Peter Stockland, Director of the Cardus Centre for Cultural Renewal, opens his article in the Catholic Register with the statement, “I cannot abide bishop bashing.”
Well, Peter, I can’t abide Catholic apologists.
Stockland’s article article is full of good old fashioned BS:
The habit in some Catholic circles of remorselessly denouncing and denigrating our prelates for perceived failures to lead, to act, to show courage, to boss the world about, sets my teeth on edge.
Truth alert: The Catholic Church has been bossing “the world about ” for two thousand years.
Stockland is indulging in scaremongering when he talk about the government’s “vicious political assaults on [Catholic] faith” and is indulging in hyperbole when he talks about “death threats to Canada’s moral order represented by the recent B.C. Supreme Court decision striking down federal euthanasia and assisted suicide laws.” The recent B.C. Supreme Court decision affects all Canadians, not just Catholic Canadians who have forgotten the command “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). If Catholics don’t want to take advantage of euthanasia and assisted suicide, they can opt out.
Stockland wants the Catholic laity to speak up:
We remain, after all, in the millions across this country. We remain a strong majority. There is no reason on Earth that we should hesitate to use our majoritarian influence to protect our Church and its teaching.
Stockland admits that there may be difficulty motivating the millions of Canadian Catholic faithful because
the political opinions of the faithful properly span the democratic spectrum. On specific issues, and even approaches, our differences are a sign of the catholicity we share.
Stockland’s use of the word catholicity is ambiguous and reveals more about the state of the Catholic Church than he intended.