News

Objet : Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace



March 17, 2009

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast,
Archbishop of Ottawa

Your Grace,

Last week I read a disturbing report about the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace's scandalous activities in funding pro-abortion groups in Mexico. The report claims that hundreds of thousands of dollars are being donated to anti-life, pro-abortion organizations. I have included the full news report here with my correspondence.

As you know, each diocese in Canada collects money on behalf of the CCODP every year. There is a collection envelope during Lent to help fund their activities. This year it is scheduled for this coming Sunday March 29.

For many years, the CCODP has long supported questionable causes, many of which are diametrically opposed to Catholic teaching and the traditional family. Over the years the CCODP has been more interested in promoting social Marxism and social engineering than fulfilling its original mandate of seeking authentic social justice. Personally, I have long since stopped supporting this organization since it is neither Catholic, nor does it seek to foster development or peace. In truth, it sponsors activities and groups which do the exact opposite. I have strongly encouraged family and friends to eschew donations to this group, and I will continue to do so in the future unless some major changes happen within this organization.

This latest revelation, however - while not surprising - represents yet another outrage against the sanctity of human life. What makes this scandal particularly offensive is that the CCODP is taking the sacrificial offerings of unknowing Catholics, who would otherwise be appalled at these revelations, and directing their donations to groups who support the killing of unborn children.

This situation is even more disgraceful considering Ottawa Catholics are heavily involved in the 40 Days for Life Campaign to end the scourge of abortion in Canada. While we are praying, fasting, witnessing and sacrificing here in Ottawa, our money is going to Mexico to kill our brothers and sisters there.

I do not understand why the Catholic bishops continue to support such an organization when it has shown us time and time again that it is more interested in furthering the agenda of the Culture of Death than it is in advancing the Gospel of Life.

This is not merely an isolated event. This theft has been happening for years, and it has not come without a serious cost of credibility to the bishops of Canada. You must understand, your Grace, that this kind of blind support and perhaps even negligent oversight over the initiatives of the CCODP does not enhance the trust or the fidelity a bishop's office deserves.

I can scarcely imagine a more obscene practice which cries out for immediate intervention and correction by the country?s Catholic bishops.

I am therefore asking you to withhold any contributions collected on behalf of the CCODP by the Archdiocese until a full and thorough review is conducted into the beneficiaries of CCODP funding.

If the Archdiocese is seeking a legitimate way to alleviate poverty in the world while still remaining faithful to the Gospel, may I respectfully suggest a Catholic organization like Chalice (chalice.ca) which does the real work of social justice among the less fortunate.

As for the proper disposition on how to clean up the CCODP, I can think of no better illustration than this past Sunday's Gospel reading.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

John Pacheco


Source: Socon.ca

One small victory for freedom of speech


The GazetteMarch 5, 2009

McGill University's student government has bucked an unfortunate national trend by granting full club status to a student anti-abortion group.

The Student Society's decision to grant recognition to Choose Life is not so much a victory for pro-life forces as it is a victory for free speech and freedom of association, values that seem to be under attack, and poorly defended, on many Canadian campuses - where they should be safest.

Students at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus, for example, have denied status to an anti-abortion group, and Carleton University's student leaders are considering a motion to refuse support or space to any group that doesn't support "a woman's right to choose."

But anti-abortion groups aren't the only ones having on-campus problems, which is what makes this fundamentally a free-speech issue. Pro-Israeli students often find their views marginalized as well. It appears to be a lot easier, for example, to organize an "Israel-Apartheid" week, like the current ones at McGill and Concordia, than to get a room and a time for a pro-Israeli speaker.

So the McGill students' decision is a hopeful sign that not all students have bought into the notion that debate should be limited to a very narrow spectrum of "acceptable" opinions. But some of the rhetoric in the society's heated two-hour debate over Choose Life's status illustrated the scope of the challenge to free debate: "There's a lot of legitimacy in calling this group oppressive to women," Councillor Sarah Woolf argued. "SSMU operates under an anti-oppressive environment, and we cannot allow this club to continue."

(...)

Pour lire l'article au complet:

Source: © Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

40 Days for Life Campaign begins

TORONTO, Feb. 25 /CNW/ - 40 Days for Life is a period of prayer, fasting

and constant vigil organized by Campaign Life Coalition with the goal of

ending abortion. The campaign began in Texas in 2004 and the first Canadian

ventures took place last fall in Ottawa and Halifax. Here in Toronto this

year, it consists of 40 days from February 25 to April 5, 24/7, 960 hours

on-site prayer vigil at 960 Lawrence Avenue West, outside and across from one

of Toronto's abortuaries.

Many people are not aware that the medical facility located at suite 501,

960 Lawrence Avenue West is also an abortuary in operation since 1996. At this

location many innocent human beings, who are peacefully growing and developing

in their mother's wombs are violently killed by abortion. The slaughter has to

stop!

We believe our most powerful weapon is prayer and fasting. People

dedicate one-hour time periods at the site to witness and plead to heaven for

the tiny lost lives. We also remember the moms and dads whose lives are never

the same after their abortion experience.

Coordinator for the Toronto's 40 Days for Life campaign is Nicole

Campbell.

www.40daysforlife.com/toronto

For further information: Nicole Campbell, Coordinator, 40 Days for Life

Campaign Toronto, Tel: (416) 204-9749, Fax: (416) 204-1027

40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign that has generated measurable lifesaving results in more than 130 cities where it has been implemented. It has lead to a significant drop in abortions on almost all locations, and in some places such as the State of North Dakota Some to the closing of all abortion clinics.

The 40 Days for Life campaign is made up of three key components: prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil and community outreach.

***

UPCOMING MEETINGS: