An impending religious persecution in Canada?

By Pete Vere
web posted August 4, 2003

Less than two months ago, Prime Minister Jean Chretien was
assuring Canadians that the legalization of same-sex marriage in
Canada would not lead to religious persecution. Various religious
bodies in Canada would be permitted to continue holding and
teaching their beliefs. My how things changed have changed over
the summer. According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail,
Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie is
now under attack by some among Canada's political and social
elite. Why? Because he had the audacity to take the Prime
Minister at his word and clarify Catholic teaching for Catholic
politicians who prefer to fudge the issue.

"I don't think a man can allow himself to be divided by his
convictions," the Globe and Mail quotes Bishop Plouffe as
having stated. "A politician cannot be totally schizophrenic. If he
is, he is not being real [...] I would expect a Catholic politician
would not push away his Catholic convictions because he's a
politician. I would expect him to be authentic." According to this
same article, the words of Bishop Plouffe's counterpart in
Calgary were much more forceful. The Prime Minister is
"endangering his salvation," Bishop Henry reportedly states.

I know Bishop Plouffe. I grew up in his diocese and he
confirmed me as young teenager. Under his episcopate, my
father was ordained to the Catholic Church's permanent
diaconate. Most Canadian Catholic commentators like myself
would describe Bishop Plouffe as a moderate progressive -
hardly an icon of Canada's religious right.

And yet, according to the same Globe and Mail: "The comments
by Roman Catholic Church leaders have angered gay-rights
activists and other religious groups. ‘It's just appalling,' said
Michael Leshner, who legally wed his partner, Michael Stark, in
Toronto in June, Canada's first same-sex marriage. ‘It's
sickening, it's obnoxious and it's got to stop.' [...] He accused the
Catholic church of preaching ‘religious intolerance,' adding, ‘The
Charter of Rights trumps the Bible.'"

As a young Canadian social conservative, I have a few choice
words for Mr. Leshner's arrogance in asserting a pan-sexual
hedonistic legal positivism over the wisdom and authority of the
Natural Law. However, I think I will save this response for an
American publication, where at least the First Ammendment
protects my freedom of religion and expression. For while some
might dismiss Mr. Leshner's threats as empty, I cannot share this
optimism.

Mr. Leshner is a Crown Attorney in Toronto - Canada's largest
city, and one of its most politically influential ones. As such, Mr.
Leshner is part of the judicial culture that usurped the role of our
democratically elected legislature in bringing about the
legalization of same-sex marriage. Thus in reading between the
lines, I am reluctant to dismiss Mr. Leshner's threats as those of
your average homosexual activist. As he has already shown, he
more than capable of carrying them out in our current milieu of
judicial activism.

Nevertheless, what has Bishop Plouffe done to deserve what appears to be
a veiled threat of legal action? His words are nowhere as politically incorrect
as those of his counterpart in Calgary. Nor is Bishop Plouffe, like Fred
Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, encouraging his flock to picket homosexual
funerals with "God hates Fags" placards. Knowing His Excellency well, I am
certain he condemns such religiously inspired hate, as do the majority of
Catholics and Baptists. After all, Christ preaches the Gospel of Love, calling
all sinners to conversion.

Rather, Bishop Plouffe simply reminds politicians claiming to be
Catholic of their moral obligation to behave as Catholics in
Canada's legislative assemblies. According to the Second
Vatican Council, this is one of the three main functions of the
Catholic episcopate, namely, to teach the Catholic Faith to the
Church's adherents. Almost all religions make similar
requirements of their clergy.
 
Unfortunately, in the opinion of at least one prominent
homosexual legal activist, Bishop Plouffe's words now constitute
religious intolerance under a new judicial oligarchy in which the
feelings of sexual minorities trump religious rights and freedoms.
So much for our Prime Minister's promise to protect religious
freedom in Canada. As a young Canadian social conservative, I
feel more secure in the United States where the First
Amendment guarantees my freedom of religious expression. And
unlike Canada's political leadership, President Bush both
respects the religious convictions of all Americans and possesses
the strength of character to live according to his own.

Pete Vere, JCL is a canon lawyer and a Catholic social and
religious commentator from Sudbury, Ontario. He now writes
from Nokomis, Florida, where he and his family enjoy no state
income tax along with life within walking distance of the Gulf of
Mexico. His work has been published in numerous Canadian
and American Catholic publications.

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