OTTAWA, Jan 19, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais soundly rebuked Catholic Health Minister Allan Rock in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen published today. The archbishop told the paper that Rock’s actions to promote the funding of abortion “make my blood boil,” and urged Catholic voters to “raise a stink” about the funding of abortion. “The fact that we do not have a law to protect the rights of the unborn … should not lead us to quietly accept abortion as a right, as a medically necessary procedure. Life is at issue here,” Gervais said.
The archbishop lamented that although the Church teaches abortion is evil, there is not one major political party in Canada that is pro-life, even though nearly half of all Canadians call themselves Roman Catholic. He called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Rock, both Catholics, to come out of the closet on the pro-life side of the issue. “Catholic politicians should be making their private opinions public. Religion is not a private affair. It is a public issue,” he said. Pro-life leaders, while very praising of the archbishops comments, tend to believe the evidence is substantial that Chretien, Rock and other prominent Liberal Catholic politicians are in fact not in the closet on the abortion issue. Steve Jalsevac of Campaign Life Coalition notes that “their practical support for abortion access, funding and promotion nationally and internationally has been extreme”.
The Citizen reports that Archbishop Gervais was stunned that the mainstream media totally ignored a letter from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on the issue, released January 10. (see the LifeSite coverage here https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jan/010111.html#1) He is sending out the letter to all Ottawa priests to disseminate the information to parishioners. Archbishop Gervais’ statement was given front-page coverage in the Ottawa Citizen, and has shown that the media remains much more attentive to familiar local church authorities than to bureaucratic organizations without a face such as the CCCB
See the story in the Ottawa Citizen at: https://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/010119/5024716.html