Toronto Archdiocese pays damages to pervert victim - but made him suffer up to the court date

Oh, the shame of it. The rich and wealthy and oh, so holy, Archdiocese of Toronto where this writer resides, is as filthy and guilty of shaming victims and covering up perverts as all the rest. Decades of giving off the impression that "This just doesn't happen here" as I am told was the theme at the last round of priest meetings or "country club retreat" from a certain Laymen known as "His Excellency" has just been shown as a fallacy. Not that those of us with certain information didn't already know it.

But Toronto is good, you see, nobody will go "on the record." 

https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-toronto-catholic-diocese-must-pay-over-500000-to-abused-altar-boy

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/03/19/toronto-catholic-diocese-on-hook-for-530k-for-priest-abuse-of-altar-boy.html

Pervert Sodomite Priest Alphonse Robert was at Sacred Heart parish in Windsor of the long suffering Diocese of London before coming to Toronto in 1963. How fortunate this writer was that he did not come to my parish. But where? Neither article mentions the parish.

The oh, so holy Archdiocese of Toronto where none of this filth ever happens has a chink in its armor. 

Brian Clough, a retired priest is quoted in the articles. Clough was Judicial Vicar in charge of dealing with all these perverts. Yet, it was this same Clough who was the James Martin, S.J. of his day. At this post, we featured an old newspaper column where Clough called for "understanding for gays" even those in the priesthood. Clough went on to become Rector at St. Augustine's Seminary and was later removed by Cardinal Carter under the cloud of controversy and scandal involving sodomite seminarians and a document calling for "tolerance' for the "straight" seminarians. All documented in Anne Roche Muggeridge's book, The Desolate City. Clough was removed sent off for reeducation and then brought back and put in charge as Judicial Vicar. 

http://voxcantor.blogspot.com/2018/08/toronto-catholic-chancellor.html

This is what happens when our Church is taken over by lawyers rather than Shepherds. 

A thought for Bishop Fred Henry and a theory on what will come out of it for Toronto

Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary has resigned due to serious physical conditions that are incurable. He will be replaced by the current Bishop of the Diocese of Peterborough which is now vacant. Peterborough is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Kingston and immediately east of Toronto Archdiocese. Toronto was once part of the Archdiocese of Kingston which extended to Detroit until Michael Power was appointed as Toronto's first Bishop in the around 1840.

Bishop Henry was known as "Red Fred," for his social justice principles. He was an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of London before coming to Toronto an an Auxiliary before a stop as Bishop of Thunder Bay prior to Calgary. He made quite the name for himself in the fight against genderism, sodomitical so-called marriage, and the radicalist agenda of homosexualism being forced upon Alberta's schools as well as strong Catholic principled stands against euthanasia and abortion. He was a good man in these things. Liturgically, his one foolish act, apart from that which is generally foolish in the the nervous disordered liturgical dictatorship, is that he suspended the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. During the hysteria around H1N1, a number of bishops in Canada, including Toronto's, banned Holy Communion on the tongue, something which they had no authority to do. The FSSP in Calgary refused to go along with communion in the hand and asked the people to make a spiritual communion instead. The only person required at Mass to receive Holy Communion is the actual priest, in order to complete the Holy Sacrifice. The people were fine with it. Bishop Henry was not. Well, it was less than a week later that that decision was overturned from on high in Rome. What I will say about Bishop Henry is this; I wrote him to protest his decision. He actually wrote back and exchanged in a conversation about it. God bless him in his retirement and comfort him in his infirmity.

Now, what next?

Here is my theory.

The terna, the three named recommendation by Cardinal Ouellet to Pope Bergoglio will be rejected. Canada has escaped, thus far, a FrancisBishop - most of our current were just shuffled since he came on the scene, the major and suffragan Sees filled prior under Benedict XVI or quietly filled with no controversy.

I believe that ends now.

Bergoglio will reject the terna, order one of Toronto's current Auxiliaries, probably Bishop Kirkpatrick to Peterborough clearing the way for Francis to put one of his own great promoters in these parts to Auxiliary Bishop to become a thorn in the side of Thomas Cardinal Collins as a punishment for being the prominent blue inked signature as one of the great 13, who stood up to him at the Synod.

The vindictive and Peronist Bergoglio does not have the cojones to punish Cardinal Collins directly for that affront, after all, Cardinal Collins did stand up for the Faith against him, so he will make his last five years here miserable with an Auxiliary to do Bergoglio's bidding and to be on the inside of things in Toronto.

Then, in five years, or maybe even less, he will make that man Toronto's new Archbishop.

Remember where you read it.

Bishops of Atlantic Canada, where are you going and what are you all doing in that handbasket?

Take a look, for a moment at these names. These are the Bishops of Atlantic Canada who "minister" to the long-suffering Catholic souls of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

Consider now then, the very real probability that each of these cowardly, emasculated, heretical apostates will end up in Hell.

Anthony Mancini
Martin Currie
Valery Vienneau
Brian Dunn
Anthony Daniels
Claude Champagne
Richard Grecco
Peter Hundt
Robert Harris
Daniel Jodoin

Hell!

