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In a prior email, I wrote that the obvious solution to abortion in Canada was a return to God. Let me explain how a central European country has done just that, with fantastic results for Life and Family. But first, let’s look at our current situation…

Quebec and Canada Need God

In the mid 1960s, during a period called “The Quiet Revolution,” Quebecers followed the elite of their day in rejecting Christianity. There followed a tsunami of abortions (less than 1,000 a year in 1971 to about 30,000 a year today), divorces (for every 100 marriages in a year, 50 divorces) and bad laws (e.g., same sex “marriage” in 2005, euthanasia in 2016). And unfortunately, the rest of Canada followed suit, seduced by a Quebecer, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and his ilk.

Today, drugged by their phone screens and chained to their comforts, most Quebecers and Canadians seem unable to pull themselves from the mire. And the overly subsidized mainstream media weigh on the minds of Canadians like lead, making sound reasoning almost impossible. Should we just give up?

Never. A change is possible. But one must want real change. We must want God back in our life, including in our country’s public life.

(Today is the 10th day of our 2-week fundraiser; if you have given already, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If not, we need about $7,500 to reach our $15,000 goal. If you want Quebec and Canada to be Pro-Life, please give today.)

Viktor Orban and “Christian Democracy”

Let us turn to another once oppressed people, the Hungarian people, who knew how, with the grace of God, to free itself from a state of mental and spiritual slavery to become a model for Europe and for the world.

Hungarians, now a proud people of 10 million souls, were groaning under the boot of communism as soon as WWII ended. They had more than the biased mainstream media oppressing them: they suffered from the communist yoke of the tyrant Stalin and his successors. In short, Hungary was a victim of total atheism, imposed at all levels, especially in politics.

In 1989, the USSR collapsed, and Hungary was free. On the other hand, this country risked falling into perhaps an even greater evil: that of devoting itself solely to money and comfort, as so many Western countries do today.

This is why in 2010 the Hungarian people gave themselves a leader, Viktor Orban, and a Fundamental Law (a Constitution), to protect themselves from worldliness. The Hungarians wanted to be neither communists nor liberals (i.e., indifferent to the good and to God), but Christians!

Let’s read a small part of this “Fundamental Law,” and see if we, as Canadians, can learn something from it.

“Fundamental Law of Hungary of April 25, 2011:

Bless the Hungarians, O Lord!

NATIONAL PROFESSION OF FAITH

WE, THE MEMBERS OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION, at the dawn of this new millennium, declare with responsibility for all Hungarians the following: we are proud that our King Saint Stephen has placed the Hungarian State on solid foundations by bringing our homeland into Christian Europe. We are proud of our ancestors who fought for the survival, freedom, and sovereignty of our nation. (…) We are proud that our people have fought for centuries to defend Europe, contributing to its common values ​​through their talent and diligence. We recognize the unifying virtue of Christianity for our nation. (…)

Human dignity is inviolable. Everyone has the right to life and human dignity; the life of the fetus must be protected from conception.”

Here is a Constitution worthy of the name; here is a people on the right track!

From 2010 onwards, faithful to its Fundamental Law, Hungary has valued its Christian heritage and implemented family-friendly policies, with the following, encouraging results:

• Between 2010 and 2020, the number of abortions has fallen by more than forty percent: from 40,449 to 23,901!
• The number of divorces has gone down nearly twenty-five percent from 23,873 in 2010 to 18,100 in 2021 and…
• The number of marriages has increased almost one hundred percent, from 35,520 in 2010 to 72,000 in 2021!

Once again, we see here a country on the right track!

The key: a society that is neither liberal nor atheistic, but Christian

What is the lesson to be learned? Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, sums up the lesson nicely, with the following words he spoke on July 28, 2018:

“Let us confidently proclaim that Christian Democracy is not liberal. […] Liberal democracy favours multiculturalism, while Christian democracy gives priority to Christian culture…”

And he continued:

“Although we may seem like a minority, many of us in Europe have the common goal of building Europe once again on the solid foundations of Christianity… Hungary has been following this path since 2010.”

