Still no Comment From Church Officials
HAMILTON, ON, Feb 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – LifeSite has learned that the Morgan Firestone Foundation that invited former President Clinton to speak at a fundraiser for a Catholic hospital in Hamilton, Ontario has asked if he could an additional night for the fundraiser. Dowhaniuk told LifeSite that since the 1,090 tickets sold out the first day, there was a waiting list of some 800 people. Dowhaniuk has since learned that the New York firm that manages Clinton’s bookings was not able to book another engagement.
While there has been no official word of protest from the Hamilton diocese and no response to repeated calls from LifeSite and others, at least one priest in the area has responded in the local newspaper’s coverage of public reaction to the event. Fr. Luc Payette, Pastor of Paroisse Notre-Dame du Perpétuel-Secours wrote in a letter to the editor to the Hamilton Spectator: “In the case of St. Joseph’s Hospital, the guest speaker must be pro-life since it is that hospital’s official stance. This is why Mr. Clinton should never have been invited as a guest speaker since his widely known defense of abortion, directly contradicts St. Joseph’s Catholic moral code, and therefore causes grave scandal.” Fr. Luc added, “As a Catholic Christian, I would welcome Mr. Bill Clinton to this above-mentioned gathering if he were to publicly repent from his stand on abortion, especially partial-birth abortion and other pro-choice issues.”
See former coverage by LifeSite at: https://lsn.ca/ldn/2001/feb/010213.html#1 https://lsn.ca/ldn/2001/feb/010214.html#2 https://lsn.ca/ldn/2001/feb/010215.html#1