Well, what horrible thing did MP Steven Blaney do?
Did he contradict Church teaching?
Did engage in immoral sexual contact?
Did he receive communion sacrilegiously?
Why no!
MP Steven Blaney stands accused of using an old slogan that the priests used to use to get people to vote Conservative: le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge. The sky is blue (Conservative), hell is red (Liberal).
Fr. Gravel is livid that Steven Blaney is mixing religion with politics.
"If the sky is blue, it's not Conservative blue, not the blue of Steven Blaney, " fumed Fr. Gravel. He said he never used religion as an electoral argument. (Of course not!) "It's an argument that he used with elderly people who are still in tune with the Catholic religion, surely in the hopes that they would go and vote for him. It's unacceptable, it brings us back 50 years. But it does not surprise me on the part of Conservatives. I worked two years with them in Ottawa and they're capable of worse than that."
The article says that Fr. Gravel hopes that the Catholic hierarchy will react to the Conservative MP's statement. "If a bishop were to denounce it, now would be the time."
According to him, the position of the Church is clear: "It says that we keep away from the political debate because we have conservatives, liberals, sovereignists and federalists in our churches. We must respect all."
(Actually, no we don't have to, not when they vote against Church teachings, but whatever!)
Cardinal Turcotte did not return the call from RueFrontenac.com
So let's see: Fr. Gravel opposes legal protection for the unborn and supports gay marriage, but he wants a bishop to discipline a Conservative MP for using a decades old slogan.
Yeah, he's got his priorities straight!
