If Jesus is our King, Mary is Our Queen

April 15, 2015 will be remembered as a day of darkness in our country.  On that day, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the municipal council in the Quebec town of Saguenay cannot open its meetings with a prayer.  Though the ruling was based on a complaint against Mr. Jean Tremblay, a Catholic mayor from Quebec, it means that the concept is applicable across Canada, from coast to coast.

Now, what were the reasons invoked for this unanimous decision coming from the country’s top court?   They said that reciting a Catholic prayer at council meetings infringes on freedom of conscience and religion.  More precisely, the Supreme Court ruling claimed that “what may appear good and true to a majoritarian religious group, may not, for religious reasons be imposed upon citizens who take a contrary view.” 

What is really wrong with this decision, it is the fact that it establishes the religious neutrality of the state as a quasi-dogma rooted on the so-called freedom of conscience and religion, which is the great error of our modern times. 

We would expect the local bishop of Saguenay to express his grief over the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. Not at all! On the contrary, in an interview published last December in a local paper, where he was asked to comment the case being debated at the Supreme Court, Bishop Rivest made a very disappointing comment: “I think that it is possible to be an excellent Catholic, even if you disagree with the prayer being said at the City Hall.  It is only a question of opinion.”

By doing so, Bishop Rivest was perfectly on line with the religious liberty of Vatican II.  Let us remember that, as quoted by Archbishop Lefebvre, Cardinal Bea came to New York just before the opening of the Council, to meet with the freemasons in view of the Council. During this meeting, the freemasons expressed their wish that the Council would accept the idea of the “rights of man”. Sadly, the wish of the freemasons was put into practice by means of the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae which recognizes Religious Liberty as one of the fundamental “rights of man.” 

But, up to Vatican II, the Church has always condemned these declarations on the “rights of man” which have been made against the authority of God.  We have some beautiful words from Cardinal Pie (1815-1880), bishop of Poitiers, who was a great son of the Church:

The main error, the capital crime of this century is the pretension of withdrawing public society from the government and the law of God... The principle laid at the basis of the whole modern social structure is atheism of the law and of the institutions. Let it be disguised under the names of abstention, neutrality, incompetence or even equal protection, let us even go to the length of denying it by some legislative dispositions for details or by accidental and secondary acts: the principle of the emancipation of the human society from the religious order remains at the bottom of things; it is the essence of what is called the new era.”

To end on a more positive way for the Month of May, let me give you more edifying words from the same cardinal about the Queenship of Mary.  In a sermon given in 1863, almost a century before the institution of the feast of the Queenship of Mary, Cardinal Pie explained that Mary had been crowned royally and divinely by her Son Jesus-Christ. As we know, mercy is the most beautiful attribute of royalty.  Thus, Mary, who is truly Queen, is the Mother of Mercy par excellence; and this is what the Church proclaims in the Salve Regina Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!  While in heaven, the Queen of all saints finds no grounding for her mercy, because there is no need, the earth is rather the great field where she can fulfill the needs of her merciful heart.  As long as there will be men who will be under test, as long as there will be pains to soothe, sinners in need of conversion, souls to be saved, Mary will not consider that her glory and happiness will be complete and her crown will not be in full shine.

So, during this Month of May, let us express our love of Mary, our Queen and Mother of Mercy!