The War Room

DALTON RECEIVED COMMUNION

This is a topic that has come up before and will no doubt continue to come up; that of Catholic politicians and Holy Communion.

Dalton McGuinty's glib comments on the matter are ill-conceived and misinformed. As reported by Lifesite news:

Chris Morley, Press Secretary in the Office of the Premier, told LifeSiteNews.com that "the Premier's comments stand and are a matter of public record." He also noted that the Premier declined to answer whether or not he would stop receiving communion because of the Pope's statements and his continued political support for abortion.

This past Christmas Eve I found myself in a situation where I could not attend the church that I normally attend, so I went to another one closer to where I was located. I went to an early evening mass at a Roman Catholic Church just east of St. Clair and Yonge St. in Toronto. As the mass progressed, I noticed that on the other side of the aisle there was a very familiar figure present. It was of course, Dalton McGuinty. Yes, he received Communion.

Make of that what you will.

What the pope is saying to Catholic politicians is that if you say you are Catholic, troll for Catholic votes in the Catholic community before an election and then get elected as a Catholic, could you...ummm..., please act Catholic. And if you do not act Catholic then we will tell people you are not.

Capisce.

In other words, if you sell someone a can labelled Coke and they buy it thinking there is Coke inside, make sure it is filled with Coke and not Pepsi.

Capisce.

There are politicians both Liberal and Conservative who run as Catholics and act Catholic once in office. Dan McTeague comes to mind as does Jason Kenney. But the Liberal Party and its cohorts in the media are making it more difficult for one to be a Liberal and Catholic. And it all comes down to two issues; abortion and same sex 'marriage'. If Dalton all of a sudden changed his view on those issues they would not allow him to sign his own nomination paper.

But Dalton's comments that he represents "...all kinds of different backgrounds, different faiths, different cultures, different traditions..." are ludicrous. Dalton represents the people who agree with his views on these issues, no more no less.

Does this make Dalton a 'bad' person? No. It does make him a confused and dishonest one. He is from that liberal generation of the 60's that believes you keep your religion under your mattress, hidden away from people. That generation that defines themselves based on the divisive notions of race, gender and sexual orientation.

As for his Press Secretary reaffirming his view in favour of abortion, I would take this as Dalton directly issuing a challenge to the Catholic community. He is flaunting his arrogance and seeing how far he can go.

I have made my views on ex-communication of Catholic politicians very open in this forum. If they keep pushing and pushing, the church really has no choice. It is regrettable, but as with Paul Martin before him or Nancy Pelosi or John Kerry or Jean Chretien, sooner or later someone needs to be the example. Now that should only be a last resort after much compassionate talk and consultation...but sooner or later the process needs to begin.

I hope the priest at Dalton's parish (if Dalton goes on a regular basis) talks to him about this issue and it is not left alone.

Better yet, I would love to see both the Liberal and NDP parties be more tolerant of people of faith who have differing views on controversial issues. Perhaps then we can have the government that we deserve.

posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 5:55 AM