Ted Schmidt, Toronto

  The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) is one of the jewels of the Canadian church. Formed after Pope Paul Vl’s appeal to the churches of the north to heed the cry of the poor (see Populorum Progressio, 1967), Development and Peace has been a much respected international player for decades.
   Recently, the present Tory government hacked 70 percent of its funding with the result that their fall programs have been curtailed. What a waste of time and energy.
   However the worst curtailment has come from their own bishops now under the leadership of Toronto’s Collins and Edmonton’s Richard Smith.

  The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) is one of the jewels of the Canadian church. Formed after Pope Paul Vl’s appeal to the churches of the north to heed the cry of the poor (see Populorum Progressio, 1967), Development and Peace has been a much respected international player for decades.
   Recently, the present Tory government hacked 70 percent of its funding with the result that their fall programs have been curtailed. What a waste of time and energy.
   However the worst curtailment has come from their own bishops now under the leadership of Toronto’s Collins and Edmonton’s Richard Smith.
   They simply have trashed the fall programme as it is deemed too critical of the Canadian government. Anybody who has followed the Harper government knows that it is anything but progressive or development friendly. Their record on climate change is abysmal. Their stunning tilt toward Israel and abandonment of  the suffering Palestinians is there for all to see. Can anyone imagine John Baird as Foreign Minister. His latest scold of the UN is laughable.
   Rebuffed by the international community for a seat on the Security Council on account of its adulation of Israel and its horrible ecological footprint, it now lashes out at the international body. This is one government churches need to oppose on many fronts and Third World development is surely one.
   Here’s the point. The bishops do not wish to upset the Harper government. There is not one ounce of prophecy in this body. Instead of speaking truth to power they are cozying up to power for their own institutional reasons. And as to their own development people they use microscopes to find any group in The Third World offering any family planning. Then they go ballistic. No they deep-sixed the Development and Peace fall programme. This is unconscionable.
   One of the reasons it is playing footsie with the Tories is that on immigration they want to keep the foreign priest pipeline wide open. That’s all we need in the Canadian church!
   I have heard from too many sources that these imports are simply not up to the Canadian reality. Poland and India are not sending us their best. As far as Africa – especially Nigeria – not a good scene. One would welcome progressive priests from anywhere but not more reactionary, thoroughly Romanized curates.
   The days are long gone when Catholics will tolerate anybody who ‘as long as he is ordained and can say the words of consecration’. It is bad enough that we have accepted reactionary Anglicans who can’t stand female priests and bishops,
   Instead of fighting Rome for the obvious – drop the ban on women and married men – these bishops are relying on imports who are totally unaware of the Canadian reality, have huge language problems and generally bring a slavish Roman theology to the best educated generation of Catholics in history. It is not working and it will not work.
   What was working was CCODP until the bishops began to create a climate of fear with their meddling.