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CCCB AGREES WITH MARCH OF WOMEN DISASSOCIATION

OTTAWA, Feb 15, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops organization (CCCB) has released a letter it sent to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) voicing its agreement with CCODP's decision to disassociate from the World March of Women. In Feb. 2000 and again in May 2000 the CCCB issued press releases expressing support for the World March of Women (WMW). The May letter reaffirming support greatly disappointed pro-lifers who had previously attempted to document the incontrovertible evidence showing the WMW to be pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality.

The CCCB organization's latest letter, signed by the groups' president, Bishop Gerald Wiesner of Prince George, repeated the face-saving line of CCODP that the decision to pull out was based on "recent developments" with the WMW, when in fact, the WMW has been pro-abortion all along. The CCCB letter states that the decision of the CCODP to pull out of the WMW was a "difficult but principled decision" which showed "the integrity" of CCODP.

However, considering that neither the CCODP letter nor the CCCB letter even hints at remorse or apology for the spending of over $135,000 on the pro-abortion WMW, for the encouragement of Catholic participation in the WMW, or for the verbal antagonism directed against those who dared to voice objections to the WMW by CCCB, and CCODP officials, the real purpose of both organizations recent statements remains in question. Pro-life observers have wondered aloud if lost donations to CCODP due to its WMW support, played a part in the sudden turn-around in the CCODP stance on the WMW. The timing of the announcement, just prior to Lent, seems to suggest some support for this hypothesis since Lent is the time CCODP seeks donations in Catholic parishes across the country.

Some Canadians, dismayed at the stance of the CCCB, incorrectly assume that the bureaucratic organization speaks for all Canadian bishops. The actual status of CCCB pronouncements was clarified during the debate over the WMW. Bishop Nicola De Angelis, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto and Spiritual Advisor for the Catholic Women's League (CWL) of Ontario, issued a letter on the WMW in June. The letter clarifies that "the CCCB Executive and the Conferences of Bishops, as stated in Canon Law, are purely administrative bodies. They have no canonical power to issue decrees on any matters related to faith and morals. Indeed their [statement in support of the WMW] was a personal statement which was not meant to, and could not speak on behalf of all the Bishops of Canada."

See the CCCB release:
http://www.cccb.ca/english/fullpublice.asp?ID=72

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