In Quebec and Canada, we may seem like a minority of believers and pro-lifers who want to obey God in all facets of our life, but this active minority can become a movement for the reconstruction of Quebec and Canada on the solid foundations of Christianity…

… And Campagne Québec-Vie wants to be the spark to ignite such a movement in Quebec and across Canada. But we need your support.

If you can, please donate today.

Yours for Life,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

p.s. We could not do this work, day in and day out, without you. We need about $7,500 to reach our $15,000 goal. Please give what you can, if you want Quebec and Canada to be Pro-Life.

There are a lot of problems in this world, God knows. Poverty, disease, natural calamities, all these things preoccupy and sadden people every day. Fortunately, these tragedies provoke a healthy indignation in almost every Canadian. That’s why there exist generous government programmes for the poor, a massive network of hospitals and charities for the sick, and a robust emergency infrastructure to respond to natural calamities. Yes, these tragedies exist, but so many are willing to step up and solve them, that we can take heart that we are doing our utmost to right what is wrong.

Then there’s abortion. We have in abortion the targeted killing—by dismemberment, poisoning or aspiration—of the most innocent and vulnerable human beings. In Canada alone, 100,000 abortions are committed each year, by the very “doctors” we subsidize to heal the sick. Why are the cries of indignation for these babies in the womb so few and far in between? Where does all the seeming generosity and care for the vulnerable and weak disappear when it comes to the unborn? Truly there is a mystery here, the mystery of evil in the world. (Today is the 7th day of our 2-week fundraiser; we have made some great progress, but are 8,605$ from our 15,000$ goal. If you want Quebec to be Pro-Life, please give today.)

Humans are made for God; each of us has a God-sized hole in our hearts that cannot be filled except by God. And when a secularist, rebellious society does everything to prevent people from finding God, from finding Christ, people become tortured by an insatiable hunger. They look to distractions of all kinds, they look to drugs, and they look to the cheapest drug of all, sex, to dull the pain of this hunger for God. For this drug to work, however, there must not be any “side effects”, in the form of an unwanted child, to the pleasure that sex provides. This is why abortion is so “important” in today’s godless society: it ensures an ample supply of a cheap, powerful drug in the form of free and consequence-free sex, to dull the pain of a life without God.

Our country therefore can be said not to run on oil, foreign or domestic, but on the blood of babies. Without the constant flow of this innocent blood, there would not be enough consequence-free sex to dull the consciences of the citizenry. If the supply of baby-free sex were cut off, there would be a revolt against the current social order and perhaps even a return to God. But the people in charge, disciples of Satan, the Prince of this world, do not want a return to Godly order. So, they make sure the killing of unborn children is legal and fully accessible.

But the blood of baby killing does not please God, it strikes at his very heart. He sent His own Son to end, on the cross, needless bloody sacrifices once and for all, and we are called to join Him in stopping today’s evil child holocaust. That is why Quebec Life Coalition exists: to call out the glaring problem: abortion, and to point to the glaringly obvious solution: God. For people will never give up abortion until they have something to fill the God-sized hole in their heart.

Please help us continue to point out the obvious, for the sake of the babies, their mothers, and the God-starved society that longs for Him but rejects Him at every turn.

Thanks for giving today.

God bless,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

p.s. Quebec Life Coalition, also known as Campagne Québec-Vie, is virtually unique in Quebec and even in Canada in pointing out that the problem of abortion can only be solved by a return to God. Thanks for helping us continue this life-saving and soul-saving work.

In my last email, I gave a brief history of our Quebec-based Pro-Life organization, Quebec Life Coalition (QLC, also known in French as Campagne Québec-Vie). I explained how, in our country’s history, Quebec has very often been at the root of the cultural revolution that has taken our society down the path of abortion, euthanasia, same sex “marriage” and indifference and even hostility to God.

I explained why pro-Life Canadians needed a pro-Life Quebec, and that all Canadians, even those from outside Quebec, had an urgent interest in helping those who are fighting in Quebec for a Culture of Life from within Canada’s arguably most pro-abortion province.

But just who are the people in Quebec working full-time for Campagne Québec-Vie / Quebec Life Coalition? Where do they come from? How do they make a living? For space considerations, I’ll only profile two employees today. (Today is the 5th day of our 2-week fundraiser; we have made some great progress, but are $11,090 from our 15,000$ goal. If you want Quebec to be Pro-Life, please give today.)

