by Steve Jalsevac
Today has been a shocker for Ontario parents and pro-family leaders and activists, especially those involved with the province’s huge Catholic school system.
One shock was the passage of the Liberal government’s mad Bill 13. That’s the forced gay normalization in all schools bill camouflaged as an “anti-bullying” bill, which is now even worse after last week’s committee hearing amendments were added. The pro-gay amendments were added even though over 80% of presenters at the hearings spoke against the bill.
The bigger shock, which is leaving many Catholic parents reeling, is what is being called a “pathetic”, unbelievably weak response today from the Archdiocese of Toronto, headed by Cardinal Thomas Collins and from the Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association.
The main message these Catholic leaders are giving is that the bill has been passed and the schools will obey the law and implement the government’s mandated new policies. Those policies, no matter how the bishops and the school trustees try to spin will be implemented in a Catholic way, will in practice promote things in the schools that undermine and violate Catholic moral principles, especially since there are so few staff in the schools today who understand and accept Catholic moral teachings.
Really, does Church law and tradition even permit any schools labelled “Catholic” to implement these Bill 13 policies, regardless of whether government requires it or not?
What little is left of the Catholicity of constitutionally protected Ontario separate schools is all but lost now unless very strong, quick action is taken. And you can be sure that private Christian and other schools and homeschoolers will be next on the government hit list for radical social engineering. All must conform to the new social fascism.
At this dreadful late stage, there is STILL no talk from Catholic institutional leaders of fighting the bill’s mandates; of hard hitting immediate lawsuits; invoking Section 93 of the Constitution Act and refusing to cooperate with this unconstitutional, unjust and immoral bill; of rousing the millions of Catholics in all parishes in the province to demonstrate, write, call, email, visit their MPs and the Premier to demand they rescind this evil bill; of working closely with all other faith denominations opposed to this unjust imposition that will corrupt many children.
The response so far is that, “Catholic schools will remain welcoming places for all students in full accord with the Accepting Schools Act and Catholic teaching and tradition”. I am getting word that reading this is causing nausea among some who have been fighting this legislation with everything they could muster for the past few years - totally without any public or even private useful support or cooperation from the bishops who preferred to rely on establishment advisors who have a long history of not putting faith and principles first.
In the United States we have Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Chaput and many other bishops waging a strong public campaign against the Obama mandate, refusing to cooperate with it and telling the Catholics in the pews and in the schools and in all Catholic institutions to fight it and demand the withdrawal of that odious legislation. But in Canada we don’t like getting adversarial and confronting tyrants.
I have been convinced from the beginning that this legislation could have been trounced with far more aggessive, totally justified Church action, just as Cardinal Ambrozic did in working with other faith leaders to bring about the defeat of the Ontario NDP same-sex legislation Bill 167 in 1994.
Still, all need not be lost even at this late stage. I say immediately replace all the failed advisors, turn to the faithful, and show the real power of the Catholic Church leadership to deal with politicians who dare to tread where they have no business treading. We can give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but must not also give to Caesar what belongs to God. And that is what Bill 13 is giving to self-appointed false Pope Dalton McGuinty.
And while at it, finally clean house. That is, begin the decades overdue process of cleaning out the traitorous and false Catholic teachers’ union and the unrepentant homosexuals and other moral dissidents working in Catholic institutions, including some parishes and chanceries. Replace the weak catechetical materials and problematic, if not harmful “Catholic” sex ed programs. Start mandating the preaching of authentic Church teaching on difficult moral issues that have not been preached about in the parishes for many years.
It is no wonder that more Catholics are not on side on this. They never hear about it from the Church or in Catholic schools, except from dissidents, and if some courageous pastors or teachers take the plunge they are rebuked, fired, moved or sent for physchological evaluation by “head office” because one or two people complained.
This whole debacle could be seen as a providential call for a thorough re-examination of many serious failings that have weakened all our institutions, leading in turn to the current situation where our very freedoms and rights are in danger of being eliminated. There is still time for action - action needed for the benefit of all Ontarians, of all faiths and of no faith. We must not just look for exemptions for our own denomination from a law that is an injustice for all.
And lastly, but not any less important than all of the above, Catholics and those of other faiths should pray especially hard for their religious leaders to gain the fortitude, the wisdom and the courage to replace the yes men around them with men and women of passionate faith and then do what they must do at this time, while we also should pray for ourselves and our different roles in these great cultural struggles.
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