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WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN 2000 STATEMENT OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF OTTAWA June 7, 2000 Dear Pastor and Parishioners: Division is creeping into our Catholic ranks over the March of Women. This should not be. It is much better for us to be present, promoting our pro-life message, than for us to stay away and leave the entire stage to our opponents. It might make us feel more pure if we do not associate with those of opposing views, but it does not advance the cause of our Church, the cause of women nor the cause of the unborn. Correcting injustice calls for courage and determination. It often causes controversy. But in this Jubilee Year we celebrate the courage and compassion of Jesus who stood with the poor and the outcasts of society. As Christians, we are proud to stand with the underprivileged. The Worldwide March of Women 2000 is an international campaign to raise our awareness about the particular injustice that affects women throughout the world. Beginning March 8th and concluding with a presentation at the United Nations on October 17th, women are calling attention to the poverty and violence that afflict women and children worldwide. Women from 153 countries are calling on governments and on the United nations to redress these wrongs, e.g. the abortion of female fetuses, the practice of female genital mutilation, the burning of brides whose dowries are not sufficient, the killing of wives whose husbands find them unsatisfactory, the mass rapes of women in worn-torn countries. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Women's League of Canada, the Canadian Religious Conference, and the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace stand with those who suffer from such injustices. The Diocesan Commission of Women in the Church will be sending out additional information concerning supportive actions that we can take and ways that we can be a Catholic presence at the closing rally on October 15th on Parliament Hill. Let us learn how poverty and violence affect women in our own country and other countries of the world and let us add our voices to those of others striving to correct these conditions, all the while being faithful to the princples we hold. Sincerely yours in Christ, +Marcel Gervais For more information,
contact Sister Mary Ruddy, Diocesan Commission of Women in the Church Courtesy of LifeSite Daily News, a production
of Interim Publishing. |