Coalition built the most influential grassroots organization in recent U.S. politics. He was invited to address the Wednesday evening banquet of the three day 2005 Canadian Values - Embrace Democracy conference organized by the Institute for Canadian Values.
The banquet was attended by a wide range of leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups and leaders of social conservative advocacy organizations such as Campaign Life Coalition and Canada Family Action Coalition (co-sponsors of the event).
Reed warned his listeners, "We're not trying to change a church into a political party, and we're not trying to change a political party into a church, but if the people of the church don't get involved, somebody else will." He followed with some tips on how to win an election.
“How are you gonna do it?” he rhetorically asked and gave four points. “Number one”, he emphasized, “you have to build a grassroots organization that will touch every single voter in the country between now and election day”. Point two was “train your people to be effective”. Next was set and meet “achievable goals” and lastly Reed told the assembled group of leaders anxious to influence this crucial election that they had to work very hard “to get out the vote”.
His very attentive listeners were challenged by Reed to “get on your work boots and tennis shoes and go out there like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on God and let’s usher in the greatest victory in the history of this country.”
A few Conservative candidates from the Toronto region also attended the event, including Ontario PC Jim Flaherty, John Carmichael, Rondo Thomas, Michael Mostyn, and Tim Dobson.
Crystal Meth User not Guilty of Manslaughter of Unborn Son
By Hilary White
HONOLULU, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday that 32-year-old Tayshea Aiwohi, whose son died two days after she smoked crystal methamphetamine on the day of his birth, was not guilty of manslaughter, overturning a previous court’s ruling.
The court’s ruling was based on the legal notion that an unborn child is not a person under the law and so no person was harmed when Aiwohi used the drug. No US court has convicted a woman for the death of an unborn child due to abuse in the womb.
City Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Kim, decried the legal fiction of non-personhood of the unborn saying, “"We continue to believe that babies such as Treyson Aiwohi deserve the protection of the law," he said. "And we also continue to believe that people like Tayshea Aiwohi doing what she did to her baby continue to deserve to suffer the consequences of the law for those actions."
A report from the National Drug Intelligence Center, says that crystal methamphetamine, known as “ice” on the street, is Hawaii’s greatest drug threat. Honolulu had the highest percentage of adult male arrestees who tested positive for methamphetamine among cities reporting to the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program in 2000. The Center’s website says that abuse of the drug has caused many abusers to assault and even kill family members, including children.
Aiwohi was shown during the court proceedings to have used the drug on the day of her son Treyson’s birth on July 15, 2001, and he died two days later. The city medical examiner's office found high levels of methamphetamine in Treyson’s blood.
Associate Justice Paula Nakayama noted in her decision the irony that an "overwhelming majority" of other courts have upheld convictions of persons inflicting injury on pregnant women causing the death of the newborn child, but it is impossible to prosecute and convict the mother for similar behavior.
The legal confusion caused by the acceptance of abortion on demand and the consequent refusal to recognize the existence of an unborn child, has created a set of irreconcilable conflicts in court cases of this kind. Nakayama said that the "logical implication" of yesterday's decision is that a person cannot be prosecuted for causing the death of a child by injuring the pregnant mother.
Pharmacists Rightly Concerned about Women’s Health and Plan B
LifeSiteNews.com staff
TORONTO, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Guidelines from the Canadian Pharmacists Association advise pharmacists to collect a woman’s name, address, phone number and details about her sexual activity before they dispense the so-called “morning-after pill”. After Heath Canada made levonorgestral or Plan B an over the counter drug, the pharmacists association posted guidelines which suggested a screening of the patient.
Women groups such as the Canadian Women’s Health Network are asking that the drug be made available in grocery and variety stores in order to protect women’s privacy.
“This drug is a double dose birth control pill which is a hazard to women’s health. Even the regular birth control pill causes blood clots and strokes,” said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC).”The morning-after pill also prevents the newly conceived child from implanting in the uterus, resulting in the death of the child. Promoters are trying to deceive the public into believing that this is not an abortifacient and that it is safe for women.”
“It would seem to me that women’s groups should be happy that pharmacists are more concerned about a woman’s health then their groups are. The pharmacists are very wise in taking these precautions for the dispensing of such dangerous medication,” said Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer for CLC. “If Health Canada and the women’s groups do not understand the risk that women are taking with these drugs, the pharmacists do and they
are not about to be sued,” she continued.
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