WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN 2000

Dear people of the Diocese of Yarmouth,

Recently, the World March of Women in the Year 2000 has been in the news, including some coverage in the Catholic press. You may have heard that an intense moral debate surrounds the question of Catholic participation in this event in view of the public perception that the March includes amongst some otherwise wholesome aims, the promotion of abortion and the legitimization of same-sex relationships.

At an earlier stage in the organization of the World March, support was given by several people in positions of leadership in the Catholic community in Canada for the specific objectives of the World March that aim to end violence against women and poverty. Efforts were made to distance this support from other objectionable and morally unacceptable demands associated with the March.

One of the objectives of the World March announced publically is a demand that all states must recognize a womans right to determine her own destiny, and to exercise control over her body and reproductive function. This language is highly ambiguous and problematic. It has clearly been interpreted by many members of the coalition involved in the March as an endorsement of their strident advocacy for abortion and same-sex unions. When this same language was proposed in the Beijing Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, representatives of the Holy See did not join the consensus and expressed reservations on the use of these terms. On certain other aspects of the Beijing report, the Holy See Delegation expressed its pleasure.

The Coordinating Committee of the World March of Women, while stating that the event is a loose coalition of many varied womens groups for whose aims and objectives the Committee is not responsible, has nonetheless taken a clear and decisive stand in unanimously rejecting the request to participate in the March made by a contingent representing the right to life. The spokesperson for the World March said that the demand to have a pro-life contingent at the World March is unacceptable as the position of the right to life group is in clear contradiction with the objectives pursued by the March.

In many and powerful ways the Catholic Church has expressed its teaching on the dignity of women and the need to take effective measures to end violence and address the poverty in which so many women and children are tragically caught. This teaching gives expression to the moral order founded on objective truth. That same objective truth always and everywhere demands recognition of the basic value of human life and the inalienable dignity that pertains to it. Without recognition of the right to life and active and unambiguous support of this essential tenet of morality, no other human right has any secure ground.

Our Holy Father has written in his magnificent document on life, Evangelium Vitae:

Anything that compromises or clouds our witness to this utterly essential good of life and the inalienable right to it, must be rejected. It is radically inconsistent and mutually contradictory to espouse a defense of the dignity and rights of women, while refusing to defend the right to life of unborn children. No amount of reference to other good intentions in actions we take or positions we support can ever justify compromise in our inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life. Whether we like it or not, our present situation plunges us into the midst of what Pope John Paul describes with searing accuracy as an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the culture of death and the culture of life. Again, a passage from the Popes encyclical clarifies the point:

Some may have hoped at an earlier time that by offering qualified support to the World March, an influence could be exercised on those responsible for the leadership of the March to foster in the expressions of the March only the inclusion of goals and aims that are worthy and consistent with the Churchs teaching on life, marriage and family. Such hope is now demonstrated to be futile. One after another of the national committees of the World March of Women list among their objectives and demands the inclusion of abortion and same-sex unions. The Canadian organizing committee, the United States committee, the Swiss committee, - to mention but a few - have each in turn called for the enshrinement of access to contraception and abortion as an integral part of what they call womens reproductive health. They also demand legal recognition of same-sex unions. While these demands are not typically listed as the first objectives of the March, the fact that they are integrally included is more than sufficient grounds to warrant the removal of any support for the March on the part of individuals, groups or associations of the Catholic Church.

In conclusion, I wish to clarify that the Diocese of Yarmouth cannot support the World March of Women. I ask those exercising leadership in the Catholic community in this Diocese to embrace this position.

Faithfully yours in Christ,
Most Reverend James M. Wingle
Bishop of Yarmouth