Publisher, editor fired over Canadian PM communion controversy

Remember that "Canadian Prime Minister pockets consecrated host!" story from earlier this month? 

In my coverage, I focused on the duty of the officiating Archbishop to refrain from giving communion to someone who isn't in communion with the Church. 

AmP readers were also quick to point out that in the distributed video, the Prime Minister is not actually seen "pocketing" the consecrated host.

Well, it looks like he did actually consume it, instead of pocketing it, and the publisher and editor cooked the story on the writers:

"The publisher and editor of the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal are no longer with the paper after it was forced to apologize to Stephen Harper and two of its own reporters over a story about whether the prime minister took communion at the state funeral of former governor general Roméo LeBlanc.

CBC News has confirmed that editor Shawna Richer has been fired and that Jamie Irving is no longer the publisher of the paper. Earlier, their names had been removed from the paper's list of senior staff.

The apology, which ran on the provincial newspaper's front page on Tuesday, said the story that ran on July 8 that accused Harper of placing a communion wafer in his pocket was "inaccurate and should not have been published."

"There was no credible support for these statements of fact at the time this article was published, nor is the Telegraph-Journal aware of any credible support for these statements now," the apology said.

"Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them." (CBC News)

Let's still be clear, the Archbishop still shouldn't have given him Communion in the first place, he had no business accepting it, and the fact that the above story is headlined "Publisher, editor out over wafer story" tells you how far we still have to go when it comes to informed, respectful reporting of matters Catholic.

Canada: Homosexual altar-server sues bishop for dismissal

LifeSiteNews has the developing story:

Jim Corcoran, the owner of one of Canada's largest and most lavish spas, has launched a human rights complaint against the Bishop of Peterborough Ontario for refusing him permission to continue to serve as an altar server.

Corcoran admits that he is homosexual and lives with another homosexual man, but says that he follows the Church's teaching and lives a chaste lifestyle. According to the Catholic Register, Bishop Nicola De Angelis asked Corcoran to accept his decision that he not serve on the altar based upon the bishops' desire to avoid public scandal.

Corcoran is seeking monetary damages of $25,000 from the bishop and $20,000 each from 12 parishioners who complained to the bishop about Corcoran and his roommate having been invited by the local priest to serve on the altar at Masses.

The matter is tricky because Corcoran claims to be living chastely with his live-in boyfriend.

If that previous sentence didn't quite make sense to you, you're on to something. Corcoran would be an object of scandal if he was a heterosexual man claiming to be living a "chaste lifestyle" with his live-in girlfriend. The fact that he is an open homosexual exacerbates the problem.

As I've said before, the homosexual agenda cannot be reconciled to biblical Christianity, and the two movements cannot co-exist peacefully in society (they certainly do not appear to be co-existing well now). This episode, to my mind, is one more case which proves the truth of that claim.

Video: Canadian Prime Minister pockets consecrated host!

Much more than a faux pas:

LifeSiteNews:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in hot water over a video that caught him taking Holy Communion in a Catholic Church, despite being a non-Catholic Christian. To make matters worse, the video shows him walking away without consuming the host.

And what makes matters really worse is how clueless everyone involved seems to be, beginning with Harper's spokesman:

Asked why the PM as a non-Catholic would receive Communion, which in Catholic teaching is reserved for Catholics and even only those Catholics who are properly disposed to receiving Communion, Soudas replied: "Who is the Prime Minister to judge once Communion has been offered to him?" Soudas added, "It is a well known fact that he's a Christian."

It's like Soudas is not even listening to the question. Sure, in protestant congregations they are (typically) very permissive about who is eligible to receive "communion." But Catholics aren't.

Harper is currently en route to the G8 leaders' summit, after which he will meet with Pope Benedict on Saturday. It would be appropriate for Harper to apologize to the pope at that meeting, and explain fully what happened. It's simply a matter of courtesy to Catholics and their strongly-held beliefs about the Eucharist.

Strongly-held, of course, with the exception of one Fr. Bourgeois, who delivered the homily at the Mass where this took place, and said: "Usually, to partake in Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, you have to be a member of it, but if you're not, exceptionally sometimes at major occasions (it is different)," he said. That's wrong. Where does it say that in Canon Law?!

