Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellete has a totally different sacrificial altar in mind for pregnant raped women. Certainly not the one that he is blessing with his superior priestly power.

Abortion uproar astounds Marc Ouellet
Quebec cardinal underlines he was just repeating church's teaching
Western Catholic Reporter - 5/27/10 - Deborah Gyapong-Catholic News Service

OTTAWA - Cardinal Marc Ouellet says he is surprised at the magnitude of the overreaction to his recent interventions against abortion.

"I have no power," the archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada said in an interview. "The Church in Quebec has no power anymore."
"Why such a big reaction? Because I am just reminding people of the teaching the Church," he said.

Ouellet faced a wave of negative media attacks, including a popular La Presse columnist calling him an ayatollah and extremist and wishing the cardinal would die of a slow, painful illness for saying abortion was a moral crime, even in cases of rape.

Provincial and federal politicians denounced his remarks, culminating in a unanimous resolution May 19 in the Quebec National Assembly, affirming a woman's right to free and accessible abortion. The resolution also demanded the federal government end its ambiguity on the issue and stop de-funding women's organizations.

The resolution surprised Ouellet.

"At least it was not oriented against me directly," he said. "I know they were not happy about my comments. They want the federal government to clarify its position about abortion. That's their political play." (I wonder what the Cardinal really believes about forcible rape followed by the Church's demand for forced pregnancy. Would he follow this teaching himself? He never does state his personal opinion, only Church teaching. He's using the old "My mom says so" explanation.)

The cardinal said he is reflecting and consulting on a response. "I will not leave things the way they are," he said.

"There is a legitimate debate about promoting human life, about respect for the unborn," he said. "Our country is very weak on that."

The cardinal defended the legitimacy of his speaking out in the public square even if he is a member of the clergy.

"The Church has to teach the truth of the Gospel and the understanding of the human being from the Gospel of Christ," he said. "And the Church has to care for the formation of conscience."

"What I see in the country is the fact that we have for 40 years legalized abortion without any restriction, it has a great effect on conscience," he said, referring to the role the law plays as teacher. There are about 30,000 abortions a year in Quebec, more than 100,000 in Canada as a whole.

Ouellet said as a bishop he had a duty to teach Catholics the moral law. The Church also has to call for justice in society, he said. "For the unborn, there is not justice. He is the weakest human being; nobody is protecting him.

"After these four decades the moral state of our culture, it has become unthinkable to revise the law, it is also symptomatic of the effect of the law on the culture," he said. "In the future we should be more prudent on what kind of laws we pass in Parliament." (This is the first time I have read a ranking bishop admit changing abortion law after forty years is a no win proposition. One wonders if an American bishop would ever be so honest.)

The cardinal recognized, however, merely passing a law would not solve the problem. "I am aware that in Canada, in Quebec in particular, you will not reform society at the moral level by teaching morals first," he said.

EVANGELIZATION ANSWER

"It will be through a new evangelization. If you do not meet Jesus Christ, it is very difficult to accept the teaching, the moral teaching of the Church. I am aware of that, even if what we teach is coherent at the rational level." (The problem with the abortion teaching is it's not coherent at the rational level and is far from coherent in traditional church teaching. It's assumed coherency is based strictly on denying women any right to their own procreative process up to and including her own right to life.)

The cardinal was saddened that he has been accused of condemning women. "I have condemned nobody, not even the women that go to abortion." (This understanding depends on which definition of 'condemned' one is using. Condemning a woman to hell is one definition, condemning her to death in favor of her fetus is another.)

Ouellet said the consequences of abortion are difficult for women, even if they are not commonly recognized. "Women go to abortion not because it is funny," he said.

"It is not funny at all; they are distressed. It is a very difficult decision to take."
"We should be more sensitive to all the factors that are bringing them to this decision," he said. He urged there be support and dialogue, not to pressure women, but to help them "to see what is at stake in such a decision."
"What they need afterwards is support, understanding, compassion, all kinds of dialogue," he said.

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Cardinal Ouellete's remarks certainly struck a chord up north of the border. The backlash has been strong, loud, and official. I suppose the timing was rather poor, given that the Canadian Church is dealing with more fall out from clerical sexual abuse. It probably wasn't a good idea to moralize on raped women going through with pregnancy as moral demand of Christ Himself, when the Canadian hierarchy has not done exemplary work in dealing with children raped by their own priests. The New Testament actually contains specific words from Jesus about harming living children, but says nothing at all about abortion.

What struck me about this article was not the quotes about abortion, but the more factual observations of the Cardinal. The first was his admission that the Church in Quebec has no power any more, and the second that it was not possible to change a law with a forty year history of acceptance. These are the words of a culture warrior who knows the legal battle is lost. It has been for quite some time. These are the words of a culture warrior who is finally admitting his primary weapon--his teaching authority--is a weapon loaded with blanks. Pope Benedict experienced the same lesson in Portugal when the governmental authority passed gay marriage as soon as he was out of the country.

There was one other statement in the above article which also has great significance. Cardinal Ouellete is quoted as saying one cannot reform the morals of a country by teaching morals first.

That's true. As any parent knows moral behavior is effectively taught when one acts consistently moral. There in lies the lesson of the abuse crisis for the Catholic Church. I would advise Cardinal Ouellete to start his re evangelization program with himself and then extend it to the full College of Cardinals including the Vatican.

In his personal re evangelization the first thing the Cardinal might want to reflect on is that Jesus offered healing, not condemnation, to everyone but the hypocritical religious authorities of His time. If the Cardinal and others of his religious caste--Olmstead comes to mind--would cease attempting to maintain their moral authority through regulating the bodies of women and girls, they might have time to actually discern what it was Jesus was actually teaching about living an authentic Christian life. Or about exercising authentic moral authority.