Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops of Canada, from Vote Life, Canada!

1) Introduction
June 18, 2007

If [...] you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he [the wicked man] shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.
[Ezekiel 33:8]

To the Bishops, the Successors of the Apostles, in Canada,

2) The Silence of the Bishops
With great distress Vote Life, Canada! notes the ongoing virtual silence of the Bishops on the subject of legalized child-killing in Canada and petitions the Bishops to take all necessary steps to confront the demon of abortion in Canada which has claimed over three million unborn victims.

3) Desecration of the Eucharist Precludes Respect for Life
In evaluating the factors contributing to the tragedy of legalized child-killing in our nation, Vote Life, Canada! has taken special notice of the desecration of the Eucharist by obstinate, dissenting "Catholics" living in grave sin and counts this widespread and large-scale practice as the single greatest contributing factor to Canada's moral descent and disrespect for human life. Without acknowledging the neglect and/or indifference of too many Bishops in this tragic situation, it would be impossible indeed to account for such a phenomenon, because, in fact, the oversight of the Eucharist is entrusted entirely to the Successors of the Apostles. How is it possible to foster respect for human life when disrespect for God Himself, through the Body and Blood of Christ, is not only tolerated but modeled at every Mass?

This sacrilege of handing over Jesus to His enemies, through Holy Communion, is no less a crime today than when it was first perpetrated by Pilate 2000 years ago. The Scriptures warn, "For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Furthermore, the Christian "cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." Communion with Christ and communion with devils cannot be had at once. Christians, who by association, sympathies, and actions participate in devilish strategies that destroy life, family and the Common Good, cannot participate in Holy Communion. Unless the Holy Scriptures can lie, the implications of this truth are clear and astounding: No such wholesale sacrilegious communion could take place unless so many Bishops had been communing with demons!

Shockingly then, just as "pro-choice" Pontius Pilate, who was "personally opposed," nevertheless delivered Jesus over to His enemies, so too many Bishops of Canada have dispensed the Body and Blood of Jesus to any and all persons in the communion line, even though independent sources cite that as many as 90% of "Catholics" reject the authority and certain crucial teachings of His Church. The truly faithful Catholics have been scandalized and demoralized for decades by this officially sanctioned sacrilege.

4) A Pseudo-Catholic Culture Flourishes in Canada
The result of this abomination is a flourishing pseudo-Catholic culture — one based not upon the mystery of the Eucharist but upon the "magic" of the Eucharist. Thanks to the negligence, or perhaps simply the spiritual darkness, of too many Canadian Bishops, regardless of the moral conduct or spiritual disposition of vast numbers of renegade "Catholics", attendance at Mass and mere reception of Holy Communion is assumed to magically confer absolution for even the gravest sins and satisfy all of God's significant imperatives for the Catholic. This grave misrepresentation of the Catholic faith not only dishonors faithful Catholics but scandalizes the entire Christian community in Canada, many of whom are forced to conclude that Catholicism is but another cultish enemy of the true Christian faith.

The Bishops are well aware that, according to the Catechism, those "Catholics" who deny Church teaching on the intrinsic evils of contraception, abortion and sodomitic relations as well as the mortal sins of masturbation, co-habitation, fornication, pornography, adultery and divorce disqualify themselves from partaking in the Holy Eucharist. Without first giving evidence in Confession of genuine repentance and receiving absolution, they may not receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Despite such explicit teaching, not only inordinate numbers of average Catholics condemn themselves through sacrilegious Communion but significant numbers of openly dissenting priests, religious, theologians, and professors do so as well. These leaders are permitted to further corrupt the faithful by disparaging the Church's doctrine on priestly celibacy, women's ordination, same sex "marriage," and other non-negotiables of the faith, all without public rebuke by the Bishops. The heresy dissent from Rome's teaching by too many Bishops themselves in regard to Catholic sexual ethics, particularly contraception, with its consequent immoral living by millions of Catholics is bringing Canada to the brink of demographic and cultural collapse.

But shouldn't the Bishops be warning such obstinate unrepentant persons that neither baptism nor the Eucharist will save them? Again, according to the Catholic Catechism, to die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love is to be separated forever from Him in Hell. The Bishops know these things but their neglect or unbelief betrays them since they refuse to teach and to warn Catholics. Therefore many of them corrupt the faith and prove themselves not shepherds but wolves, risking the eternal salvation of more than 13 million Canadian Catholics. The result of their distorted, devilish thinking is a collapse in the integrity of the Canadian Catholic community as a whole and an entire generation of Catholics is ignorant of the true means of obtaining God's grace.

5) Pope Benedict Pointed to the Problem
Which habits have the Bishops determined to change in light of Pope Benedict's warning in October past? In no uncertain terms, the Pope tackled the failure of Bishops to address the moral problems of Canada, specifically pointing to homosexual "marriage" and abortion and to the extreme split between the Gospel and culture, strongly evidenced by the exclusion of God in the political realm. If the Bishops continue the unscriptural and heretical practice of granting Holy Communion to those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, and refuse to take due diligence in defending the Holy Eucharist from sacrilege by the ordinary Catholic, Canadian society will continue to go amuck "in the most disturbing of ways," in the Pope's words, through neglect of the truth and of discipline.

The Pope's comments politely and subtly point to a pervasive counterfeit culture which is supported by these sacrilegious communions and the immoral lifestyles of Catholics living in grave sin. Multitudes of such corrupted "Catholics" said to be "in good standing with their Church" impact every strata of Canadian society, including politics, and further degrade it with their anti-God and anti-life attitudes. Politicians, particularly pro-abortion, pro-sodomy "Catholic" Prime Ministers, draw special attention and indeed are capable of shocking degrees of scandal but it is the average uncatechized Catholic voter, in step with the spiritual blindness and befuddlement of too many Bishops, who empowers these "pro-choice" legislators and killers of the Unborn.

