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August 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The archdiocese of Toronto announced Friday afternoon that, after a lengthy illness, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, the retired Archbishop of Toronto, died earlier Friday at the age of 81.

The cardinal was remembered for his outspoken pro-life stand by Jim Hughes, the National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC).

“We were saddened to hear of the death today of Cardinal Ambrozic,” said Hughes. “He was a pro-life supporter and in many instances took a strong stand against the anti-life mentality that permeates our society.”

CLC pointed towards a quote from the cardinal, written by him in 1993:

Who might be closest to martyrdom in our own situation? Would it be those who struggle for the life of the unborn? They may at times be carried away in their zeal appearing to claim that “it is either their way or no way”. If it were not for them, however, our Church would be as mealy-mouthingly ineffective on pro-life issues as is many another Christian community. Our pro-life people are not daunted by the haughty disdain of the media, nor are they afraid of being branded as zealots. We may be tempted to seize upon one or another tactic of theirs as an excuse for not speaking out more often, failing to consider the possibility that our silence is forcing them to be more vocal. We ought to ask ourselves whether our “reasonableness” might be due to our fear of public opinion. Were it not for our sisters and brothers in the pro-life trenches, we, the “sensible ones”, would become the object of attack—if our politically correct media should think us worth attacking.

“We join with the Catholic Community and mourn the loss of Cardinal Ambrozic and we urge our members across the country to pray for the repose of his soul and ask God to grant him eternal peace,” said Hughes.

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