c. 2003 Religion News Service
Pope Appoints Quebec Archbishop as Cardinal
MONTREAL (RNS) The appointment Sunday (Sept. 28) by Pope John Paul II of Archbishop Marc Ouellet to the College of Cardinals means Canada will have its third sitting cardinal.
Ouellet, 59, the archbishop of Quebec City and the Roman Catholic primate of Canada, was among 31 new cardinals named by the pontiff.
“It was a major surprise for me,” said Ouellet, speaking on the French all-news channel RDI in Quebec City. “They had to repeat (the news) twice before it sunk in. I was happy to receive the news and I went to pray as soon as I received it _ to thank the Lord,” said Ouellet, a native of La Motte, Quebec.
A member of the Sulpician order, he was ordained in 1968, and was second-in-command at the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 2001 until last year. He’s considered a traditionalist and Vatican insider.
In less than a year as archbishop in Quebec City, leading the so-called mother church of all dioceses north of Mexico, Ouellet has made headlines with his forceful calls for a return to a larger role for the Roman Catholic Church.
“Quebec is languishing, far from the values that were the strength and glory of her forebears,” he said at his Jan. 26 installation, in a homily that warned against “the idolatry of money, sex and the power of the media.”
Canada has two other cardinals, Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto and Archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal.
The new cardinals will be installed at a ceremony on Oct. 21 during celebrations of the 25th year of John Paul II’s papacy.
Faith Groups Stunned by Double Blow
OTTAWA (RNS) Faith and pro-family groups received two blows in as many days in September when a bill adding “sexual orientation” to hate propaganda laws was passed in the House of Commons.
That passed by a vote of 141-110 one day after members of parliament defeated a motion calling for the reaffirmation of marriage as between one man and one woman, paving the way for the legalization of same-sex unions in Canada.
The hate crimes bill, which must still receive Senate approval, expands the definition of identifiable groups in the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code to include sexual orientation.
Faith groups have long expressed the fear that under the law, the Bible and other religious texts could be open to being labeled hate propaganda because of their often strident opposition to homosexuality.
Canadian Christians are also worried the bill will limit their freedom to oppose homosexual behavior and stifle religious teachings on the subject.
“(The) bill … has the potential to silence reasonable debate on issues like marriage and school curricula and restrict the legitimate expression of moral and religious views on sexual practices,” the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada said.
But the bill’s sponsor, New Democratic Party MP Svend Robinson, who is openly gay, has assured faith groups that the law would exempt statements and writings based on religious belief or teaching.
Muslim Girl Fights for Right to Wear Hijab
MONTREAL (RNS) In a case that has reopened the debate over the place of religion in Quebec schools, a 16-year-old Muslim girl has filed a complaint with the province’s Human Rights Commission, alleging her school’s refusal to let her wear a hijab violates her religious freedom.
“The hijab is part of my religion. And I’m not going to sell out my religion just so I can go to a private school,” Irene Waseem told the Montreal Gazette.
Quebec has already struggled with the issue. In 1995, a girl was sent home from a public school for wearing the hijab, or Muslim headscarf, and the rights commission said the ban violated her rights.
But this latest case is different because it involves private schools, which enjoy wider latitude in setting rules within their own walls.
Waseem has been attending College Charlemagne on Montreal’s West Island since the seventh grade. On the first day of school this year, a senior school official intercepted her on her way into class.
“He said, `Either you take your hijab off or you go home,”’ Waseem recalled.
Her father said he tried repeatedly to discuss the case with school officials but, when they refused, he took the case to the rights commission.
Ginette L’Heureux, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Human Rights Commission, said that while private schools in the province have more leeway in setting their own rules, they are still bound by the province’s human rights charter. The commission has begun an investigation.
Meantime, Waseem is attending a local public high school.
Woman Ordered to Pay Costs for Witnesses
TORONTO (RNS) A woman who won $5,000 in damages from the Canadian wing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses has been ordered to pay the group $142,000 to cover its legal costs, reports Canadian Press.
Vicki Boer had accused the Witnesses of negligence over their handling of sexual abuse.
Justice Anne Molloy ruled Sept. 29 that Boer has to pay legal costs to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada back to the year 2001 even though she won the case.
Boer says she “didn’t think this is the way the justice system would be.”
She refused a settlement offer of $20,000 the Watch Tower made in 2001.
Under an Ontario court regulation, even though Boer won her judgment, it was less than the total legal costs of Watch Tower and the costs of the offer, so she must pay the defendant’s costs.
Father of Jailed Missionary Hopeful
WINNIPEG (RNS) The father of a Manitoba missionary nurse who has been in a Mexican jail since Aug. 20 for driving into the country with cough syrup and over-the-counter cold medicine says it could be a long time before his son is released.
“They talk about a process,” Alvin Frey told RNS. “Down there, you’re guilty until proven innocent.”
Steve Frey, 47, faces charges of transporting a prohibited controlled substance. Family and friends say he was carrying medicine for a clinic that helps impoverished Mexican families.
Alvin Frey, a pastor and retired missionary, says his son has not been formally charged and languishes in a jail in Rianosa, just on the other side of the Texas border.
Steve Frey splits his time between southern Manitoba, the Houston headquarters of Cornerstone International ministry, and the Valles area of Mexico, home to more than 100,000 poor Huasteca Indians.
Frey often drove donations of American over-the-counter drugs for the poor into Mexico, a common practice among missionaries. News reports and friends say he had 12 bottles of cough syrup and 1,200 packaged Sudafed tablets. The van was also packed with supplies for the clinic such as gauze, bandages and peroxide.
Alvin Frey said he visited his son recently, “and he’s being treated as well as can be expected. We’re kind of in limbo, but we never give up hope.”
Prayers and Piledrivers at Oshawa Church
OSHAWA, Ontario (RNS) Let’s get ready to rumble _ and pray.
The Community Pentecostal Church here is going to the mat for Jesus, promising hammerlocks and hymns in an Oct. 3 service that will combine religion with wrestling.
Several former professional wrestlers will mix it up in the latest attempt to lure young people to church. The grapplers include “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, who’s also a minister, the Road Warriors, Buff Bagwell, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and, of course, Jesus.
“Jesus said to go out and compel them to come,” Craig Canning, a special event coordinator and evangelist for the Oshawa church, told the Toronto Star. “We’re trying to think outside the box. … We have to be creative to reach the segment of society that the church should be reaching.”
It’s the first time a wrestling card will be held in a Canadian church, he says.
DiBiase, a former star in the World Wrestling Federation (now called the WWE), says those who come can expect “old school wrestling.”
“Wrestling has always been the battle between good and evil. When Jesus called his disciples, he told them, `I’m going to make you fishers of men.’ Any good fisherman has bait. We use wrestling as a form of bait to catch the fish and reel them in to hear the gospel.”
Canning promises spectators “awesome wrestling but powerful drama. The greatest battle isn’t in the wrestling ring. It’s the things they face every day _ drugs, perversion, sin. … The greatest fight will be for their souls.”
DEA END CSILLAG