Posted on 09/09/2006 11:44:44 AM PDT by wagglebee
The Vatican (LifeNews.com) -- In a meeting with Canadian bishops, Pope Benedict XVI criticized the North American country for its laws allowing abortion. He said they result in part because numerous pro-abortion Catholic politicians are ignoring their faith and putting their own beliefs ahead of the values of the church.
"In the name of 'freedom of choice' [Canada] is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children," the pope said.
He added that laws allowing abortions are the result of "the exclusion of God from the public sphere."
He chided pro-abortion Catholic politicians for yielding to "ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls," according to an AP report.
"Democracy succeeds only to the extent that it is based on truth and a correct understanding of the human person. Catholic involvement in political life cannot compromise on this principle," he said.
"They are particularly damaging when Christian civic leaders sacrifice the unity of faith and sanction the disintegration of reason and the principles of natural ethics, by yielding to ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls," the pontiff added.
There were 105,154 abortions performed in Canada in 2002, according to Statistics Canada.
Some 15.4 of every 1,000 Canadian women 14 to 44 years old had an abortion in 2002, a rate which has been steady since the Canadian Supreme Court ruled abortions could be allowed in 1988.
Abortion in Canada hasn't been entirely safe, as abortion advocates claim.
A Canadian woman who suffered from a botched abortion and nearly committed suicide twice afterwards because of the emotional pain she experienced filed a lawsuit last month. She also said the stress of the situation resulted in the breaking off of her relationship with her fiance.
The woman, a 28 year-old student, found out she was pregnant in June 2004 and was referred to the Kensington Clinic abortion facility.
According to the lawsuit, a degenerative hip disease made it so she could not carry the pregnancy to term.
Ted Busheikin did an abortion on her on July 21, 2004 at the abortion facility and the lawsuit says the woman continued to experience sever pain in her hips. The woman saw her doctor, Dr. John Barrow, to obtain pain medication, which she took for the next three and a half months without feeling any improvement.
The lawsuit says the woman underwent tissue and blood tests at Kensington Clinic following the abortion and officials at the abortion center assured her the abortion was successful.
“Three days following the procedure (she) received confirmation from the Kensington Clinic that the pregnancy was terminated,” the lawsuit said.
She went back to the abortion business for an ultrasound in October 2004 which confirmed she was still pregnant. She was told at the time that the tissue test had confirmed she was still pregnant, but she wasn't told about the results.
Related web sites:
Campaign Life Coalition - http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com
He needs to take the same approach in the United States.
Pro-Life Ping.
Catholic Ping.
Canada Ping.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
anyone remember the days when Americans were afraid to elect a Catholic as President because the pope would be running the country? I guess times have changed.
Am I right in assuming that Stephen Harper is pro-life?
Yes, but he says he is not going to open the abortion debate.
Oh... ok. I hate when politicians avoid the issue like that.
I agree.
But it's still way better than whatever is in second place.
:-)
True.
:)
I don't like this source.
Every time I see something from them I find that
they twist the truth in little ways to fit their agenda.
Here the headline says 'Pro-Abortion Laws'.
There are no 'pro-abortion laws'.
What there has been is a number of challenges to anti-abortion laws in the courts
that have succeeded on constitutional grounds as interpreted by liberal justices.
Here's a review of 'Abortion Law' up to 1997...
http://www.duhaime.org/family/ca-abor.aspx
A quote from that link..."Therefore, since the Mortgentaler decision, there is no Canadian criminal law which addresses abortion"
Here's a site with a timeline of the abortion issue in Canada...http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/abortion/
Personally I would like to see an end to public funding of abortion.
There is no way my or other people's money should be taken at gun point
to be used for what we believe in essence to be murder.
From the above link...
"May 18, 2006: Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, the last hospital in New Brunswick to perform publicly funded abortions, announces it will suspend the service as of July 1, citing workload problems. New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that refuses to pay for abortions performed in clinics, despite the 1988 Supreme Court of Canada ruling."
I believe that until we can rid the Supreme Court of Liberal appointed justices,
Harper is right in not tackling the issue legally at this time.
In the interim the government should express and support the pro-life philosophy
LOL!! Sounds like the Irish bishops!
The reason I homed in on it is - abortion, along with illegal immigration, is one those dirty subjects Irish politicians don't wish to talk about - and an Irish media willing to go along with that, Harper's unwillingness to debate abortion just sounded familiar, that's all!
He speaks out strongly against Islam!
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.
"I don't like this source.
Every time I see something from them I find that
they twist the truth in little ways to fit their agenda."
It's fine as long as people recognize it as an advocacy site and do not mistake it for a news source.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.