WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN 2000

June 26th, 2000

Mrs. Elizabeth Brown
CWL President-Ontario
68 Cedar Ridge Road
Gormley, ON L0H 1G0

Dear Betty Anne,

Thank you for sending me the agenda and back up information for the upcoming Provincial CWL Convention in Waterloo. I assume that you have sent the same material to the executives and the delegates across the Province who will also be attending the Provincial Convention. In the enclosures I received there were the statements regarding the World March for Women 2000 from the following Bishops: Bishop John Sherlock, Bishop Fred Henry, Archbishop Gervais and the statement from the CCCB Executive.

However, in all fairness, I would suggest that you circulate as well the official statements of other Bishops such as Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic (including Mr. Terry Thompson's letter which was duly endorsed by the Cardinal, whose letters I forwarded to you personally), Bishop Anthony Tonnos, Archbishop Adam Exener and Bishop James Wingle.

Since there are some conflicting views among Bishops and CWL members across the Country regarding this March, as Spiritual Advisor to the CWL in Ontario I have the moral obligation to all the CWL members of Ontario to put my viewpoints in writing. These, I am sure, do not come as a surprise to you since we have discussed this delicate matter several times on the phone.

As we all know the World March of Women 2000 began as a walk for women in poverty in 1995 and was called a Bread and Roses March which went from Montreal to Quebec City. Along with their original goals their main agenda now, however, is to promote same-sex unions and women's "reproductive rights" - euphemism for contraception, sterilization and abortion.

The following points explain why I am inciting the CWL of Ontario to disassociate itself from the March of Women 2000.

1. Objectives we agree with and objectives we cannot agree with:

Even though there were some good objectives in the March for Women, there are at the same time explicit attacks on Catholic family values, namely: abortion on demand and the promotion of lesbian rights - objectives totally opposed to those of the Roman Catholic Church. It is my firm conviction that we cannot mix good and bad objectives in the hope that good results might be achieved. It is also the firm conviction of the Church as expressed in this classic principle of Catholic moral theology: "Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque difectu" (Good comes out of the whole of the cause, evil comes out of any defect within it). I would also like to quote the Holy Father's magnificent Encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" wherein he says:

God's commandments teach us the way of life. The negative moral precepts, which declare that the choice of certain actions is morally unacceptable, have an absolute value for human freedom: they are valid always and everywhere, without exception. They make it clear that the choice of certain ways of acting is radically incompatible with the love of God and with the dignity of the person created in his image. Such choices cannot be redeemed by the goodness of any intention or of any consequence; they are irrevocably opposed to the bond between persons; they contradict the fundamental decision to direct one's life to God (Evangelium Vitae # 75)

2. The CCCB Executive Statement about the March of Women 2000:

I wish to point out that the CCCB Executive and the Conferences of Bishops, as stated in Canon Law, are purely administrative bodies. They have no canonical power to issue decrees on any matters related to faith and morals. Indeed theirs was a personal statement which was not meant to, and could not speak on behalf of all the Bishops of Canada. The competence and authority of each Diocesan Bishop remains intact: "Neither the Conference nor its President may act in the name of all the Bishops unless each and every Bishop has given his consent: (Code of Canon Law, canon 455, par. # 4). As the chief shepherd "in the diocese entrusted to his care, the diocesan Bishop has all the ordinary, proper and immediate power required for the exercise of his pastoral office, except in those matters which the law or a decree of the Supreme Pontiff reserves to the supreme or some other ecclesiastical authority" (canon 381, par. #1).

3. NAC (National Action Committee for the Status of Women), is a federally funded lobby group. This Action Committee is officially on record for promoting abortion on demand and homosexual rights (National Post, March 22, 2000)

The Coordinator of the March 2000 - Dianne Matte, for the Coordinating Committee, explicitly stated in writing the following remarks regarding the Pro-Life Contingent at the March:

"it was unanimously decided that the demand to have a "pro-life" contingent at the World March of Women is unacceptable to us since the anti-choice position defended by your organization is in clear contradiction with the objectives pursued by the March."

I wonder: how can we, on the one hand speak of the League being pro-life, and on the other collaborate with an organization who has rejected the pro-life position and is openly pro-abortion? I for one, and I am sure I speak for most Catholics when I say that I feel insulted by these words.

4. Many CWL parish councils in the Archdiocese of Toronto as you know are against the March yet unfortunately their voice was not officially heard. I do not know if they are afraid to speak and if so why? It would seem that their ability to express their disagreement with the March has been suppressed and that they are intimidated. I hope that the 68% vote against the March, which was taken at the CWL Toronto Archdiocesan Convention on June 7 and 8, is not neglected nor minimized because this vote clearly represents the decided majority opinion of our CWL women in this Archdiocese. If we don't listen to the people at the grassroots level we do a disservice to the Catholic Women's League, to our families and to the Church as well.

5. I know from personal experience that the March for Women is not the only way to help women in need. There are many missionary groups, lay Catholic movements and organizations who do this work on a daily basis and in the spirit of the Church's best missionary tradition.

It would be edifying if the CWL would undertake some projects of this kind and be in direct communication with the needy women of the world. It would be enough to support missionary groups who are already undertaking projects to help women in need. The Pastoral Mission Fund of the Archdioceses of Toronto is a tangible example of this. All its projects are endorsed by the local Bishops for purposes of evangelization and helping women in need . This is done with full accountability, no strings attached or hidden agendas. Too often secular organization such as NAC offer "bread and roses" to desperate women on condition that they support their agenda i.e. contraception, sterilization, abortion and homosexual rights. This is nothing short of raw exploitation of the poorest of the poor.

6. Some people say that to promote, support and respect life we have to attend to and cooperate with the whole fabric of initiatives, even ambiguous ones. If we cooperate with NAC, whose goals are more duplicitous than ambiguous, we don't promote the good of women. Rather, we promote the harm of women through cooperation with intrinsic eveil. The ancients have much to teach us in this regard, for as Seneca declared, "good cannot grow from evil any more than a fig tree can from an olive."

Given the importance of the subject matter and in my position as Spiritual Advisor for the CWL-Ontario, I have forwarded a copy of my letter to the Ontario Provincial Council Executive, the Provincial Council Spirtual Advisors and Chapter Presidents across the Province. I kindly ask them to circulate my letter to all the CWL members in the Province using all the means at their disposal.

I have taken this liberty because I wanted to avoid overburdening your good office during this time of overwhelming grief in your family. Please be assured of my condolences and my prayers for you and your dear family.

I look forward to seeing you and all the CWL members at the Provincial Convention in Waterloo.

With prayerful good wishes,
Most Reverend Nicola De Angelis C.F.I.C.
Spiritual Advisor CWL - Ontario