QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, May 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christians must engage in politics, and even consider running for political office, to defend life, build the common good, and promote “the glory of God,” says a pro-life candidate from Canada’s recent federal election.
At the Campagne Quebec-Vie conference in Quebec City on May 15th, 27-year-old Drummondville native Anne-Marie Genest shared her experience of running as a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) in the recent federal election. The CHP is Canada’s only pro-life and pro-family political party at the federal level.
Genest said she was approached after daily Mass about joining a meeting for the party. She agreed to check it out, and ended up being named secretary. She also realized that the meeting was called to recruit candidates, and that she was one of the organizer’s prime targets.
“Is he pulling my leg?” she says she thought. “I didn’t want to put my private life on a grandstand, nor be the prey of journalists. The old man in me spontaneously reacted with fear, by snapping back that I didn’t feel like having mustaches drawn on me, on the signs we would put up in town…”
But, despite having had no interest in politics, she said she “saw that it was God that was expecting me to do something for Him.”
“Finally a party which dares to assert itself and which has common sense,” she said of the CHP. “A party who dares to say God and the family are important, and that abortion is murder.”
“I … saw, through the possibility that was offered to me of participating in my country’s political life, a way of showing God my gratefulness,” she added.
Genest said she was motivated to work for the common good, which she believes will be achieved by promoting Christian values. “Christianity, with its Benedictine monasteries and its saints, has civilized European populations because of the refinement of the lifestyles that Christian doctrine generates,” she explained.
“Today, we no longer seek the Beautiful, the Good, the True; things for which man’s intelligence is made for. Outcome: our children are aborted, and all kinds of other immoralities are accepted. So, to make a long story short, working for the Common Good is being charitable to the population and seeking to re-civilize it.”
Though she only won 0.4% of the vote in her riding, Genest contested claims that the party is wasting time because they have little chance of winning. “Even though it’s a logical objection, I remember a saying attributed to Saint Joan of Arc: ‘Man does battle, God gives the victory!’” she said. “Humanly, it’s true that a small party has little chances of winning. But what is ‘winning’? From a supernatural point of view, man does battle for God, and on His side, God grants the results He wants at the moment He wants.”
She also opposed suggestions that the party is wrong to bring its Christian faith into politics. “The party doesn’t ask the Church to control the country, since their kingdoms are of two different orders,” she said. “But Christianity must be intensely lived by all, and must enlighten the government of a country in any bill. A true law must lead us to virtue. It’s in that sense that law leads to God.”
Genest concluded her talk by ‘passing the torch’ because she’ll be entering the convent in the fall. She said that if the CHP is to be successful in electing a candidate, it will require the support of all Christians. “It can be by offering money for the party, by proposing one’s candidacy, but for everybody, by voting for this party of course.”
“The Good Lord needs everybody, whether educated and ingenious or not, to regain all His rightful places in our society,” she said. “Hurry to set yourselves to work for God’s reign by dedicating yourself in all spheres of society.”