By Terry Vanderheyden
MONTREAL, January 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Prime Minister Paul Martin’s loss to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper yesterday is no sad news for pro-life and pro-family supporters. Martin also announced that he will step down as leader of the party.
“I will not take our party into another election as leader,” he said at his campaign headquarters after the election Monday. Martin said, however, that he will stay on as an MP.
Martin’s legacy as Prime Minister of Canada will ultimately be remembered as one that heralded same-sex “marriage”– a scandal of massive proportions, from a man who proclaimed himself a “very strong Roman Catholic.”
An even worse scandal, perhaps, is the mute acquiescence proffered by Martin’s spiritual ‘leader,’ Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais, who described Martin as a “faithful member” of his Cathedral parish. Even after ramming homosexual ‘marriage’ legislation through parliament – at the time even threatening his own MPs with sanctions if they voted against the controversial and morally charged measure – Martin failed to invoke the censorship of his bishop, as Catholic Church teaching demands.
LifeSiteNews.com asked for comment on the matter from the Archbishop last June after Martin made the comment, “I’m actually a very strong Roman Catholic,” on radio in British Columbia. In response, Gilles Ouellette, the Director of Communications for Archbishop Gervais, wrote, “The Archbishop has asked me to inform you that his position on this topic remains unchanged and that he stands by his previous comments on the issue.”
Those previous comments sent to LifeSiteNews.com via Mr. Ouellete on March 23, 2005 had the Archbishop saying about the Prime Minister, “To me he is . . . a faithful member of my cathedral parish.” The Archbishop’s comments concluded, “While I do not agree either with his argument or his conclusion on same sex marriage, I do not think, at this time, his position merits refusing him communion.” (See the Archbishop’s letter here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/050629a.html)
In addition to Martin’s gay “marriage” scandal, his recent campaign to paint Prime Minister elect Stephen Harper as an extremist included dire warnings that Harper would jeopardize “a woman’s right to choose.”
Pope Benedict penned a document last year when – then as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith – he joined the US Conference of Bishops deliberations on the denial of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. Cardinal Ratzinger’s intervention, titled “Worthiness to Receive Communion,” was intended as a private message to the US bishops but after being leaked to the media, the cardinal confirmed the document was his.
Cardinal Ratzinger cited established church teaching in his letter, leading to the inevitable conclusion that pro-abortion politicians, who will not alter their stand or abstain from communion after being instructed by church leaders, “must” be refused communion. (See the document here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/050419a.html)
The only Canadian bishop to publicly denounce the Prime Minister’s betrayal of his faith, Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, wrote a pastoral letter in which he informed his flock that the media’s portrayal of the Prime Minister as a ‘devout Catholic’ was inaccurate given his public support for abortion and homosexual ‘marriage.’Â In other public statements, Bishop Henry has said he would deny the Prime Minister Communion and would consider excommunicating him. (See Bishop Henry’s letter here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/040608a.html)
Campaign Life Coalition Ontario President Mary Ellen Douglas told LifeSiteNews.com today that “At least one good thing has come out of this election – Paul Martin is resigning.” Martin’s leadership “has been a disaster for Canada,” she emphasized. Given his claims as a “strong Catholic,” his legacy will be one of “scandal as well as disaster,” she added.
See also:
Archbishop Does Not Think PM’s Abortion and Gay Marriage “Position Merits Refusing Him Communion”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05032407.html