Christian law school loses religious freedom claim at Canadian Supreme Court

June 16, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Ottawa, Canada, Jun 16, 2018 / 03:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday that law societies in the country could deny licensing to a proposed Christian law school because the school adheres to Biblical teaching on sexuality.

“We are deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Paul Coleman, executive director for ADF International.

“Freedom of religion and association is not only essential for faith-based organizations, but for the functioning of democracy itself. Following this ruling, that vital freedom is now in jeopardy,” Coleman continued in a June 15 press release.

ADF International, which represented multiple groups in the case, emphasized that religious schools should be granted freedom to operate according to the faith to which they adhere.

The case, which spread across various provinces and has been years in the making, involved Trinity Western University – an evangelical school in Langley which encourages its students to uphold biblical moral teachings on sexuality, reserving sexual relations for marriage between one man and one woman.

Trinity Western had proposed opening a law school in 2012 and was seeking to ensure accreditation, ultimately receiving approval from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the province’s Ministry of Advanced Education.

However, law societies challenged the merits of the Christian university’s proposed law school and its accreditation, saying its position on sexual morality was discriminatory against the LGBT community.

The Supreme Court heard two appeals from Ontario and British Columbia, after a high court in British Columbia originally said Christian schools could not be denied accreditation merely based on its beliefs about sexual morality.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that law societies could refuse to license graduates from Trinity Western University on the grounds that their views on sexuality are discriminatory to the LGBT community.

Out of the nine justices, two – Russell Brown and Suzanne Cote – ruled in favor of Trinity Western. They cast their decisions based on the view that “legislatively accommodated and Charter-protected religious practices, once exercised, cannot be cited by a state-actor as a reason justifying the exclusion of a religious community from public recognition.”

“Approval of [Trinity Western University’s] proposed law school would not represent a state preference for evangelical Christianity, but rather a recognition of the state’s duty… to accommodate diverse religious beliefs without scrutinizing their content,” the justices said.

Trinity Western released a statement on June 15, saying they would be reviewing the ruling and considering next steps.

“We feel this is a lost opportunity for Canadians, many of whom do not have affordable access to justice,” said Earl Philips, executive director of the proposed law school.

“The TWU law school would have offered a specialty in charity law. Because Canada has the second largest charitable and non-profit sector in the world, this loss stands to impact Canadians coast to coast,” Philips continued.
 
 

 

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Mexico’s nuncio offers his email address for abuse reports

December 10, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Mexico City, Mexico, Dec 10, 2019 / 07:30 pm (CNA).- The apostolic nuncio in Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, has said that anyone who wants to report sexual abuse by the country’s clergy is free to email him, and he will try to help.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner,  Coppola explained that “many times the people who have appealed here were victims who hadn’t been listened to by those responsible for the Church and they come to the nunciature motivated by the commitment that Pope Francis has clearly expressed in favor of the victims.”

Coppola said the doors of his office are open to receive complaints and accompany victims “in their search for justice.”

The nuncio said that while it is not within the competency of his office “to conduct an investigation or take measures, what I have tried to do is facilitate the victim’s access to the competent Church authority, whether on the level of the diocese, religious superior or the Holy See, accompanying the victim in his search for justice.”

Coppola stressed that efforts to prevent and fight sexual abuse by the clergy are “key because abuse is a betrayal of the very mission of the Church.”

“The mission of the Church is to make present a God who saves and these kinds of acts by committed by members of the clergy instead of saving and healing, wound and destroy people’s lives,” he said.

The nuncio recalled Pope Francis’ words in a 2018 letter on sexual abuse:

“Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

Coppola noted that “following the pope’s instructions, the Church has been developing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, in the sense of proceeding with speed; applying concrete measures against abusers and also punishing any kind of cover up.”

“Trust is going to be gradually regained to the extent that the faithful find the merciful face of the Father reflected in their pastors,” he said.

The nuncio also highlighted the guidelines developed by the Mexican bishops’ conference “which detail the procedures to follow in these cases in accordance with Mexican legislation and canonical legislation.”

Specifically, they entail “listening to, welcoming and accompanying the victim in order to make the appropriate complaint,” he explained.

Regarding the canonical process, Coppola said that “the bishop has to carry out a preliminary investigation on the facts, take the appropriate precautionary measures so the alleged culprit can’t be a repeat offender, and immediately inform the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome which will indicate to him to steps to follow in the penal process.”

“In the civil area, the bishop has to notify the prosecutor’s office of the crime he has knowledge of, so that the civil authority can also take appropriate measures to carry out justice and exact reparation for the harm committed. It’s the bishop’s obligation to continue to accompany the victim and his family, ensuring them of the necessary psychological and spiritual help.”

On Jan. 7, 2019, the Mexican bishops’ conference formally installed a National Team for the Protection of Minors. One of the team’s first tasks is to compile national statistics on sexual abuse by clergy.

At a Feb. 10, 2019 press conference, the president of the Mexican bishops’ conference, Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera of Monterrey, reported that over the past nine years, 152 priests in Mexico have been removed from ministry for sexual abuse of youths or vulnerable adults and some, due to the gravity of the crime, have been sent to prison. However, he did not give further details on the number of those in jail.

The apostolic nuncio provided ACI Prensa for publication his e-mail address for victims of clerical sexual abuse in Mexico: nuncio.mexico@diplomat.va.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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