What is the influence of Catholic bishops?
I’m a religion-watcher, particularly of my own. These powerful influencers in society are too seldom scrutinized in mainstream places.
Seems only fair, after I criticized the American Catholic bishops a month ago for supporting Trump, that I have a look at the Canadians. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) founded in 1943, is the assembly of francophone and anglophone Catholic bishops of Canada, headquartered in Ottawa, with 79 active bishops and 40 staff. The president is Bishop Richard Gagnon of Winnipeg.
There are 12 million self-identifying Catholics in Canada, about 38 per cent of the population. Twothirds of our population describe themselves as Christian.
Bishops sometimes issue statements on the great questions of our time.
Sexual questions have tended to predominate: What Sister Joan Chittister calls “pelvic preoccupations.” I went to the website and saw a modest statement about the unrest in the U.S.; prayers for the pandemic; and an appreciation of the environment from 2017.
Our cultural context in Canada is more liberal and to my mind, enlightened, than the American one. But we, too, hunger for out-front leadership from spiritual sources.
The Catholic bishops have inherited several hard-to-defend sexual and gender policies. Still they would never dare, as certain American bishops have done, publicly refuse communion to a pro-choice Catholic politician.
Amend that: in 2008, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa threatened such a move.
The prime minister, and several before him; Jean Chrétien, John Turner, and Joe Clark for example, have been pro-choice Catholics. I remember approaching the communion table at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto some years ago wearing a rainbow scarf as part of a demonstration in solidarity with LGBTQ people.
We weren’t refused, but we were looked on disapprovingly.
There are hints of an obsession (it must be global) with abortion. On the CCCB website, there is a letter to the prime minister assuring him that the Conference of Bishops is all in favour of a vaccine for COVID-19, but he must not authorize the use of fetal tissue in the research.
I am a fan of Melinda Gates, cofounder of the Gates Foundation. She had a Catholic upbringing in Dallas.
The foundation supports women’s and children’s health, including family planning and access to abortion around the world. She says cheerfully, “My church and I just agree to disagree,” and then gets on with what she knows is right and relevant.
In my years as a board member for Amnesty International Canada, 2007-2009, the Amnesty sections around the world were debating whether to include sexual and reproductive rights as human rights. As the only Catholic, I was turned to for advice.
The Canadian bishops had issued a statement advising people to stop donating to Amnesty International.
That got my dander up. Ultimately, A.I. globally did adopt these important rights. I told my Amnesty colleagues not to pay too much attention to the bishops’ letter. They spoke for so few
I have another beef with the Canadian bishops. Five years ago, the important encyclical letter, “Laudato Si” was published by Pope Francis. It dealt with the most pressing issue of our time; the state of the earth, our common home.
The bishops by definition, are teachers, but I waited in vain for an effective campaign to teach this letter in schools, parishes and seminaries. As far as I could see, only the Jesuit Centre in Toronto went all out to prepare tools. Asleep, is the kindest way to describe the bishops’ efforts.
If women were involved in decision-making in this great institution, things would become a lot better. One archbishop, retired Rev. Sylvain Lavoie, wrote to the Pope in March: “I am finding when a space is created where it is safe to share, women open up with the pain they feel stifled by the church’s patriarchal nature.”
But most prefer prudence to prophesy. Lavoie: one lone voice. Feminists of this faith have so much work to do.