The  National Post published a column today that clumsily limps its way through the abortion debate before eventually arriving at the conclusion that the status quo on abortion legislation in Canada is the best way to go. It’s a really weak article and not worth wasting your time to read, hence I won’t bother providing the link. I’m flagging it merely in case some of you read it and were misled by this nonsense.

The author doesn’t build an argument to the effect that the authentic pro-life position – that abortion is never justified – is incoherent. He doesn’t provide any logical or medical facts to refute the pro-life stance. He simply points to polls suggesting that many self-identified “pro-lifers” believe that abortion is justifiable in some circumstances. So what? That’s hardly an argument.

Nor does he provide any logical or medical argument for his alternative: that birth should be the only demarcation line between murder and a medical procedure.

His argumentation is very weak. But what do you expect? Pro-choicers lost the argument a long time ago. That’s why they resort to bullying and arresting people. Unfortunately, many casual readers won’t have noticed the absence of meat in his article and may very well just gobble up his conclusion.

Contrast this to the sanity from Barbara Kay and William Saletan.

A recent scientific breakthrough is confirming the hypothesis of Henrik Svensmark that the sun, not humans, are responsible for fluctuations in Earth’s climate. The sun? Who woulda thunk it?

But the scientific establishment is working hard to suppress the findings. That’s why you probably haven’t heard of this research, which was first published a week ago today. If it had been an apocalyptic prediction from Al Gore’s hymnal, it would have been front-page news.

Read an excellent summary of the findings and the coverup from the National Post here.

#1 – Children of Paraguay – I had the wonderful opportunity to meet the foundress of a wonderful Catholic charity based in Ottawa which helps the poor children of Paraguay.  Here’s the website:

http://www.childrenofparaguay.org/

If you’re looking for a small charity that you can get involved with, this is it. No large administration costs.  Tax receipts available.  No pro-abort pimps getting any money, either.  Socon or Bust has been busy kicking the “social justice” butt for a few years, but we can’t just keep tearing down.  We need to build up. And here’s the Catholic Blogosphere and its readers’ chance to do it.  It’s time to step in and take over the “social justice” industry.

As a kick-off incentive,  I have a gift certificate for a “foursome” to a local Ottawa Golf Club that I’d be willing to part with, if any reader would like to make a donation to this Catholic Charity.  You get the gift certificate (Value: $172) AND you get a tax receipt.  Can’t beat that.  Interested readers should contact me for bids and other details.

#2 – Provincial Election – It’s that time again.  I have been approached by the Family Coalition Party to consider running…again.  If you’re interested in helping out, including obtaining signatures to put me on the ballot in Ottawa West Nepean, email me at pacheco377@gmail.com.   If you don’t care about voting for a pro-abort politician this October 6, then do nothing and it will come to pass.

#3 – Legionnaires of St. Maurice – It’s going to happen in some form.  The Holy Spirit has been at work among many men, as I found out last night. Will keep you posted.

From a Socon or Bust reader…

I’ve been reading through the 26-page decision by Justice Toscano Roccamo regarding the attempt by Carleton University (CU) to strike the Statement of Claim in the case of Lobo and McLeod against CU.

I’ve been struck by some of the arguments which CU put forward in the case.  For example:

Regarding the Charter: “CU asserts that CU is not subject to the Charter“ (Article [16])  That’s right.  Carleton University is arguing in court that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to it.  (The essence of their argument is that the Charter applies only to government,  and that CU is not the government).

Regarding its own policies: “CU argues that a policy directive has no force of law and does not create an actionable wrong from which damages can flow” (Article [34]).  Here, in reference to CU’s alleged breaches of its Human Rights Policies and Procedures (HRPP) and Student Rights and Responsibilities Policy (SRRP), CU is stating that it is not required (by law) to follow its own policies.

Regarding having an open academic environment: “CU takes the position that the Defendants owe no fiduciary duty to all students to provide an environment free and open to discussion and debate of controversial ideas” (Article [41]) So CU claims that it has no obligation to be a place where free discussion and debate of ideas can take place.

Regarding responsibility for the arrests:

• “The Defendants argue that they did not arrest the Plaintiffs… CU points out that it was Ottawa Police who handcuffed and detained the Plaintiffs. (Article [56]) While CU asked the Ottawa Police to arrest these students, it claims that the Ottawa Police alone are responsible for the deed.
• “CU maintains that a statement of policy in a university document, without more, does not give rise to an enforceable contractual right.” (Article [59]) Again, CU is claiming to not be bound to follow its own policies.
• “CU… noted that it is not for an individual student to determine for the University how it ought to promote the principles of academic freedom.” (Article [62])

While some of CU’s claims were accepted by the court, they do make for interesting public relations reading.

