CALGARY, AB—The outspoken bishop of Calgary’s Roman Catholic diocese has revealed he was called by an official with Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) during last June’s federal election campaign and threatened that the church’s charitable status could be revoked if he continued to be critical of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Bishop Fred Henry says he received the call following the release of a pastoral letter he sent to Calgary parishes criticizing Martin’s claim to be a “devout Catholic.”
“In much of the secular media Prime Minister Paul Martin is frequently described as a ‘devout Catholic,’ Henry wrote. “However, his recently clarified position regarding abortion and same-sex unions is a source of scandal in the Catholic community and reflects a fundamental moral incoherence.”
Henry says a CCRA representative called him during the election campaign in June and asked him to remove his pastoral letter form the Calgary diocese’s website.
“I told them, ‘Of course not,’” Henry said in late October while attending the annual meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The 20-minute conversation concluded with the official stating he would file a report on the matter with his superior.
Henry, who writes a monthly column for the Calgary Sun, has garnered previous attention for his criticism of Catholic politicians like Joe Clark and Jean Chrétien whose positions on social issues were at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Both The Globe and Mail and the Calgary Sun spoke with Colette Gentes-Hawn at CCRA who would neither confirm nor deny that any conversation occurred between Henry and an agency official.
Prohibited activity
CCRA regulations state that charitable organizations, including churches, are prohibited from partisan political activity and will be strictly regulated as to how much time they can devote to political lobbying. “A partisan political activity is one that involves direct or indirect support of, or opposition to, any political party or candidate for public office,” the regulations say.
The government periodically revokes the charitable status of organizations judged to contravene its rules. In recent years, the Globe and Mail reported, the CCRA has revoked the charitable status of an anti-abortion group called Human Life International Canada, three Sikh temples, a group raising money for the equivalent of the Jewish Red Cross and a Montreal rabbinical college.
Veiled threat
“I regarded the call as a veiled threat—‘you better keep quiet or else we’ll pull your charitable number’—that’s what I took the whole thing to mean,” Henry told the Sun.
When the CCRA representative asked the bishop if he was “contemplating doing anything else,” Henry responded, “Right now I don’t have a strategic plan as to how I might position myself regarding this election, but if there are moral issues I will undoubtedly speak out about them.
“I got the impression he expected me to cave in, profess my guilt and do public penance,” Henry added.
When asked by ChristianWeek whether confrontation in this regard is something religious leaders can expect to encounter more of in the future, Henry says, “Given the evident degree of shock and outrage on the part of so many relative to what happened, I believe Revenue Canada [sic] just wishes the whole thing would go away, the sooner, the better. It’s like a bad dream.
“It’s my guess that they’ll probably act much more cautiously and prudently in the future,” Henry suggests. “Nevertheless, there are legitimate concerns that politicians and Revenue Canada might use its leverage in an attempt to silence the prophetic voice of religious bodies and leaders. Thus, there is need for vigilance and solidarity.”
