To protest the Morgentaler award.
Turcotte explained his decision in a written statement released Thursday.
“I had accepted this honour on behalf of all those who, because of their faith in Jesus Christ, work in the social domain to serve the most disadvantaged of our society,” he wrote.
“I must admit that I had hoped that, in light of the large number of protests, the Consultative Council for the Order of Canada would revise its decision.
“Because it has not done so up to now and because silence on my part might be misinterpreted, I feel obliged in conscience to reaffirm my convictions regarding the respect for human life, from conception to death.
“We are not the masters of human life; it rests in the hands of God,” he said.
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Andrea adds: My first thought was something along the lines of “What took you so long?” But note he was hopeful that Morgentaler’s Order would be revoked, justice restored, and he could keep his. Well, good on the Cardinal, I say. Still hoping for others to do the same.
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Tanya says: There’s the expression, “Better late than never.” Then there’s the saying, “If you are hoping for change, be the change.” I still stand by the opinion that Cardinal Turcotte should have been among the first to send his medal back.
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Cardinal Turcotte was an “Officer” of the Order.
Morgentaler was (is?) only a “Member”.
Cardinal Turcotte is returning a medal with a lot more prestige attached to it.
Since there has never been ANY other incidence of OoC medals being voluntarily returned prior to this July’s Morgentaler debacle — you’d think McLachlin and friends would get the message that they did something wrong. But that would pre-suppose that they are not obtuse. Or that they actually cared.
There are of course dozens and dozens of medal recipients who are also high-profile Catholics and Christians. It looks like they are holding on to their medals. There could be good reasons for doing so. Returning the medal could just reinforce the notion that social conservatives actually expect to be marginalized from the public square.