July 06, 2008 – 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

On July 1st, on Canada Day, while most of us enjoyed Canada Day celebrations with our families, Dr.Henry Morgentaler was awarded the honour of the “Order of Canada”. This was done on our behalf by the committee responsible for the Order of Canada. This was done in spite of wholesale opposition to the appointment.

In order to give Morgentaler the award the committee had to circumvent the usual procedure and appeal to the Governor General to sign the recommendation because they could not come to a unanimous decision on this award. This was done stealthily on the long weekend so that most Canadians would not be at home and so the foul deed could be accomplished without much opposition.

Previous opinion polls conducted by the Globe and mail showed that over 92% of Canadians were opposed to such an award being giving to this notorious abortionist who has killed thousands of babies in their mother’s wombs.

So in spite of the fact that the majority of Canadians were opposed to it – the award was made late on Canada Day and done in your name.

Kelly McPharland, the Politics Editor for the National Post writes:

At a press conference following his naming to the Order of Canada. Dr. Henry Morgentaler acknowledged there were those who questioned his suitability for the honour, but quickly dismissed them in a line: “The negative opinions all come from the usual suspects: The Catholic Church, fundamentalists, women opposed to women’s rights.”

I’ve been thinking about that statement for some time, trying to figure out what it is about it that’s so disquieting. Maybe it’s because I’m none of those things. I’m just a middleclass Canadian who thinks it wrong to take life away from innocents who are incapable of speaking or acting for themselves.

Nobody who works at the National Post is likely to be accused of adhering to the cult of victimhood. But, we’re not completely heartless, and is there a greater definition of a victim than a child, still in the womb, wholly dependent on its mother to live and on the legal system to protect it?

In Canada we guarantee neither of those protections. (Canada is the only civilized country in the world without a law for or against abortion).

There is no law whatsoever on abortion and women are assured it is wholly their right to make the decision on life and death, singly and unilaterally, without interference of any kind pertaining to the right of the being that is to die.

No judge in the country has the authority to render so final and absolute a verdict. We’re a society that purports to care deeply about injustice, and goes to great length to assist those treated unjustly both at home and abroad.

Yet cares nothing at all for those who haven’t quite made it to the delivery room. It’s like introducing the world’s most lenient refugee and immigration program, but only for people able to physically reach our shores: if they get machine-gunned a mile offshore, it’s not our problem.

Recently Audrey and I visited friends of ours for supper and while we were there the evening news came on. The newscaster was talking about a horse that had broken its leg at a race track and had to be put down. The lady of the house immediately voiced her objection to having the TV on so that we had to listen to such “distressing news” Her husband immediately shut the TV off.

I thought isn’t that typical of what we have become as Canadians. If we shut it off – it didn’t happen.

If I don’t hear about it – it’s not my problem. It won’t happen, It didn’t happen or it’s not happening. Well I have news for you – it is happening. Over 96,000 times last year. Over 96,000 screaming little Canadian babies were terminated – killed in your name and with your money. Just like the people of Hitler’s Germany we Canadians have fallen asleep.

The WCR tells us that at a cost to the taxpayer of over $300 million the government of Alberta wants to immunize all of our nine year old girls with Gardasil a vaccine which purportedly guards against them contracting the human papilloma virus. And we are going to let it happen.

This virus is only spread through sexual contact. As parents and grandparents fall asleep at the wheel we are hurtling down the highway of destruction at breakneck speed.

And we will soon wake up to another fait accomplis – euthanasia. Where the elderly and the unwanted are denied treatment and allowed to die. And don’t you think for a minute that it will be long in coming either – if it isn’t already here. If you have anyone elderly in the hospital or nursing home then you better listen to this.
BIRMINGHAM, UK, July 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Ellen Westwood was due to die in February but her family is Catholic and for them, life is sacred." So begins the television coverage by the BBC of a battle by a Birmingham family to prevent the NHS (National Health Service) from dehydrating their mother to death.

According to the BBC's report, doctors decided on a Friday in February that Mrs. Westwood was "due to die" by the following Monday, but the family, with the intervention of their priest, fought the order to remove the woman's hydration.

Mrs. Ellen Westwood, 88, was in Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital for two months after she had been admitted into Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital for routine shoulder surgery. The woman ended up being treated for dementia and C.difficile, which Westwood's daughter alleges she contracted at the Orthopaedic Hospital after the surgery. The bacterial infection soon spread to her cheeks, face and throat, making it difficult for her to swallow.

Doctors at Selly Oak Hospital then told the family that all food, fluids and hydration were to be stopped and that Mrs. Westwood would be given morphine "because she is dying".

Ellen's daughter, Kathleen Westwood, told the BBC that the decision had been taken because it was "a capacity ruling" and that under current UK law, the family's wishes do not enter into the equation.

"If you deem somebody to have lost capacity, then the doctors can act in the best interests," she said.