With Satan and his minions and the tortured souls of countless priests and bishops and no doubt, a few popes, who betrayed Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church and His Truth and His people for expedience, for compromise, for a tax deduction. Hell, they will have chosen, so as not to offend the last few people filing their coffers.

One wonders if the accompaniment and last rites includes a request from Father for a bequeathment of property or money from the person about to commit suicide/be murdered. After all, can't let it all go to waste right? Give it to the Church!

Hell!

These ten Bishops of Atlantic Canada are sanctioning the direct violation of the Fifth Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill!"

They are in direct contradiction of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as found in paragraph 227:

"Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded."

When these men die and find themselves moments later plunging into the depths of Hell, will they realise that this document may be the primary reason? When they meet, in Hell, the Catholics of Atlantic Canada who accepted "suicide" to be murdered by doctors, nurses and their families and a health-cares system and judicial and parliamentary system long since corrupted what will they say to them, when they are asked, "why didn't you stop me?" Now, I will torment you here for eternity for allowing me to make a decision that sent me here, Why didn't you warn me!"

No absolution before hand will change that reality. No accompaniment. No excuse that "well, we were just following in the spirit of Pope Francis!"

The Bishops of Atlantic Canada have issued a scandalous document consistent and not dissimilar to that issued by those in Quebec. One wonders if Marc Card. Ouellette, had given assent to it where no "last rites" will be given along with a Catholic funeral for those choosing so called, "doctor-assisted death."

http://www.halifaxyarmouth.org/index.php/archbishop-vicars/archbishop/letters-to-the-faithful/item/aea-medically-assisted-dying

The world has noticed this error, this heresy. It is a disgrace upon the Church in Canada. 

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/chaplains-of-death

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadas-atlantic-bishops-pope-francis-is-our-model-on-relaxed-guidelines-to

Edward Peters, a most eminent Canonist, has commented at In the Light of the Law, it's a brief and sound demolition of these errant bishops' actions. 

The secular world puts forward its shock at The American  Conservative as Rod Dreher provides arguably the most detailed and hard-hitting salvo at this rotten document and these rotten men. It is a must read:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/tenderness-leads-to-the-gas-chamber/

There can be no charity for these men. There can be no respect for their Offices. They do not deserve it. They are evil men who deserve rebuke.

Are there any Catholics left in the Maritimes to hold these devils accountable? All ten of them deserve to be publicly rebuked and called out as heretics.

Contrast the heretical, scandalous and sacrilegious statements by the Atlantic Bishops Assembly with what the Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories have stated, - no funerals and no last rites!

http://caedm.ca/PastoralScene/entryid/436.aspx

Contrast this with what I am told by priests that Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto said during the recent deanery meetings when asked about this matter and on how to interpret Amoris Laetitia; he referred the priests to the statements by the Alberta and Northwest Territories bishops.

I urge Cardinal Collins to make and emphatic declaration specifically to the people of the Archdiocese of Toronto consistent with the Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories on both these matters.

https://twitter.com/archtoronto @archtoronto archbishop@archtoronto.org

Last rites, whether Extreme Unction or the modernist, Sacrament of the Sick include Confession and absolution. Clearly, a firm purpose of amendment is necessary for validity. How can one absolve under the excuse that the sin is not yet committed, when the intention is to commit it? This is illogical. The Church has wisely come to understand mental illness which can limit culpability in suicide, jumping off a bridge for example, can be a relatively spontaneous act which a person may be driven to out of some pathology or despair. I know of a situation. I am sure you do. We commend that poor soul to God's tenderness and mercy. Choosing to have a doctor murder you under the guise of doctor assisted suicide is chosen and rational suicide for the person and murder on the part of the doctor.

The third chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel contains a severe warning for those ten men listed above. They should read it and contemplate it. Let it be a stark warning to these malefactors of what is awaiting them according to Ezekiel 3:17-19.

¹⁷ Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel: and thou shalt hear the word out of my mouth, and shalt tell it them from me. ¹⁸ If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. ¹⁹ But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not converted from his wickedness, and from his evil way: he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.

"I will require his blood at thy hand."

The churches of Atlantic Canada are empty. A traditional Latin Mass is a rarity. You could count on one hand and still have fingers and a thumb left, over the number that occur with any regularity. The faith is in a state of disaster. Some of the only things that edify the Catholics there is their ability to read this blog and others on the internet that give them hope that all is not lost. I know this, because they write me. 

The number of sodomite clergy, including a bishops, is legendary in Atlantic Canada. The buggery of boys and the destruction of their lives is a shame that these pathetic bishops still fail to grasp. In a CBC report eleven years ago they outlined their fears of their future decline. Now, they only speed it along putting it into overdrive.

The Bishops of Atlantic Canada are traitors to the Faith. They have deserted the people. They have betrayed Our Lord Jesus Christ. They are weak, emasculated evil shepherds. They can be nothing else.

They will be damned for what they have done.

On this Feast of St. Michael, St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto is rededicated

To write a history of this Cathedral of St. Michael, in Toronto, would take much time; I will be necessarily brief.

