Supreme Court of Canada Decision Sets Back Free Speech

Yesterday’s decision really bodes badly for Canadian free speech and particularly the freedom of Christians to express what they believe to be divinely ordained truth, i.e. the Bible, traditional Christian teaching etc.

From LifeSiteNews…

Canada’s top court has released an unanimous decision today that critics say has struck a monumental blow against freedom of speech, opinion, and religion across the country. The court ordered the defendant, a Catholic pro-family activist with a reputation for intense activism, not only to pay a fine, but also to pay court costs which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

From Jonathan Kay at National Post…

The complication is that millions of Canadians do see homosexual behaviour in exactly those fire-and-brimstone terms, even if the rest of us (myself included) do not. They include not only many religious Christians such as Mr. Whatcott, but also many religious Muslims and Jews. And there is no sugar-coating the fact that — despite its claim to be “balancing” the rights of all concerned — the Court effectively has privileged the protection of gay Canadians over the right of religious Christians to promote what they view as the established, Biblical take on homosexuality.

Moreover, the Court wrongly chose to wipe away any distinction between hating acts associated with homosexuality, and hating homosexuals as people. That distinction may be meaningless for most Canadians. But it is an important distinction in Christian doctrine. Whatcott himself specifically invites gays to “repent” their ways and attain salvation — which suggests, crucially, that he does not regard any person as permanently stained by sin.

Ezra Levant is frustrated with this ruling and points out the stupidity and confusion of the Court:

Miniseries "The Bible" Will be Airing for Lent

I'm looking forward to this series. Let's hope it is faithful to the Bible narrative and therefore glorifying to God.
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"Touched by an Angel" star Roma Downey and her producer-husband Mark Burnett discuss the miniseries "The Bible" they co-produced for The History Channel and how their faith guided them to create the epic in time for Lent.

20th Anniversary of World Trade Center Bombing

Andrew C. McCarthy, explaining why, twenty years later, America (and Canada and the West) is today more willfully blind.

The World Trade Center bombing was Islamic supremacism’s declaration of war on the United States. It was a blunt statement by the savage shock troops of a worldwide movement that America — “the head of the snake,” as the Blind Sheikh called us — could be struck at home, right in the beating heart of economic liberty.

Despite serial atrocities, thousands of deaths, and a decade of war, we are today more willfully blind to the reason we were attacked than we were back in 1993 — back when our ignorance might have been excused by our homeland’s seeming invulnerability to the scourge of jihadist terror. Regardless of our reluctance to see it, mainstream Islam — the dynamic Islam of the Middle East, unadulterated by incentives to moderate, at least for a time, while settling in non-Muslim lands — is aggressively hegemonic. As proclaimed by another iconic supremacist, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated.”

Full article here.

A Canadian pope? The word on Marc Ouellet

Interesting reading from a Canadian point of view on the possibility of a Canadian Pope, in two separate articles by the Vancouver Sun.

The odds are strong – seven to two – that Canada will next month become much more famous.

Two big British bookmakers are putting serious money on a Canadian horse: Ladbrokes and PaddyPower are betting that Marc Ouellet, a cardinal from Quebec, could be elected pope at the March conclave.

If that happens, Canada’s Catholic roots and its supposedly polite, multi-faith culture will be thrust into the international spotlight.

The interest has already arrived. Popular American satirist Stephen Colbert devoted much of a show last week to mock-complaining that Ouellet would be “too Canadian” (i.e., too nice) to be pope.

When a man is catapulted to the top of a church of 1.2 billion people, unpredictable things happen to him and his country of origin. For good or ill.

More here.

Part 2: Read the rest

A Canadian pope? PART TWO: The state of northern Catholicism

Apparently there was a time when Bishops had political clout. Here's a quote from Part 2.

  

The days of Catholic bishops calling the political shots in Canada faded after the Quiet Revolution in Quebec in the 1960s.

If there was ever a reason for the Bishops to return to a position of authority and influence, it is now.

Pope Benedict: I am not abandoning the church

SHOCK: Pope Benedict XVI to Resign

The Vatican Radio website has just posted Pope Benedict's resignation statement. Here it is:

Full text of Pope's declaration:

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

Cardinal Raymond Burke: Deny Holy Communion to Abortion Supporting Pols

Cardinal Burke is a courageous Catholic Bishop with a formula from Canon Law that would end legal abortion if other Bishops were to likewise comply .
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As the Irish parliament considers legalizing some abortions, Cardinal Raymond Burke says that local Catholic politicians who support the procedure should be refused Holy Communion in hopes of inspiring their conversion.

“There can be no question that the practice of abortion is among the gravest of manifest sins,” Cardinal Burke told the Irish newspaper Catholic Voice in an interview published Feb. 1.

Once “a Catholic politician has been admonished that he should not come forward to receive Holy Communion,” the cardinal added, “as long as he continues to support legislation which fosters abortion or other intrinsic evils, then he should be refused Holy Communion.”

Full story: