Setting record straight

Re: Standing on guard for life (July 22-29):

Your recent story about Fr. Tony Van Hee’s long vigil on Parliament Hill made reference to an incident during which I, then a Member of Parliament, attempted to remove a sign he was holding. I want to clarify what led to that exchange.   

As he confirmed, I always supported Fr. Van Hee’s right to speak out on the abortion issue, including defending him when efforts were made to remove him from the Hill. The sign he was holding that day, however, did not refer to abortion. It attacked gay people, equating us with pedophiles. 

I had told him I found that sign deeply offensive, and asked him to remove it. I had every right not to be confronted by such abusive words as I entered Parliament.

Despite our deep differences, I have always believed passionately in our constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and I always treated Fr. Van Hee with dignity and respect, which was always reciprocated. His incredible commitment to his beliefs over more than 30 years is to be applauded, and I was pleased to read the article in The Catholic Register telling his remarkable story.

Svend Robinson (MP 1979-2004),

Limassol,  Cyprus

By the time this scribbling reaches publication online and in print, our long summer journey will be more than half completed.

Jesus told His apostles who had just returned from a missionary trip, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

Pesto tastes like summertime to me.

Thanks to the excellent coverage by Salt + Light Television, I was able to follow the “Catholica 200” celebrations in St. Boniface, Man., marking the bicentennial of the arrival of the first French missionaries in the Canadian West. 

The soul-crushing case of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is yet another example of one of God’s shepherds doing the devil’s work in a Church failing still to wash away what Pope Benedict XVI called the filth of clerical sexual abuse.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 5 (Year B) Exodus 16:2-4, 12-16, 31a; Psalm 78; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35

Prophetic letter

Re: Canada took wrong side in Humane Vitae debate (July 8-15):

Thank you Fr. Raymond de Souza for revisiting Humanae Vitae and the Canadian bishops’ undermining of the wisdom and beauty of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life.

It is worth reading afresh this prophetic love letter from Pope Paul VI, readily available on the vatican.va website. 

Artificial contraception/birth control has resulted in worldwide misery. Dr. Janet Smith has done exceptional work in recording this. 

As artificial birth control grew in use, so did the rate of divorces and the rate of STIs. Fr. Silvestre Birngruber in his 1954 book, Morals for Lay People, wrote: If artificial contraception becomes widely practised, abortion on demand will follow as a natural consequence. 

We know the truth of this prediction. Pope Paul VI also foresaw the tragedy if public authorities/governments became involved in artificial birth control. 

One doesn’t need advanced degrees in medicine to realize that one cannot keep pumping chemicals into a woman’s body and not expect undesirable consequences.

David Hogg,

Toronto, Ont.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 29 (Year B) 2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

It’s the timing that makes Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s cap-and-trade announcement particularly ironic.