Early painting of cathedral interior

Bishop Michael Power

Toronto was a city of Irish immigrants from the famine. Michael Power was appointed our first bishop. At that time, there was one Archdiocese from Kingston, at the eastern part of Lake Ontario, all the way to Windsor, across the river from Detroit. Bishop Power commissioned the new gothic revival cathedral and laid the cornerstone on this date in 1848. He died of typhus after attending to the suffering Irish and did not live to see it completed. Toronto was known as the Belfast of North America. Catholics were hated. A good, brief history is written by the Bear over at the Spirit's Sword.  It was the "gangs of New York" on a smaller scale. Even back then, Toronto, or York as it was known, was always trying to emulate the Big Apple.

Those familiar with the recent renovations at St. Patrick's in New York will note quite the difference here.  There was little money when St. Michael's was built, the population of Irish was dirt poor, having just arrived. They may not have been much better off in New York but they had a few more years to establish and a many, many more faithful.

Msgr. John Edward Ronan

The Cathedral became the home of the renowned St. Michael's Cathedral Schola, now literally Choir School. Founded by the late Monsignor John Edward Ronan, pictured at left, the school, throughout the liturgical insanity of the last fifty years still maintained Gregorian propers, sung Latin polyphony Masses and motets, every single Sunday. The school was founded in 1937 and is one of the few in the world affiliated with Rome's Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. 

Whether they have or not, usually not, liturgical musicians in Toronto are always able to look to the choir school for the standard they should follow. Msgr. Ronan stove to raise the liturgical arts in the Archdiocese to fulfil St. Pius X's vision as articulated in Tra le sollecitudini and to break out from the Sunday Low Mass mentality, something which still presents a problem in more than one Sunday "EF" Mass community, right?

In the 1930's, the Cathedral underwent a "wreckovation" of sorts. That's right. A few decided then that the vision of the original gothic revival should be replaced and the ceilings were painted in rather gauche faux mosaics with saints appearing bursting on vaulting that actually covered and preserved the original. The area over the altar was given a romanesque touch with paintings of the life of Our Lord as if taken from some quite dated holy card. The rest of the ceiling was stenciled murals. 

The high altar was lowered to not block the incredible east window some time in the 1950's. Alas, the the rector, or "wrecker," the late Auxiliary Bishop Pearce Lacey who told me himself, as I was driving him home, "I think we went too far," to which my response was, simply, "Yes, Your Excellency." 

Lacey was responsible for the removal of the communion rail destruction of the 1950's era simply gothic reredos and altar  and installed a concrete hulk. If he could have, he would have whitewashed the rest. Lacey was empowered by then Archbishop Pocock to transform Toronto's churches into Vatican II "compliance." He was described to me by one who would know, as "ruthless" in his zeal to destroy that which came before, but I can tell you as he told me himself at the age of 94, "I think we went too far."

A rector that undertook some sensitive restoration of sacred things, Altar, font, pulpit, tabernacle and a few other additions was the late Monsignor Kenneth Robitaille. He was also a great supporter of the Choir School unlike some who came after him who would opine, "what am I supposed to do while they're singing that Gloria!" Oh, I don't know, sit and pray it? Sheesh!

Under Cardinal Carter, the cathedral had a quick redo in 1984 because Pope John Paul II was coming, just a touching up of the existing paint. But there was something else happening in all of this time that nobody noticed or cared to notice. 

St. Michael's was almost literally falling down. From the foundation to the tower.

Enter Thomas Cardinal Collins.

One day, he complained to the Rector about the condition of the once beautiful front doors. Overpainted, over varnished, neglected by all and beaten down by Toronto weather of damp and frigid winters, and hot and humid summers. 

Ah, if it were only the doors. 

Suffice to say, six years and $128,000,000.00 later, St. Michael's Cathedral will, today, be rededicated. 

There was not a part of the building untouched. From the tower to the foundation. From the slate roof to the windows. Fire systems, water, heating and air, lighting, all the fundamental infrastructure. The best part is the return to the vision of the original neo-gothic design and new bespoke Casavant pipe organ to replace the decayed 1880 Karn. The most challenging and incredible achievement was the complete digging out of a full depth basement to construct washrooms and a crypt chapel from what was once a crawl space. 

Even included were commissioned statues for exterior niches on the east and west facades the tower.

This Cathedral, and the beauty of its windows and the sounds of its choir, were instrumental in my return to the Catholic faith. I had left the Church and out for a jog one Saturday morning thirty five years ago, I entered it for the first time. I was overwhelmed with what I saw. I recalled the invitation in 1963 to attend Ronan's school which I was not able to do. My father, a good man but a bit of a worrier, would not let me travel the distance on a streetcar. Not long before her death, my mother apologised for not insisting on my acceptance of the invitation to attend the then, fully private choir school. Interestingly, and since the LORD does write with crooked lines, I do more in church music now than many of the boys who did go and left it all behind, and I told her that.

The Catholic people of Toronto owe a debt of gratitude and prayers to Cardinal Collins. There were those who wanted it to "burn down." There were those who desired a new cathedral, some modernist hulk, no doubt.  It was this Cardinal Archbishop who fixed the mistakes of the past and made good to repair the literal neglect of his predecessors.

May the Lord bless Cardinal Collins for his vision; and may St. Michael protect him. 

May he be inspired to one day, go just a little bit further.

