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Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of TorontoPatrick Craine / LifeSiteNews

TORONTO, April 22, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Thomas Collins, archbishop of Toronto, strayed from his theme on how to live a life of faith during a homily before several thousand Catholics last month, to rebuke governments, courts, and professional regulators for “suppression” of conscience and religious freedom.

During Mass at the Lift Jesus Higher Rally at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 7, Collins recommended a three-step path for “flying to the heart” of Christian faith, starting with “cleaning out the temple,”—our personal lives—followed by knowing and living the “Law of the Lord.” The third step was to know “Jesus Christ crucified” in our minds and hearts, and to preach Him in words and acts.

But personal as the theme was, and appropriately so for mid-Lent, Collins demonstrated a shrewd, if understated, appreciation for the increasingly hostile political and cultural climate in Canada and Ontario.

The prayer intentions included a request “that government both here and in the U.S. be guided by God’s principles and continue to allow full freedom of religion to religious schools and institutions.”

In the homily, Collins said that “the Law of the Lord” and its “moral absolutes … guide us through the swamp of secularism which we find ourselves in these days, and through the relativism which is very, very prominent in our culture…and through the suppression of conscience …amongst politicians [and] amongst physicians.” At this point, he noted, “Yesterday the [Ontario] College of Physicians suddenly revoked the right of conscience of every doctor in Ontario.” Not much earlier, he added,  “the Supreme Court which voted 11 to zero in favour of assisted suicide.”

Collins also made several references to the rights of parents. “Parents are the first educators. The primary educators,” he said. “It is not delegated to parents by the government. It is parents who are the first educators. It is very important.” At this point the congregants broke into applause.

Were these references to parental rights afterthoughts, prompted perhaps by the presence in the halls outside the Mass of two groups, Parents as First Educators and Campaign Life Coalition, distributing hundreds of pamphlets and gathering signatures for petitions against Ontario’s new sex-education curriculum?

Or had he noticed that parents across the province were angrily protesting against Ontario’s new sex education curriculum? And that there were many Catholics among those protesters, despite his assurances, delivered in a statement in February, that a suitably Catholicized version would be prepared? They evidently were still fearful about a curriculum developed under the supervision of convicted pedophile—and deputy education minister – Ben Levin, and championed by Ontario’s first lesbian education minister and premier, Kathleen Wynne.

This teaches primary school students that homosexuality, same-sex “marriage”, transgenderism, and pre-marital sex are beneficial, though all contrary to “the Law of the Lord” as taught by the Catholic Church.