Readers Speak Out: September 13, 2020

Work together

As a Past President of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace – Caritas Canada (D&P), I am very pleased to see that the bishops want to return to the National Council (NC), the governing board of the organization.  I have always believed their presence at NC meetings is imperative.

However, I question the return of not two but now four bishops on the NC. Will they be prepared to put in the incredible amount of time and energy that the other NC members put in throughout the year, as brothers and sisters together in the vineyard of the Lord?  Or will their presence be an exercise in command and control? The present movements give the appearance that the NC is being sidelined, its directive capacity and authority taken away.

In 1967, the Catholic Church in Canada chose to give birth to a new life, the organization we have come to know as D&P. It was to be an independent, lay-led, Catholic institution delivering competent, professional development aid. The bishops, by giving voice to that decision of mother Church, became fathers to the organization. Over the years, it grew in wisdom and stature, becoming an icon of its parents.

It is my sincere hope that the renewed involvement of the bishops within D&P will become, not an expression of command and control, but of truly working side by side with their brothers and sisters in the vineyard of the Lord.

I pray for the members of the National Council and the bishops, who must together thread this needle with great care, so that this garment of our Lord may be embellished, not torn.

Ray Temmerman,

Winnipeg, Man.

Pro-life first

In the wake of the shameful death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, “global outrage” and “demands for justice” bring into sharp focus the immutable truth at all human life matters regardless of its stage, condition or status, in other words from conception to natural death. Now is a golden opportunity to promote the “culture of life” (St. John Paul II). For example, during rallies for justice, posters that read “Black Lives Matter” could be amended to “Black Lives Matter, Born and Unborn.”

During a pro-life rally, one sign carried by a young woman read: “I vote pro-life first.” God bless her.

Norman W. Lower,

Quebec City

Evil regime

Western countries like Canada must no longer tolerate the atrocities committed by China against ethnic Islamic Uyghur’s and Hong Kong dissidents. This Western cowardice is eerily reminiscent of the time Adolf Hitler ordered the annexation of the Sudetenland.

The Chinese regime is as frightening as Hitler’s; its racial intolerance has now expanded to include the genocide of an Asian Islamic people inside “re-education centres” that enforce sterilization and birth control on the Uyghur people. Any who resist are killed.

The violent suppression of Hong Kong democracy protests violates the 1984 Sino-British declaration, as does the new law enabling China to abduct, torture and imprison citizens at whim.

Scholars have warned the Trudeau government that an emboldened China could pursue military actions against its neighbours. We must not underestimate the evil of this regime. 

Christopher Mansour,

Barrie, Ont.