See also:

New Cathedral webpage
https://www.stmichaelscathedral.com/

Catholic Register features
http://www.catholicregister.org/cathedral-reborn

Webcast of the Rededication tonight at 7:00PM EDT
https://www.stmichaelscathedral.com/live-webcast/

The Cardinal and the Prime Minister

Toronto Archbishop, Thomas Cardinal Collins, issued a letter to be read this past weekend in all churches. His Eminence was present to celebrate Mass and deliver his homily at St. Paul's Basilica. The letter on euthanasia or "doctor assisted dying," follows at the end of this blog post. 

Let's be clear, it is doctors committing murder no matter what the State chooses to call it!

The Church's credibility lost

The media has not been kind to the Cardinal or the Church on this issue. Most have featured the story; call-in shows have mocked His Eminence and the Church. Comment sections in the online media are detestable for a Catholic to read, most often resorting to commentary about "raping priests."

Yes. they are right. "Raping priests." 

Those HOMOSEXUAL men, those SODOMITES who came in to the priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ to seize upon young teenage boys (and other perverts with girls), did much damage to the Church beyond the horrid damage itself to the children. 

What is also not surprising is how the media seized upon the opportunity to find Catholics after Mass at the Basilica who openly and profoundly disagreed with the Cardinal. 

Eternity awaits

To my fellow Catholics who support the murder by doctors of people who desire suicide; no matter what our liberal-fascist Canada calls it, you must wake up and you must repent or you will most likely end up spending an eternity separated from God, in Hell. You are failing as a Catholic; you are failing as a human being.

You. Will. Go. To. Hell! 

If you don't believe a good and merciful God will send you there, you are right, He won't send you there. You will have chosen it yourself; and something more, if you don't believe Hell exists, you will when you get there, but it will be too late.

You cannot support euthanasia. You cannot participate in it. Doctors cannot refer to other doctors who will do it. You must do everything you can to stop your loved ones from committing an act that will send them to Hell.

Episcopal failure over a half century

As good as the Cardinal's letter is, it is too little, too late.

The Bishops of Canada began this slide in 1968 with the Winnipeg Statement, allowing Catholics to dissent on the use of contraception. They continued in their lack of zeal to fight Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his implementation of "therapeutic abortion committees" and a corrupted "Charter of Rights of Freedoms" that opened the door for abortion undisputed and available up to the moment before birth. They failed to publicly admonish him and the other Catholic Prime Ministers and Members of Parliament, mostly from once Catholic Quebec. They sold out the babies and our nations future as Judas sold out Our Blessed Lord.

They have failed for over fifty years, since Vatican II by coincidence, to properly form Catholics in the faith. We are 40% of this country and we are powerless because we are not acting as Catholics! The Bishops of Canada for the most part did this, secular humanism did the rest. 

The Bishops of Canada are the root of the cause of this and the lay Catholic has now, no excuse. No excuse because in this day and age of ease of access to information every Catholic should know the truth and fight to uphold it notwithstanding the failed Episcopacy! It is now all our fault.

They have triumphed, we have lost this as we lost on abortion. The imposition of euthanasia upon Canada is a totalitarian act. It has happened because the Catholics of Canada have failed in their faith. I recommend this post by David Warren.  

Trudeau legacy 

Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness draws the full circle from the Pierre Trudeau and abortion to his son Justin and euthanasia. Justin Trudeau is a pathetic man. He is an egoist and an arrogant despicable cretin who has betrayed his baptism on some false notion of "Quebec values!" He is an incompetent. A snow-board instructor. A plebeian.  A man unfit to govern a nation. A second rate school teacher and dramatist.

Are the bishops still happy about their "congratulations" to this man? Why did they not congratulate Stephen Harper a decade ago?

Quebec values?

Canadians, you voted for that. You voted for a man who will be the first Prime Minister of Canada to gleefully walk in a parade dedicated to Sodomy. Does that make you "proud?" Remember, "pride goeth before the fall."

Damn Quebec and its values! In Canada, the Province has the highest abortion rate, the lowest birth rate, lowest marriage level and highest level of co-habitation, highest level of suicide, highest taxes, lowest attendance at Mass by Catholics. Some values! Is this what you are proud of, you Quebecois?  Shame on you for betraying your culture. Shame on you for betraying your ancestors. 

Denial of Holy Communion?

There is a rumour amongst the Ottawa political hack class (of which I was once a part). It seems the rumour is that Cardinal Collins has written to the Prime Minister advising him not to present himself for Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of Toronto. The liberal lapdogs are outraged, - how dare this Churchman tell the Dear Leader he can't take the cracker! He will be in Toronto today to visit the new pandas at the Toronto Zoo. Let's see if he cuts in somewhere for Mass.  There is no confirmation of this from the Archdiocese. I will repeat, it is a rumour, but my sources are highly placed and would have reason to know. If it is true, then the Cardinal has acted appropriately and properly. The Archbishop of Ottawa, Terence Prendergast, S.J., also met privately with Dear Leader; rumour has it that it did not go well. 

