Ontario Bishop Mulhall: We Won’t Let the Government Define Catholic Teaching

Life Site News ^ | 10/16/12 | Patrick B. Craine

[marshmallow]

PEMBROKE, Ontario, Oct. 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After Ontario’s Education Minister shocked Catholics last week by declaring that under the law their schools should not be teaching that abortion is wrong, the Bishop of Pembroke insists that the Church has no intention of letting the government define the Catholic faith.

The Church will “defend her legitimate autonomy from outside organizations which attempt to define the content of Roman Catholic teaching,” Bishop Michael Mulhall stated in a letter to parishes on Oct. 11th. “As a Bishop of the Catholic Church, this is a sacred obligation and a joyful mission which was entrusted to me on the day of my ordination.” Bishop Michael Mulhall of Pembroke

On Wednesday, Minister Laurel Broten told media that Catholic teaching on abortion is “misogyny” and therefore violates the government’s newly-enacted “anti-bullying” legislation. “We’re very clear with the passage of Bill 13 that Catholic teachings cannot be taught in our schools that violates human rights and which brings a lack of acceptance to participation in schools,” she said.

The Minister also claimed that there is no “contrast or … conflict between choosing a Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman’s right to choose.”

The bombshell prompted a quick rebuke from Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto, who heads the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario. Campaign Life Coalition demanded Broten resign.

Calling the remarks “totalitarian” and a declaration of war on Catholic education, CLC on Friday launched a petition campaign that has since yielded over 5,000 signatures.

In Bishop Mulhall’s letter, e-mailed to LifeSiteNews by the Diocese of Pembroke, he said Broten’s statement was “very disturbing but hardly surprising.”

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I’m not Catholic, but good for the bishop! It’s ironic that the government is invoking “anti-bullying” legislation. The government is bullying the Catholic Church.

[Gay State Conservative]

I know little about Canadian politics and don't understand the funding of religious schools there but a government official telling a religious school that it essentially can't teach religion smacks of government suppression of what *we* call First Amendment rights.I recently read that Catholic Bishops in Communist China were recently informed that they were *required* to attend a government conference on religious practice.Will there soon be a “Patriotic” Catholic Church in Canada?

[Gamecock]

Good on him.

[hoosierham]

American laws of “hate speech” and “hate crimes” are direct attacks on the First Admendment.Hate speech laws are passed at the behest of those who want to shut down all opposition to their views;in other words,it is the intolerant “tolerance” crowd.

[Salvation]