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CANADIAN BISHOPS' ORGANIZATION CONTRADICTS VATICAN POLICY

OTTAWA, May 18 (LSN.ca) - Campaign Life Coalition leader Jim Hughes is shocked by the recent reaffirmation of support issued for the International March of Women 2000 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), the Catholic Women's League (CWL), the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), and the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC). Hughes told LifeSite News that given the irrefutable evidence that the march includes the support for abortion as one of its objectives, the CCCB endorsement is scandalous. Moreover Hughes asserts that the Vatican would disagree with the endorsement.

"Campaign Life Coalition has worked directly with the Holy See at the United Nations for many years lobbying on these very issues," said Hughes. He noted that the stance of the Vatican on such matters is clearly exemplified by the withdrawal of even token financial support for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). While UNICEF, like the March of Women, has some goals which are commendable, the UNICEF support for contraception and abortion ruled out even symbolic church monetary support for the group.

United Way support has similarly suffered. Mr. Hughes was chair of the Toronto archdiocesan pastoral council under the late Archbishop Phillip Pocock. He was a member of the archbishop's executive when support for the United Way campaign was withdrawn due to the inclusion of Planned Parenthood, the world's largest abortion agency. "[ Pocock ] did not want to associate with Planned Parenthood for fear that people would believe them to be worthy of support," said Hughes. The archbishop scoffed at assurances that Catholic money to United Way would not go to Planned Parenthood saying it wouldn't matter which pocket they took the money from. "Thank God for him and his leadership," said Hughes, "he is one of the reasons why I got involved in the pro-life movement."

The National Post reported yesterday that the CCCB endorsement comes despite the public protest of at least several prominent bishops. Other than the signature of CCCB president Bishop Gerald Wiesner on the original document supporting the march, the only Canadian bishop to publicly defend the funding of the march has been Calgary's Bishop Fred Henry - the sole Canadian Bishop on the executive of the CCODP. The Post notes that Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto, Bishop Anthony Tonnos of Hamilton, Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Sault Ste. Marie, and Bishop Jude Saint-Antoine, the auxiliary Bishop of Montreal, oppose funding to the march.

In related news CCODP has embarked on an intense campaign to discredit the LifeSite News reports exposing the march as being supportive of abortion. A package of information has been created by CCODP and sent to dioceses all over Canada to justify their $110,000 support for the march. The material is also on the CCODP website. Coverage in the Catholic Register quoted CCCB general secretary Msgr. Peter Schonenbach (reportedly the original impetus behind the CCCB endorsement) criticizing Cardinal Ambrozic's decision to withdraw support for the march. "There has been a very, very quick reaction in Toronto . . . They took that quick action without consulting," said Schonenbach. "The trouble with the pro-life people is they take everything out of context," he said.

Both the CCODP information package and the reaffirmation of support letter by the CCCB and others attempt to suggest that the demands for the march do not include abortion. However, both groups also conveniently fail to include the known fact that the full coordinating committee of the World March of Women "unanimously decided that the demand to have a 'pro- life' contingent at the World March is unacceptable to us since the anti-choice position defended by your organization is in clear contradiction with the objectives pursued by the march."

The women's march is also strongly supportive of various UN Women's agreements about which the Vatican has expressed serious reservations. For instance, the governing body of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW opposes the recognition of Mothers Day by any nation.

See reports on CEDAW http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/00051507.html and http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/july/980725.html

For LifeSite's complete coverage of the March of Women scandal see:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/00051601.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/00050901.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/april/00042801.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/april/000421.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/april/00040301.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/april/00040602.html

See the National Post and Catholic Register coverage at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?f=000517/291125&s2=national&s3=coasttocoast http://www.catholicregister.org/2000/news/051500_2W.html

See the CCODP web site info at:
http://www.devp.org/anglais/wmqanda.htm

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