I’ll start from our most senior worker: Mario Richard.

Mario Richard (left) and CQV/QLC Founder Gilles Grondin, circa 1995

He joined our organization over 30 years ago, as a young man living in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, a working-class, East-end borough of Montreal, not too far from where our offices are currently located. A lay member of the Servite Order, he was looking for work in accounting at the time, when he somehow had received through the mail a newsletter from CQV. It wasn’t long before he began working for CQV full time. The director at the time, Gilles Grondin, appreciated Mario’s reliability, fidelity, and discretion. Thirty years later, Mario has proven himself to be a rock for CQV. He handles the financial side of our operations: donations, bequests, salaries. He is as essential and steady as a healthy heart, who beats with compassion for the unborn and for his province of Quebec, so mismanaged and travestied over the years.

Next is Brian Jenkins, our vice-president and vigil organizer.

Brian also grew up in Montreal, but in a more anglophone milieu. He received a degree in engineering at McGill and subsequently spent several years discerning a religious vocation. He eventually received a master’s in philosophy at the Dominican College in Ottawa. It was there that he began praying outside abortion centres. He then went to New York City where he joined Mgr. Reilly’s “Helpers of God’s Precious Infants” in praying outside abortion mills. His ailing mother brought him back to Montreal about 15 years ago, where he soon joined up with us for our 40 Days for Life prayer campaigns outside of Montreal’s Morgentaler abortion facility. Since then, he has been working with us full time, maintaining a constant, daily presence outside many of Montreal’s abortion facilities, as well as organizing about twenty 40 Days for Life campaigns.

And now for the question most everyone asks: “How do you guys make a living?” The simple answer is: we ask. We ask people for money. And somehow, for over 30 years, this works. Like mysterious manna gratefully received every morning, the money is somehow there to work another day. And today a new day is born, a new mother weighs her options, a new unborn life is threatened, another soul is tempted to turn away from God and towards a life of meaninglessness and empty, transient pleasures. We at QLC turn to God for help and to you whom God calls to help. We turn to you. Today we are asking for you to help us fight the good fight for Life in Quebec — can you?

God bless,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

p.s. You now know 2 of our 6 full time workers. In a next email, I will introduce you to the next 4. Thanks for helping us continue this life-saving work.

You may have heard that at Campagne Québec-Vie/Quebec Life Coalition, we are a group of six people working full-time (plus two part-time) to establish a Christian society that defends faith, family, and life, from conception until natural death.

Lately, you’ve heard about our fight against renaming a park in Montreal in honour of Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s most notorious abortionist.

What you may be wondering is, who we are, and how we got where we are now. (Today is the 3rd day of our 2-week fundraiser; if you want Quebec to be Pro-Life, please give today.)

It all started in 1989, when the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a decision that would deny the personhood of unborn children. In the “Daigle v. Tremblay” case, the Supreme Court had to decide whether a father, on account of his shared responsibility for a child, could prevent an unborn child from being aborted. The Court said NO, as it affirmed that, at least in Quebec, the child before birth was not a human being under the law.

With this decision, Quebec had just been the originator of two consecutive Supreme Court decisions which threw wide open the abortion mill doors in Canada, the first decision being the 1988 Morgentaler Supreme Court decision striking all laws preventing abortions in our country. The Canadian pro-life movement could no longer delay instituting a pro-life response in Quebec.

That’s why Jim Hughes, at the time President of Campaign Life Coalition, tapped retired, lifelong Canadian diplomat Gilles Grondin to be president of a new pro-life, homegrown organization in the province of Québec: Campagne Québec-Vie.

Ever since that time, Campagne Québec-Vie has been there to shine a light in a province that has the dubious honour of being at the “cutting edge” of almost every cultural setback in Canada, from abortion to euthanasia, from the promotion of homosexuality to the elimination of faith from the public square.

We have run dozens of LifeChains, twenty 40 Days for Life vigils, have printed countless pamphlets, flyers, posters, have published books, we have run websites, we have produced documentaries and short videos, we run social media pages, we do everything we can to affirm the truths about God and human life in a province that is doing everything it can to live as if there were no Truth and no God.