Justin Trudeau, as a Catholic, is a confused man a spiritually sick man. He has a malformed conscience. He has sold his soul for power and popularity. Objectively, he has committed grave evil by his policies including the absolute dictatorial force of his will upon the candidates in the last election and now the caucus, that they must hold a pro abortion position or they cannot run or sit as a Member of Parliament!

Canadians, you voted for this. Did you not know this was in his platform?

The Prime Minister of Canada is an arrogant and disgraceful man made more so by his betrayal of the gift of faith he was given. He requires prayer and conversion. He will single-handedly destroy this nation. He is already reduced our security and begun invoking economic policies that will be a disaster for this nation. Yet, these may not end with him in Hell, but his action on euthanasia and abortion will.

He had every opportunity and he squandered it.

Justin Trudeau as a boy with Pope John Paul II

Catholic bishops and laity elected Trudeau

In the last election the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and Development and Peace issued election guides. These were blatant political documents that were subliminally directing Catholics to vote Liberal or Socialist. Along with the usual leftist diatribe the former used "A Just Society" heading as a play on the Prime Minister's name and a recollection of his father's famous statement, whilst the latter used colours - red and orange, associated with the Liberals and socialists. The bishops gave Catholic Canadians an out and they took it.

If you think that Catholics have no right to impose their views then you are wrong. It is not an imposition of views, it is properly formed conscience and knowing what is truth and what is not, what is right and what is wrong and how that is to inform our decisions and actions.

I urge you to watch this video of American, Judge Andrew Napolitano. Napolitano describes himself as a "traditionalist pre-Vatican II Catholic." Watch the whole video but his comments after 9:00 reveal in a particular way the matter of abortion and by extensions, euthanasia. Napolitano is a liberal in the classical sense, in the Catholic sense.

These people that have brought this upon our nation will regret the day, so will you if you voted Liberal or NDP and stand quiet while they destroy the last fabric of humanity in our country. 

Statement from Cardinal Thomas Collins 

concerning Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide

“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, 

nor suggest any such counsel…” - The Hippocratic Oath

“You shall not kill.” Exodus 20:13

“Contemplating Suicide? We Can Help!” There was a time when such an advertisement pointed to a crisis line, where someone was standing by to counsel you and to offer hope in a situation of intolerable pain. We are in a very different time, now. In a few short months assisted suicide, its grim reality hidden behind blandly deceptive terms like “Medical Assistance in Dying”, will be declared an acceptable option in our country, enshrined in law. As the federal government prepares legislation to implement the Supreme Court’s decision, it is crucial to consider the effects of this fundamental change in our laws.
Death comes to us all, sometimes suddenly, and sometimes slowly. Although patients benefit from medication that controls pain, they are fully justified in refusing burdensome and disproportionate treatment that serves only to prolong the inevitable process of dying. But dying is simply not the same as being killed. We are grateful for physicians and nurses and others who offer medical assistance to patients who are dying, but it is never justified for them to kill a patient.
Physicians across our country who have devoted their lives to healing patients will soon be asked to do the exact opposite. They will not be asked to ease their suffering by providing them with treatment and loving care, but by putting them to death. In fact, killing a patient will no longer be considered a crime, but will actually be seen as a kind of health care, complete with legislation to regulate it.
On February 25, 2016, a parliamentary committee presented the lawmakers who will craft this disturbing legislation with 21 recommendations. They should shock us to the core, especially if we believe, complacently and incorrectly, that the change in the law will affect only a few people with grave physical illness, who have lived a long life, and are near death. In fact, the recommendations include:
 A desire to allow, beginning in three years, access to euthanasia/assisted suicide for minors (those under 18).
 The ability for those diagnosed with conditions like dementia to pre-schedule their deaths.
 Insistence that those with psychiatric conditions be eligible for euthanasia/assisted suicide.
 A requirement that any institution receiving public funding, including Catholic hospitals, long-term care facilities and hospices, provide euthanasia/assisted suicide, thus forcing them to repudiate the very principles that are the foundation of their immense service to us all.
 A requirement that doctors who refuse to kill a patient must make sure that someone else does it. No other country in the world requires such a violation of conscience.
It is unjust to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician or, in the case of a health care facility, in order to qualify for government funding. It is not tolerant of religious diversity. It is religious discrimination that punishes those who so faithfully serve everyone who comes to them, and have done so since before Canada existed but who, in good conscience, cannot perform some procedures, such as helping to kill their patients.
When the state goes beyond its legitimate but limited role, and suppresses conscience rights in this way, I am reminded of a man whose employer told him to do something against his conscience. He courageously replied: “You employ me; you don’t own me.”
End-of-life care (palliative care) is currently accessible to only 30% of Canadians. This is a tragedy, and unacceptable. Instead of providing ways to hasten death, we should be providing palliative care for every Canadian, greater support for those with mental illness, and help for those tempted to suicide.
Some people become convinced that, at a certain point, there is no longer any “value” in their life, since they cannot function as they once did. Their concern deserves our compassionate respect, but it is a shaky foundation for social policy. Our value as people comes not from what we can do, but from who we are. It comes from within, from our inherent dignity as human beings. Once we make people’s worthiness to live
dependent on how well they function, our society has crossed the boundary into dangerous territory in which people are treated as objects that can be discarded as useless.
Mindful of the inherent dignity of each person, it is time for families across the country to have a difficult but necessary conversation about the reality of death. We need to understand the destructive implications of these legal changes, and offer truly loving and merciful alternatives. And Christians should be guided by these words of Jesus, that for 2000 years have inspired heroic acts of loving service: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Thomas Cardinal Collins
Archbishop of Toronto March 1, 2016
Tell Legislators How You Feel
Those people who are concerned about this legislation are encouraged to visit CanadiansforConscience.ca  

Cardinal Collins calls Parliamentary Committee report "chilling" - orders letter read in Toronto parishes!

Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of  Toronto, has instructed every pastor in Toronto to read in the parish a letter on the crime of euthanasia in Canada.

http://www.catholicregister.org/item/21864-cardinal-steps-up-opposition-to-assisted-dying

Cardinal Thomas Collins issued a statement to be read at Masses throughout the Toronto archdiocese March 5-6 condemning recommendations for wide-open access to assisted suicide.Photo by Michael Swan.

Cardinal steps up opposition to assisted dying

BY  JIM O'LEARY, THE CATHOLIC REGISTER

• March 2, 2016

TORONTO - A statement from Cardinal Thomas Collins to be read in the Archdiocese of Toronto’s 225 parishes urges Catholics to oppose a “chilling” parliamentary committee report on assisted suicide that Collins said “should shock us to the core.”

In an interview, the cardinal said he hopes parishioners will write to their Members of Parliament and “even the Prime Minister if they wish” to express “deep concern” about a report that recommends assisted killing be integrated into health care and become available to terminal and nonterminal patients. The report also said doctors who oppose killing patients should be forced to refer those patients to other doctors and that hospitals that receive public funding, including Catholic institutions, should be compelled by law to provide assisted suicide and euthanasia.

http://www.catholicregister.org/item/21864-cardinal-steps-up-opposition-to-assisted-dying

Remarks of Toronto's Cardinal Collins to Parliamentary Committee studying Physician assisted Suicide/Death or just plain old, MURDER!

From the Catholic Register:

http://catholicregister.org/item/21701-cardinal-collins-urges-lawmakers-to-respect-conscience-rights

Below are the presentations made in Ottawa to the Special Joint Committee on Physician-assisted Dying by Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archdiocese of Toronto, and  Larry Worthen, Executive Director, Christian Medical & Dental Society of Canada. They spoke on behalf of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience.

