In case you missed this Paul Water's column

Great column by Paul Water's about that furore over the fact that Cardinal Ouellet is Catholic. He writes:

This time, however, he really put his foot in it, musing aloud at a pro-life rally that abortion is wrong, even in those rare cases when pregnancy results from rape, and congratulating the federal government for leaving abortion funding out of its plan to finance maternal care in Third World countries.

Imagine that: a Roman Catholic cardinal articulating the teaching of the church to which he belongs before an audience of fellow travellers. In most other parts of the world, of course, that kind of story would get the same kind of ho-hum response as a feminist calling for more daycare places or a law-and-order Republican calling for more death penalties or a safety council recommending bicycle helmets. As one Montreal priest put it in response to a parishioner’s suggestion that Ouellet was courageous: “No, he’s not; he’s just doing what he’s supposed to do.”

And that’s the problem. Quebec’s chattering classes, and that would include Marois, aren’t used to such uppity talk from the mitred class. They’re accustomed to a far more supine brand of ecclesiastical leadership, one that makes occasionally comforting noises about the tragedy of war in Afghanistan and the evils of unbridled capitalism, but knows its place otherwise. For them, any sign of life from the old ancestral church is an affront.

Even Conservatives can fall into this knee-jerk, atavistic form of secularism. Josée Verner, member of Parliament for the Quebec City riding of Louis St-Laurent and minister of intergovernmental affairs in the Harper government, called Ouellet’s statements “unacceptable,” although quite what’s “unacceptable” about a citizen in a free country politely expressing his opinion on a matter that concerns him deeply she didn’t make entirely clear. Perhaps Verner could provide us with a list of “unacceptable” topics and opinions we should really keep to ourselves.

The irony here is that secularists usually argue that the only way to prevent religious intolerance from tearing our society apart is to banish religion entirely from the public square. But recently the most blatant examples of intolerance have come from the secularists themselves

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Cardinal+just+doing/3052747/story.html#ixzz0p4XLhtvJ