The family had an interview with doctors on a Friday afternoon, in which they were told that Mrs. Westwood was going to die.

"In [the doctors'] view the best interests was for my mother to die - and clearly by Monday she would have been dead," Kathleen told BBC.

The family, however, brought the woman food and water. Hospital officials responded by threatening to report the family to social services for feeding Mrs. Westwood.

"We said we don't want this to happen and they said 'it's happening, sorry'. I had to fight very, very hard to get it stopped."

Eventually the family obtained a second opinion and Mrs. Westwood was able to go home, where she is recovering well and is celebrating her 89th birthday today.

Under the UK's Mental Capacity Act, passed in 2005, patients deemed to be incapable of making decisions in their own "best interests" can have all fluids withheld until they die. The family can do little to stop this process once doctors have made their decision.

While active euthanasia officially remains illegal in Britain, some are saying that the NHS standard procedure of issuing elderly and vulnerable patients with an "end of life plan" that includes dehydration, is simply euthanasia under a different name.

And it is becoming common. A packed meeting this week in Stafford heard the stories of families who had been forced to bring in priests and lawyers to stop similar orders from killing their loved ones, even though the patients sometimes are not terminally ill.

As Canadians and especially as Catholic Christians we cannot let this stuff sneak into our country. We were sleeping at the wheel on abortion and on same sex marriage.

We cannot let this continue. We must all get involved in the debate. You must make your opinions count by contacting your elected representatives.

If we fail to act then we are just as guilty as those who are doing the actual abortions and killings. Because they are using your tax dollars and your permission to do it.

If we sit back and do nothing then the next life they snuff out for the sake of money may very well be someone we love. Think about your children and grandchildren – or your potential children and grandchildren – do you really want the government to decide whether they live or die. Because if continue to sit back and say nothing – like they did in Hitler’s Germany – we can expect the same results because history does repeat itself.

Jesus warns us that we are our brother’s keeper. We can sin when we do something wrong but can also sin by doing nothing to prevent the sin about us especially when all it takes is a letter, and email or a phone call to let your opinion count.

The Son God came to earth to heal us of original sin. He did this not in some great and spectacular display of power but rather in the quiet force of truth and love. Meekness and humility like those of Christ are not easy for us. But Jesus stood up for what was right and was willing to lay down his life so that we might live – can we not do the same so that the innocent might live?

I close now with this statement released by Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto.

Canada's highest honour has been debased. Henry Morgentaler has been awarded the Order of Canada. We are all diminished.

A community's worth is measured by the way it treats the most vulnerable, and no one is more vulnerable than in the first nine months of life's journey. No person may presume to judge the soul of Henry Morgentaler, but it cannot be denied that the effect of his life's work has been a deadly assault upon the most helpless amongst us.

Canada glories in the names of Banting and Best, and the other medical heroes who selflessly brought healing where there was disease and suffering. Now it honours with the Order of Canada a medical man who has brought not healing, but the destruction of the defenseless and immeasurable grief. This award must not stand.

I earnestly appeal to all who are tempted to resort to an abortionist, or are pressured to do so by those around them. I urge you to contact organizations such as Birthright, and others who will support you and love you and your precious child. Contact your parish. We are here for you. I pledge to you the support of the Catholic Church. Look to our archdiocesan website at http://www.archtoronto.org for information concerning places where you may find loving help.

For those who have had an abortion, and bear within your heart the fearful grief, I urge you to contact us, to find love and support in your anguish, and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to find the gift of inner peace.

I ask the faithful of the Archdiocese of Toronto, and all people of good will, to protest this act of dishonour. Write, phone, or e-mail the Governor General, the Prime Minister, and your Member of Parliament. Ask that this action be revoked.

This coming Sunday will be a day of special prayer in the Archdiocese of Toronto, for an end to the evil of abortion. I have asked that the following prayer be inserted in the Prayer of the Faithful in all the churches of the archdiocese:

"That the scourge of abortion be lifted from our land, that those who promote it may be brought to a change of heart, that all who are tempted to abortion may be lovingly helped to protect the precious gift of life, and that all who have experienced an abortion may be comforted with the healing gift of love." Amen.

It’s not like Canadians to sit back and be overrun by a small minority who have used government agencies to put forth their agendas and a great cost to the majority. They have gotten away with and they continue to get away with it because the popular media squashes anyone who dare oppose this minority and the vast majority of us say absolutely nothing. They know this and so that is why the vocal minority get what they want. We say nothing and let it happen.

Let’s make up our minds right now to do something about it. Don’t let this week go by without making your opinion count. If we don’t do it – nobody else will do it for us. Join with Archbishop Collins - Contact your representatives and ask them to do what they must to rescind the Order of Canada award to Morgentaler as a start to taking back our Canada.

Jesus says ”Come to me, all who are weary and find life burdensome and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.

Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

Amen.

Deacon Bernie Ouellette