Now, more than ever, we are committed to growing and deepening our work in this province. We are keenly aware of our responsibility to bring light in the darkness. And for that, we are asking for your help. Please give what you can today.

God bless,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

p.s. You now have the story on how our organization came to be. In a next email, I will introduce you to each of our full-time workers. While each story is unique, we all work at QLC/CQV for the same reason: to glorify God and to save lives. Thanks for helping us continue this life-saving work today.

Last Saturday Quebec Life Coalition was on the ground in Montreal, in the East-End park that city officials are planning to rename “Morgentaler Park,” in honour of Canada’s most notorious abortionist.

You can read our report of the event here>>

We went door-to-door to upwards of 400 homes to distribute our flyers and information. We were there to say “NO” to honouring a man who surgically killed with his own gloved hands an estimated 80,000 unborn babies in his lifetime, and has trained scores of other so-called doctors to do the same.

You can check out our Facebook Page HERE for pictures of the event. 

I want to thank all who joined us for this event, and all who prayed for us. You all contributed to building a Culture of Life in Quebec.

Today, I want to ask you a special favour. We are starting a fundraiser this fall, as we do every quarter. However, this fundraiser is especially pressing, because we have every reason to believe that Quebec needs to step it up a notch if Canada ever hopes to become pro-Life. 

Abortion started in Canada with Henry Morgentaler, a Quebecer, opening illegal clinics in Montreal. Then a Quebec Prime-Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, legalized abortion in 1969. Then all laws preventing some abortions were struck down in 1988 by the Supreme Court, thanks to Morgentaler. The following year, another Supreme Court case, originating from Quebec, decided that the unborn were not persons under the law (the famous Daigle vs. Tremblay case) Then Euthanasia was first legalized in Quebec’s National Assembly in 2014. 

Do you see a pattern here? It shows that A Pro-Life Canada needs a pro-Life Quebec!

But for that, we need your help.  And everyone, both those who live in Quebec, and those who live outside, has an interest in helping Quebec’s homegrown pro-life org—that’s us—grow even faster and become even more influential. 

Campagne Québec-Vie/ Quebec Life Coalition is dedicated to building a Christian society that defends faith, family and Life, from conception until natural death. We have a team of 6 full-time staff working to make this happen. But we can, and must, do more!

Because as it is, Quebec is still going in the wrong direction. And dragging the rest of Canada with it!

Can you help us today with a sacrificial donation, enabling our team to criss-cross Quebec, building pro-Life networks across the province, to strengthen our province and stop it from being a dead weight dragging the rest of Canada down?

Our two-week fundraiser aims to raise $15,000. You are among thousands who are reading this email, who care for the unborn, and who want Canada to protect Life. Won’t you fund Quebec’s Pro-Life org to make it happen?

Because A Pro-Life Canada Needs a Pro-Life Quebec.

Thank you for your generosity, and God bless,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

By Joanne D’Arc (Campagne Québec-vie) — Photos : Joanne D’Arc

On September 10th, Quebec Life Coalition organized an event in Montreal, at Beaujeu Park to protest against it being renamed after Dr.Henry Morgentaler. This physician, who died 10 years ago, was a Jewish doctor of Polish origin who dedicated his life to promoting a culture of death after opening his first abortion clinic in Montreal in 1968, just a few blocks away from the Beaujeu park.

The city has been trying to push a change of name through the city councillor, Julien Hénault-Ratelle. The reason for it being : the "good" that he brought women by offering them illegal abortions and his so-called "success" in 1988 with the Supreme Court decriminalizing abortion.

The name of a place or park in the city may seem unimportant to some, but it acts as a witness to history. The study of place names, also known as toponymy, helps to preserve the city's heritage and local culture. The name of a park also communicates the values of our city and, up until now, the Beaujeu Park communicated the history of the Honourable Jacques-Philippe Saveuse de Beaujeu.

The latter was the Lord of Soulanges and Nouvelle-Longueuil, a military officer during the war of 1812 and member of Parliament in 1814. It would be an insult to his memory to remove his name from this park. Meanwhile, Dr.Henry Morgentaler is responsible for at least 80 000 abortions throughout his career. This is the kind of legacy that is about to be celebrated should the park be renamed by the city.

