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February
2005
Dear
Faithful,
Radically
redefining marriage in Canada
by legalizing same sex marriage as the Government proposes
to do is not necessary and would be detrimental to our country,
especially to our children.
There
is no need for this. These people are sufficiently protected
by the laws of the land, almost more so than those who enter
a traditional marriage. Persons who are simply living together,
whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, can make whatever
arrangements they want. They can divide up their possessions
whatever way they want. They can make their union temporary
or permanent. They can make their own contracts with their
own provisions and hold whatever kinds of ceremony they want
to celebrate it.
The
real issue is not equal rights. The real issue is something
which cannot be legislated: acceptance. What the activists
are seeking is forced official social approval of their lifestyle.
But, as a writer pointed out: this is the antithesis of equal
rights. If you have a right to someone else's approval,
then they do not have a right to their own opinions and values.
You cannot say that what "consenting adults" do
in private is nobody else's business and then turn around
and say that others are bound to put their seal of approval
on it. The rhetoric of "equal rights" has become
the road to special privilege for all sorts of groups, so
perhaps it was inevitable that gay activists would take that
road as well. It has worked. They have already succeeded in
getting far more government money for AIDS than for other
diseases that kill far more people. (Thomas Sowell:
‘Gay Marriage Rights Are Nonsensical’posted January 3, 2005
on Human Events On Line.)
“The
time is long overdue to stop word games about equal rights
from leading to special privileges -- for anybody -- and gay
marriage is as good an issue on which to do so as anything
else. Every special interest group has an incentive to
take something away from society as a whole. Some will be
content just to siphon off a share of the taxpayers' money
for themselves. Others, however, want to dismantle a part
of the structure of values that make a society viable.”
(Thomas Sowell) What these people want is very clear: change
our culture, change our society.
You
may think this is far fetched? “But marriage equality will
also contribute to the abandonment of toxic religions, liberating
society from the prejudice and hatred that has polluted culture
for too long.” (Purging toxic religion in Canada,
Gay marriage exposes faith-based bigotry, by Kevin
Bourassa and Joe Varnell. This is a virulent attack against
Calgary’s Bishop Henry). Our Judeo-Christian culture, and
every culture in the world and throughout history has been
founded on the traditional definition of marriage.
It
will be detrimental to our nation. The strength and stability
of a nation depends on the strength and stability of its basic
unit: the family. The best way to destroy a nation is to
destroy the family. Divorce, contraception, abortion have
all taken their toll on the family. Same-sex unions are the
next step. When conjugal fidelity and children are replaced
by pleasure seeking as the foundation of marriage it is only
a matter of time before everything goes. What’s next? Polygamy?
No says the Prime Minister. Responding to Stephen Harper he
said: "It is an extreme vision. Polygamy is against
the law and will always be against the law." Need
we remind the PM that homosexuality was also illegal until
Trudeau came along. Once you start down this road there is
no stopping.
“It
is not fashionable to say so, but this decline (in marriage)
presents a very serious social problem. Single people and
people in non-traditional relationships are more likely to
be poor, to get sick, and to need help from the government
than married people. Cohabiting women are more likely to be
victims of domestic violence than married women; single men
are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than married men.”
(David Frum: ‘A Blow to Canada’s
Families’, National Post December 14, 2004)
It
will be detrimental to the freedoms the country guaranties
its citizens. In a nation of minorities," the
Prime Minister told CTV on December 27, "you can't
allow the majority to basically impose its will on a minority,
and so the Charter is crucial to our democracy."
The Prime Minister wants to replace the “tyranny of the majority”
by the “tyranny of the minorities”. For those who care, this
will be the end of our democracy. In a democracy the majority
rules according to a consensus. This vision is the replacement
of the rule of our democracy by the rule of special interest
groups. This will do more damage than any separatist threat.
When innumerable groups start dismantling pieces of the structure
that they don't like, we can be headed for the kinds of social
collapses seen both in history and in other parts of the world
in our own times. By encouraging these special interest groups
they entertain division in the country. This is what you
call: “divide and conquer”. Isn’t this how the Liberals have
remained in power?
It
will also be detrimental to our children. Research studies
prove conclusively that the traditional family is the best
situation for them. “When marriage declines, writes
David Frum in his excellent article, children lose. Children
who grow up with their biological mother and biological father
are dramatically -- that is by margins from 50% to 300% --
less likely to break the law, drop out of school, get pregnant
in their teens and end up as single parents themselves than
children raised by single parents or in stepfamilies. Today,
after three decades of anti-family policy, a Canadian child's
odds of reaching age 18 in the same home as his or her father
and mother are less than 50-50.” Our children are our
future and they have the right to be raised in a traditional
family with a mother and a father. This is their origin,
a mother and a father. They do not come from a mother and
a mother! No law will ever change that. It is the nature
of things. The Government should not be endorsing any form
of marriage that deprives them of this right.
The
decision handed down recently by the Supreme Court on this
matter stated only that it was constitutionally possible for
the government to change the definition of marriage, but that
the government is not required to do so. So why do they want
to do it? What is their agenda? Is it really equal rights?
Incidentally, as many writers have pointed out: it is not
even clear how many homosexuals actually want the right to
marry, even though gay activists are pushing it.
At
last some Canadian bishops are speaking out. They are as
much citizens of this country as the gays and politicians
and as such have as much right to have their say no matter
what the Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew says.
I guess for him the only constructive dialogue is when everyone
says the same thing. The government must be running scared!
The bishops are our shepherds, they have the duty to defend
and lead the flock entrusted to their care. Let them not be
afraid of what the world thinks and says. This is what they
will be judged on. It is better for them to follow Ambrose,
Anselm, Thomas a Beckett, John Fisher and countless others
than cave in to pressure. They will be in good company! Let
us pray for them. This is a good reason to make a good Lent.
Write
your Member of Parliament. Get your friends and relatives
to do the same. Tell him/her that: as your representative,
you want them to vote against the government's upcoming bill
to redefine marriage and any efforts to extend marriage rights
to same-sex couples. Let them know that how they vote on this
issue will be a major factor in determining how you vote in
the next election. Tell them also that you want them to vote
for the enshrining of the traditional definition of marriage
in the Canadian Constitution. To obtain telephone, email,
fax and address information for MEMBERS of PARLIAMENT see:
http://www.lifesite.net/getinvolved/politics/canada/findyourmp.html
With
continued prayers and my blessing,
Father Jean Violette |
