LARRY ZOLF:
To hell with Jean Chrétien
CBC News Viewpoint | August 6, 2003 | More from Larry Zolf
The recent threats of the Catholic clergy pouring onto Jean Chrétien's head are not new in Canadian politics. In 1875, Joseph Guibord, an atheist printer, was refused burial in a Catholic cemetery. Guibord's body lay in a Protestant graveyard.
A Liberal lawyer, Rudolph Laflamme, went to court and all the way to the Privy Council in England to get Guibord buried in a Catholic cemetery. The Privy Council ruled in favour of burying Guibord in Catholic ground and made the church and Bishop Bourget pay all legal costs.
It took 1,200 soldiers to escort Guibord's body through an angry mob into a Catholic cemetery. Bishop Bourget immediately said the ground was not sanctified but Guibord's body stayed put.
Bishop Bourget was a full-blown believer in the ultramontane notion of church supremacy in all matters of morals and faith. Bishop Bourget described himself in the following way: "I hear my curé, the curé hears the bishop, the bishop hears the Pope, the Pope hears our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ."
Wilfrid Laurier was a Rouge and a Liberal involved in the Guibord affair and was branded an anti-Christ by ultramontane clerics of Quebec.
Branding Chrétien as the modern anti-Christ of these days are the modern ultramontane clergy of the Catholic church who argue that Chrétien is going straight to hell because of the same-sex marriage bill. Still, other Catholic clergy felt that Chrétien's soft attitude on abortion is leading him in the very same hellish direction.
Laurier, like Chrétien, fully believed in the separation of church and state. In 1896 Laurier was condemned by the clergy for not supporting a remedial bill to restore Manitoba's French and Catholic schools, which the Liberal government of Manitoba had repealed in favour of English-only public schools with a distinct Protestant bias.
Laurier argued that education was a provincial right and the remedial bill was unconstitutional. The Quebec bishops went after Laurier as the anti-Christ but Laurier's argument won him many votes in Ontario and Manitoba, Laurier's native son status won him Quebec. In 1896 Laurier became Canada's first elected Catholic and French prime minister.
Laurier was not the last Catholic prime minister. St. Laurent became the second, Trudeau became the third, Joe Clark the fourth, John Turner the fifth, Brian Mulroney the sixth and Chrétien the seventh. If he wins the Liberal leadership, Paul Martin will be Canada's eighth Catholic prime minister since 1948.
Thirteen million Canadians are Catholic, almost one-third of Canada's population. Backed up now by evangelical Christians and their sin-and-damnation-forever politics, the Catholic clergy must be taken seriously. At stake is the separation of church and state, the existence of the Charter of Rights and respect for the country's minorities.
What is bizarre here is that the same-sex marriage bill does not force any religion, including Catholics and evangelicals, to perform same-sex marriages. It merely gives gays the right to get married at city hall or in front of any clergy who will perform the ceremony.
The bishops are declaring a holy war on Chrétien and Canadian liberalism. For good measure they also attack Joe Clark, who as a Catholic favours same-sex marriages as well as the freedom of the clergy not to perform them.
It is interesting here to note that in the United States it is the Catholics who have been persecuted and pressured because of their religion. There has been only one Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, and only one other presidential Catholic nominee, Al Smith, who was nominated in 1928. Both men received enormous criticism, bigoted barracking and absolute silliness, all in the name of that good old Protestant religion.
In 1960 Kennedy's entire career was threatened by his Catholicism. Kennedy had to endure charges he was an agent of the Pope and favoured a papal residence in Washington. Kennedy had to go and face a battery of Protestant ministers live on TV in Houston in 1960.
In Houston, Kennedy laid down his position on matters of morals and faith. Kennedy said his loyalty was to the American constitution and not to any Pope. He said he would act in the interest of all Americans first and foremost.
The moral blackmail that is involved in the Catholic church's approach to matters of morality is not far from the church's excesses in the Guibord affair and the church's labelling of Laurier as an anti-Christ because he supported provincial rights.
The church will not find Chrétien an easy Catholic to scare. First of all, Chrétien is not as Catholic as Trudeau was nor as Paul Martin is. Chrétien comes from a Laurier Rouge background in Quebec politics and knows better than to cave in to clergy demands.
A cave-in to the clergy in Quebec has really not been possible since the 1960s with the Quiet Revolution and separatism. Quebec separatism and nationalism are closer to socialism and liberalism than they are to the dogmas of the church. Quebec is least likely to respond to a church-led damnation and hellfire approach.
Still, Catholic social conservatism does pose political threats to the separation of church and state. The Vatican position on gays dovetails very neatly indeed with the socially conservative views of the Canadian Alliance. A fusion of Catholics and evangelical Christians based on scriptures and Vatican letters to the clergy could indeed trigger electoral chaos for the Liberals. Liberals could lose many rural and ethnic seats as a result of their stand on same-sex marriage.
Trudeau faced down such a firestorm with his omnibus bill in 1967 that dealt with gays, abortion and divorce. "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation," said Trudeau. Were he alive today, Trudeau would have told the clergy where to get off. Trudeau was a fighting liberal and a fervent Roman Catholic at the same time.
Trudeau's Charter of Rights meant something right from the beginning. The rights of gays were implicit even then. The gay vote has been Liberal since Trudeau and is certainly with the Liberals now.
Liberals for the first time are far ahead of the public on same-sex marriage. Every poll in the country shows the Liberals being blessed by the public for Chrétien's same-sex stance. Chrétien is Trudeau's disciple in the separation of church and state. Chrétien does not waffle on the subject as does Paul Martin. Martin's religiosity seems to be getting in the way of his Liberalism, but Martin will likely be saddled with implementing the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
Hang tight, Mr. Chrétien. The country is with you on same-sex marriage. Keep the faith of Laurier, St. Laurent, Pearson and Trudeau.
The bishops bark but the caravan moves on.
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LARRY ZOLF
POLITICAL COMMENTATOR
Veteran journalist and Canadian political expert Larry Zolf is a regular contributor to CBC News Online. Larry has been a critic, reporter, producer and consultant for CBC news and current affairs since he joined the CBC in 1962. Born and raised in North End Winnipeg, the hotbed of general strikes and socialism, Larry has covered stories such as integration in Mississippi and the October Crisis in Quebec. He was one of the hosts of the CBC's flagship current affairs television show "This Hour Has 7 Days." He is now retired.
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