Ottawa, February 3, 2016
His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archdiocese of Toronto
Good evening, and thank you for allowing us this opportunity to provide input on such a profoundly important subject.
I appear today on behalf of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience. Joining me is Larry Worthen, Executive Director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada.We are like-minded organizations committed to protecting conscience rights for health practitioners and facilities. In addition to the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto and the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, our members include the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Societies, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, and Canadian Physicians for Life.I will address two issues: conscience protection for health care workers, and palliative care and support services for the vulnerable.
For centuries, faith-based organizations and communities have cared for the most vulnerable in our country, and they do so to this day. We know what it is to journey with those who are facing great suffering in mind and body, and we are committed to serving them with a compassionate love that is rooted in faith and expressed through the best medical care available.
We were brought together by a common mission:• To respect the sanctity of human life, which is a gift of God;
• To protect the vulnerable; and,
• To promote the ability of individuals and institutions to provide health care without being forced to compromise their moral convictions.
It is because of this mission that we cannot support or condone assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Death is the natural conclusion of the journey of life in this world. As the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes wisely observed long ago: “the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life breath returns to the God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Death comes to us all, and so patients are fully justified in refusing burdensome and disproportionate treatment that only prolongs the inevitable process of dying. But there is an absolute difference between dying and being killed. It is our moral conviction that it is never justified for a physician to help take a patient’s life, under any circumstances.
We urge you to consider carefully the drastic negative effects physician-assisted suicide will have in our country:
Killing a person will no longer be seen as a crime, but instead will be treated as a form of health care. According to the Supreme Court, adults at any age, not just those who are near death, may request assisted suicide. Following the lead of some European countries whose experience with assisted suicide and euthanasia we disregard at our peril, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group has already gone beyond the restriction of assisted suicide to adults, and has proposed that children be included. The right to be put to death will, in practice, become in some cases the duty to be put to death, as subtle pressure is brought to bear on the vulnerable. Those called to the noble vocation of healing will instead be engaged in killing, with a grievous effect both upon the integrity of a medical profession committed to do no harm, and upon the trust of patients in those from whom they seek healing.
Even those doctors who support this legalization in principle may be uneasy when they experience its far reaching implications.
The strong message from the Supreme Court is unmistakeable: some lives are just not worth living. We passionately disagree.
In light of all this, it is clear that reasonable people, with or without religious faith, can have a well-founded moral conviction in their conscience that prevents them from becoming engaged in any way in the provision of assisted suicide and euthanasia. They deserve to be respected.
It is essential that the government ensure that effective conscience protection is given to health care providers, both institutions and individuals. They should not be forced to perform actions that go against their conscience, or to refer the action to others, since that is the moral equivalent of participating in the act itself. It is simply not right or just to say: you do not have to do what is against your conscience, but you must make sure it happens.
Our worth as a society will be measured by the support we give to the vulnerable. People facing illness may choose to end their lives for reasons of isolation, discouragement, loneliness or poverty, even though they may have years yet to live. What does it say about us as a society when the ill and vulnerable in our midst feel like burdens? Often, a plea for suicide is a cry for help. Society should respond with care and compassionate support for these vulnerable people, not with death.
Proper palliative care to date is not available to the majority of Canadians. It is a moral imperative for all levels of government in our country to focus attention and resources on providing that care, which offers effective medical control of pain, and even more importantly, loving accompaniment of those who are approaching the inevitable end of life on earth.
Larry Worthen, Executive Director, Christian Medical & Dental Society of CanadaLadies and gentlemen of the committee, His Eminence has provided you some insight into our concerns about how legalizing physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia will impact vulnerable patients.
Provided they can consent, people with disabilities such as rheumatoid arthritis, paraplegia or those with mental health problems can qualify for assisted death according to the criteria set down by the courts. Often people who have these challenges are struggling in a world of many barriers. The danger is that they will choose assisted death because of the failure of our society to provide the necessary support.
Through increased access to palliative care, disability, chronic disease and mental health services, Canada can significantly reduce the number of people who see death as the only viable option to end their isolation, their feeling of being a burden and their sense of worthlessness.
Our concern for our patients extends to our concern for conscience protection. Recently the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario passed a policy requiring referral for assisted death. A referral is a recommendation or a handing over of care to another doctor on the advice 4 of the referring physician. The requirement to refer forces our members to act against their moral conviction that assisted suicide or euthanasia will harm their patients. If they refuse to refer, they will risk disciplinary action by the College.
When a proposed practice calls into question such a foundational value of the common good of society, and a foundational value of the very meaning of a profession, a healthcare worker has the right to object. A healthcare worker does not lose their right to moral integrity just because they choose a particular profession.
In the landmark Carter case, the Supreme Court of Canada said that no physician could be forced to participate in assisted death. They also said that this was a matter that engaged the Charter freedoms of conscience and religion. It is not in the public interest to discriminate against a category of people based on their moral convictions. This does not create a more tolerant, inclusive or pluralistic society and it is ironic that this is being done in the name of choice.
Fortunately, six other Colleges have not required referral. We have enumerated several possible options for the federal government to ensure that these Charter Rights are respected all across the country. If the federal government does not act, we are risking a patchwork quilt of regulatory practices, and a serious injustice being done to some very conscientious, committed and capable doctors.
Despite our concerns, members of our coalition will not obstruct the patient’s decision, should this legislation be put in place. The federal government could establish a mechanism allowing patients direct access to a third-party information and referral service that would provide them with an assessment once they have discussed assisted death with their own doctor and clearly decided they wish to seek it.Our members do not wish to abandon their patients in their most challenging moments of vulnerability and illness. When we get a request for assisted death, we will probe to determine the underlying reason for the request, to see if there are alternatives for management. We will provide complete information about all available medical options, including assisted death. However, our members must "step away" from the process allowing the patient to seek the assessment directly once they have made a firm commitment to take this path.
Like our coalition, the Canadian Medical Association has stated that doctors should not be required to do referrals for assisted suicide or euthanasia. No other foreign jurisdiction requires physician compliance in assisted death through referral.
In closing we highlight four areas of serious concern:
• The need for improved patient services, including palliative and mental health care and support for people with disabilities
• Protection for the vulnerable
• Provisions that physicians, nurses and other health care professionals not be required to refer for, or perform, assisted death or be discriminated against because of their moral convictions.
• Protection for health care facilities like hospitals, nursing homes and hospices who are unable to provide assisted death on their premises because of their organizational valuesThank you for your time and consideration.

Father Stephen Somerville - Requiescat in pace

Updated with funeral arrangements...

Father Stephen Somerville passed to his eternal reward last night, (December 12, 2015) around 11:00 P.M. Father was a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto. He recently suffered two serious strokes, he was 86.

Father Somerville was also a musician and composer. He wrote the Good Shepherd Mass for the English liturgy in 1965 which was adapted in 1970 for the bowdlerised Gloria and Sanctus and then corrected back by St. Michael's Choir School in 2011 with his permission. I enjoy every opportunity to sing his Responsorial Psalms in CBWII which are finely crafted based upon his authority in chant at St. Michael's Choir School. Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of his first conducting of the Tenor/Bass Choir of St. Michael's at the annual Massey Hall Christmas Concert. I have great memories of singing Handel's Messiah standing beside him in the Bass section a number of years ago in Etobicoke and singing his corrected Gloria translation (later modified by the Choir School) with him at the piano just a few years ago when visiting him at St. Bernard's Convalescent Home. Father Somerville was also the Chaplain on the set of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

The ICEL rebuke

He was well-known as "Canada's liturgist" having participated on the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) which translated the Missal of Paul VI into English from the original Latin. It is important to know that the English translation used from 1965 to 1969 of the modified 1962 Roman Missal was a faithful translation. The Novus Ordo Missae was translated by ICEL using a translation method called dynamic equivalence. Father John Zuhlsdorf began his blog from years of writing in The Wanderer highlighting the grievous textual errors in the Missal, now corrected, and which still exist in the Liturgy of the Hours.