On the day of the event, volunteers gathered from across the city to distribute 650 flyers from early morning across 400 residential houses near the park. The flyers informed about the change of name that is soon to take place, the dubious legacy of Dr. Morgentaler and the atrocities of abortion.

The team of volunteers also worked hard on making posters and trying to blow up 800 balloons that were meant to symbolize just a small portion of the lost lives through the hands of Morgentaler. Seeing the park filled with those balloons made it scary to imagine that this was only 1% of the 80 000 abortions committed by Morgentaler...and yet the park was full of them.

Photography & Design : Joanne D’Arc

The event was attended by a local hip-hop artist Mayne Champagne who wrote a pro-life song called Vanity, as well as James Shadenberg from CitizenGo, who flew in from Toronto specifically for the event and has gathered almost 10 000 signatures so far on his petition against the park being renamed after Morgentaler.

Neighbors of the park stopped by the event and spoken with our Director of Political Operation, Arpad Nagy, and were shocked to find out that the park in their neighborhood was to be renamed after Dr.Morgentaler. Some of them were fond of the name Beaujeu and did not understand why the city would not ask them for their input before renaming the park. One lady from the area was astonished to hear that there were no abortion laws at all in Canada, and that a child could be aborted until the day of birth.

There was also a time dedicated to prayer for the victims of abortion and to remembering their lives. Overall, the hearts of the attendees and the neighborhood were moved. People were also incited to take action and contact their local mayor to stop the park being renamed through the information given to them in the QLC flyer.

To view all the photos of the event, please visit our Facebook page.

We are about to enter summer and what better way to do so than to be outdoors, giving thanks to our Creator.

If this appeals to you, consider joining us for a walking pilgrmage on the Feast to the Sacred-Heart of Jesus - Saturday, June 25, 2022.

This will be a 6-kilometer walk, pictured below, whose purpose is to offer our prayers and sacrifices for the end of abortion in our society.

We meet at Mary-Queen-of-the-World Cathedral where for those interested a 7:30 am mass will be celebrated.

We set out after the mass from the front of the church - on René-Lévesque Blvd., and travel the six kilometer route stopping outside seven additional shrines and six abortion facilities.

The entire itinerary may be found here.

At each of these, we will offer prayers of reparation for the victims of abortions, the innocent children killed by abortion and their mothers maimed by the experience and the families involved.

We will also make intercessory prayers that this tragedy never happens again.

Can you think of a better way to promote the culture of life in Quebec?

Hoping to see many of you on Saturday, June 25, 2022.

JMJ

Brian Jenkins

p.s. For the full list of upcoming QLC activities, click on the image found below.

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Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea and say, “Here is the message of the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the ultimate source of God’s creation: I know all about you: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Rev 3: 14-16)

I recently received a great blessing that I’d like to share with you.

You may already be familiar with our sidewalk ministry in downtown Montreal, which we have named “Vigil 365.” It involves prayer volunteers spending about ninety minutes each day, year-round, at the centre of the abortion industry in the province of Quebec. Within a half-kilometer radius of the corner of St. Catherine and Berri Streets there are five abortion facilities, one of which performs late-term abortions (after 25 weeks of gestation).

Our presence there does not go unnoticed. Men and women from all walks of life travel through this busy intersection daily – workers, tourists, CEGEP and university students, and the homeless, as well as people on their way to or from the abortion facilities.

Reactions to our presence are varied, ranging from smiles and words of support, through mute indifference, to frowns and disparaging words.

The blessing I mentioned above came as the result of this sidewalk activity, following an exchange with a young man about 22 years old, who is passionately opposed to our presence in this public space. His attitude then as well as in two subsequent visits was antagonistic.

Much like a severe storm indiscriminatingly pickup everything in its path, his remonstrations embraced issues not limited to the pro-life movement – organised religion, women’s rights, and others endearing to us who value family, faith, and life.

Through it all, my peers and I remained calm. We also offered rebuttals to the varied comments when permitted, as the young man did listen to us.

Afterwards, on reflecting upon the three encounters, I came to recognise a tremendous blessing received. Yes, remaining calm and verbal were blessings in themselves, examples of God’s grace at work. Yet there was more, much more.

