New Canuck PM to have a little talk with Archbishop of Ottawa about what it means to be a Catholic

When Ed. told you on Sunday that I would be in Canada for the federal election on 19/10, he described two of the parties' leaders -- Justin Trudeau (Liberal) and Tom Mulcair (NDP) as "cafeteria Catholics". Some readers may think we (Ed. and I) are being judgmental. Others may have no idea what we're talking about. I will explain.

To be a practising Roman Catholic means more than just being baptized and calling yourself Catholic when the census-taker knocks at the door. [Do they still do that? Ed.] It means accepting and applying the teachings and commandments of Holy Mother Church in one's day-to-day life. Not just on Sunday, but every day.

When I say "the teachings and commandments", I mean all of them. You can't pick and choose, as you would in a cafeteria. That means you can't be a good Catholic and go along with the secular humanist orthodoxies of the modern age. Some ideas and acts which are now acceptable to society at large are simply wrong -- sinful -- for Catholics.

Abortion is wrong. Artificial birth control is wrong. Homosexual acts are wrong. Same-sex "marriages" are wrong. Receiving Holy Communion or other Sacraments is wrong for Catholics who have remarried after being divorced.

That means that faithful -- full of Faith -- Catholics are almost by definition social conservatives. All those wrong are more or less permissible for the majority of "Christians", as well as non-believers. But there is one wrong which is dear to the hearts of a lot of social conservatives. That's capital punishment, which is a sin, condemned by God in the Fifth Commandment.

Yet there are political leaders of all stripes, in North America and Europe, who call themselves Catholics but ignore the commandments of God and His Church. One such is Justin Trudeau, the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada.

M Trudeau is nothing if not "progressive". As such, he supports abortion on demand, LGBT rights, same-sex marriage, the whole lot. (He's against capital punishment though.) Yet he goes to church every now and then, and receives Holy Communion. Whether he commits a mortal sin by so doing is not for me to judge. But Most Rev. Christian Riesbeck, Auxillary Bishop of Ottawa, has suggested that M Trudeau could be denied communion for his public stance on abortion.

The Church’s Code of Canon Law states (Canon 915) that those who are "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion." On May 23rd, Bishop Riesbeck told LifeSiteNews, "Out of concern for safeguarding the reverence that is due Our Lord in the Eucharist, and to avoid scandal, one could possibly apply this norm even in the case of a pro-abortion Catholic politician who is extremely vocal about his position."

Now that he is the Prime Minister-designate, M Trudeau says that he is hopes to speak soon with Bishop Riesbeck's boss, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, to clarify the implications of his public stance in favour of legal abortion.
Bishop Riesbeck's remarks in May were prompted by M Trudeau's declaration that all Liberal candidates must support access to legal abortion, regardless of their own beliefs on the matter. A day or so later, Abp. Prendergast told the Catholic Register that he would not refuse Trudeau Holy Communion without first having met with him.

The CBC reports that a date for the PM's meeting with Abp. Prendergast has yet to be established. They do not say whether the meeting will take place in the prelate's office or in the confessional.

Further reading: "Justin Trudeau 'looks forward' to meeting with Ottawa archbishop about receiving Communion"