In his later years, Father Somerville regretted his work on ICEL. He came to the conclusion that the virtual abolition of the Roman Missal of 1962 was a grievous error; but not only that, but the translation of the Latin of the Novus Ordo Missae was "damaging" to the Faith. He issued his rebuke of ICEL and an apology for his participation in their now repudiated and disgraced work in what is known as The Somerville Letter.

The suspension

Father Somerville began assisting at the Holy Mass with the Society of St. Pius X in Toronto on a periodic basis to cover for their vacations. Following a much publicised series of communications with the then Monsignor and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toronto, the now laicised banker and investment advisor, John K. Murphy, then Cardinal Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic known for his over-eager suspensions of conservative and orthodox priests, suspended Father Somerville after consultation with the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. To be fair to Ambrozic, Father Somerville left him little room to proceed in any other direction. Summorum Pontificum was still five years away and the lifting of the excommunications on the SSPX bishops, even further.

To his credit, Cardinal Thomas Collins has brought back many of these good men, victims of the so-called "conservative" Ambrozic's vengeance. Yet, even in Father Somerville's retirement, this was not possible as he continued to refuse to follow the previous Cardinal's demands, which had been made public by him, leaving Cardinal Collins with little room to find a solution to Ambrozic's suspension.

I spoke to Father Somerville about it once. It saddened him greatly; but he insisted that he could "not retract what he fundamentally believed to be true." Ironically, it was on our way to the lounge in the convalescent home where he would play on the piano as I sang his revised, revised Gloria in English for the corrected translation in 2011. The irony and contradiction were not lost upon me.

Funeral arrangements are pending but it is known that Father requested that his funeral rites be undertaken at the Society of St. Pius X Chapel in Toronto. Sadly, it will mean that the priests of the Archdiocese will probably not be able to attend. 

If, magnanimity and mercy were to prevail, his funeral would be held at St. Paul's Basilica with St. Michael's Choir School so loved by Father Somerville (and his late brother Father Peter Somerville) with the Society of St. Pius X Toronto Pastor given "faculties" for a day to celebrate the funeral rites with the Cardinal in attendance, all in the spirit of the worldwide facilities for the SSPX from Pope Francis for the Sacrament of Penance. It is the Year of Mercy, after all. 

Rest in peace good Father. I was happy to have known you a little, sang with you, sang Mass for you and visited with you. Thank you for all you did, your Responsorial Psalms are still the best!

This is the only recording of his beautiful L'arche hymn which I have been able to find. The lyrics follow:

Lord Jesus, of you I will sing as I journey.

I’ll tell all my brothers about you wherever I go.

You alone are man's life and his peace and his love, 

Lord Jesus, of you I will sing as I journey.

Lord Jesus, I’ll praise you as long as I journey.

May all of my joy be a faithful reflection of You.

May the earth and the sea and the sky join my song.

Lord Jesus, I’ll praise you as long as I journey.

As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant,

To carry your cross and to share all your burdens and tears;

For you saved me by giving your body and blood.

As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant.

I fear in the dark and the doubt of my journey,

But courage will come with the sound of your steps by my side,

And with all of my brother you saved by your love,

We’ll sing Your dawn at the end of our journey.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the soul of Thy servant Stephen, Thy priest, whom in this life Thou didst honour with the sacred office, may rejoice in the glory of heaven for evermore. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

O Lord, we pray Thee that the soul of Thy priest, Thy servant Stephen, which, while he abode in this world, Thou didst adorn with sacred gifts, may ever rejoice in a glorious place in heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.   

O God, Thou didst raise Thy servant Stephen to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Thine own holy Name. We beseech Thee to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Thy holy presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labours. This we ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. Amen.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon him.

May he rest in peace. Amen.

Father Somerville after Solemn Mass at Martyr's Shrine, Midland, Ontario
Photo courtesy of Carl Vanderwouden

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Stephen Somerville
            Born April 1, 1931; ordained priest by Cardinal McGuigan of Toronto May 26, 1956;

died December 12, 2015, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Visitation at Humphrey’s Funeral Home,

1403 Bayview Avenue (at Davisville) Toronto,

on Wednesday, December 16, 2 - 4 pm,    

Fr. Emanuel Herkel will lead the Rosary at 3 pm.

6 - 8 pm – Prayers by Fr. Brian Clough (Toronto Diocese).

Traditional Latin Requiem Mass will be celebrated at the Church of the Transfiguration (SSPX)

11 Aldgate Ave, Toronto, ON 

on Thursday, December 17^th at 11 am

followed by reception at the church hall. 

416-503-8854 (Church)   416-251-0499 (Priory)

There will also be a Novus Ordo Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 520 Sherbourne St, Toronto,

on Friday, December 18^th at 10:00 am, celebrated by Fr. Brian Clough

 Internment will follow at St. Augustine’s Seminary - Our Lady of the Clergy Cemetery.
 As an organist, conductor, composer and singer of church music; as an ardent birdwatcher and camper; as a writer, a mentor and pastor of souls, Father Somerville was in all things a priest of Jesus Christ.

Requiescat in pace