Also falling down on the job, Monsignor (Bishop?) Andre Richard, who gave Harper communion, who said: "I didn't see anything wrong there because I was busy doing something else." Um, what else should you be doing except noticing that you a) gave the prime-minister of your country - who is not a Catholic - Communion and b) didn't even notice that he pocketed a consecrated host? It is your duty as a minister of Communion to observe what happens to it!

Source: Questions Catholics demand explanation for PM pocketing communion wafer at LeBlanc funeral in the Telegraph-Journal.

Canada v. Catholicism

An anonymous reader writes:

I have an important and troubling story for you too perhaps write about and bring wider attention to. In Quebec, a french speaking province in Canada they have passed a law requiring all schools to teach a mandated course that will force Catholic schools to no longer be able to teach distinct Catholicism outside of social constructivism. It requires schools to observe and note other religious holidays regardless of the tradition of the school.

I have attached an article but the article is really quite tame in explaining it. In the curriculum it advances a very distinct culture of death. Here is a link to from lifesite news as well.

This move by the Quebec government is quite literally the most dangerous regression of religious rights in North America. Because it is occurring in a French province in Canada it has not gotten the press it deserves,l it should serve as a canary in a mine. In one of the secondary school text books it states that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Henry Morgenthaler, a Canadian Abortion doctor who fought for abortion rights in Canada are some of the three greatest men of the 20th century.

Canadian Bishops release 4-page voting guide

Our American version, by comparison, is roughly 42 pages (PDF here).

The Canadian 4-pager is here, again in PDF format. It has four principles:

• Respect for life and dignity of the human person
• Preferential option for the poor
• The war in Afghanistan
• Environment

Quebec priest picks church over politics following 2 years in office

Off the American beat, but generally related to recent topics:

Bloc Québécois MP Raymond Gravel has decided not to run in the next federal election after the Vatican forced him to choose between Parliament and the Catholic Church.

Gravel, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was granted special permission by the Vatican to run for federal office in 2006.

He indicated on Tuesday that the Vatican requested he choose between politics and the priesthood in light of Canada's impending federal election. (CBC)

Ph/t: AmP reader Blaise.

Pro-Gay persecution continues in Canada

Quoted in full as a warning to the rest of us, so that we realize what is already happening:

Canada's human rights industry has resumed its investigation of Catholic Insight magazine, published by Father Alphonse de Valk. The Canadian Human Rights Commission had announced on July 4 that it was dropping its 16-month investigation against the publication for alleged 'hate'. However, homosexual activist Rob Wells, the complainant in the case, was given 30 days to request a judicial review of the case.

According to a federal court docket, Wells requested the judicial review on July 31. Canadian blogger 'Blazing Cat Fur' broke the story Thursday evening ... The docket lists the complainant as "Robert Dale Wells" and mentions that he is suing from Edmonton Alberta.

Fr. de Valk was informed of the application for judicial review Friday morning by reporter Pete Vere, author of an upcoming book on the Human Rights Commission and its attack on freedoms of religion and speech. "I'm very disappointed if I have to go through this again," he told Vere.

Fr. de Valk further told LifeSiteNews.com that he sees the move as "another attempt to drain us of funds" noting "he's already cost us over $20,000." (LifeSiteNews)

The so-called "hate speech" published by the magazine was actually only orthodox Catholic teacing on the subject. The person suing excerpted sentences and fragments from out of their proper context in his case.

Decided: Pope Benedict won't attend Quebec's Eucharistic Congress

Canwest News Service:

QUEBEC - Pope Benedict XVI will not come to Quebec City this summer for the 400th anniversary celebrations, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec said Thursday.

Marc Cardinal Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec and primate of the church in Canada, has been lobbying for weeks for the pontiff to attend the International Eucharistic Congress slated for June, one of the biggest events of the city's 400th birthday bash.

But Ouellet said in a brief press release that the Pope has chosen to send a representative to the congress that will bring together some 15,000 delegates and 50 cardinals from 60 countries.

A group of Quebec citizens had also launched a petition to encourage the Pope to attend the event that will culminate with a giant outdoor mass on the historic Plains of Abraham.

This news must be disappointing to Catholics in Canada, I'm sure. The trip had been on the table for a very long time. Still, with the Pope's mid-April visit to the states, turning around and coming back in June might have proven too challenging for him, especially considering his expressed reservations about cross-atlantic trips.