Driving by Carleton University this evening I paused to read a sign which welcomes pedestrians and cyclists to the campus:    

“Carleton University Private Property Authorized entry and activity only”

 A friend of mine is familiar with the history of Carleton University (CU).  He mentioned that the university campus lies on what used to be a garbage dump.   He also mentioned that in the early days of CU, people wondered why there needed to be a second university in Ottawa, as the University of Ottawa was already well established (and run by Catholic Oblates).   The answer which CU proclaimed, was:  

 ”At Carleton University we teach you how to think, not what to think“.  

 Dear Friends,

 Greetings from Carleton Lifeline, Carleton University’s pro-life student group! Our volunteers are busy planning our next year of activism, and we are confident that we will be able to make a greater impact on people’s lives than ever before. Currently, in our country, 100,000 babies are killed from abortion every year – a procedure that decapitates and disembowels a human child for the sake of convenience. Lifeline is committed to exposing the truth about this injustice, and helping people choose positive alternatives to abortion. This year, Lifeline will be working not only with Carleton students on the university campus, but also with youth throughout Ottawa to spread our pro-life message.

The first step this year will be to hold a training session to teach new volunteers to be effective pro-life activists (details below). We are looking for new recruits who are interested in defending human life and learning to do so in an effective and compassionate way. As your church is, like us, committed to upholding the fundamental sanctity of human life, we would like to invite your youth to participate in our training day and our activities throughout the year, including life-saving demonstrations such as “Choice” Chain. Full-time pro-life activist and former Lifeline president Ruth Lobo will lead our upcoming training day. It will be open to all and lunch will be provided for attendees.

*Pro-Life Activism Training Day*

-       When: Saturday, September 10, 2011 – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

-       Where: In Ottawa (email Raphael below if your interested in going)

-       What: Pro-Life Apologetics Training, Mock Debate Training, Pro-Life Activism Training, Free Lunch J

-       Who: Led by full-time pro-life activist and former Lifeline president Ruth Lobo 

-       Why: To make abortion unthinkable.

There are many ways your parish or youth group can help, including…

-       Putting a copy of our training day poster (attached) on your church’s public bulletin board.

 -       Posting the above message (first two paragraphs and training day details) along with Lifeline’s contact information (below) as a notice in your church’s newsletter. Alternately, you could put our poster in your newsletter instead.

 -       Having one of our volunteers come in to talk briefly with your youth group in the next week or so.

 -       Having the parish priest or youth group leader spread the word to young parishioners.

 -       Making a financial contribution to help with Ruth Lobo’s transportation costs (she will be flying in from Calgary) as well as for other expenses throughout the year. Cheques should be made payable to Carleton Lifeline and will not be cashed until mid-September. 

Please let us know if you have any questions about Lifeline or our activities. Thank you for your support! With your help, we can make abortion unthinkable.

 Sincerely,

 Raphael Deketele (Carleton Lifeline volunteer)

 carletonlifeline@gmail.com

Gay Empire Men’s Chorus.

At Church of St. Paul the Apostle.

In Commemoration of 9/11.

Meanwhile,  God is banned.

It all makes sense to me. Perfectly.

As a follow up to my earlier post about a Catholic pro-lifer being arrested on parish property for handing out pro-life bookmarks, I wrote a letter to the pastor of the parish, Fr. Brian F. Manning (bmanning@stmarysfranklin.org). I went easy on him because I don’t know if he was involved in the decision to have the pro-lifer arrested. The police report only mentions the name of another parishioner. If you decide to write, please keep this in mind. I’ll keep you posted about any response I receive.

Dear Father Manning,

I am writing in regards to a police report describing the arrest of a parishioner named Peter D’Attilio on the grounds of St. Mary’s parish during St. Rocco’s Festival earlier this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Bishop of Pembroke, Ontario has decided to withhold all funds from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace (D&P), the official international aid agency of the Canadian bishops. The move comes after the Archbishop of Ottawa was forced to cancel an event with one of D&P’s partners in April because of the group’s promotion of the decriminalization of abortion.

“Recent developments in the Archdiocese of Ottawa during Lent have demonstrated that a great deal of work needs to be done to allow CCODP to be fully effective,” wrote Bishop Michael Mulhall on July 21st, in a letter distributed in Sunday bulletins throughout his diocese.  “For the future, the Diocese will continue to sponsor development and missionary efforts which are identified for you during the Lenten Season.”

…

In March, before the Ottawa controversy, he had told his faithful that the diocese would continue this approach for 2011, saying that D&P’s difficulties had not been fully resolved.  He said he was assured at the Canadian Bishops’ October 2010 plenary meeting that “positive steps” were being taken, but noted that “it would take several years for some of these changes to be implemented throughout the organization.” (Source)

Well, I think Bishop Mulhall (and likely a number of other bishops) are finally starting to see the writing on the wall.   His move might signify the ongoing problems within the CCCB to come to a resolution on Development & Peace’s vision.  That’s unfortunate, of course. No one wants a rift.  But the way to avoid a rift is to be faithful to the Church’s teachings. Rifts happen because (usually) one side is not being faithful to the Gospel.  And, in this case, we know which side it is.

