Social conservatives such as members of Opus Dei may be running for office in order to change Canada's laws governing same-sex marriage and abortion, says Raymond Gravel, a Catholic priest and outgoing Bloc Québécois member of Parliament for Répentigny."It is possible that well-defined groups are pushing for those people to get involved in politics," said Gravel, adding he doesn't think the push is coming from higher levels of the Catholic Church.
If elected, they would no doubt vote according to their religious convictions, he said. Voting along party lines wouldn't be a problem for them because the Conservative Party's beliefs are close to their own, he added.
Gravel's comments come at the end of a week that revealed that a member of Opus Dei, Nicole Charbonneau Barron, was running for the Conservatives in the suburban Montreal riding of Saint-Hubert-Saint- Bruno. Kara Johnson, a member of the party's national executive and its candidate selection committee, is also connected to the conservative Catholic group.
Opus Dei has attracted controversy over the years, sometimes even within the Catholic Church, for its positions on issues such as contraception, same-sex marriage and abortion that some critics see as ultra-Conservative.
While its supporters see Opus Dei simply as another group within the Catholic Church that helps people find God in their everyday lives, its critics accuse it of trying to infiltrate decision making bodies in society to promote its beliefs and point to the fact some of its members believe in self-flagellation as evidence that it is extremist.
Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe seized on the revelations, saying it was evidence that the Conservatives are narrow-minded right-wingers who would take away a woman's right to choose.
Gravel announced shortly before the election was called that he wouldn't be running again after complaints over comments he made in the House of Commons and in an op-ed piece triggered complaints to the Vatican which forced him to choose between politics and the priesthood.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: Gazette)