It occurred to me how much God cares about and loves this young man. In His great mercy, Our Lord manifested Himself through the presence and words of three different interlocutors – first with a vigil participant named Mary, then with me, and then with Denis, another vigil participant.

Our Lord manifested Himself to the young man, calling him to Him through three different servants, calling him to be with Him.

Through these three visitors, the young man was met, then welcomed and then listened to. He met three witnesses, all of whom were avowed believers in God and the culture of life.

Though “cold” and offensive to God and to the culture of life, he was not cast into Gehenna, but called to be part of Our Lord’s plan of an abundant life. This moment of insight permitted me to understand more clearly why Our Lord prefers those who are “cold” to the “lukewarm,” as this “coldness” can lead people to gravitate to God, unlike the “lukewarm” who remain in suspension like motes of dust hanging in the air.

A further insight. This incident revealed not only God’s largeness but also how we are His instruments to reach out to others.

I learned that God is ever ready to embrace us all, the indignant included.

I pray that you too may have such opportunities to be God’s instrument in the lives of others.

With this in mind, consider joining us in our upcoming activites so you too may experience God's munificence:

- Day of Action against renaming a city park to honour an abortionist - Saturday, September 10, 2022. See newsletter for details.

- Life Chain. On Sunday, October 2, 2022, a sixty-minute silent, prayerful vigil at the corner of Décarie Blvd. and Jean-Talon Street. Signs will be provided to draw the public’s attention to the truth that abortion is not a solution.

- 40 Days for Life prayer vigil for the end of abortion. From September 28, 2022, to Sunday, November 6, 2022, in Sherbrooke, QC.

Thank you for your on-going prayerful support for our mission to change hearts and establish a culture of life.

Brian Jenkins
Outreach Coordinator
Quebec Life Coalition

A provincial election is expected to take place on or before October 3, 2022, and a relatively new party may surprise persons on election day – the Conservative Party of Quebec (CPQ).

Established in 2009, the CPQ has run candidates in the three elections since then – 27 in 2012, 60 in 2014 which received 0.39 percent of the total votes cast, and 101 in 2018 collecting 1.46 percent of the total vote. (There 125 ridings in total.) None of these candidates were elected to the provincial legislature.

The current party leader is Éric Duhaime, a former columnist and pictured below. Ms. Claire Samson became the party’s first and only member in the legislature, having been elected as a candidate representing the Coalition Avenir Québec party in the 2018 election, but leaving to join the CPQ in June 2021.

What to think about Mr. Duhaime and the CPQ? Particularly as an election is looming on the horizon?

This is the question which Quebec Life Coalition (QLC) President Mr. Georges Buscemi addresses to the French readership of the QLC in this month’s newsletter. I include selected extracts, which I have translated, in the lines below.

A first point that Mr. Buscemi makes about Mr. Duhaime is his charismatic personality.

After a lopsided victory in the CPQ leadership race last year, he knew how to augment the membership roll of the party from 500 members to about 57 000, rivaling that of the CAQ (the governing party). Furthermore, current public opinion polls rank the CPQ second, behind the CAQ but ahead of both the Liberal and Parti Québécois parties. Such leaves no doubt about Mr. Duhaime's talent as a communicator and (of his) popularity.

A second point that Mr. Buscemi raises concerns Mr. Duhaime’s openly gay lifestyle.

Unfortunately, he publicly expresses his gay lifestyle. Moreover, he has a habit of brandishing his "minority status" as a talisman to neutralize the criticisms of leftists and progressives towards him. It is as if to say: “do not criticize me unduly, dear friends …, because you know that I am not one of those 'backward' conservatives, I am a gay person!”

Mr. Buscemi believes that such an avowal is a ploy, though sincere, by Mr. Duhaime to shield himself from the current anti-conservative narrative that runs in Quebec’s social and mediatic circles.

This annoying behavior, although understandable in the Quebec context, where any deviation from the Quebec progressive doxa is severely punished in the influential media, becomes a cause of scandal and acts as a sanction for the serious "lifestyle" sin by Monsieur Duhaime. It is not surprising, then, that some see in him not a real alternative to the rotten system embodied by (premier) François Legault's CAQ, but a controlled opposition: artificial, ineffective, and even accomplice. What to do then? Abstain from voting?