I have been saying for quite some time now that it would take many, many years to ”fix” D&P. We’re already approaching our third year of this scandal.  In reality, D&P will likely never be reformed because its members refuse to repent of their many and grievous errors.  It will eventually just die out…with its membership, while something else takes its place.  There’s another question about how the members of Development & Peace got to that point, but that’s an accounting for another day that the bishops and their predecessors will have to face.

Development & Peace will still continue into the forseeable, of course, but in time it will not represent the entire Catholic Church in this country as more and more bishops find the courage to own up to what the pro-life movement has been saying for years and finally cut bait.

This sad episode in Canadian Church history (one of many) should serve as a sobering reminder to all of us Catholics out there who sometimes have a tilted view of who a bishop is.  They’re sinners like the rest of us and they’re subject to the same political pressures as anyone else.  As lay people, we have a right to insist that they hold fast to the Gospel.  And if it’s clear that they’re not doing it, then we need to keep pressing and crying bloody murder until they get the message…come Hell or Highwater.   And crying bloody murder in this instance is not too far off the mark, either. 

 Keep on truckin’, everyone.  We’re moving in the right direction.

This is one of the saddest stories I’ve seen in a while. It’s a sure sign that the persecutions are ramping up and that Catholic parishes are more sick than we thought. More commentary below the quote.

FRANKLIN, MA, August 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-life activist in New England says he was unjustly beaten, arrested, and accused of a bomb plot while passing out pro-life bookmarks at a local town fair.

(…)

In his account of what happened, published online by the pro-family group MassResistance, pro-life activist Peter D’Attilio says that police approached him on the evening of August 11 when he was handing out two-inch-wide pro-life bookmarks to six teenagers. D’Attilio was at the annual St. Rocco fair on the grounds of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Franklin, Massachusetts. (Source)

If you read the victim’s account, he says that he was just handing out bookmarks on abortion to teenagers on the grounds of his parish when the cops came and hauled him away, after beating him. If this is accurate, it’s a sad testimony to the situation of police corruption. The cops claim that he resisted arrest and needed to be forcibly restrained, thus explaining the man’s injuries. We don’t know for sure what happened, but I’m inclined to believe the victim rather than the cops.

Even if we overlook that disagreement on the cause of the beating, there is one aspect of the story that both sides agree on: the police were called to the scene by Peter Brunelli, a member of St. Mary’s parish and the chairman of the fair at which the incident took place. It was Mr. Brunelli that asked the police to intervene. Quoting from the police report: Read the rest of this entry »

Judge Preska quoted Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, as saying: “There’s no such thing as work-life balance.  There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

Finally, some sanity.

Quebec is a real basket case.

Licensed journalists?  Well, that’s it for democracy in Quebec.

Get a load of this great announcement in the parish bulletin of St. Patrick’s Basilica in Ottawa:

BASILICA DRESS CODE!

The expression “Sunday clothes” and ”Sunday best” seems to have gone out of style. But it is still important to dress well for Sunday Mass. We are in God’s House, and we are worshiping God and receiving Holy Communion. Our attitude should be one of reverence  and respect and this should be expressed in how we dress. No doubt we would dress appropriately if we were meeting a head of state or a dignitary. At Mass we meet Christ in a special, sacramental way. Mass is not the place to “be yourself” in the sense of dressing the way you dress lounging at home or going shopping. Mass is a holy event, in a holy place, and so we dress accordingly. Any kind of revealing clothing worn by men or women is not appropriate for Mass. If we should follow the rules of modesty in everyday life, it is especially important to dress modestly at Mass. To  be more specific, any kind of skimpy clothing should not be worn and one should avoid wearing shorts. Even if the weather is warm, Mass is usually less than an hour, so the sacrifice of a little comfort can be made. For those who really wish to wear some kind of abbreviated clothing, knee length clothing can be considered and is usually fairly acceptable. Again, we express what Mass means to us by the way we dress for Mass. Let us not dress to please others, or to please ourselves. Let us dress to please God, showing respect and gratitude for all that God has given us.  Thank you

This is awesome! Thank you Fr. Siok!

Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada:  Not Just Tea  &  Biscuits
The Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada (WICC) was originally established to further unity among Christian women and to co-operate with one another in advancing common Gospel values. Since the 60s, however, the organization, like many Church groups, has completely lost its original mandate and actually works against the values of the Gospel by promoting the objectives of radical feminism.   The group spans across Christian denominational boundaries and includes women from most of the mainstream denominations including, not surprisingly, the Catholic Church.   Acting on a tip from a reader, Socon or Bust conducted a preliminary investigation into this group where it was discovered that Catholic parishes have been involved in hosting events sponsored by this group.  In addition to using Church property, this group has been responsible for collecting money from unsuspecting Catholics to fund their radical feminist agenda. Click here to read the investigation’s reports.