At last week’s Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), some bishops made a bold statement by rejecting Development and Peace’s dogma against bottled water.  This is a major blow to the embattled charity’s reputation and credibility.

What?  You didn’t know that D&P hated bottled water?  Of course!  It’s one of their key priorities.  At the time of this writing, when you visit their homepage, you’re greeted with a giant picture of a bottle of water with a red slash across the front, the universal sign of prohibition.  The words around the bottle say “Bottled Water Free Zone.”  It’s right on their homepage, on par with the floods in Pakistan and the food crisis in Niger.

Clicking on the link takes you to their propaganda page on the issue.  Apparently bottled water is not just a problem in the Global South either.  Innocent people like you and me are in jeopardy because of bottled water, thus the new universal Prohibition for the 21st century:

The organization wants to stress that bottled water should never be accepted as an alternative to publicly owned and operated water systems, both in the North and the South.

The “North”, by the way, designates the rich countries of Canada, the U.S.A., Europe and Japan.m Notice the emphasis on “publicly owned and operated”. Very leftist-marxist but typical of D&P.

The organization is encouraging Canadians to make a personal commitment to give up bottled water. “Whenever possible, we should support publicly owned and operated water services by choosing to use tap water instead of bottled water,” suggests Doran.

Development and Peace also believes that public institutions such as schools, recreational centres and municipal buildings should refrain from selling bottled water and should instead invest in drinking fountains that are accessible to everyone.

That’s right, folks, the bottled water that I bought at Loblaws, which originates from a spring in beautiful Feversham, Ontario, is apparently a weapon of mass destruction.  And it has nothing to do with the plastic. For the paranoid, I guess anything can be a threat.

Bishops savouring a Weapon of Global Enslavement

But fear not, little flock!  Some brave bishops have seen the light and have rebelled against this nonsense.  At the CCCB Plenary, this picture was taken.  It clearly shows that the CCCB Plenary was not a “Bottled Water Free Zone.”

To the bishops, I say “Bravo!”  I’m so grateful that they took this stand and silently rebuked D&P’s policy.  I personally endorse the bishops’ decision to uphold the “freedom to choose” when it comes to bottled water.  Yes, I’m pro-choice on water! The bishops’ rebuke was all the more strident given that D&P had several big-shots attending the Plenary. So it’s even more “in your face.”

D&P has it all wrong when it comes to prohibiting bad stuff.    Let me simplify it for them:

On abortion:  pro-choice = Bad

On water:  pro-choice = Good

Got it?

Rational people have good reasons to want to drink bottled water in North America.  Various studies have shown that our tap water contains all kinds of chemicals, including cocaine, steroids, medications, sex hormones and loads of other crap.  Watch this video from ABC News to understand how it gets there.  Environment Canada has confirmed that these results also apply to Canada.  There’s been all kinds of media coverage, from the CBC, to Fox News and even National Geographic.

Some people — like me — drink bottled water in the hope that water from isolated springs in remote areas will be less contaminated with urban residuals.  I don’t have empirical evidence to prove that spring water is better, but I’m entitled to assume that it is. So can the bishops. Who is D&P to stop us?

Not Pacheco and Steve G

Clearly, D&P is becoming increasing isolated on this phony quest.

To all those well-intentioned “social justice” Catholics out there who’ve been starving themselves of bottled water, please know that the myth has been busted and you can go back to your regular water programming. But may this serve as a warning on not trusting D&P.

By the way, do you know how sex hormones end up in the water?  As the video explains, women taking birth control pills excrete excess hormones in their urine.  The hormones don’t get filtered in some treatment plants, so the rest of us drink it.  Once again, contraception comes back to bite.  Remember that the next time somebody tells you that the Church should stay out of their bedroom. And maybe if D&P stopped pushing contraceptives so hard, those poor folks in the Global South could drink some hormone-free water.  Now there’s something worth fighting for.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 8:28 pm and is filed under CCCB, Development & Peace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.