To these questions, Mr. Buscemi replies that one must first and foremost examine each candidate in one’s riding to discern his or her personal views regarding faith, family, and life. Yes, the party leader and the party platform are important determinants but subordinate to the values of the candidate on the election ballot.

As for the party’s policy commitments, as found on the party’s webpage, Mr. Buscemi notes several importance features:

- Better support families and encourage the birth rate (section 3.2.2)
- Better support seniors and their caregivers (3.2.3)
- Affirm parental primacy as a fundamental principle of family law (3.2.4)
- Democratize school choice by allowing all parents to choose (5.2.1)
- Ensure the growth of the Quebec culture in the context of the low birthrate and the aging population (6.2.2)

Although the party platform is silent on matters of abortion, euthanasia, and the like, Mr. Buscemi doubts that frontal attacks on such travesties would further the party growth in the current decadent climate.

In conclusion, Mr. Buscemi notes that yes, Mr. Duhaime’s lifestyle choice poses a danger to himself and is a scandal to others. Yet, the party which he leads contains quality policies that are far from insignificant.

Three choices - A pro-life person can vote this autumn for a candidate in this party, especially if the latter is solidly pro-family and pro-life. Else, if the candidate is neither, the CPQ may still be chosen if this avoids a worse candidate or party. And finally, a third option would be to annul one’s ballot, sending the message that no candidate worthy of the high calling of being an elected official was on the ballot.

For life,

Brian Jenkins
Outreach Coordinator
Quebec Life Coalition

p.s. By clinking on the image below, you will access this month's newsletter. Your financial support helps defray the charge of the printing and mailing it to those unable to use the internet. Thanks.

Life at all stages is fragile, requiring care and attention.

From conception through the various stages and right up to old age, it needs protective and caring hands.

What are the necessary qualities of those hands?

Dr. Peter Breggin, nicknamed by his peers “the conscience of psychiatry,” notes four principles which seem appropriate to develop caring hands.

Digression: I enjoy discovering the origin of words. Doing so, I find, reveals meaning about the word. For instance, the word “principle” has at its Latin source the term principium meaning “beginning, origin, first part” and is akin to the term princeps which means “first man, chief leader; rule, sovereign.”

The four principles which Dr. Breggin cites, which he does not take credit for but rather sees as being central to human society since antiquity, are at the beginning and origin of human actions and integral to being a leader.

The four are: 1. Protect freedom, 2. Take responsibility at all times, 3. Express gratitude for all gifts and opportunities, and 4. Become a source of love.

These four find expression in our Judeo-Christian heritage. For example, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the first two notions - freedom and responsibility, are united and discussed in paragraphs 1731-1738. Here are two extracts from that section.

As long as freedom has not bound itself definitely to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach. (1732)

Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts. (1734)

The third principle states to express gratitude for all gifts and opportunities.

Returning to the CCC, paragraph 800 reads:

Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well. They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ, provided they really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit and are used in full conformity with authentic promptings of this same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms.

The final principle, though not the least, concords quite well with the theological virtue which Saint Paul acknowledges as the greatest (cf. 1 Cor 13:13)

Becoming a source of love, according to Dr. Breggin, isn’t a narcistic act, but rather a turning to another whether in the form of nature, God, family, art or music.

As we begin the Lenten season, journeying with Christ in the desert, we can reflect upon and integrate into your lives these four principles – protect freedom, take responsibility at all times, express gratitude for all gifts and opportunities, and become a source of love.

In so doing, we can be assured that our hands will be transformed into protective and caring ones.

For Life,

Brian Jenkins
Outreach coordinator
Quebec Life Coalition

p.s. The Lenten prayer vigil for the end of abortion is about to begin. It runs daily beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 2, through to Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 505 Saint-Catherine Street E, metro Berri-UQAM. For additional information, see our flyer, call our office at (514) 344-2686 or visit our web page.

p.p.s Your financial support permits the Quebec Life Coalition to continue its work of building a culture of life. This Lenten season the QLC is teaming up with the Cistercian abbey outside Montreal, Val Notre-Dame, to raise funds for our work. A portion of your purchases from the abbey's store will be given to the QLC. Click here for details.