The Canadian Catholic archdiocese of St. Boniface, Manitoba is advertising on their website a fundraising event for one of the world’s most prominent anti-Catholic abortion and condom campaigners. St. Boniface archdiocese is carrying an advert for the “Friends of Uganda, Stephen Lewis Fundraising Dinner,” to be held at the Winnipeg Convention Centre on Saturday, October 25.Stephen Lewis, one of the world’s most vigorous campaigners for abortion and the use of condoms to stop the AIDS virus, will be speaking at the $100 per-person gala evening. The purpose of the event is to raise funds for more condoms to be spread in Uganda through the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
In 2005, the Stephen Lewis Foundation organized events in Uganda that raised US $50,000 to push the condom campaign in that country. The same year, he complained to the BBC that US policies that supported only abstinence campaigns were hampering UN efforts to bring still more condoms into Uganda.
At that time, Uganda’s indigenous ”ABC” AIDS/HIV programs, which taught Ugandan young people that chastity and monogamous marriage were the best ways to curb the AIDS crisis, were being gutted by Western organisations that insisted on pressing condoms into the hands of Ugandan youth.
Martin Ssempa, Director of The Global Center for Uganda’s ABC Strategy, told LifeSiteNews.com that Lewis was one of the worst offenders, as the head of the UN’s AIDS commission.
“Mr. Lewis,” Ssempa said, “is using the entire body of the UN for his personal agenda of condomizing the developing nations. Why he has the audacity to fight the only nation which has demonstrated success in reducing HIV/AIDS is utterly beyond me.
Ssempa said that the UN and similar international AIDS groups are obsessed with condoms because they allow liberal Western attitudes towards sex, including abortion as a population control measure, to be injected into African societies. “Steve seems to have a problem with the Bush administration and is fabricating lies to further attack Uganda’s ABC strategy,” he added.
Lewis is a favourite within the St. Boniface diocese. Three years ago, St. Boniface Hospital awarded Lewis the prestigious International Award for his “work in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa,” according to a press release from the Catholic hospital.
St. Boniface Archbishop Goulet refused to condemn the award outright or stop it, saying only that it was “unfortunate” that the granting of a Catholic award to Stephen Lewis “appears to have an ambiguous connotation.”
The archbishop, however, refrained from attending the award ceremony. Later, the archbishop told LifeSiteNews.com that the granting of awards ought to be done “respecting the moral principles and values of the Catholic Church.”
He said, “I am totally against abortion or anything against life and the doctrines of the Church.” Mrs. Maria Slykerman, president of Campaign Life Coalition Manitoba told LifeSiteNews.com that Archbishop Goulet had assured her of his intention to address the issue to the hospital board on which he sits.
To contact Archbishop Goulet,
151 de la Cathédrale Avenue
Saint Boniface, Manitoba
R2H 0H6
Phone: (204) 237-9851
Fax: (204) 231-2652
egoulet@archsaintboniface.ca
Nuncio (Pope’s representative) in Canada
Archbishop Luigi Ventura,
Apostolic Nunciature
724 Manor Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K1M 0E3
Tel.: (613) 746-4914
Fax: (613) 746-4786
October 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
As I wrote previously I would prefer to read in CE articles that uplift and encourage.
I think we really have enough bad news at present.
Does anyone know anything positive about the Church? If so wouldn’t it be inspiring to read it here?
Noelfitz
October 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Noelfitz, I think it is very important for us to have information like this. Catholic Exchange does have quite a few uplifting and encouraging articles. I agree that it would be nice to have more, but not at the expense of including information like this article.
Here is a bit of positive news: the Knights of Columbus is providing major funding for the campaign to pass an amendment to the California Constitution banning same-sex marriage, and now for the first time the polls show a plurality of voters in favor of the amendment:
http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000008380.cfm
I don’t know whether YOU would consider this positive news, but I do, and I found it right here in Catholic Exchange today, under National News.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Have you checked out The Integrated Life and TOB channels, Noel?
October 12th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Mary
Thank yopu for your post.
I see in Words of Encouragement that Mark Shea has written about Being Led by Love. He end his article with:
It was this Son who would in turn call Israel out of bondage, not to Egypt, but to sin and marry a new kind of Bride “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
Congratulations and thanks to Mark. He always writes so well and is positive and uplifting.