Read this week's message from Father Don
Dear friends,
Last Sunday afternoon, about 20 parishioners participated in Life Chain, our annual opportunity to publicly express opposition to the practice of abortion in Canada. Twenty parishioners out of a community of more 1000 is not very many.
How did abortion and other liberal social values come to dominate our society so quickly? A key factor was the unwillingness of Christians and others to stand up for what they believe. Abortion, contraception, in-vitro fertilization, MAID, cohabitation, and LBGTQ advocacy have become so firmly established in our society that public discussion of these issues has become next to impossible.
Some years ago, I read a book about the history of tyranny in modern societies. The author suggested tyrants come to power because those who oppose them fail to challenge their increasing influence at the proper time. In other words, the opposition caves in far too quickly and this allows tyrants to rapidly seize power. The same pattern can be seen in the advance of liberal social values in the West over the past three decades.
These days it is not uncommon to hear Christians and other social conservatives lamenting the state of the modern world, conveniently ignoring the fact that their past passivity and lack of courage helped to create the situation wherein only one point of view is ever heard.
When Jesus invited his followers to become “the salt of the earth and the light of the world,” he was urging them to become courageous and confident, knowing that they would often face opposition in the world. His invitation has a particular urgency in our present age where the faith and its values are so widely rejected.
It is good for us to stand up for what we believe and to enter into respectful dialogue with our fellow citizens who hold very different values from our own.
Best wishes
Father Don