A Truly Catholic Christmas Message—Assuming No Legal Abortion In Canada

I commend the Archbishop on his Christmas message this year. It is a no-nonsense call to action rooted in God’s plan to come among us, first as a Babe and then as Saviour, in order to save us from certain death and destruction. Its theme of hope, equality and justice for the poor and vulnerable among us is an outstanding, counter-cultural call and what better time to sound it than during the busy out-of-whack “holiday season”?

But, that said, according to the statistics, isn’t something else grossly out-of-whack? How is it possible to altogether ignore such an injustice?

Archbishop Currie’s Christmas Message 2013

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

As we draw near to Christmas, we remember that Jesus was born in a time of political uncertainty, in a land occupied by a foreign power. A political act, a census, dictated that every man and his family register in their native town. Mary and Joseph thus found themselves far from home and loved ones, on the road, about to bring a child into the world without adequate shelter, money or support. They then became refugees when the king’s jealousy and rage endangered their child’s life. This same human drama is being played out on stages all over the world today. We entered into 2013 moved by the crisis in Syria, a human tragedy on a scale never before seen by humankind, with two million people displaced and rendered refugees. Newfoundlanders found themselves moved to respond. We ended the year with the worst natural disaster in history, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which rendered hundreds of thousands homeless. Once again, Newfoundlanders found it in their hearts to respond.

As refugees, Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have welcomed the aid provided by Newfoundlanders. Knowing what it is to be poor and vulnerable to the ravages of nature, we have consistently opened our hearts, hands and pocketbooks to help people in need. The generosity of Newfoundlanders in time of tremendous and immediate need has moved me greatly. I have been just as moved by the generosity of people who, day in and day out, take time to volunteer, donate to local charities, or bring food to people who are grieving or in need.

It is no coincidence that our God chose to take on human form in and through a poor refugee family. Our God does nothing by accident. God became human in these circumstances to call us to identify with, and give ourselves for, the poor. We cannot be satisfied with “poverty reduction” strategies; we must strive, as Pope Francis urges us, to see the world and people through God’s eyes. He calls us to envision and work for a future of hope and reconciliation, equality and justice. And how will we know that this Kingdom of God is being made real in our midst? The hungry will be fed, the naked will be clothed, the lame will walk, the blind will see, the imprisoned will be freed, and the poor will have Good News proclaimed to them.

In order to bring about this new world, it is important to do what Jesus would do. It is even more important to make Christ present in our world. We Christians do not just slavishly imitate our Master. We have been given His very heart, intelligence, skill and imagination. We must get out there, make a difference wherever we find ourselves, be creative, use our God-given talents and finely-developed skills to make the lives of our brothers and sisters better and our world a more just, more loving, more peaceful place. [emphasis mine]

I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas! May you experience all the blessings of God. Together, let us give thanks for the blessings of this past year, and look forward in hope.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

______________________________

MOST REVEREND MARTIN W. CURRIE

Archbishop of St. John’s

Religious Social Action Coalition Pestering Kathy Dunderdale

Remember this bunch?

They’re still making noises.

Coalition Pushing Government for Minimum Wage Increase 

The Religious Social Action Coalition is pushing the provincial government to increase the minimum wage beyond what has been already announced. The Coalition sent an open letter to Kathy Dunderdale in October, requesting that she consider increasing the minimum wage by 70 cents an hour next month. The government responded with a 25 cent increase in October of next year, but Reverend David Burrows, Coordinator of the RSAC, says that's too little too late.

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Hypocrites. Still don’t have a clue about what real poverty is.

Besides, why don't they do some basic research? Fighting poverty by hiking the minimum wage is a very controversial approach, with no proven record of success.

Parable of Poverty, Dead Children And A Religious Coalition

We are strolling down the street with representatives of the Religious Social Action Coalition. We have come from a faraway country to learn strategies for dealing with poverty in our own country, having learned of the formation of this remarkable Coalition.

They are about to take us on a tour of the streets of St. John’s and show us the reality of child poverty, which they claim needs to be urgently addressed—even abolished—because children are needlessly suffering every day.

As we walk and they share with us their exciting vision of a city and a province without poverty, a horrid sight suddenly overcomes us. There on the sidewalk is the lifeless body of an extremely young child, severely lacerated and with some body parts even missing. We are immediately repulsed and horrified.

“What,” we exclaim, “has happened here to this child? Surely a great and violent crime has been perpetrated against this child and neither the criminal nor the neighbourhood has had the decency to ensure a proper burial! Furthermore it is obvious that the police have not even been called to inquire into this greatest of all injustices against an innocent child!”

Leaders of the Coalition assure us not to be alarmed. They note that we are likely to see at least three of these children in such condition in the city of St. John’s each day that we are on our tour, some of them even much younger than this child and some of them entirely in small pieces as if shredded.

We protest and demand how it is that this can be so. Leaders try to calm us and assure us that this is not a problem to be concerned with. They would like to hurry us along past the dead child and further along into the tour. But we protest further, insisting that we must know more about these heinous crimes that are taking place against innocent children in this great city of St. John’s. We simply cannot move past this child and resume the tour until the grave injustice has been explored and understood.

The Coalition emphasizes that this is not their mandate and that they have chosen to look at other ways in which they can help children and their families, poverty being what they consider to be the most pressing matter. They boast that the urgency of addressing poverty was such an animating force among the leaders of the Coalition that never before in the history of NL is there a record of such a diverse group of religious leaders from all faiths coming together with a united voice to address such a great injustice.

But immediately we ask the leaders, “But what of these children lying in the streets, violently killed and disposed of in such an inhuman, undignified manner? What of justice for them? And why did not such a diverse and powerful Coalition first come together to put an end to the evil practice of child killing in the city? Of what use is it to expend energy in feeding and clothing children when clearly many children in the city are in serious danger of being killed?”

The leaders seem somewhat shaken and at a loss to answer these penetrating questions but assure us that others are looking after the problem, and that, in fact, many residents of the city do not find the killing of these children objectionable.

We are dumbfounded by this claim, asking Coalition members what sort of callous hard hearted people live in this city. Furthermore we demand to know why it is that those who have been assigned to solve these despicable crimes have not been able to put a halt to such barbarism.

We surmise that such crimes might be the result of recent actions by some particularly heinous serial killer(s). But upon inquiry we learn that this activity has been going on for almost forty years in the city. We are totally shocked and appalled by this disclosure and immediately cancel our tour in order to return to our native country, realizing we will learn nothing from Coalition leaders about addressing any of the needs of human beings, let alone children, and admonishing the Coalition to immediately change the focus of their efforts from “abolishing poverty” to abolishing child-killing.

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[This parable needs only one distinction be made in order to clearly reflect the reality of our decrepit condition: Mothers don’t dump their children on the streets of St. John’s. It’s certainly too visible but also unnecessary. The government pays abortionists to kill their children and dispose of them in a dumpster or sell their body parts to various private enterprise firms.]

FLASHBACK: Originally posted on the Vote Life Canada blog, Sept. 9, 2007

What Republicans Can Learn From Pope Francis

Republican politicians are drawn from the general population. They can’t be expected to be any different religiously or culturally than those around them. If they were significantly different they probably would not get elected as Republicans. Nevertheless, the author of this article makes an interesting point.

Republicans are hearing a lot today about how they need to abandon their principles on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion if they want to win elections. But the GOP’s problem today is not that it is too socially conservative; it is that Republicans are seen as defenders of the rich and powerful instead of the poor and vulnerable. 

If Republicans want to change that impression, there is a simple solution: Be more like Pope Francis — defender of the family, the unborn and the poor.

Full article here…