6) Bishops Have Failed to Mobilize the Catholic Voting Bloc
There is perhaps no greater example of the dereliction of duty of too many Bishops to halt the killing of Unborns in Canada than the failure to mobilize the Catholic voting bloc in Canada. Legal protection for unborn children necessitates a political, legislative solution, a fact evident to even the least politically savvy of Canadians. Roman Catholic Bishops in Canada exercise moral authority over a formidable voting bloc of nearly 10 million Catholics and yet after nearly forty years of "legalized" child killing in Canada there is no indication whatever that Catholics have been guided by the Bishops to effect this political change in Canada through even the simplest of voting strategies, one solidly founded on basic moral principles yet not centred in partisan politics.

Why must such an emphasis on mobilizing the Christians of Canada to vote effectively on behalf of securing legal rights for the Unborn originate with a campaign such as the Vote Life, Canada! project? Surely, if the Bishops had a will to stop the child killing in Canada, a focused and comprehensive Canada wide, diocesan wide, strategy to engage every Catholic to cast a vote for legal protection of the Unborn would have yielded long ago a complete halt to the killing. In the rare case where Bishops have been found to do anything in this regard it has amounted to a poorly organized, last minute, ineffective scramble. God have mercy on those Bishops for their failure in this most practical of all ways to end the holocaust of the Unborn. Their inaction for decades makes them substantially culpable in the deaths of millions of unborn children.

7) Political Consequences of the Counterfeit Catholic Culture
Out of Canada's counterfeit Catholic culture has emerged political devils such as "Catholic" Prime Ministers Trudeau, Chretien, and Paul Martin. Catholic Bishops were clearly in a compromised, weakened state when, in 1969, they permitted "Catholic" Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and "Catholic" Justice Minister John Turner to foist the "legalization" of the triad of contraception, abortion and sodomy upon Canada, along with the liberalization of divorce laws.

Up until last year, except for a five month break in 38 years, "Catholic" Prime Ministers have managed the affairs of Canada. Every one of them without exception has flouted Catholic teaching on sexuality through their pro-contraception, pro-abortion, pro-sodomy agendas. And every one of them considered themselves good Catholics and regularly presented themselves for Holy Communion. During that 38 year reign of social devastation and spiritual ruin too many Catholic Bishops failed to take steps to deal with this epic scandal. Despite the fierce defiance of Catholic teaching exhibited by the Prime Ministers there is no record of even one single occasion when a Catholic Prime Minister was denied Communion.

Canada's Bishops failed to deal with the grave scandal caused by Paul Martin, Canada's most recent pro-abortion, pro-sodomy "Catholic" Prime Minister, defeated in the 2006 election, who spearheaded same sex "marriage" in Canada and vehemently proclaimed his government's commitment to "a woman's right to choose" without restrictions. His Bishop, the Bishop of Canada's capital city, Ottawa, dismissed any possibility of discipline for Martin, claiming that the Prime Minister was a "faithful member of my cathedral parish." (This same Bishop attends the Ottawa March for Life and at the 2004 March delivered a homily condemning the killing of human embryos for their stem cells.)

Profound failures such as this by too many Bishops of Canada blur the line between that which is evil and that which is good and sustain the "extreme split between the Gospel and culture, strongly evidenced by the exclusion of God in the political realm" lamented by Pope Benedict. How can such a caricature of apostolic leadership be described as anything other than the "blind leading the blind?"

8) Bishops Urgently Need to Implement Guidelines Provided by Rome
Two sets of guidelines authored by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, if diligently and universally honoured by the Bishops of Canada, would decidedly impact the moral climate of Canada and immediately set Canada on a path to rescuing the Unborn. In a 2004 letter to the American bishops entitled appropriately [Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=6041&longdesc], then-Cardinal Ratzinger said that those "Catholics" who continue to obstinately reject Church teachings must be denied Communion. He cited canon 915 and other Church documents to support this position. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2003, published [The Participation of Catholics in Political Life http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20021124_politica_en.html] which was directed to Catholic Bishops, Catholic politicians and all lay members of the faithful called to participate in the political life of democratic societies. Principles contained in this guide urgently need application in Canada but are constantly ignored by too many Bishops.

9) Bishops Need to Call for a National Fast and Penance
An [international celebration http://www.cei2008.ca/index.php] planned by the Bishops for 2008 in Quebec City with the theme "The Eucharist, gift of God for the life of the world" ought to instead be a call for a national fast whose primary purpose is repentance and conversion. God desires first of all obedience from His Bishops, certainly not festivals, celebration and song at such a time of crisis as we face. Ironically, God's gift of life is also the Unborn... who will pay with their lives for the ongoing desecration of the Eucharist.

Rather than using the Old Testament imagery of an Ark making its journey across the nation, the Eucharistic Congress ought to enjoin Catholics throughout Canada to instead put on sack cloth and ashes, seeking repentance and forgiveness for the disobedience of too many Bishops and the profanation of the Holy Eucharist.

10) Conclusion
Every day the Bishops delay, the souls of Catholics entrapped in the darkness of a false religious culture remain in great danger of eternal damnation and every day the Bishops delay, a further 300 unborn Canadians perish. Their silent scream continues to daily torment those whose Christian conscience remains unfettered by the deceptions of demons.

I hate, I despise your festivals -- and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings, and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
[Amos 5:21-24]

Signed,
Eric Alcock, President, Vote Life, Canada!