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Canadian Catholics Withdraw From World March Of
Women
The Catholic Church in Canada was divided last year when major Catholic
organizations: the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB),
Catholic Women's League (CWL), Development and Peace and the Canadian
Religious Conference (the umbrella organization for Catholic religious
orders) endorsed the World March of Women. The mandate of the March
was initially limited to the elimination of poverty and violence against
women, but was soon expanded to include other feminist policies such
as abortion on demand, lesbian rights, universal day care and pay
equity (See Reality May/June 2000 page 5, "The
Troubling World March of Women" and Reality July/August
2000 page 14, "Follow-up: The World March of Women 2000").
By the time the March actually took place on Parliament Hill on October
15, 2000, the demands had been further increased to 68, including
those for a new world economic order, the abolition of the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund, opposition to world globalization
and the enforcement of the highly controversial UN Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
which is a blueprint for the restructuring of society In accordance
with feminist orthodoxy.
Once the wider agenda of the March became known, some Catholic Bishops
withdrew their support. Also, some provincial and local chapters of
the CWL withdrew from the national organization, as did some of the
religious orders.
Notwithstanding the controversy created by the endorsement of the
March, the executive members of the four national Catholic organizations
(without consulting any of their members) re-affirmed their support
of the March. To underscore their support of the March, six of the
Catholic Bishops held a Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa on
Parliament Hill on October 15, 2000. The participants at the Mass
were met by other Catholics holding picket signs objecting to their
participation in the March.
Withdrawal from the March
After the March was over, the wheels began to slowly fall off the
wagon of the Catholic organizations endorsing the March. The first
sign of this occurred last November when Fabien Leboeuf, Executive-Director
of Peace and Development, announced his resignation from that organization.
He fervently denied, however, that his resignation had anything to
do with his endorsement of the March. In a press release dated February
7, 2001, Peace and Development formally disassociated itself from
the March. The reason given for this decision was that it:
…"has learned that the International
Organizing Committee has responded to President Bush's funding cuts
to international family planning projects by calling on national
WMW [World March of Women] organizing committees to rally in support
of choice for abortion. Development and Peace as a Catholic organization
opposes this call… In this new context, Development and Peace
dissociates itself from future action of the International Organizing
Committe of the WMW 2000".
Further, in a letter dated February 14, 2001, Bishop Gerald Wiesner,
who had written the initial letter supporting the March on behalf
of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), stated that
he supported the decision of Development and Peace to end its connection
to the March. Others of the CCCB, specifically Bishops Fred Henry
of Calgary and François Thibodeau of Edmundston, N.B., who
are the CCCB members on the National Council of Peace and Development,
also endorsed the withdrawal from the March.
The withdrawal by Peace and Development was rapidly followed by a
statement from the CWL that its support for the March has concluded
with the rally on Parliament Hill on October 15, 2000 "which
demonstrated our solidarity with women in Canada and around the world
who suffer from violence and poverty". The CWL news release went
on to say that is had come to its attention that the organizing committee
of the March had requested protests be made against Mr. Bush's international
decision to refuse American foreign aid to organizations promoting
abortions. The CWL release concluded that it applauded the action
by Mr. Bush and that in no way did the CWL support the position of
the March's organizing committee to pressure Mr. Bush to retract his
position.
What Prompted this Apparent Change of
Mind on the March?
It seems that the demand by the international organizing committee
of the March to lobby against Mr. Bush's pro-life initiative was not
so much the reason for the withdrawal of the Canadian
Catholic organizations from the March, as it was the excuse
to do so. The feminist March organizers made it clear from the start
that they were solidly committed to abortion and nothing
has changed that fact. Nonetheless, the executives of the Catholic
organizations initially endorsed the March stating that the issues
of women's poverty and violence against women were so important that
Catholics could and would join in solidarity with the marchers, in
regard to these issues, while ignoring the March's pro-abortion, lesbian
aspects. If such was the reasoning, why did the Catholic leadership
suddenly reverse this position? Why does it now declare that the pro-abortion
aspect of the March is untenable?
It does not seem unreasonable to conclude that the executives of these
Catholic organizations have come under heavy pressure to withdraw
from the March. Pressure from whom? One can only speculate that pressure
may have come either from the majority of Catholic Bishops who rejected
participation in the March initially, or from the Vatican itself.
It is a relief that the Catholic organizations have withdrawn their
support from the March. It is significant, however, that they did
not express the slightest regret that they had joined in the March
in the first place, nor did they apologize for their previous apparent
wrong-headed decision. The CWL and Peace and Development have continued
to maintain in their respective press releases that their participation
was wonderful and rewarding. Peace and Development stated specifically
that it was "proud" and "honoured" to have supported
the March.
The withdrawal from the March by Peace and Development and the CWL
was obviously done grudgingly and ungraciously, which indicates that
their withdrawals were involuntary.
Thank heavens for small mercies. It is unfortunate, though that the
withdrawals took place after the damage was done by creating such
dissent within the Catholic community in Canada. Peace and Development
also donated a generous $135,000 to the international organizers of
the March, funds which could have been spent on much worthier projects.
Hopefully, the heads of these organizations have learned an important
lesson from this episode - namely, that the views of their grassroots
members really do matter.
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