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Lone Canadian Bishop Responds to Priests’ Dissent: “Forget About it”

by Hilary White

LONGUEUIL March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  Reactions from the hierarchy of the Canadian Catholic Church to the letter signed by a group of dissident priests have been far from resounding. Only one bishop has made any public statement and that was only to say that the letter, which attacked the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, was inconsequential.

Louis Dicaire, bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, spoke to the press saying the letter was “not an earthquake.”

Canadian Catholic priests have frequently spoken out in the press against their Church’s teaching and the faithful have been left to presume agreement on the part of a stoically silent episcopate.

Bishop Dicaire told Le Journal de Montreal that he was irritated with the priests but not because of their denial of the Catholic Faith, but because of the indiscretion of going public. Dicaire said the discussion should have been kept within the Church.

“They're exercising their right to public expression.” He added, “although one could question whether it's the best way to advance the debate.”
 
For Catholics who believe and adhere to what the Catholic Church teaches, however, there is no “debate.” The Catholic teaching on both homosexuality and the meaning and purpose of marriage has been expounded since the first century.

The culture of secrecy and silence among Catholic bishops has led to disastrous consequences in the countries where the widespread abuse of boys and adolescents by homosexual priests has become public knowledge. Bishops in the US and elsewhere are finding themselves in court having to defend their decision to “keep the discussion within the Church” when they refused to defrock abusers and turn them over to police. Many dioceses, most notably Boston, are now closing or “consolidating” parishes to pay for massive abuse settlements. Some US dioceses are struggling to save Church assets from bankruptcy proceedings.

Despite high-profile cases in Newfoundland and Cornwall Ontario, many Canadian Church insiders agree that the worst of the scandals has yet to be exposed in Canada, largely because of the closed nature of the Canadian episcopate which is mainly of Quebec origin. Historically, the Quebec Church was a political and social power unto itself.

Even now, with the lowest Church attendance in the country, dozens of closed or closing convents, seminaries and schools, Bishop Dicaire’s comments have confirmed what many family advocates have long said, that the Quebec bishops are maintaining their old-boys club traditions.

The Edmonton-based paper, the Western Catholic Reporter, reports that the CCCB and Quebec Bishops’ Conference refused to comment on the priests’ letter, but that a spokesman for the Quebec bishops directed inquiries to Dicaire’s comments.

Canon Lawyer Peter Vere suggested that the situation with the Canadian Church is so dire that complaining directly to the bishops themselves is less fruitful that contacting Rome directly.

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Quebec Priests Bash Church on Homosexuality - Real Problem is the Bishops
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022706.html

To send respectful communications:
The Apostolic Nuncio to Canada:
Archbishop Luigi Ventura
724 Manor Avenue
Ottawa, ON.
Canada
KIM OE3

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Mail or fax (most effective):
Cardinal William Levada
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy
Fax: 06.69.88.34.09
To email the CDF:
Cardinal William Levada
E-mail:

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