Alberta Premier, Anti-Catholic Groups Criticize Bishop Henry and Cardinal
Ambrozic
Bishop Henry responds, “what the government has to
do is uphold public morality”
LifeSiteNews.com
(Fundamentalist Christian), January 21, 2005
CALGARY—The Premier of Alberta,
Ralph Klein, told the Calgary Herald that he disagrees with Bishop Fred
Henry’s likening of homosexuality to pornography and prostitution and hopes
the comments do not result in a “new wave of hatred towards gays.”
Bishop Henry dismissed accusations of “hate,”
however, saying that everything he said came straight out of the Catholic
catechism. He told the Western Catholic Reporter, (WCR), “There is nothing
in what I have said that is hateful. I’m simply teaching the faith of the
Catholic Church.” He added, “That’s just an attempt to demonize me and
to silence me and all the threats in the world are not going to do that.”
Far from backing away from his responsibility to teach
the truth, Bishop Henry said that he is not going to change a word of what he
said in his original pastoral letter. “Fundamentally what the government has
to do is uphold public morality and it shouldn’t be bashful in terms of
doing so.”
Meanwhile, the anti-Catholic, pro-abortion organization,
“Catholics for a Free Choice,” has issued a press release predictably
defying the Catholic Church’s opposition to granting marriage rights to
homosexual partnerings. CFFC Canada’s spokesman, Kathleen Howes condemned
Toronto’s Cardinal Ambrozic for his letter to Paul Martin urging the Prime
Minster to introduce a bill defending traditional marriage.
Similarly, the Toronto-based group, Challenge the Church,
said that Cardinal Ambrozic is “fear mongering,” by warning that changing
the definition of marriage would create a social atmosphere of consent to
homosexuality. This same group attempted to exploit the Pope’s 2002 visit to
Toronto to claim that young Catholics favoured their dissent. They were
humiliated when Canadian media far outnumbered Catholic youth at their events
and those youth who did attend chastised them for their disloyalty to the Pope
and Church teachings.
Bishop Henry told WCR that government has a
responsibility to suppress homosexuality and other behaviours which would be a
danger to the family. “There is no question that homosexual people must be
treated with respect, with compassion and sensitivity and unjust
discrimination should be avoided at all costs. But nonetheless there is the
truth that homosexual acts are acts of great depravity and we would be doing
violence to people if we hid the truth from them,” he said.
Read coverage in Western Catholic Reporter:
http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2005/0124/henry012405.shtml
To write to Premier Klein:
http://www.gov.ab.ca/premier/feedback.cfm
See Bishop Henry’s pastoral letter
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/050113a.html
To send a note to Bishop Henry:
bishopfh@rcdiocese-calgary.ab.ca
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